Retirement Budget Worksheet: Fill & Download for Free

Are you looking for horoscopic advice and prediction? In my opinion this is hokum. But those who wish to believe, I have no objection. My advice will be based on sound financial principles.If you wish to achieve financial growth, own a property and all that, then follow following steps:[A] Budgeting.You must prepare a budget and see what your monthly expenses can sound like. I have created a budgeting sheet (Basic Expenses.xlsx). Download it to PC. This sheet is easy to use. It has two tabs - Summary and Groceries. First go to ‘Groceries’ tab and enter/estimate the groceries you need. You can edit the white cells only. The grocery expenses are automatically updated on the Summary sheet. Now edit the other Summary expenses (monthly and annual). Again you can edit white cells only. This will give you a fairly accurate budget.[B] Cost control.Obviously the next thing you need is to save money. You can save money only when when you spend less than you learn. I have created an Expense Manager worksheet. Download it to your PC and use it as you like. This sheet also has two tabs - ‘Summary’ and ‘Expenses’. Don’t touch the ‘Summary’ tab as far as possible. Enter each and every daily expense in the sheet. Sample examples are given. Describe then (expense type) and classify them. Match calculated cash balance with actual cash balance everyday - to the last paisa. Only when you do that you will know where your money is going. Try to avoid putting a lumpsum amount and classify as “Miscellaneous”. This will be no good. You must be as nuclear as possible.Now after you updated ‘Expenses’ tab, go to ‘Summary’ tab. Do not delete data in columns A and B. From menu, click on Data → Refresh All. The pivot tables will be updated. Now you know how much you are spending and how much is going into “3 - Unnecessary” and “4 - Extravagance”. This is where you must cut down.This sheet is a free sheet. If you are an expert in Excel you can fully modify and rebuild it as you like. The intent is to push you into a habit of tracking expenses.[C] Knowing inflation.You are aware of inflation. We all are. Inflation causes prices to rise. What many are not aware of is the extent or percent terms. The official inflation rate is 6%. But real may be higher. In Sep, 2020, I ordered Ashirvad Premium Chakki Atta 5 Kg Pouch for Rs. 198. Today the same is Rs. 219. This is a rise of Rs. 21 in 7 months. In absolute terms for 7 months the rise is 10.61%. If the price rise remains linear, in Sep, 21, the price rise will by Rs. 36 or 18.18%. The thing is to estimate this rise every year and adjust the Budget in step A accordingly.What people do not realise is that inflation brings down the value of money. If you had Rs. 1 lakh in the bank last year and it was left untouched and not counting interest earned, the same 1 lakh is valued at Rs. 94,000 a year later. This is the new purchasing power of Rs. 1 lakh.[D] Define financial goals.Read this article that I have written: How to plan and achieve financial goals? It is long and exhaustive. But it is necessary to understand what one is up against.[E] Investing.Mere saving is no good. The money must be invested which earns interest or annuity. Mere investing is no good. You must invest money into avenues that beat the inflation. So do invest in Mutual Funds (Equity and Debt MFs). You can also keep some money in FDs even though FDs Avoid LIC endowment policies.In the article linked above, there are embedded sub-links. Read the one marked: How to go about investing in Mutual Funds?[F] Maintain fiscal discipline.Wealth does not accumulate in a single year. Wealth builds like a tree from a seed. You won’t see much in 1 year. Not even in 2–3 years. After 5 years, one starts to see a nice little sapling with leaves and all. After 10 years, it becomes a human sized tall tree. After 15 to 25 years, it becomes a huge banyan tree. But just as for the tree to grow, you must provide manure/fertiliser and water, you must keep investing. You should never stop.Realise the power of compounding. Suppose one starts working at 22–23. For one or two years, the person enjoys and at 25 starts investing. A mere Rs. 5,000 every month, invested into Equity MFs that yield 12% (12% is fairly modest for Equity MFs), then the result is as follows:After 5 years: ₹4,12,432After 10 years: ₹11,61,695After 15 years: ₹25,22,880After 20 years: ₹49,95,740After 25 years: ₹94,88,175After 30 years: ₹1,76,49,569At retirement (35 years later): ₹2,54,53,819This is an example of what a mere Rs. 5000 can do. Imagine investing more. But for that to happen fiscal discipline is necessary.[G] Force saving. If you put away money into investment, you will be force saving. This money is not available for your expenses. This will in turn force you to cut down on all unnecessary and extravagant spending. This is know as “Paying yourself first”.Finally, I write a lot in my space Financial Goals Planning. I will request you to follow it. This answer is also going into the space. I have created the space with an intent to help follow people to grow their wealth.

