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Personal Finance

I believe that Personal finance encompasses all the decisions a person might make when it comes to cash flow, budgeting, retirement, investments, multiple streams of income, and insurance protection. Every adult is bombarded with decisions to make when it comes to all these areas of life and I try to help with my thoughts and opinions on the various topics.

Personal Finance

Best Tips to Save Money in 2020

by Evan

2020 has been a year like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic has pummeled the economy and put a financial strain on many families across the globe. Now more than ever, people are finding it difficult to get ahead. Even with the considerable disruption that the virus has caused, it is still possible to save a lot of money. With a little creativity and some diligence, you can create a substantial nest egg.

Set a Goal

You can’t expect to save any money without setting a target. Just like any other goal that you set, saving money needs to be approached with consistency, motivation, and accountability. Whether you want to save $100 or $10,000, a benchmark can help you see it through to the end.

Automate Your Savings

Schedule recurring paying biweekly or monthly from your checking into a high yield savings account. This tactic reduces your temptation to spend your money before you can save it. Adjust your lifestyle to live without the extra capital that you are setting aside. Automate your employer contributions as well, so it’s out of sight, out of mind.

Find Online Deals

With a little digging, you can find some fantastic deals from the comfort of your computer. There are many great online deals websites out there ready to be found. With a bit of research, you’ll be saving money in no time. You might have more time to browse around on Sunday afternoon, but you could potentially land a lot better price on Wednesday. Search for any coupons or promotions to save even more money. Pay attention to all of the trends, and watch your savings skyrocket.

Save Your “Extra” Money

A lovely birthday gift, tax refund, or pay raise are some extra funds that are tempting to spend right away. Every little bit of cash will add up over time, and you’ll find yourself in a great position.

Save Together

Saving money alone can be challenging, so why not involve your family or friends. A husband and wife or best friend combo can accelerate your savings to uncharted territory. Set up the terms, and keep track of each other’s contributions to prevent any arguments when it’s time to collect.

Limit Credit Card Usage

A debt of any kind will hamper your saving goals. Imagine investing your credit card payments towards your savings each month. Once you’ve paid off your credit card debt, begin using your cards responsibly in order to improve credit. Use them to get gas or buy groceries with the intent of paying off the bill in full at the end of every month. Doing so demonstrates proper credit usage while avoiding the debt trap associated with using credit cards on a regular basis.

Quit the Daily Coffee Run

Small charges can add up quickly if you’re not careful. Coffee, fast food, and mindless spending will prevent you from reaching your financial goals. Invest your daily five-dollar coffee run into a stock or savings account, and you’ll be surprised how much you accumulate in a month.

It’s easy to save some money as long as you put in the effort. While you don’t need to save every penny you make, it’s a good idea to create a savings plan that is consistent and realistic. Slow and steady wins the race!

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Personal Finance

5 Ways to Use Downtime to Advance Your Income Potential

by Evan

The current pandemic has come with a lot of downfalls, but for once in many of our adult lives, there is a lot of time to spare. Instead of laying around and complaining of boredom, use these sacred moments to improve your finances. If you have no idea where to start, consider these five brilliant ideas.

Get a Part-Time Job

While many businesses are laying people off, others are still needing employees to fulfill essential needs. While you can go the traditional route and apply to a grocery store or warehouse, you also have the innovative option to work as a personal delivery driver to transport food and other goods. Alternatively, work-from-home jobs are at their peak, allowing workers to grow their bank account in the comfort of their own homes.

Enroll in School

Generally, the future of a person that has attained higher education tends to be a bit more promising. There is an abundance of trade schools that specialize in diverse areas and reward their students with a marketable certification at the end of the program. For example, earn an online school psychology program degree, or look into another subject that you could see yourself building a future in. And don’t worry, you don’t need to dedicate eight years towards the cause.

Learn a New Trade

Being a person of multiple talents truly pays off nowadays. Whenever you have a monetary goal to reach, you should always look into developing a new trade. You can learn how to do anything from fixing automobiles to learning how to create your own clothing. Once you master your new skill, you will have opened yourself up to an entirely new venture that can be used to supplement your income or even secure your future as a whole.

Sell Your Old Items

What no longer has value to you can be used to bless the lives of others. There are a few things that effortlessly steal the attention of society, and garage sales make the top of the list. If you have gently-used items that no longer serve you, now is the time to trade them in for a bit of cash. Also, gone are the days in which you would need to pitch a tent in your front yard from daybreak to sundown. You can now use various online platforms to make postings and wait for offers.

