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Ways Around Saving Money: It’s All About Habit!

December 20th, 2016 Posted in financial literacy
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It is a very common thing to hear that there’s never “enough” money. But to spin that notion on its head, is it really the amount that we need, or our spending habits that actually need changing? Instead of buying a takeaway meal, couldn’t that money be spent on ingredients for meals that could have lasted a few nights? Saving money is a foreign language to some people, and it’s not about completely cutting something out of your life to feel the benefits a year later, it’s about cutting a little here and there, so it becomes a habit. But there are things you are entitled to also. Here are some little tidbits of info to get you started.

Spend Less Money On Different Shopping Brands

We like to buy the best brands, because named brands are synonymous with quality, but is that really true? A lot of the reasons why we are attracted to brands are mainly to do with the marketing. If you buy one brand of ketchup, it is not dissimilar in taste to a cheaper brand. And even if you need a big name brand, there are stores that offer the big name brands for cheaper prices. Or just look online to see where it is the cheapest at the moment, or buying in bulk is another option.

Age Before Beauty…

Trying to achieve financial independence at a young age is a bigger task now. But, there are many benefits you are entitled to depending on your age. It’s all about doing the research online. There are a lot less people retiring at the standard age now, and this is indicating that there is a lack of finances, but there is up to £3.5 billion of housing benefit and pension credit going unclaimed. There are the smaller concessions, such as transport concessions or discounts that you are entitled to depending on how old you are.

Money Saving Sites

Doing your research is half the battle! Sites such as moneysavingexpert.com are proving to be very popular with consumers, as it is a handy place to see what trends there are on energy suppliers, supermarkets and insurance. As well as this, sites like the CFA are a handy source of information too.

Getting Loans

If you really are in a pickle, this can be a quick way out for you. But be warned, with big interest rates and depending on the size of the loan you obtain, it can make for a long repayment process. And depending on what your credit score is, it may affect you being able to have a loan in the first place, while also making it harder for you to get one in the future. Make sure you check the MyCreditMonitor website to see what your score is.

Open Up An Independent Savings Account (ISA)

Getting an ISA which you cannot access is a great way to accrue savings, and with many ISAs can come with penalties if you do try to access the money, which is a great incentive to keep the money there!

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Before You’re 30: Steps To Real Financial Independance

December 18th, 2016 Posted in financial literacy, learning about money, Money Tips
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If you’re reading this, you’re probably somewhere in your early to mid-20s. You’re starting to make your own money and maybe even starting to see a little of it become disposable. We know that you might have all kind of costs that demand a big chunk, but that extra could help you become truly financially independent. Here are the steps you could take.

image of American coins - the importance of saving

Picture by Jeff Weese

Stop using your credit like a cookie jar

Half the country’s millennials have never checked their credit score. That’s a shocking fact, but the fact lies on those who failed to teach them about credit. When you’re young is when you’re most likely to ruin your credit. It’s time to stop using those open lines of credit unless you’re prepared and able to pay them off now. When it comes time to buy a new car or a house, you’ll be thankful.

Start dealing with debt

If you’ve already dipped your hand into that cookie jar one time too many, it’s likely you have some debt to deal with. Start learning debt elimination strategies and plan your approach to it. Stop charging things to your credit cards and cut out some of your luxuries to start paying more than the minimum.

Financial Independence - nest egg image

Picture by Pixabay

 

Building a nest egg

There are no two ways about it, you need to start saving right now. It’s easy to blow through your free money before you have the chance to save emergency funds. The trick is to put the money into savings, first. 15% of your income should be going to building those funds. They’re essential. Failing to save them could mean getting into a debt spiral or even falling bankrupt due to a financial emergency.

Get protected

Other financial emergencies can be taken care of without much heartache thanks to your insurance. By the time you’re thirty, there are some policies you need to be taking care of. If you have a car, you need auto insurance. If you have a place, you need property insurance for at least your contents. Disability insurance is an important confirmation of the fact that life is uncertain and we don’t always know how able we will be to work. Life insurance is needed because as uncertain as life is, you don’t know when it might end. You don’t want to put your loved ones into hardship because of your failure to prepare.

