At the turn of last year I made a promise to myself that I would get my finances in order once and for all after many years of reckless spending and racking up debt. Through my efforts, I was able to get debt free in the middle of last year and I now live a much more frugal lifestyle and regularly have money in my pocket. The decision to do this came after a meeting with my financial planner Keith Springer who essentially told me that enough was enough. I took his advice and within just a few short months I was scrutinizing every cent that I parted with and reviewing my bank account on a regular basis. If you would like to get more money in your account each month, here are the tips that worked for me.
Spending Tracker
There are some fantastic phone apps out there that allow you to track your spends each day, you simply put how much you have spent each time you purchase something and then at the end of the month it will give you a report on where your money went. This shocked me at first as I had no idea that I was spending so much money on such insignificant items. From this point I was able t make a spending plan that reduced my daily purchases.
Ten Second Rule
Try this out if you are spending too much money, each time you want to buy an item, product or service, hold the product in your hand for 10 seconds and ask yourself honestly if you really need it. Once I started to do this, the amount of spontaneous purchases that I made decreased rapidly and I would say that I probably put nine out of ten items back on the shelf after the ten seconds was up.
Take out a loan
When you take out a traditional loan or mortgage on your home you must pay back the money borrowed in small amounts each month. The same is not true for a reverse loan, which will actually allow you to receive money monthly while still owning your home and having peace of mind regarding your living situation. If you are wondering what the reverse loan disadvantage is then you should know that you will be required to stay in your home for the duration of the loan. If you pass away or mover away then the loan balance will come due and the home may be sold in order for the lender to recover the remaining money.
Call Providers
I saved over $200 in my very first month simply by calling up the companies who provided my water, electric, gas, telecoms and broadband services and tried to get a better deal. In some cases I had to switch providers to get the best deals but in many other cases I was able to get my existing providers to cut down on their charges to match the offers of other companies. I also did this with my mortgage which was where my biggest saving came from and I was able to renegotiate my mortgage to free up some more money each month.
Savings Goal
I am a goals driven person and so I set up a 6 month savings plan after paying my last debt off and fought tooth and nail to achieve it. The plan was to put $100 away each month and then at the end of the 6 month period, I could go out and make a huge purchase. As it happens, I reached the $600 but decided instead to turn my goal to $6000 instead of spending it. Doing this can help you better save.