Flip Items

Learning the art of flipping items can be super profitable, especially during a time like now where many people are terrified of leaving their homes. To become an expert flipper, you will need to know which items are in high demand so that you don’t waste your time or money raising the tag on things that people don’t want. Also, marketing is key here. Learn how to properly advertise your products, and to become more competitive, make an effort to either sell your products slightly cheaper than your competitors or offer speedy delivery.

Start Investing

Investing is no longer for the rich and the famous. With so many options available, you can begin making a passive income using only a couple of dollars. Just keep in mind that investing is a gradual process, but in due time, you could see a huge return. That can lead you into larger investments and returns. You may start with a few cheap stocks and end up buying rental properties before you know it! 

Increasing your income is about weighing your options. And the good news is, you have plenty to choose from. With the right plan of action, you will come out of this pandemic with a much greater income flow than before.

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Personal Finance

What Is a Budget and Why Do You Need One?

by Evan

For years you’ve overheard the word “Budget” in many conversations and know of its importance. If you’re not quite sure what a budget is and whether or not it’s something you need, read on below. 

The Purpose of a Budget 

In simple terms, a budget is a list of your accumulated debt and recurring expenses placed against your net income. In short, a budget lets you track your spending and helps you to make better financial decisions based on the findings. If your food bill is high, you’ll find ways to reduce it. If you spend a lot of money on frivolous items, you cut back.

Why Do I Need a Budget? 

You may ask yourself “Why do I need a budget?” The answer is easy. You need a budget to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle now and in your retirement. A budget is very revealing. It lets you focus on areas that need work, like maxed out credit cards and gives you a true understanding of where you spend your money. 

How Can I Benefit from a Budget? 

With a comprehensive listing of your recurring expenses and accumulated debt, you can start the process of reducing or eliminating some of your expenses and work towards paying down your debt. When you know the exact amount of income you have and have balanced that against the amount of your monthly debt, you’ll know the amount of money you have left over to work with. In some cases, people find out that they simply have more debt obligations than they have income. When this happens, you have two choices. You can either bring in more money or unload some of your expenses. If you have a mortgage and equity in your home you can refinance the loan or, if that’s not a possibility, there are installment loans online that offer small monthly repayments. 

How Do You Create a Budget? 

Creating a budget is easy. First, gather up all your bills. Then, you can either go old school and write them down on a sheet of paper, or download and print out a budgeting form from one of the many apps available for free online. Or, if you prefer, you can purchase budgeting software. There are several types of budgets from which to choose, with each having a variation in the percentage of money allocated to certain areas. It’s best to review a few before committing to one to see which one works best for you. 

The Short and Long-Term Benefits 

Once you start a budget you’ll begin to get smart with your money. You’ll know exactly the amount you have left at the end of each month. As a result, you will divide a portion of the net surplus into places such as a savings account, college fund, retirement, and a vacation. Putting steady amounts of money away each month helps you grow financial wealth and security. When a repair comes along, you have the money in place to cover it. When it’s time for children to go off to college, you have money set aside to assist with the fees. And, when you need to get away, you can book a trip to your desired destination. 

Credit Triumph 

When you stick to a budget, your bills get paid on time and your debt slowly dwindles away. A positive event occurs during this process: your credit score begins to move up each month until it levels off at an excellent score of beyond 800. Having stellar credit makes it easy to secure financing, lease a car or buy one at the lowest interest rates and have access to any cell phone or insurance company you want. 

A household budget is something everyone should have in place. It makes life easier and lets you enjoy the benefits of an excellent credit score and financial security in your retirement. 

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Personal Finance

3 Small Changes to Take Charge of Your Finances

by Evan

There are millions of resources on investing and saving on large purchases like shopping your mortgage rates, haggling at the car dealership, cutting off your cable bill, investing in real estate or stocks or art or local businesses … the possibility of all of these things are endless. Equally as important is to bring the focus into the detail sometimes of the less exciting areas, like the rates you pay for your accounts, reducing eating out by a few times a week and opting for healthier options made at home, and most importantly, what to do with the money you do manage to save in all of these areas, both big and small. 

