How To Avoid Slippery Slopes When Managing Your Debt & Budget

 

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While recovering from debt is nothing if not empowering (sometimes giving you a whole new lease on life!) it’s true to say the climb up that mountain can be replete with slippery surfaces if you’re not careful. Being in debt could be considered a desperate situation, at least sometimes it feels that way. For this reason, many people are incentivized to look for the easiest and most effective solution possible.

This might involve thinking of investing in crypto or performing matched betting practices, or paying attention to financial influencers that seem to promise their own method instead of tried and true advice that they have refined, which would be better.

It’s hard to know where to begin. Thankfully, if you’re shrewd, you can avoid all of these issues and stay steadfast in your growing approach towards bettering your finances and getting out of debt. Our website provides a range of essential advice daily for helping you with that. In this post, we’ll discuss a few measures you can use towards deftly avoiding hazards:

Avoid Overzealous Financial Influencers

Financial influencers tend to get a little overzealous in their promises, which can sound great on the surface, but often denotes someone who can talk a great game but may not be able to deliver. It’s best to focus on charities that may help you consolidate debts, or that can contact creditors for you, or may even help you draw up a proper budget from your income sources to start with. This way, you can avoid the pitfalls of smooth-talking and remain where progress is most likely to occur.

Investments Should Be Measured Carefully

It’s essential to measure any investments you have properly instead of putting already sensitive monies into get rich quick schemes. For instance, right now, cryptocurrency is being invested in by people who are totally convinced its speculative value is something worthwhile to keep track of, but in the long run, this is unlikely to hold a candle to Forex broker services. Liquidating assets and investing is not necessarily a poor approach, but make sure you learn how to minimize risk before putting it somewhere intended to generate mid to long term results.

Debt Consolidation Services

There are many services that claim to help you consolidate your debts, to help you put forward a plan, and that may even pay emergency creditors for you provided you consolidate your debts with them (for a fee, of course). When dealing with debts or managing your finances in this manner, it’s essential that you vet the services you use. It’s best to use charities or government services, not businesses inclined to take money from you, only offsetting the problem. Some protection rights may be afforded to you via helpful services, granting your temporary reprieve from immediate financial necessities, but only if you use those that have been rated, reviewed and proven as trustworthy.

With this advice, we hope you can continue to avoid false promises and slippery slopes when managing your finances and debt.

Want to Become More Financially Disciplined? Here is What You Need To Do

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Being financially disciplined can be a tall order. Many people find it hard to be thoughtful with their expenditure and direct their finances to the things that truly matter.

If you can identify with the struggles of being more disciplined with your finances, you are hardly alone in your battle. Well, here are a few practical steps you can take to change your financial situation today.

Set a Goal

Having a reason to change your financial habits makes the process much easier. So, before you embark on reforming your financial practices, take some time to consider why you want to change in the first place.

Do you want to create a nest egg that you can fall back on when things get rough? Are you saving towards your kid’s college education? Would you like to afford the house of your dreams? By setting the goal, you will provide yourself with immense motivation to stick to your resolution. 

You can also create reminders of your dream on sticky notes and put them around the house and in your car. Every time you look at them, you will feel encouraged to continue in your quest for developing better financial habits. 

Make the Most of Automation

If you often struggle with personal finance management, consider using financial automation services. Automation ensures that as soon as the money hits your bank account, it is deflected to predetermined purposes.

For instance, you can have the bank automatically deposit money to your savings account before you even touch it. This gives you no chance to conceptualize the cash as yours, making it much easier to dedicate it to serve the goal you had set.

Rethink Your Financial Choices

Sometimes, the things that hold you back the most from achieving your financial goals are your choices. For example, if you often buy things on impulse, you probably waste a lot of money and jeopardize your chances of attaining your goals.

Start by replacing your credit cards with your debit cards. With a virtual debit card, you will not incur any debt or have to pay high interest rates. Additionally, seeing your bank balance diminish every day is enough motivation to rethink your purchases.

Consider also implementing the 24-hour rule before buying an expensive item. You could also commit to eating out less and buying fewer clothes. All of these changes can go a long way in making you more disciplined. 

Find Support

If financial discipline seems too taxing for you, consider leaning into your support system. You can ask a spouse or sibling to help you become more disciplined.

Your partner can hold you accountable to ensure that you are always on track to achieve your goals. Additionally, they can help you stay focused when you are about to make a poor financial decision. With their help, you will be better able to clear any obstacles on your path to financial success.

No doubt, becoming financially disciplined takes a lot of determination and self-control. However, you can use a few tools to make the task more manageable.

For instance, you can start by determining why you want to become more financially responsible. Secondly, you can use automation tools to help you manage your finances better. Finally, your support system can help you attain your goals. 

Follow these tips, and you will see a considerable change in your financial life. 