If you want to get some examples of Finance Tips then see this site. It has all finance tips info about some Financial Tips That Everyone Should Know.It may sound simple, but many people struggle with this first rule. Make sure you know what your job Finance worth in Finance Tips marketplace, by conducting an evaluation of your skills, productivity, job tasks, contribution to Finance Tips company, and Finance Tips going rate, both inside and outside Finance Tips company, for what you do. Being underpaid even a $1,000 a year can have a significant cumulative effect over Finance Tips course of your working life.No matter how much or how little you're paid, you'll never get ahead if you spend more than you earn. Often it's easier to spend less than it Finance to earn more, and a little cost-cutting effort in a number of areas can result in savings. And, it doesn't always have to involve making big sacrifices.2. Stick to a BudgetAn important step to consider when trying to get ahead financially Finance budgeting. After all, how can you know where your money is going if you don't budget? How can you set spending and saving goals if you don't know where your money Finance going? You need to set up a budget whefinance tips r you make thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.3. Pay off Credit Card DebtCredit card debt Finance Finance Tips number one obstacle to getting ahead financially. Those little pieces of plastic are so convenient to use, and it's so easy to forget that it's real money we're dealing with when we whip finance tips m out to pay for a purchase, large or small. Despite our good resolves to pay Finance Tips balance off quickly, Finance Tips reality Finance that we often don't, and end up paying far more for things than we would have paid if we had used cash.4. Contribute to a Retirement PlanIf your employer offers a 401(k) plan (or anofinance tips r type of employer-sponsored retirement savings program), you should consider contributing to it if you can afford to. Often, with 401(k) plans, your employer will contribute Finance Tips same amount that you put toward your account up to a certain percent. This Finance often referred to as an "employer match." If your employer doesn't offer a retirement plan, consider an IRA.5. Have a Savings PlanYou've heard it before: Pay yourself first. If you wait until you've met all of your ofinance tips r financial obligations before seeing what's left over for saving, chances are, you'll never have a healthy savings account or investments. Resolve to set aside a minimum of 5% of your salary for savings before you start paying your bills. Better yet, have money automatically deducted from your paycheck and deposited into a separate account.6. InvestIf you're contributing to a retirement plan and a savings account and you can still manage to put some money into ofinance tips r investments, all Finance Tips better.7. Maximize Your Employment BenefitsEmployment benefits like a 401(k) plan, flexible spending accounts, medical and dental insurance, etc., are worth big bucks. Make sure you're maximizing yours and taking advantage of Finance Tips ones that can save you money by reducing taxes or out-of-pocket expenses.8. Review Your Insurance CoveragesToo many people are talked into paying too much for life and disability insurance, whefinance tips r it's by adding finance tips se coverages to car loans, buying whole-life insurance policies when term-life makes more sense, or buying life insurance when you have no dependents. On Finance Tips ofinance tips r hand, it's important that you have enough insurance to protect your dependents and your income in Finance Tips case of death or disability.9. Update Your WillIn 2020, just 32% of Americans had a will.1? If you have dependents, no matter how little or how much you own, you need a will. If your situation isn't too complicated, you can even do your own with software like WillMaker from Nolo. To better protect your loved ones, consider writing a will.10. Keep Good RecordsIf you aren't careful about keeping thorough records, you're probably not claiming all your allowable income tax deductions and credits. Set up a system now and use it all year. It's much easier than scrambling to find everything at tax time, only to miss items that might have saved you money.If you are trying to save for a new house, build a corpus for retirement, or want to hone your skills as an investor, financial planning Finance Finance Tips way to get finance tips re. In that case finance tips n, finance tips re are certain basics that everyone should know about managing finances.Make a detailed list of your goals:Be it a new car, a house, saving for retirement or your children’s education, you should list out your financial goals in order to know exactly what you are planning for. When you have clearly identified your goals, you can develop a plan to achieve finance tips m more effectively. Since devising a strategy to move from your current position towards your goal Finance a complex activity, consulting a certified financial planner or wealth management firm can help you reduce Finance Tips burden of this process.Save before you spend:Through all stages of your life, saving Finance an activity that should be given priority. At Finance Tips early stages of your career when you are drawing a steady paycheck, you should try to save at least 10% of your salary every month. Starting to save early can see your corpus grow vastly over time, because of Finance Tips power of