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Mind Over Money: Taking Control of Your Finances

May 5th, 2017 Posted in Money Tips
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Money isn’t everything in life, and it’s of course possible to be happy and fulfilled without a ton of it in the bank. However, it is still important. Money is what keeps a roof over your head, and food in your stomach. It’s what allows you to get around, and buy the things you need. Therefore, being able to effectively manage what you have (whether it’s a little or a lot) is one of the most important skills to have as an adult. If you know you’re not great with money or are beginning to struggle, here are a few simple tips to help you regain that control.

Create Budget

The first step to taking control of your finances is to know exactly what you’re spending. It’s so easy to buy a magazine here, a coffee there, spend a few dollars on lunch one day. But all these little purchases add up, and if you’re not careful are what will cause you to overspend. Start by working out your expenditures: exactly how much you have coming in and then what goes out. What each of your monthly bills, rent, groceries and everything else costs. That way, anything leftover is what you have to play with and only that. Ideally, you will have a bills bank account where all of the money for essentials is transferred as soon as you’re paid. That way your expendable income is completely separate, it never gets dipped into at all.

Reduce Your Outgoings

Once you know exactly what you’re spending on bills, you can take steps to reduce them if needed. A huge tv and internet package for example might take up a huge part of your budget. Do you really need this? Could you drop it down to a smaller package or even cancel it completely? With inexpensive streaming services like Netflix, you won’t be short on things to watch and could save yourself a huge lump of money each month. Could you be more careful with your gas and electricity usage to reduce your fuel bills? One area where most families overspend is with groceries. If you create a store cupboard with plenty of dry ingredients and seasonings, you can prepare healthy meals for far less than buying everything fresh. For example, wholemeal pasta, rice, couscous, quinoa and other healthy grains pair perfectly with a homemade sauce using canned vegetables, herbs, and spices, Add a little meat from the freezer, and you have a healthy and balanced means during leaner times with money. Making a shopping list before setting out is another way that you will save money since you’ll have a set plan and won’t be as tempted by impulse or unnecessary purchases.

Get a Handle on Debt

Borrowing money can sometimes be useful. It allows us to study or buy houses and cars that we’d never be able to afford outright. But it can also cause a lot of problems too. When you take out loans, credit cards, and store cards for example, it’s easy to live ‘beyond you means’ and end up overcommitted. Before you know it, you might be in a situation where each month you only have enough to cover the interest meaning no money is being taken off the debt, and it doesn’t go down. Speak to a debt charity if you’re in trouble, they will offer you invaluable and non-judgemental advice. If your debt is a student loan, it could be worth looking into Obama student loan forgiveness and seeing if you qualify.

Save For Unexpected Bills

Unfortunately, life has a way of throwing a curveball every now and again. Things are going fine one minute, and the next it’s all going wrong. An unexpected bill drops on your doormat, your car breaks down or your washing machine packs up. This can spell disaster if you’re not prepared. Having a savings account that’s for these kinds of problems can give you a buffer and make life so much easier. Rather than borrowing money, you can sort problems right away and not get into any further trouble.

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Teaching Your Kids To Help Their Kids Make Smart Financial Choices

April 19th, 2017 Posted in financial literacy for kids, learning about money
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Money isn’t the most important thing in this world; family is. Nonetheless, your family can benefit greatly from making smarter financial choices. Furthermore, it’s never too early for the children to start learning. They will inevitably pick up habits from their parents and their grandparents. As Grandma or Grandpa, your job is to ensure that those influences are of a positive nature.

The only way to accomplish this challenge is to work together as parents and grandparents to ensure that the children get the very best support. Here’s what you can do as the most senior member of the clan to make it happen.

Lead By Example

You can’t possibly expect your children to become educators unless they’ve been educated themselves. Therefore, financial responsibility needs to start with you. Only then will it trickle down to your grandchildren.

At your advanced stage in life, life insurance should be one of the top items on your agenda. You can visit lifeinsuranceforseniorsover80.com for more info on the best deals and coverage around. Once this is in place, you’ll gain a huge sense of relief knowing that the family is in a better position. Frankly, that’s one of the best parting gifts you could ever leave.

