Understanding your finances

The first step to saving your money and changing your spending habits is to get a good understanding your finances. This means getting organised and looking at your overall financial picture. There are three simple steps to do this:

Put all of your accounts in one place

If you have multiple accounts spread across a few banks, chances are it is difficult to keep track of the big picture. The first thing you'll need to do is record all of your earnings and spending across these accounts in one place. Whether you use an online finance tool such as heaps! or you type this information into a spreadsheet, you need to make a habit of regularly checking your data. This way you have one place where you can clearly see the total number you own, the total number you owe and how much money needs to go towards regular payments, debt payments, living expenses and your savings.

Categorise your transactions

Dividing your transactions into categories will give you a clear picture of where your money is going and how much is being spent on each category. It is a good idea to make these categories as detailed and organised as possible by using subcategories. For example if you create a category called Food, within that category you can add more specific categories such as Groceries, Eating Out, and Takeaways. That way you can clearly see how much of your money is specifically going to each area and what your spending habits are. Organising your transactions this way helps immensely when setting your budget.

heaps! makes it easy

With heaps! you can track not only your Kiwibank accounts, but also accounts from other banks. Heaps! recognizes the businesses you spend at, and automatically categorizes most of your spendings so that your transactions are organised. You can also re-categorize your spending you suit your lifestyle.




What is heaps!