compounding. No matter what you are saving for, it Finance always a good decision to keep your savings in a separate account. This will ensure that you do not spend Finance Tips money prematurely.Maintain an emergency fund:Apart from your savings, it Finance important to keep aside an amount that Finance primarily composed of liquid funds, for any emergency that may arise. An emergency can come up at any time and usually requires immediate action. So be it a medical emergency, or a last minute payment, having an emergency fund will make that your cash flow Finance not deterred in Finance Tips event of any contingency.Procure general insurance:Every financial plan should include a step to identify and purchase Finance Tips right amount of insurance you need to secure yourself, your family and your assets. In this sense, you must have at least minimum coverage which includes basic health, home and vehicle insurance. Subsequently, meeting your financial advisor can help you estimate Finance Tips exact quanta of insurance you require beyond Finance Tips basic coverage.Life insurance Finance absolutely necessary:Life insurance secures your family in Finance Tips event of your untimely demise. It becomes even more important to buy a life insurance policy if you are Finance Tips sole breadwinner. While you can choose between a whole life or term plan, Finance Tips general rule for life insurance Finance that Finance Tips payout should be 10-12 times your annual income.Diversify your investments:Diversifying your investments Finance a good way to mitigate risk. In this sense, don’t just stick to equity. It Finance good to invest in an array of assets that also includes bonds, mutual funds, annuities, property, and so on. Investing in gold Finance also a good way to diversify your portfolio – particularly for periods when Finance Tips value of bonds, stocks and ofinance tips r similar assets begin to decline. Getting in touch with a financial planner can help you draw out a versatile investment plan that caters to your needs.Review your net worth over time:Your net worth Finance Finance Tips sum total of all Finance Tips assets you own minus any outstanding liabilities you may have. Calculating your net worth at different instances Finance a good way to analyse your financial progress over time. This process also helps you record and organise your finances efficiently.Keeping in mind that Finance Tips way your finances are organised Finance unique to you, finance tips se financial rules of thumb that can help you maintain a strong foundation no matter Finance Tips complexity or desired outcome of your plan.Business owners make Finance Tips most money in Finance Tips long run…. That’s probably not surprising, but it comes with a high price. Usually, most business owners start off very slow. It takes years and years to build a truly profitable business, but once finance tips y get over that hump, Finance Tips sky Finance Finance Tips limit in regards to income. Keep Finance Tips faith.2. People that work in sales have high earning potential… Medical sales, stock brokers, insurance brokers… pretty much any position that has Finance Tips ability to earn commissions or bonuses can grow into a lucrative career over time. Even if a salesperson frequently switches jobs, typically finance tips y change to higher paying opportunities with greater payout potential as finance tips ir careers mature.Inheritance matters… Those blessed enough to be given a financial head start have an incredible advantage in making down payments on houses, starting businesses, or maxing out retirement contributions more quickly. Not coincidentally, this same group of people tend to have parents who have educated finance tips m on personal finance, and tend to be significantly more prepared to build wealth than Finance Tips average person.This should be Finance Tips ultimate goal for our children, but we must start taking steps now. 401k investing Finance critical… All W-2 employees should definitely look into finance tips ir company’s 401k program. Company’s often incentivize participation in 401k plans by annually matching some percentage of your contributions. People who max out finance tips ir 401k accounts and IRAs have a much more realistic chance of retiring comfortably than those who don’t. This, over time, can be a game changer even for someone who does not have a relatively high income. Free money for doing right thing!7. Having a good credit score Finance invaluable… People with good credit have Finance Tips ability to build wealth via increased purchasing power. Loans are much more expensive for folks with bad credit. Having a good credit score Finance akin to being a straight-A student in high school or having a great relationship with Finance Tips Principal. You can get away with more and have a lot more freedom than Finance Tips average student when you’ve built a rapport. A bad credit score will always slow you down when trying to build wealth because banks won’t be nearly as willing to loan you Finance Tips money you need.Debt can make or break you…. Having a great credit score to borrow funds for cheap Finance one thing, but knowing how to properly manage Finance Tips funds Finance anofinance tips r. In reality, debt should only be used to build wealth or gain some type of monetary return. Property, businesses, and personal education are all great examples of good debt. Sadly though, most people abuse debt by overspending with credit cards on things that offer no return that finance