  1. What are your accounts costing you? If you’re paying for your checking and savings accounts, are you receiving benefits with them that are worth the fees being charged each month? Most likely, it’s worth your time to shop around for a new bank or credit union checking account, to ensure you are stable from the very foundation of where your money is most likely going into before filtering back out again. Taking an hour or two to shop around to get the best option for you, and switch over your money can save you hundreds or thousands in the long run, making the most of your current dollars. Other accounts have fees as well, and it’s always worth checking to see if there is a way to reduce these altogether, either by asking the current company you’re with, or by changing to another.
  2. Make snacks, coffee and meals at home instead of eating out, where possible. This may be an overplayed strategy, but it sure is effective. Eating out has it’s time and place, but it’s often not that much of a time saver, and is certainly not the picture of a healthy and balanced meal. Buying organic and high quality whole foods to prepare and have on hand at home for meals and snacks is not only less expensive in the short term, it’s also less expensive in the short term as the probability of getting food related diseases can be dramatically reduced by taking this route. What goes into our body is as important as taking proper care of our finances. Both are vital components to our longevity and happiness in life.
  3. Take action with the money you save. Saving money on one item isn’t really saving money if we just spend it on something else, is it? Taking saving to the next level and moving money saved into a savings or investment account makes the process a bit more complete and whole. Saving $6 a day on coffee only to spend more at lunch or dinner doesn’t get you any farther in your financial goals. But, saving $6 a day on coffee and putting that into savings is $180 a month, and $2160 a year. It may not be life changing after one year, but it can be amazingly life changing after a few years by following this method and strategy.

Taking small, regular and thoughtful actions in the life area of financial health can shed light on small leaks that can be repaired in your money flow, and those dollars, in many cases, are best used when redirected into savings and investments, or into paying off interest accruing debts, like auto loans and credit cards.

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Personal Finance

Splurge Without Breaking Your Budget

by Evan

Life is all about choices, decisions, and balance. Because you work hard, you should be able to treat yourself to some of life’s indulgences along the way. Don’t deny yourself the added little extras that make your life that much sweeter just because you are on a budget. There are plenty of budget-friendly ways to allow you to indulge and strike a balance between work and play (or whatever your vice or indulgence might be).

After an especially trying day, it’s not uncommon to feel like you need to treat yourself to some retail therapy. That’s not to say you should buy everything you want. Instead, stay true to your financial situation and stay in control. Learn how to make allowances to get the things you want, without suffering any type of monetary setbacks. For example, that package locker for home deliveries, for example, might seem like an extravagance, but if it saves you the hassle and cost of having to re-order packages that have been taken from your porch, isn’t that worth the expense?

Self Care

Everybody defines treating themselves with ordinary expenditures differently. Basically, anything outside your realm of normalcy that brings you some level of enjoyment or stress relief should be considered a treat. When budgeting for special allowances, don’t limit yourself to tangible items. If you already have a closet overflowing with shoes, because shoe shopping is what you do when you feel stressed out, why not seek another form of stress relief? Book yourself a trip to the spa and enjoy a nice massage or round of acupuncture that relaxes both your mind and your body. Budget for a healthy treat with benefits to your physical as well as mental health.

If you are feeling fed up and frustrated with certain aspects of your work or personal life, why not find a gym? Release some endorphins and expel your frustrations though doing laps in the pool or participating in an exercise class.

Free Treats

What can be more budget-friendly than something that doesn’t cost you a penny? For some people, their budgets aren’t fluid enough to allow for escapes as often as they would need or like. That doesn’t mean they don’t need a break or a treat, it just means they need to find alternate ways to unwind and spoil themselves. Sometimes the simplest of treats can be the most relaxing. 

When you need to escape the weight of reality that is consuming you, there are several free options available. Here are a few examples:

  • Lose yourself within a good book. 
  • Find a quiet, cozy place to curl up and nap.
  • Visit a good friend.
  • Have a peaceful soak in the tub.
  • Color in an adult coloring book.
  • Keep a journal.
  • Enjoy popcorn and a movie on the couch.

Seeking indulgent rest and relaxation doesn’t necessarily equate to time spent alone. As much as kids can drive you crazy at times, don’t discount the priceless effects of their infectious laughter. Have a look at local free events and take your family on new adventures. Grab the dog and the kids and head to the park. Rediscover your inner child and play an interactive game. Above all, laugh!

Maybe you are one of those lucky people who find cleaning a way to alleviate stress. If that’s the case, find a cluttered closet you’ve been wanting to organize for months and have at it. If you have unfinished projects around the house, complete them. There isn’t much that is more satisfying than checking things off of that never-ending mental list that can make you feel otherwise unaccomplished.

Striking a balance between work and play; necessity and indulgent; hectic and peaceful; is no easy feat. Learning to strike that balance and stay within your budget is a priceless tool in the armory of life.

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