What’s inside: 5 pro tips to live and stay debt free;sponsored by Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt.
Despite how much I love the holidays, it’s always areliefto be done with holiday expenses!This year our family madea lot of homemade gifts and focusedon traditions (instead of things) to have an awesome Christmas without breaking the bank.
Livingdebt free is important to our family’s financial future, sowe take special care to make sure our holiday spendingstays in control.
The tips are meant to help you stay debt free, but I believe they apply to everyone trying to feel more on top of their finances. (And just to clarify,when I say debt free, I’m excluding things like a mortgage, as houses are usuallydifficult for most people to buy up-front).
Since I handle our family finances, I found this book fascinating — I read half of it in one sitting!It covered everything from job benefits to retirement planning, but there were five tips to help stay debt free thatI just had to share!These are great financials habits to startnow (and easy enough to do so today!)
Five Financial Habits from the Pros to Stay Debt Free
Keeptrack of spending.Accountability is crucial! If you have to go back and tally every single dollar spent for the month, you’d probably discover it’s actually more than you thought — and you’ll be less inclined to spend as much next month. There are even free apps which make it super east to keep track of your spending — check with your bank to see if they offer one.
Use real money for purchases. Avoid building up credit charges that you’ll have to face at the end of the month. Whenever you can, try and pay with cash or a debit card. Seeing your money leave you in real time can make the purchase more painful, and usually will force you to ask the question “Do I really need this?” If you do purchase on credit, pay the bill in full every single month.You never want to build up credit card debt and pay needless interest unless it is an absolute emergency situation. (See number 3)
Never assume it won’t happen to you. Emergencies happen when we least expect it, so it’s important to be prepared at all times.Start building a strong emergency fund now and you’ll thank yourself later (hopefully you won’t have to!). Depositset amount from each paycheck into a savings account so it’s done without you thinking about it, but will be there when you need it.
Automateto avoidmistakes. Like most people, I have a thousand things on my mind at any given time. It’s only human to forget to pay that credit card bill off at the end of the month or the electricity bill that falls on an odd day. Why not take that off your to-do list by setting up an automatic payment? Not only can automation help build a savings account (#3), but it will also keep you from racking up needless late fees on bills and reduce the stress of trying to remember every single deadline.
Don’t flex your willpower muscle if you don’t need to. Have you ever noticed it’s easier to avoid cheating on your diet in the morning versus at night? That’s because willpower is actually a limited resource that gets weaker the more you use it throughout the day. Simply remove the temptation of unnecessary purchases by avoiding them!For example, unsubscribe from those retailer emails that seem to all have the best sale ever. If you find that you make a lot of online purchases late at night, put the computer away and read a book before bed instead.
Want to know ALL of my money saving tricks, including the one thing our family does that saves us over $1000 every month? It’s all inside my ebook Secrets to a Successful Single Income Budget! CLICK HEREto find out more!
None of these five tips require a major lifestyle change, but done together, they could add up to major savings for your budget and help you stay debt free!
The One Lifestyle Change that Allowed me to be a Stay at Home Mom
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Stacey aka the Soccer Mom
Stacey is the creator of The Soccer Mom Blog, a Houston Texas mom blog that focuses on positive living for women and families. She loves to share real food recipes, money-saving tips, parenting encouragement, kids activities, DIY tutorials, home hacks, fitness, and so much more! To get to know Stacey even better, click here.
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This rule helps estimate what percentage of your savings you should invest in high-risk assets. All you need to do is subtract your age from 100, and that's the percentage of money you can invest in risky assets like equities. The younger you are, the higher the risk you can take.
Pay yourself first, is perhaps the most effective wealth-building habit and one of the easiest to implement. With this simple strategy, you direct part of every paycheck to a savings account, mutual fund, or other investment vehicle.
A common misconception is equating a lack of debt with wealth. Having debt simply means that you owe money to creditors. Being debt-free often indicates sound financial management, not necessarily an overflowing bank account.
The 50-30-20 budget rule states that you should spend up to 50% of your after-tax income on needs and obligations that you must have or must do. The remaining half should dedicate 20% to savings, leaving 30% to be spent on things you want but don't necessarily need.
This might seem like a no-brainer because what investor sets out with the intention of losing their hard-earned cash? But, in fact, events can transpire that can cause an investor to forget this rule.
The regulation requires that multiple purchases during one business day be aggregated and treated as one purchase. Purchases of different types of instruments at the same time are treated as one purchase and the amounts should be aggregated to determine if the total is $3,000 or more.
It's a simple rule, but it's still the most potent piece of money wisdom: don't spend more than you earn. Living within your means is a sure-fire way to stay out of debt, avoid creeping interest costs and create financial stability.
Beyond fashion, the old money lifestyle encompasses values, behaviours, and etiquette, highlighting cultural appreciation, intellectual pursuits, excellent social skills, philanthropy, and a preference for discretion and privacy.
But bad money habits (overspending, racking up debt and not saving) can hurt your financial health, turning small missteps into costly mistakes over time. With some awareness and knowledge on how to break these habits, you can improve your finances—now and well into the future.
Wealthy family borrows against its assets' growing value and uses the newly available cash to live off or invest in other assets, like rental properties. The family does NOT owe taxes on its asset-leveraged loans because the government doesn't tax borrowed money.
As Benzinga.com has noted, Kiyosaki's stance is to use debt to create more wealth — in other words, leveraging money to make more money, such as using loans to acquire real estate, which are investments that appreciate over time. Another advantage are the tax benefits associated with debt.
The Standard Route is what credit companies and lenders recommend. If this is the graduate's choice, he or she will be debt free around the age of 58. It will take a total of 36 years to complete. It's a whole lot of time but it's the standard for a lot of people.
Introduction: My name is Kareem Mueller DO, I am a vivacious, super, thoughtful, excited, handsome, beautiful, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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