Retirement options - saving for the future image

Picture by Unsplash

Time to start preparing for retirement

No, thinking about retirement isn’t for older people only. The sooner you get started on it, the better it’s going to be for you in later life. Talk to your employer about 401(k)s so you can start saving automatically from your income, or an IRA or Roth IRA if your employer doesn’t provide 401(k) contributions.

Start investing

Roughly 20-30% of your whole income should go into financial preparation. After you emergency savings, debt relief, retirement, and insurance payments, you’re pretty much protected. If you have any extra cash after that, it’s time to start building it. Look into learning about building easy, set-and-forget investments to begin with. As you start building a portfolio, start learning how to manage it more actively.

The clock is already running. Make sure that in ten years from now you’re not in the same financial situation you’re in now. Lay the groundwork for a truly successful future.

 

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How To Get Out Of Debt & Stay Out

December 18th, 2016 Posted in financial education, financial literacy
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The decision to get out of debt is always a good one, but it’s often hard to know where to begin – especially if the debts you have are quite large.

While the scary numbers will cause many people to bury their head in the sand and choose to ignore it, taking the first step to eradicating the debt from your life is a crucial step in the overall process, and one that, if you stick to it, will help create a much better relationship with money in the future, even if it wasn’t taught to you as a child.

Below are some tips on how you can begin to, not only get out of debt, but actually stay out.

  • Get honest with yourself: so many people are afraid to open bills as they start mount up, but this avoidant behaviour can lead to serious problems down the road, so no matter how scary it seems, you need to open those letters and face them head on. In most cases, the idea of something is much worse in our head than it is in reality, and you normally find that it’s a loss less intimidating once you know what you’re dealing with, and that it’s a lot less in terms of numbers, too. You need set aside a couple of hours one day and go through everything you owe, then either write it down, or put together a spreadsheet.
  • Make a plan: if you’re going to pay off all your debt, then you need to really make a strict plan for yourself that you know you’ll stick to. How you choose to pay things off is really up to you – you can choose to pay small amounts towards each debt, or you can focus on one debt at a time, but what’s important is that you have a plan with a deadline that you can realistically achieve.
  • Reach out to those you owe to: this is actually a pretty important step that many people overlook because they either find it too scary or don’t think there’s any point in doing it, but in actual fact, reaching out to those you owe money to can help you in a big way. All you do is either write to them or call them, and explain your situation.

You can ask them for a payment plan and really let them know that you’re ready to pay everything back. In most cases, they will be more than happy to work with you, and typically they will waive the interest as long as you stick to the payment plan you agreed with them. As interest that keeps adding up is really one of the biggest issues when controlling debt, then this can make a huge difference.

  • Consolidate: if you just want to be done with the debt as quickly as possible and bring everything into one single payment instead, then looking for a way to consolidate your debt is a good idea. There are a few ways to do this: one would be through a loan from someone like Enness Bridging Finance – the other would be to speak to a debt consolidation agency who work on your behalf with the companies you owe money to. Usually these companies can get the interest, and instead of giving you a cash loan, they basically take on the debt and then you agree to pay them a small monthly amount which they divide across all of the people you owe money to. Doing it this way obviously takes longer than a loan, but it’s a good way to go if you can’t afford to pay back a loan or have trouble obtaining credit.
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Having A Bad Credit Score Can Negatively Affect You – Here’s Why

December 13th, 2016 Posted in financial education, financial literacy
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Living the life of luxury and buying what you want, when you want is all well and good until it all finally catches up with you of course. Suddenly, the unnecessary spending seems like the worst thing you could have done and you’ll be tasked with having to explain to your kids why you can’t get them a new school uniform this year.

(Side note: teaching your kids about being responsible with money is hugely important and if you start now, you might be helping them to avoid the very same mistakes you’ve made that have led you here.)

Once you’ve sorted out a way to get food on the table this month, you must, must, MUST continue reading so that you can identify why having a low credit rating is so bad so that you’re determined to fix it.

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  1. Getting loans is going to be an uphill battle

When you have a bad credit score, obtaining a loan seems like an impossible task, and that’s because it usually is. The lower the score, the more you’re going to struggle to find a lender who will offer you a loan.

