You take care to avoid a yard sale on the slopes, but what about your finances? Just as you wouldn’t dream of shredding the slopes without getting into shape first, you need to do some conditioning with your money before you can have financial success off the mountain.
Here are six money management tips to help you avoid financial crashes.
1. Don’t sit in the back seat
Take a hands-on approach to your finances by tracking your spending. Year-end is a great time to gather your monthly bills, credit card statements, and banking statements to write down what you’ve been spending each month. This process can be eye-opening as you may discover you are spending more than you thought on items that add up like restaurant meals, your morning coffee, or even ski magazines.
Part of tracking your expenses should be calculating your cash flow. Subtract your monthly expenditures from your monthly income to determine your cash flow. If your result is a positive number, then you have a surplus at the end of each month. If you get a negative number, you could be living beyond your means.
2. Point your tips downhill and keep your eyes on the goal
Is your top financial priority for 2025 paying off credit card debt or getting rid of a car payment? Do you have an emergency savings fund that would cover expenses for three to six months? Are you saving for retirement, or college? Ask yourself some questions about your financial objectives, and then rank them in order of importance. Resist deviating off course and glide to achieve your goals.
3. Avoid crashes
Set your budget and stick to it. Most Americans have a monthly budget, but many still overspend, according to Nerdwallet’s Consumer Budgeting Report. But living on a budget conditions your money to work for you, helping you to achieve goals like eliminating debt or saving for college or retirement.
If your cash flow is negative, pare back expenses to get on the positive side and start meeting your top financial goal. Re-evaluate your monthly bills, insurance policies, and expenses like entertainment and luxury items. Don't forget to explore other long-term money-saving possibilities like refinancing your mortgage.
4. Condition to get in shape
There are many financial tools available that help you automate the budgeting, spending and saving process so you can “set it and forget it.”
Here are three things you can use to help automate your savings:
- Create a budget using the Zions Bank Home Budget Calculator.
- Direct deposit your paycheck. Arranging with your employer to have your paycheck automatically deposited for free to your checking account keeps you from cashing the check and spending it. Direct deposit is also cheaper, faster, and safer.
- Use autopay for bills and retirement savings. Forgetting to pay bills on time can result in costly and unnecessary fines. With just a little time on the phone or online, you can set up automatic monthly payments. It’s especially important to automate regular contributions to your retirement account.
5. Maximize your gear
Your prepaid ski season passes and punch cards shouldn’t be kept in a drawer, you have to take advantage of them and ski this season! Likewise, you should use your existing financial assets to do more. For example, if you have a home equity line of credit, consider tapping into those funds to complete home repairs or improvements, or holiday shopping.
You can also make your credit card work for you with offerings like the Zions Bank Agility Cash Visa® Credit Card which gives you 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
6. Know when to change runs
If you’ve stuck to your budget and have met or made good progress on your top financial goal, it’s time to adjust the numbers. A budget must change as needed to meet all of our financial goals over time.
If you condition with these exercises, you can help avoid a financial yard sale in the year ahead. Our experienced Zions Bankers can help you create a financial plan. Stop by a local Zions Bank branch to learn more.
