5 Easy Money Tips to Improve Your Finances
We can’t deny the fact life can sometimes get busy. You have work, family, and other obligations to attend to. Sometimes, free time and hobbies seem to get lost in the rush making it difficult to stay on top of the critical things that you wish to improve. Things can be more problematic if you want to improve your finances.
Although you may have heard that there are lots of simple money moves that you can make to improve your finances, you don’t believe that you have enough time to do it. However, you need to understand the fact that improving your finances could save you a lot of time and spare you stress. Here are the top five easy money tips to help you improve your finances.
Automate Your Savings
Sometimes it can seem impossible to save some little money if you are living from paycheck to paycheck. However, if you prioritize savings, you will be forced to adjust your budget to live within your means. You need to keep in mind that saving money every month requires a lot of dedication and motivation. To ensure that you don’t skip saving, financial experts recommend automating your saving process. Set up automatic transfers from your checking account into your saving account every month. Over time, you will get motivated and even start saving more.
Increase Your Income
Although there are many ways you can slice your monthly budget to accommodate your needs without struggling, your primary target should always be to generate more income during your spare time. Challenge yourself to start working extra hours to increase your income. For instance, if you are currently servicing your short term loan, determine how much you need each month to pay down your debt faster. Set a realistic extra income goal and find a way of raising the money. Some of the things you can do during your free time to increase your income include freelance writing, blogging, renting out your extra space for cash, or selling items online.
Start Tracking Your Finances
Tracking your income and expenses is also critical if you want to get ahead financially. You need to know how much you are generating and how much you are spending. You also need to understand how your savings and other investments are doing. Luckily, there are lots of mobile apps that can help you track your income, debts, bills, assets, and even other investments. You can also link your accounts to these apps and start watching your finances improve.
Set Up the $5 Jar Today
From now on, you need to stop spending your $5 bills and instead store all of them in a special jar in your home. You can also do the same thing with the money you receive as change from your shopping. After a few months or a year, you could be having hundreds of extra dollars that you can use to accomplish something significant. So, pull out a jar today, put it on your counter, paste a photo of your goal, e.g., vacation, family, or a new phone, and start saving.
Demolish Your Beloved House of Cards
Do you have a couple of credit cards, a store card, and perhaps a backup credit card that you use when traveling? There are two major problems with this habit. Firstly, it means that you will have to cater for lots of fees and charges and secondly, it means easy access to credit that you may not need. Easy access to credit may lead to increased debt especially if you lack self-discipline. Evaluate your needs and limit your supply of credit cards to only one or two that you really need.