5 Simple Steps That Can Help Improve Your Personal Finances

Making a positive change is easier than you think.

Whether you're looking to get out of the red or save up for a big purchase, there are a few simple ways you could seriously boost your personal finances.

5 Simple Steps That Could Help Grow Your Personal Finances

Improving your personal finances is all about starting from a strong foundation. Here are five easy money management tips you can use to help start improving your personal finances today. Seriously, today! Right now!

Develop A Budget You Actually Use

Chances are you’ve seen this advice before and you’ve ignored it. We get it. Budgeting is boring, and can be a reality check we didn’t really want.

But y’all. Budgets are central to good money management at all levels. You’ve got to know how much cash you earn and where it all goes if you want to efficiently plan and reach your goals.

We’ve got a good option for you. It’s flexible and grows with you, while making it easy to get a snapshot view of your financial health. Meet the 50/30/20 Budget: the budget for people who think budgeting sucks.

It’s simple. Divide your regular expenses up into three categories—needs, wants, and goals—to understand how you use your income. This easy budget can help you keep perspective on your finances, and provide a good financial standard to work towards.

Improve Your Credit Score

If your credit score is low—even for a silly reason—it’s best to buckle down and work to improve your score over time.

Got a bad credit score? Don’t be embarrassed! It happens to tons of Canadians for tons of dumb reasons, including paying off and closing a credit card.

It’s frustrating, but the credit score system is how we access a lot of financial tools in Canada. Loans, mortgages, rent, and more can depend on us maintaining a high score.

So if yours is low—even for a silly reason—it’s best to buckle down and work to improve your score over time. This is one of those “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” scenarios.

We can help. When you sign up for our free Mogo Visa* Platinum Prepaid Card, you’ll get access to free credit score monitoring. We use soft inquiries to check your Equifax credit score and update you every month on your score.¹

We’ve got an in depth post on why your score might be low and how to improve it right here. Improving your credit score can take time, so why not get started today?

Control Your Spending

Ready to curb that spending enthusiasm? Up your level of visibility on your finances.

When it comes to great personal money management, controlling your spending is key. Bad spending habits can afflict folks of any age, any region, and any income level. Nipping those bad habits in the bud could save you hundreds, if not thousands, over time.

If you’re capable of going cold turkey on your expensive coffees, we’d recommend it. Review all of your expenses in a typical week. Were they all necessary? Could you have brought lunch from home? Was it responsible to go out for cocktail dates twice in one week?

Often, what feel like totally normal and reasonable expenses—like buying lunch at work—can seriously add up.

Ready to curb that spending enthusiasm? Up your level of visibility on your finances.

For this, we recommend the MogoCard. It’s a totally free-to-use reloadable spending card meant to help you master your spending, so you can have more funds to save and invest. Because it’s reloadable, you can’t go into debt while using it.

Every time you use the card to make a purchase, we instantly send a little notification that reminds you how much you just spent and how much you’ve got left on your card. Seeing that little number, your balance, slowly dropping with every purchase is often the wake up call we need to more carefully evaluate our expenses.

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Axe Your High Interest Debt

Take control of your high interest debt and make regular payments (more than your minimum payment!) until it’s gone forever.

Debt eats into your personal financial health like little else.

If you’ve got high interest debt, it’s probably best that you focus on paying it off. Is that boring? Yes. But it could save you thousands in interest charges over time.

Remember that folks like credit card companies profit from your debt. If you pay off your debt too quickly, they miss out on those interest payments you would have otherwise made. So screw those guys!

Take control of your high interest debt and make regular payments (more than your minimum payment!) until it’s gone forever.

Consume Less to Help the Planet

It’s been shown by researchers that personal consumption drives climate change. Governments and corporations must do their part, too, but on a personal level the things you purchase and how you consume could be hurting our planet.

What does this have to do with your finances? Well: when you consume less, you can help the planet—and your wallet.

This one is two pronged: by not making frivolous Amazon purchases, you’re saving cash and cutting down on the emissions required to make and produce those products. We feel it’s critical that every Canadian take a hard look at how much and what they consume.

Buying “green” products isn’t enough. We have to simply consume less.

For the purchases you have to make, use the MogoCard. Not only can it get you access to free credit score monitoring and help you obtain better spend control (and also get you access to free ID fraud protection, but who’s counting?)², you're also spending with impact.

Now, every time you go grocery shopping or make a purchase, we’ll plant a tree on your behalf. Yep: no limits, for every single purchase. You tap, we plant a lil tree in collaboration with our partners, veritree. And that tree, over its lifetime, can suck approximately 500 lbs of CO2 from the air to help you erase your carbon footprint.³ Not bad.

Mogo: The Personal Finance App for Canadians

We believe creating healthy personal finances and a healthy climate are intrinsically linked. You could get out of debt (and stay out of debt!) simply by budgeting and spending less than you make, while consuming less and using your MogoCard to fight climate change. Win, win.

So get on board! It’s easy to get started today and help begin changing your personal finances and the climate for the better—for free.

This blog is provided for informational purposes only.

*Trademark of Visa International Service Association and used under licence by Peoples Trust Company. Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card is issued by Peoples Trust Company pursuant to licence by Visa Int. and is subject to Terms and Conditions, visit mogo.ca for full details. Your MogoCard balance is not insured by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). MogoCard means the Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card.

1-Free credit score is provided by Equifax and is only available to MogoAccount holders that have passed identity verification. The Equifax credit score is based on Equifax’s proprietary model and may not be the same score used by third parties to assess your creditworthiness. The provision of this score to you is intended for your own educational use. Third parties will take into consideration other information in addition to a credit score when evaluating your creditworthiness. Equifax® is a registered trademark of Equifax Canada Co., used here under license. MogoCard holders will be entitled to receive free MogoProtect identity fraud protection and credit score monitoring so long as they remain active MogoCard holders. If you do not fund your card within 60 days of ordering or make a transaction on your MogoCard for more than 90 days, then you will not be considered “active” and will be opted out of MogoProtect and credit score.

2-No one can prevent all identity fraud and Mogo does not monitor all transactions at all businesses. Currently, Mogo only monitors hard inquiries into the Equifax® Canada Co. credit bureau and will provide push and/or email notifications within 24 hours of the inquiry being reported. Refer to the MogoAccount Terms & Conditions for more information https://www.mogo.ca/terms-and-conditions.

3-According to research conducted by Veritree Technology Inc. 500 lbs. is an approximate amount based on Above-Ground-Carbon (AGC) and Below Ground Carbon (BGC) sequestration estimates contained in several scientific research papers regarding the carbon sequestration of Mangrove trees (the “Research”). The Research contains various ranges for the rate of carbon sequestration per hectare of land. In order to arrive at the approximate amount of 500 lbs., Veritree triangulated data points from the Research regarding AGC and BGC sequestration estimates, and then converted those results into the approximate amount of lbs. per tree.

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