We are continuing the 14-day plan to improve your finances from Business Insider (with some editorializing by yours truly)!
Again, please note this was originally published January 4, 2016 at 12 pm.
Day 5: Visualize your goals, and solidify them!
Figure out your 5-year, 10-year and 30-year goals. Or any time frame you want!
Maybe you want to save up for a great vacation, and you know you can do it this year.
Try putting a financial number to your goals. Maybe your goal has nothing to do with finances and it doesn't cost anything at all. That's great too!
Some goals that do include costs would be buying a house or apartment, taking a trip, building an emergency fund, buying a car, having a baby, sending your child(ren) to college and retiring early.
Day 6: Find those savings!
1: Negotiate your bills like phone, cable, utilities and gym memberships.
2: Reduce bills like groceries, restaurant spending and clothing.
The things you really want to focus on saving are your rent/mortgage, your commute (transportation) and your food. Those big three expenses will save you the most money in the long run.
However, I don't want to dismiss Business Insider's advice. Saving money on recurring bills can be helpful, and it's true that groceries and restaurant spending are included in the food categories.
Try meal planning your week, or going through your pantry, refrigerator and freezer to see what food you can eat before buying more food (don't forget to leave reserves for one to three meals in cases of emergencies).
Day 7: Pay yourself first.
Make savings automatic. This means setting aside an allocated amount to deduct from your paycheck on the days you get paid. Their theory is that you don't see this money, you won't spend it.
This is good and I agree with it.
However, you will never truly become wealthy unless you invest this money.
The steps should go like this:
1) create emergency savings 2) pay off debt 3) invest your extra savings.
Ideally, you want to do steps 1 and 2 as soon as possible so you can get to #3! The more time you have in the market, the better it will be for you!
Day 8: Can you improve your income?
There are two ways you can improve your savings rate.
1: Spend less money.
2: Earn more money.
This day tackles number 2.
Here are some ways Business Insider recommends:
1: Negotiate for a raise.
2: Look for a higher-paying job.
3: Freelance through Upwork.
4: Create a course on Udemy.
5: Sell your things on eBay, Craigslist, etc.
6: Sell your services through TaskRabbit or Fiverr.
Use my Fiverr referral link to get 20% off your first task order (note this is an affiliate link, so I may get some credits if you use this, but your price will actually be lower!): https://tiny.cc/babybbbbfiverr
Okay, I think that's a lot for today! Further days to come in a following blog post!
Warmly,
Into the FIRE
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