Looking towards new financial goals can be an exciting time. Whether you are upgrading to a new vehicle, buying a new home or even just setting aside savings for your retirement you’ve taken the first step towards financial freedom. Now, you will need to continue to take steps to reach those goals, and you may need a little help along the way. These tools can give you the boost you need to obtain your goals quickly and with ease

1. A Proper Budget

A good budget can be your rock during the trying time of pushing towards your goals. However, creating a loose budget without considering all expenses can actually make reaching your goals harder. A budget is your plan for your income. It is important to take into account what you need for bills and essential expenses, how much you want to have for spending cash, and how much you will set aside to save.

But how do you create a budget that will help you and not hold you back?

A good rule of thumb is to break your income down into three equal portions. One-third of your income should go towards your rent, utilities, and other bills. The second third should be your spending cash which you can allocate towards things like dining out, birthday gifts, entertainment and more. The third and final portion is for savings. It is understandable that your income may not fit into this plan. So work with the budget you have, keeping this budget concept in your head as the ultimate goal.

2. Automated Online Transactions

Online and mobile banking makes it easy to set up bill pay and manage your accounts from your mobile device. Mobile banking apps can help you make this journey easier. With most bank apps you can set up automatic payments for rent, utilities, and even credit card payments.

Automating these payments can be beneficial for several reasons. It can relieve the worry of having to pay your bills on time every month. By setting up automated payments on or before the due date, you can avoid late or missed payments and avoid damaging your credit score. Automatic payments also help to keep your budget on track. If you have your bills pulled out from your paycheck immediately, you won’t run the risk of overspending and finding yourself unable to pay an important bill.

3. Savings Apps

There are numerous apps out now are designed to make saving money intuitive and automatic.

For most of us, it’s easier to make a few good financial decisions up front than to make lots of good financial decisions day in and day out. Humans aren’t typically that disciplined. Sure, there are times you choose to save, but there are probably just as many chances to reduce the amount you’re saving, or put it off entirely. There will always be attractive opportunities to spend rather than save.

For this very reason, these apps can work in the background. They gather small amounts of money to put towards your goals. You’d be surprised how much money you can save through this method! You can also add preferences in some apps to prevent pulling out money when your account drops below a certain amount. Each app will have different features so research all the apps on the market and pick one that works best for you.

4. Create a Plan to Pay Off Debt

Your debt will follow you around until you take the time to do something about it. While it may not be fun to look at your past mistakes, you have to fix them to truly reach your financial goals. If you don’t pay for your debts, your saving may not even be useful. For example, while you may have saved $10,000 if you have $11,000 in old student loan debt- you are technically still $100 in debt. Not only this but the longer you let your debt sit, it can accumulate interest which just pushed you further into debt.

If you take charge of your finances, you can get out of debt fast with a debt pay off plan. These plans are designed to teach you to budget, save, and remove these debts from your name. Paying off these debts can have a huge impact on your credit score as well.

3. Free Annual Credit Reports

When creating a plan to pay off your debt and move towards your goals, you need to be sure you are taking care of every debt you have. For some, this may be hard. You simply may not remember all of your past debts. Perhaps you have moved recently and have been missing notifications in the mail about these debts.

Well lucky for you, you can just obtain a copy of your annual credit report and see exactly what debts are being counted against you. Each year you can receive one free credit report from all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Use these reports to construct a pay off plan that will leave you debt free. Cleaning up your credit report will help raise your credit score, and shed the debt you are carrying around.

Reaching your financial goals is possible if you take every aspect of your finances into account. Current, past and foreseeable future. By using these tools you can paint a clear picture of your financial health and how to fix it to get where you’d like to be in life.