 

5 Tips to Save Money for a Financially Secure Future

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Financial security is not guaranteed for everyone. What would you do if you got fired today? Would you survive if a recession hit? How will you live without money when you are a senior in retirement? You need to start saving as much as you can while you still have an income.

Here are five tips to help you increase your savings and secure your financial future:

1.      Record Your Expenses

How much money do you spend? Now, how much money do you spend on essential things, and how much do you waste on non-essential expenses? You will be surprised.

Start by recording your weekly or monthly expenses – depending on your financial cycles. Compile your expenses for that month and sum them up. Highlight each expense clearly and don’t leave anything out – especially your credit cards.

2.      Make a Budget

So, how much do you spend per month? More importantly, how much do you make per month? Is it less or more than how much you spend, and by how much? Make a budget to find out.

A budget will tell you more than just the difference between your income and expenses. It will help you organize your finances and identify opportunities for saving more money. It should contain all essential expenses, such as groceries and rent – not everything you spend your money on. It should be an ideal representation of how you should use your money if you were not struggling with impulsive spending.

3.      Set Savings Goals

How much would you like to save per month? What do you want to do when you’re older? Move into an active adult community? Maybe sell up and move across the world? Whatever it is you fancy dreaming about, now’s a good time to get set up for it. You can do it if you are disciplined in your financial usage – and if your savings goals are practical.

The best way to motivate yourself to save more is by setting productive and tangible goals. For example, you can save for that new car that you have always wanted. You can also save for a house where you will raise your family. As such, set your goals and focus on achieving them. Additionally, follow up on your goals by saving enough money to realize them.

4.      Cut Down On Your Spending

So, how much do you spend on non-essential things? How many subscriptions do you pay for but don’t even know it? Do you eat out too much than necessary? Do you need the latest pair of shoes that you just bought?

Cutting down on non-essential expenses is the best way to save more from a fixed income. It also pays to make sacrifices that will free up your financial obligations, such as clearing debts that carry high long-term interests.

5.      Get Out Of Debt

If you have any debts, it’s worth getting out of them as soon as you can. While that could mean paying more for it now, it could mean saving more money in the long term. Thankfully, there are various ways you can go about this. Spend some time researching your options, such as looking up Jefferson Capital Systems reviews, to see what you can do.

It’ll put you in a much better position than you would’ve thought and help you put away more money in the future. You’ll be better off financially in the long-term.

6.      Leverage Savings Accounts & Tools

There are lots of resources that will help you save and secure your money. For example, there are savings accounts that will automatically deduct your desired savings amount when your check comes in. Additionally, there are retirements and pensions accounts that will help you save for your sunset years. Make use of these tools.

Final Thoughts

It feels good knowing that you have some money stashed away for a rainy day – especially when that dreaded day comes. As such, put these tips into practice. Additionally, consider investing your money in safe and lucrative investment options. 

The Easiest Ways To Reduce Life’s Expenses

Life can be a lot of fun, but it sure can be expensive. It seems that there’s always one cost or another to be paid, and while this may mostly be manageable, it can also leave us in a precarious position. All it takes is one large, unexpected expense, and we’re in trouble. While you can’t get rid of these costs entirely, there are things you can do to keep them to a minimum. In this blog, we’re going to run through some of the best methods for keeping your bank balance healthy, without compromising the essentials of life.

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Review Your Costs

The expenses can just rise, rise, rise as we go through life. Once we’re in the adult world, it seems that all we’re doing is just adding cost after cost, especially once we’re settled. Even if these costs aren’t astronomical, you could find that they add up to a pretty penny when they’re all tallied together. If it’s been a while since you purged some of your costs, then perhaps now is the time to take a look at doing so. You could save a significant sum of money each month just by canceling subscriptions that you no longer need.

Read Up On Best Practices

The internet isn’t perfect, but it has changed the game in certain ways, including the information we have access to regarding saving money. You might know how to live on a cheaper budget, but there are people out there that do -- and they’ve happily shared that information with the world. So don’t think that you’re alone in your quest to save more money. There are many communities out there that’ll tell you what you need to know about saving money on just about everything imaginable, and all you need to do is spend some time reading.

Don’t Pay More Than You Need To

It’s bad enough paying for the essentials that are compulsory, but it’s oh so much worse to pay for things that aren’t our responsibility. Yet that’s just what many of us do. Not every bill that comes your way is a necessary expense. In some cases, the price will be negotiable -- you can often get a reduction just by haggling a little. In other cases, the expense will really not be your responsibility. If you’re in an incident on the road, then an auto accident attorney can help you to get the money that’s rightfully yours. People even overspend on their taxes because they don’t realize that things like sales tax and health insurance premiums can be written off. 

Earn More Money

If you want to reduce the percentage of your income that you’re spending on expenses, then you have more than one method to reach your goal. You can reduce your expenses directly or you can earn more money. The latter may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s not. You can add 10-20% to your income just by starting a side-hustle or by asking your employer for a raise. Many bosses are happy to give it if they’re asked.