More importantly, though, your commitment to the cause should encourage your children to employ better habits too. If that doesn’t result in a better financial education for the grandkids, nothing will.

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Make A Joint Investment  

Investing savings in an effective manner has become more important than ever, especially as we are living longer. With the cost of living climbing at a far too rapid rate too, building that nest egg for future years will be vital for your kids and your grandchildren. Subsequently, this is one area where you can have a telling influence on their futures.

As an older and wiser member of the family, your input can be extremely useful during this time. The best way to handle this is to be actively involved. Real estate is a particularly popular option for joint family investment. Understanding the different types of ownership, along with the other key elements, will serve all parties well.

In addition to boosting the financial futures of yourself and your children, it will have a huge impact on the grandchildren. Not only because the profits gained will have a direct influence on their lives, but because they’ll pick up important life lessons too.

Teach The Importance Of Budgeting

Even if you live a self-sufficient life, there’s no doubt that you will have encountered moments in earlier life where every penny counted. Your children probably have too, but may have forgotten those lessons now that their troubles in the past. But guess what, those difficult moments are still to come for your grandkids.

With this in mind, cutting unnecessary overspend is something the whole family should be involved in. Whether it’s using coupons for cheap groceries or tailoring broadband packages isn’t overly important. Reducing waste removes financial strain and leaves more capital for life and investments.

Embracing those improved habits is one of the greatest life lessons that you’ll ever impart on both generations. Do not underestimate it for a second.

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Encourage An Appreciation For Hard Work

No two families are identical, especially with regards to financial standing. Whether you’re rich, poor, or somewhere in between will have a major impact on many factors. Regardless of your unique situation, though, gaining an appreciation for the value of money is important for all.

Helping your child help their children to achieve this is best done through making kids work for their money. Of course, young kids shouldn’t be made to do some overly strenuous work. Still, using chores and other tools to promote the feelings of satisfaction gained from working is beneficial. And it will go a long way to aiding them through later life.

In truth, this financial astuteness also encourages an improvement to general personality too. For this reason alone, it’s one of the most important tips you could ever apply.

Be Prepared For The Worst

It’s one thing to get yourself in a comfortable situation for the moment. But what would happen if an unexpected issue occurred? As a wise head, you’d probably be ready to roll with the punches. How about the kids and grandkids, though?

If the answer isn’t an emphatically positive one, a change needs to be made. Workplace injuries, car accidents, and other issues could change a life in a heartbeat. Those impacts aren’t limited to health either and will cause financial problems. Learn about the available legal help at munley.com to help keep the whole family protected. Even if there isn’t a problem yet, knowing how to deal with those situations will remove a huge sense of fear.

Home security and similar preventative measures should also be on the agenda.In an ideal world, they’d never need to use those facilities anyway. Nonetheless, it’s imperative that your kids are aware of them. In turn, they can ensure that their children don’t enter adult life ignoring those factors too.

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Avoiding Temptations

Perhaps the most valuable lesson to teach your family is to stop rushing in to make luxury purchases. Let’s face it; clever advertisers are fantastic at encouraging us to spend money that we don’t have on things we don’t need. While life is to be enjoyed, putting ourselves under long-term stress is not an option.

Therefore, teaching the importance of organization and prioritizing is pivotal. Mortgages, debt repayments, and bills should always take precedence over personal treats. Even if your grandchildren are young, teaching them this at an early age is advised. After all, financial responsibility is a key life element that schools fail to acknowledge.

Once again, the only way to achieve greatness is to work together as a family. If you are repeating the same values that their parents are teaching, the grandkids will soon take note. A brighter financial future for the entire family awaits.

