13 Summary of Session 2
You’ve covered a lot of ground in this session and have explored:
- how income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are calculated
- how to distinguish between essential, desirable and non-essential spending
- how to build your own budget, taking into account all your sources of income and your spending
- how to manage your budget – particularly if spending exceeds income.
Effective budget management skills are critically important in ensuring you maintain good control of your finances. Other key financial decisions – about borrowing money, getting a mortgage, saving for the future and for a pension – are best taken when you have built this secure foundation for your finances.
You can now apply these skills in the rest of this course produced by The Open University in collaboration with MoneySavingExpert.com.
Learning more about budgeting and taxation
The following links can help you learn more about the subjects you have covered in this session.
Learn more about calculating the tax deductions on your income using the MoneySavingExpert tax calculator [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Learn more about tax codes using the MoneySavingExpert guide.
To find out more about making a tax return check out MoneySavingExpert’s guidance on self-assessment
You may find these two HMRC sites useful. They provide guidance on who needs to complete a tax return and on how to register for online submission of income tax returns.
Check out the MoneySavingExpert website to learn more about budgeting and finance planning.
Go to the MoneySavingExpert website if you want help in understanding the latest news and options with your gas and electricity bills.
Get started with Session 3: Borrowing money.