Turn of year offers chance to make a smart financial plan

When it comes to writing their 2012 new year financial goals, saving and planning dominate the wish lists of Manar Al Hinai's Emirati friends.

Just as with any other important task, you need to prepare a plan for spending and saving. Silvia Razgova / The National

Towards the end of every year, around the time when our office phones are being abused by financial advisers offering to help us plan for next year, my friends and I get together to discuss what we have accomplished.

Finance:

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We talk about whether we have reached our goals, and what we would like to achieve the following year.

However, when it comes to writing their 2012 new year financial goals, saving and planning dominate the wish lists of my Emirati friends.

"My salary is Dh40,000 [US$10,889] a month, and a huge chunk of it goes to repaying my car loan, gifts and fancy abayas. You would think that I should easily save money with an amount like that," says one of my friends, who decided to open a savings account this year and dedicate a portion of her salary to it.

My other friends, however, came to the realisation that they were not familiar with saving - a concept that should have been taught at school along with home economics and personal finance.

I consider myself a good planner, but sometimes I overspend on items that I do not need. My closet and jewellery trunk contain untouched new goods. Instead of buying those things, I could have put money towards an income-generating investment.

Nonetheless, working in an investment institution has allowed me to pick up some tips to plan my finances properly this year.

And if you find yourself in a situation similar to mine or that of my friends, the following tricks should help you to shake things up.

Just as with any other important task, you need to prepare a plan.

Ask yourself what you want to achieve this year and why you want to achieve it.

Do you want to build that dream house, buy that pearly white yacht or finally go on that road trip across Europe? Prioritising is key here, as is differentiating between short and long-term goals. Once you pencil your goals down, it will be easier to stick to them and not overspend.

With your financial plan prepared, you also need to assess your current spending.

If you plan to buy a car, you need to figure out exactly how you spend your money every month, and how much you could save to buy the car.

Keep track of your finances by writing down how much you spend every time you go out, or keep your receipts in a box.

But if you have all these wonderful dreams, they should not be prioritised over paying off any debts you may have.

If you have borrowed money from a bank or from one of your relatives, forget about buying that red convertible for now and focus on repaying what you owe.

If you have several accumulating debts, start by paying back the one with the highest interest.

The financial market is still not stable, and many financial experts are predicting recession for certain countries.

Many of my friends do not realise the impact of such a situation, and thus never find it relevant to start an emergency fund.

Financial experts advise setting aside four to six months' worth of disposable income in an emergency fund.

This reminds me of a situation one of my friends found herself in. She does not believe in saving but rather enjoying life through shopping. Unfortunately, she suddenly suffered an illness and had to take a long, unpaid leave from work.

With little cash left in her bank account, this situation made her realise how one should save, and especially that we cannot control unfortunate events.

As wonderful as the emergency fund idea might seem, setting some amount of money aside for future purposes such as children's school fees or a wedding party is also important.

One of my colleagues agreed with her bank to transfer Dh5,000 from her current account to a savings account every month.

And when summer comes and it is time to plan a trip, she will have saved a decent amount of money to splurge and will have no need to accumulate any credit card debt.

At the end of the day, you do not need to be a financial adviser to manage your money.

A Manar Al Hinai is a fashion designer and writer. She can be followed on Twitter @manar_alhinai

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