Personal finance management should be an ongoing process that needs to be nurtured over a long period of time rather than something that can easily be picked up overnight. But, one must remember that personal finance management is more about enforcing discipline upon oneself than anything else. There are certain commandments that one could blindly follow to imbibe this discipline.

The first and most important rule of thumb is to not spend more than what you earn. One should always be able to choose between necessity and luxury. It is very easy to be tempted to have material possessions beyond one’s reach by taking on credit cards and loans and then be trapped paying EMIs’ and interests. One should always spend only a percentage of what he or she earns.

A small part of the earning should always be saved. A good way of allowing the money to work for you is by investing it in equities, assets, land etc. and let the money generate more for you. This will ensure that your money is not just sitting in the bank idle. The reason this is important is because your savings are always running against inflation. If your money earns you nothing, it only means that you have lost some money without even spending it because of the rising inflation.

It is very important to have a fixed plan or budget for your expenditure including bills, saving, investment and finally something you indulge yourself in, in that order. You could ensure you do this, by keeping a tab on the number of times you withdraw cash every month, and not borrowing money or taking loans unless you really need it.

One of the most important things one should do to ensure healthy financial status throughout is to develop good skills and educate themselves in more than one field. One should have the ability to make money during bad times too. On the same lines, one should be save some bit purely for emergency needs to help them last troubled times for long enough to find a new avenue of survival.

One must maintain a healthy balance between spending for maintaining a comfortable and healthy lifestyle and at the same time not overspending through buying things on sheer impulse. Whatever be the temptation, one should only buy what one can afford comfortably and easily, without stretching themselves every month to make the payments.