As my first journal entry, here are some tips that I jotted down yesterday to ensure that you save money and have a good financial history. Hope this will be useful to everyone. These are some very basic tips, but often times we all forget to get our basics right, isn't it?

Discard additional credit cards, keep only one: Managing credit cards can be a major pain. And with credit card companies all set out to make money out of you, it is only but safe to discard them off you and keep only the one or two cards that you think are the best. I discarded all my cards a couple of months before and I have never been happier. Most of my financial complications were reduced.

Note your spendings and mode of payment: Note down all you major money spendings. Have you given someone a loan? Note down the date and amount. Did you buy yourself a Video player? Note down the date and amount. Also note down how you made the payment. Did you use a credit card or cheque. Did you buy it online or offline. Maintain these details on a monthly basis. You can make use of small notebooks and make use of one notebook per month. This will also make sorting easier in the later phase.

Check your credit reports if you have taken loans in the past: View all your 3 credit reports on a yearly basis to ensure that all is fine. There are all the more chances that your lenders might have given the wrong information to the credit companies. Correcting these will help you get loans at a low interest rate in the future.

Note your investments: Keep a seperate book where you can note down all investments you have made. Be it mutual funds or insurance details, you can keep all this so that you know when the funds are getting matured and when you can get them back so you get the maximum benefits.

Check your bank statements: Make sure to check your bank statements whenever they reach you and compare them with your notes. If you find anything extra, call up the bank and check out what it is. There are all the more chances that your credit card company could have signed you up for some bogus programs that you are not even aware of.

Pay your bills on time: Have enough money in your bank so you can pay your bills on time. Make sure to spend only after you are sure that you will be able to pay the bills. Unpaid bills can pile up on you and put you into a major financial issues. This can be easily avoided with some simple planning.

So there you go, my 2 cents on saving money.