How to become financially fitter in 30 minutes

There’s nothing less appealing than a weekend spent cleaning up your personal finances.

Whether it be budgeting, consolidating super or searching for old tax declarations, we all get behind sometimes.

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Thankfully, the Internet is brimming with free tools to help organise your money, and even educate you on what you could be doing better.

Searching for lost super takes seconds. Photo: Getty

So, while once upon a time it was family and friends who threw in their two cents for free, now anyone with an Internet connection can reap the benefits of free tips from finance professionals.

Here are our tips for shaping up, fast.

Find any lost super

An alarming amount of superannuation sits unclaimed in funds every year.

Super can go missing when a person changes funds or gives the wrong details to an employer.

And while relatively easy, finding lost super is often a task that goes into the ‘too hard basket’ for busy workers.

If you think you might have super waiting for you out in the ether, try this quick search via the Australian Taxation Office’s website.

You can also check with AUSFund – a non-profit that holds lost super from 35 Australian super funds.

Meet ed

If you think your budgeting tools need sharpening, it might be time for you to meet ed, ME Bank’s quick and easy online finance school.

Classes range from money basics, to managing debt and living with a home loan.

For those in need of a financial plan, try this class on budgeting.

Unlike many finance tools online, ed’s classes are easy on the eye and over before you know it.

Meet ed, your new financial tutor. Photo: Supplied

Download a budgeting app

Once you know the basics of budgeting (and can see where you’ve been going wrong), it’s time to download an app that keeps your budget aims in check.

There are so many on the market, but our pick of the free versions include Mint Money Manager and Pocket Book – both of which let you create a budget based on your own lifestyle and needs.

And if you’re willing to spend money to make money, apps such as You Need a Budget  also come with comprehensive lessons for budgeting beginners.

Track your spending

This part might hurt, but it’s better the devil you know.

In order to truly improve your financial fitness, you need to learn the hard truths about where your money is going and where you could afford to tighten the belt.

Luckily, each of the above apps can be linked to your personal bank accounts – giving you an idea of just how much you’re spending unnecessarily.

Once a purchase appears in the app, you’ll need to manually put it into categories such as ‘Food’ and ‘Rent’.

It’ll be well worth it for a truthful snapshot of your spending habits.

This article was sponsored by ME Bank.