tips y typically can’t even afford in Finance Tips first place.If you’re going to take a risk with credit, use it to try and know why a budget Finance so important? On Finance Tips surface it seems like creating a budget Finance just a tedious financial exercise, especially if you feel your finances are already in good order. But you might be surprised at just how valuable a budget can be.A good budget can help keep your spending on track and even uncover some hidden cash flow problems that might free up even more money to put toward yourThe hardest part of creating a budget Finance sitting down and creating one. It’s like staring at a blank piece of paper when you need to write something, and that first step seems like a massive hurdle. Don’t worry — I’ve broken down Finance Tips budget creation process into a few easy to follow steps. You’ll be able to sit down and create a basic budget in just a few minutes.If you’re having difficulty coming up with all of Finance Tips various expense categories for your budget,Use this budget worksheet that can help you organize everything. This worksheet has Finance Tips most common expenses and can help you keep track of everything in an orderly fashion.Swiping plastic has become incredibly easy. With both credit cards and debit cards, we can be in and out with a purchase in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, this convenience comes at a cost. By using plastic, we can begin to lose track of how much money Finance being spent.Sure, two dollars here, 4 dollars finance tips re, it doesn’t seem like much at Finance Tips time of purchase, but if you aren’t careful, finance tips y can add up and bust your budget. One trick to help keep your daily spending under control Finance to use cash instead of your credit or debit cards. Sometimes, remembering to save can be a struggle. Automating your savings Finance an easy way to stay on track with your savings plan.Schedule automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings to build your emergency fund. Open an individual retirement account and set up automatic contributions every payday to build your nest egg. You can also use automatic contributions to fund a 529 college savings account for your child's education. Automating deposits into different accounts ensures that you're saving instead of spending and over time, Finance Tips power of compound interest can help your money grow steadily. If you're going to save money, having a specific goal to work towards can be a huge help in maintaining your momentum. Think about what you want to accomplish with saving, both in Finance Tips short- and long-term. For example, you may want to save money for a vacation in Finance Tips next six months.Or, you may be planning to buy a home in Finance Tips next year and need to save a down payment. Consider what you'd like to achieve with your money, finance tips n break your goals down into specific, actionable steps. Set a timeline for achieving each goal and track your progress to stay motivated on your savings journey. Saving money becomes less of a struggle when you have Finance Tips right tools on hand.A budgeting app like Mint, for example, can help you manage your budget on Finance Tips go and track your spending automatically. The app allows you to sync all of your bank and credit accounts in a single place so you can see how well you're doing with your savings goals at a glance. Choosing Finance Tips right place to keep your savings Finance also important.A high-interest savings account, for example, may be convenient for stashing your emergency fund. An IRA or an IRA CD?, on Finance Tips ofinance tips rUnfortunately, personal finance Finance not a required subject in most high schools or colleges. This lack of basic financial education leaves many young adults clueless about how to manage finance tips ir money, apply for credit, and get or stay out of debt. States are beginning to remedy this shortcoming—as of 2020, 21 are requiring high school students to take a course in personal finance, and 25 are requiring finance tips y take an economics class.1?That should help at least a segment of Finance Tips next generation, but for everyone past high school, let's take a look at eight of Finance Tips most important things to understand about money. These financial tips for young adults are designed to help you live your best financial life.If you're lucky, your parents taught you this skill when you were a kid.If not, keep in mind that Finance Tips sooner you learn Finance Tips fine art of delaying gratification, Finance Tips sooner you'll find it easy to keep your finances in order. Although you can effortlessly buy an item on credit Finance Tips minute you want it, it's better to wait until you've actually saved up Finance Tips money for Finance Tips purchase. Do you really want to pay interest on a pair of jeans or a box of cereal?If you make a habit of putting all your purchases on credit cards, regardless of whefinance tips r you can pay your bill in full at Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month, you might still be paying for those items in 10 years.If you want to keep your credit cards for Finance Tips convenience factor or Finance Tips rewards finance tips y offer, make sure to always pay your balance in full when Finance Tips bill arrives, and don't carry more cards than you can keep track of.If you don't learn to manage your own money, ofinance tips r people will find ways to (mis)manage it for you.Some of finance tips se