This article is meant for those of us who are looking for practicable, immediate solutions to creating surplus cash monthly. When it comes to personal finances, following simple accounting principles makes good sense. Benefits of linking simplicity and focus to your spending include positive financial attitude change, improved money management skill, and better financial position.

Reduce DEBIT Habits Using Focussed Spending

We all know how easy and addictive spending can become. In banking, for a teller it is easier to deposit cash into an account, but not so to process a cash withdrawal. Tellers don't ask investigative questions when you deposit money (credits: except for FICA purposes). However, withdrawals (debits: depending on amount of transaction) call for interrogation of the customer's identity and right of access to their funds. Why? The potential to incur an unwelcome, unplanned loss is predominantly on the debit side (ie. money leaving our coffers). With every withdrawal, a teller needs to pay attention to any and all possibilities of incurring a loss through negligence or error, when issuing out cash. A cash withdrawal can be viewed as a payment by the teller, similar to any payments you and I make in shops and anywhere else. PAY ATTENTION to your payments, cash withdrawals, Point-of-Sale purchases, Online and Mobile purchases.

With every Debit (payment), ask yourself these focussed questions:

·      Is the payment/purchase in your budget? If not, how will making it affect your other (monthly) needs?

·      Are you clear as regards the purpose for drawing cash from your account? Where exactly are you going to spend that cash on?

·      Are you clear as regards the purpose for taking out a loan? Will you have anything to show for it after spending the proceeds of that loan?

Maintain and/or increase CREDITS into your coffers

Many of us have at least one precious source of (monthly) income: our salaries. In finance, there are concepts known as sources of funds and uses of funds. Sources of funds need not necessarily be money coming into our coffers. Increasing liabilities, in business, represents a source of funds because assets (benefits) are acquired without reducing cash (funds) at hand. Without suggesting that you increase your liabilities, you as an individual can create sources of funds out of payments-not-made. These payments (debits) include:

·      money saved from reducing bank charges, avoiding penalty fees and/or extraordinary interest on late payments, etc.

·      money saved from sticking to budgeted expenses ONLY (living within the reasonable confines of your means)

·      money saved from obtaining discounts or on bargain-buys (NB: only on goods budgeted for)

·      money saved from using cost-effective channels of banking and buying (e.g. lay-buying to avoid TCOC - Total Charge of Credit)

·      money saved by refraining from making payments for unreasonable financial burdens of others (logical decline)

Simplicity, focus, logic and resolve: just four of your innumerable inert abilities that you can employ to enable you to

1. Alter your financial perspective positively
2. Improve your positive budgetary propensities
3. And most positively keep you out of the danger zone (personal financial crises).

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