While real wages may have begun to increase of late, it cannot be denied that disposable income levels in the UK have remained relatively underwhelming.
This is particularly true in areas such as the North East, where disposable income levels are lower than anywhere else in the UK. Here, each household has an annual disposable income of £16,000 per annum, which is -24.2% lower than the UK average.
With this in mind, there’s a pressing need for households and individuals to take proactive steps to improve their financial positions. Here are some ways in which this can be achieved.
Start by Identifying Your Wants vs. Needs and Budgeting
Unless you have an unlimited amount of cash, you won’t be able to fulfil all of your wants and needs over time.
This means that you’ll have to distinguish between wants and needs when managing your spending so that you can prioritise purchases and also commit as much of your money as possible to savings.
To fully achieve this, you’ll have to create a detail-oriented personal budget, which deals in pence rather than pounds and accurately outlines your weekly (or monthly) incomings and outgoings.
This will create a fixed amount of disposable income over a particular period of time, which can then be distributed according to your predetermined priorities.
This should be part of a wider fiscal plan, and one that also helps to maximise savings and contribute to the payment (and subsequent eradication) of debt. This will include other practical measures too, such as lowering your monthly bills and optimising your available income over time.
Slashing bills may also require you to prioritise debts that are accumulating interest, as such liabilities can weigh heavily on your personal finances and make it hard to achieve fiscal security over time. This is also essential to improving your credit score.
Look at Alternative Ways to Make Money
If you’re trying to hold down a full-time job and manage your finances, there may be instances where you still find yourself struggling in terms of establishing savings and disposable income.
In this case, you may want to consider seeking out lucrative and passive income streams, with forex trading and similar asset classes offering a relevant case in point.
Forex trading has also become increasingly accessible during the digital age, with platforms such as the MetaTrader (MT4) compatible with most online brokerage sites and capable of offering access to a broad range of markets.
If you do look to carry out an MT4 download, you’ll also be able to customise your charts and trading experience to suit your risk profile, capital holdings and the precise strategies that you use to optimise profits.
Such platforms also enable you to utilise risk-management measures such as stop-losses, which work by automatically closing positions once they’ve incurred a predetermined level of loss.