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Unlock The Door To Financial Freedom

April 13th, 2017 Posted in learning about money
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Adult life will often take people by surprise. Most don’t expect to be thrown into a world of bills, debts, and other money problems. But, the world of finance is a cruel one. And, it doesn’t treat anyone kindly. This makes it extremely important to be prepared for unexpected issues and have the knowledge to set them right. Once you achieve this goal, you will reach a new level of financial freedom that you’ve yet to experience. To help you out, this post will be going through several areas of finance that every adult should consider. And, some ways that can be used to improve your current situation.

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  • Savings

The path to financial freedom starts by spending as little money as possible. Most people will get through a large chunk of their pay within the first few days of getting it. When you have money in the bank, it can be easy to feel like you don’t have to be careful. This will often lead to impulse buying, which isn’t good for anyone. So, when you first start budgeting; it’s important only to spend the money that you absolutely have to. If this means missing out on some luxuries for a while; that’s alright. You can use these items as motivation to get you through the saving. Thinking about what you miss will make it easier to drive yourself to success. The money that you save from this should be put away safely, though.

The money that you save won’t be much use while it’s sat in your account. And, you might find it hard to save without a goal to reach. It’s best to try and save enough money to cover at least three months of living. This will give you more than enough money to resolve most issues before they impact your life. And, this gives you a reasonable goal to reach. This money should be kept in an account that is designed to make a large amount of interest. Most banks will offer small savings accounts, which allow you to have access to your money instantly. These are perfect for most.

  • Debt

Some people will find that their issues are more than just a lack of money. A lot of people have debt to deal with. But, this sort of issue can be very hard to deal with. Thankfully, if you’ve followed the first step to save and put your money away; you’re already on track to start paying off your debt. If you can; you should aim to save alongside repayments. This will mean that you’re making progress in both areas. And, will help you to reach your goals faster, too. A lot of companies that offer loans will also offer you the chance to rework your repayments; if they’re too hard to make. This gives you the chance to get some help with your loan.

Throughout this stage, you have to be very attentive. It’s easy for money to disappear without a trace when you’re not watching it carefully. Money gets spent; then, you will forget about it. And, soon enough, this could make it impossible to pay back your loans. There are loads of tools that can be used to help you to monitor your money. Systems like Quickbooks give you a great chance to get control of your money. And, they’re not expensive to use. Along with this, it’s important to learn when is best to take a loan. A lot of people find themselves in a bad situation with debt because they have to get a loan in an emergency situation.

But, this nearly never has to be the case. If you monitor your money all the time; it will be hard for future issues to slip through the net. You will have a good idea of when you will need the money. Using this sort of practice will help you to predict how much money you will need long into the future. Instead of having to rely on getting money quickly and paying high-rates multiple times; you could get a larger loan to cover everything. Or, if you can see that your current debts are getting to a low enough level; you could consolidate them all into a bigger loan. Having your debts in one big loan will usually mean that you’re paying a lot less interest back. You will only ever have to pay money to one place. And, you will have the chance to spread the loan over a longer and more reasonable period. These are all great benefits to those in debt.

  • Income/Outgoings

There are other considerations that have to be made; when you’re working on your money. A lot of people don’t earn as much as they should for the work that they do. Thankfully, this is easy to check, too. Most countries will have resources available to help you find the average rate of pay for your position. If you’re paid less; you could talk to your employer about a raise. This might not work, though. In this case, it could be worth having a look at some similar jobs. You may find that you can get a very similar job in the area, with higher pay. This could make life much easier for you when it comes to sorting out your money.

To further help with your financial situation, you could also look into some other ways to make some money. Most people have skills or interests that can be translated into income. For example, you might really enjoy playing musical instruments and have the right skill level to teach them. In most places, you don’t need any specific licenses to sell this sort of trade. So, you’d be able to do it freely and easily. When looking for chances like this, it’s best to do loads of research. Most people will ignore most of the options in front of them. But, to get the best chance at making money; you have to take advantage of everything you can.

Sorting out your financial situation won’t be easy. But, likewise, living without enough money all the time will be very challenging. You have to consider which of these lives you’d prefer to lead. If you make a difference now; you’re much more likely to have a comfortable future. If you don’t, though; you’ll be happier now. But, life could get very hard later on.

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