  1. You’ll be paying higher amounts of interest

If you’ve been applying desperately for loans and being faced with rejection time and time again, to then find that you’ve been accepted, you’re likely to take whatever you can and run with it. The problem with having a bad credit score is that you’ll encounter the really bad deals that come hand in hand with extortionately high interest rates. It’s well known that mortgage providers save their best loans (the ones with the lowest amount of interest) for buyers who have both a good credit score and a hefty deposit.

  1. Getting a roof over your head will be rather difficult

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Most landlords will want to run a credit check on you before you both sign above the dotted line and nothing will put a potential landlord off more than a wannabe tenant who has an awful credit score. Think about it – why would they want you living under their roof when you’ve proven in the past that you aren’t great with keeping up with payments or that you require the use of credit cards to help you get by from week to week?

If you do manage to find a landlord who’s happy to let you rent a place, you’ll probably find that you have a much smaller choice as landlords have previously admitted that they save their best properties for those with higher credit scores.

  1. The pre employment credit check isn’t going to be successful

So you’ve wowed your potential new employers during the interview process and they are all set and ready to offer you the job. A pre employment credit check is all part of the usual screening process during the hiring process as your employer will want to ensure that you don’t pose a risk to the business. They’ll be looking to see whether there’s any history of financial mismanagement and if it shows that you have a super low credit score, you might find that you never get that call with the job offer after all, even though you were certain you had it in the bag.

A study found that one in seven people have been told that they were denied a job due to a poor credit rating and if you’re applying for a job that involves dealing with money, government agencies or security clearance, you will definitely struggle to come out on top if your credit rating isn’t looking great to potential employers. You may want to consider using a credit repair agency or getting a full Lexington Law review

  1. Many a missed call

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You might also struggle to get a mobile phone contract. Whilst there are bigger and more important things to worry about (like finding a paying job and a place to live), not being able to have a phone is also a huge problem.Practically everyone these days has a phone and those who don’t are always met with suspicion. Mobile phone and network providers pay close attention when it comes to credit scores and if yours is bad, you’re far less likely to get yourself a month-to-month longer term (usually the cheaper ones in the long run) mobile phone plan.

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Won The Lottery? You’re Not Out Of The Woods Yet!

December 13th, 2016 Posted in financial education, financial literacy
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You might think that after winning the lottery, you’ll never have to worry about your finances again. However, after a little bit of research, you’ll quickly find that this isn’t always the case! Countless jackpot winners through history have found themselves in situations where they wish they’d never even bought that winning ticket! Though your win may have covered a few immediate financial problems, you’re not out of the woods yet! Here’s how to protect your winnings and make them work for you.

Choose Between a Lump Sum or Annuity

This is one of the first things that a lottery winner will have to decide on, and many different factors go into it. With the sheer amount of money you have coming your way, along with the earnings you’d gain from it, you could quickly find yourself in the highest tax bracket, and staying there for a long time. Talk to a financial advisor, and figure out if you’d stand to make more from investing the lump sum than what the annuity will pay over time. Generally, you’ll find it much easier to make projections with an annuity compared to a lump sum. Though the decision may seem like an obvious one right now, there are a lot of factors you’ll need to chew over before settling.

Get Used to Saying No

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If you choose to go public as the winner of a lottery jackpot, you won’t have long before you’re bombarded with messages from various family members, friends from way back, and various other people all asking for your money. One of the less pleasant aspects to being a lottery winner is having to learn to say “no” here and there. You’ll have plenty of time to consider hand-outs which you genuinely want to go ahead with, so don’t feel pressured by all that attention! There are people out there who won the lottery years ago, and are still getting requests for money. A jackpot is a lot of money, and in order to create a solid financial plan, you need to have a period where you leave your winnings relatively untouched.

Don’t Rush Through Financial Decisions

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One of the most common financial mistakes made by lottery winners is that they make large financial decisions without taking the time to think them through properly. Aside from the choice of how you’re going to receive your winnings, investments, and miscellaneous things like structured settlements, the sudden financial freedom can really go to a lot of people’s heads, and lead to some seriously rash behavior. Despite how you’ve always envisioned a win like this, you don’t have to give massive, extravagant gifts, buy luxury homes, or commit to any risky investments as soon as you have access to your money. You should take it slow, gradually learning what it means to have a massively different economic status, before you start thinking about the steps that are going to make the most sense for you and those you care about.

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