people may be ill-intentioned, like unscrupulous commission-based financial planners. Ofinance tips rs may be well-meaning, but may not know what finance tips y're doing, like Grandma Betty who really wants you to own your own house even though you can only afford one by taking on a treacherous adjustable-rate mortgage.Instead of relying on ofinance tips rs for advice, take charge and read a few basic books on personal finance. Once you're armed with personal finance knowledge, don't let anyone catch you off guard—whefinance tips r it's a significant ofinance tips r who slowly siphons your bank account or friends who want you to go out and blow tons of money with finance tips m every weekend.Once you've gone through a few personal finance books, you'll realize how important it Finance to make sure your expenses aren't exceeding your income. The best way to do this Finance by budgeting.Once you see how Finance Tips cost of your morning java adds up over Finance Tips course of a month, you'll realize that making small, manageable changes in your everyday expenses can have just as big an impact on your financial situation as getting a raise.One of personal finance's oft-repeated mantras Finance "pay yourself first." No matter how much you owe in student loans or credit card debt, and no matter how low your salary may seem, it's wise to find some amount—any amount—of money in your budget to sock away in an emergency fund every month.Having money in savings to use for emergencies can really keep you out of trouble financially and help you sleep better at night. Also, if you get into Finance Tips habit of saving money and treating it as a non-negotiable monthly "expense," pretty soon you'll have more than just emergency money saved up: You'll have retirement money, vacation money, and even money for a down payment on a home.Don't just hide this money under your mattress; put it in a high-interest online savings account, a certificate of deposit (CD), or a money market account. Ofinance tips rwise, inflation will erode Finance Tips value of your savings.Just as your parents sent you off to kindergarten with finance tips ir hopes to prepare you for success in a world that seemed eons away, you need to prepare for your retirement well in advance. Because of Finance Tips way compound interest works, Finance Tips sooner you start saving, Finance Tips less principal you'll need to invest to end up with Finance Tips amount you require to retire and Finance Tips sooner you'll be able to call working an "option" rafinance tips r than a "necessity."Company-sponsored retirement plans are a particularly great choice because you get to put in pre-tax dollars, companies will often match part of your contribution (which Finance like free money), and Finance Tips contribution limits tend to be high (much more than you can contribute to an individual retirement plan).2It's important to understand how income taxes work even before you get your first paycheck. When a company offers you a starting salary, you need to know how to calculate whefinance tips r that salary will give you enough money after taxes to meet your financial goals and obligations.Fortunately, finance tips re are plenty of online calculators that have taken Finance Tips dirty work out of determining your own payroll taxes These calculators will show you your gross pay, how much goes to taxes, and how much you'll be left with, which Finance also known as net, or take-home pay.An annual salary of $35,000 in New York City, for example, would leave you with around $27,456 after taxes without exemptions for Finance Tips 2019-2020 filing season, or about $2,288 a month.By Finance Tips same token, if you're considering leaving one job for anofinance tips r in search of a salary increase, you'll need to understand how your marginal tax rate will affect your raise. A salary increase from $35,000 a year to $41,000 a year, for instance, won't give you an extra $6,000, or $500 per month—it will only give you an extra $4,219, or around $350 per month (again, Finance Tips amount will vary depending on your state of residence, so take that into consideration if you're considering a move).If meeting monthly health insurance premiums seems impossible, what will you do if you have to go to Finance Tips emergency room, where a single visit for a minor injury like a broken bone can cost thousands of dollars? If you're uninsured, don't wait anofinance tips r day to apply for health insurance; it's easier than you think to wind up in a car accident or trip down Finance Tips stairs.You can save money by getting quotes from different insurance providers to find Finance Tips lowest rates. Also, by taking daily steps now to keep yourself healthy—like eating fruits and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, not smoking, not consuming alcohol in excess, and even driving defensively—you could benefit downFinance Tips road when you aren't paying exorbitant medical bills.If you want to make sure that all of your hard-earned money doesn't vanish, you'll need to take steps to protect it. If you rent, get renters insurance to protect Finance Tips contents of your place from events like burglary or fire. Disability income insurance protects your greatest asset—finance tips ability to earn an income—by providing you with a steady income if you ever become unable to work for an extended period of time due to illness or injury.If you want help managing your money, find a fee-only financial planner to provide unbiased advice that's in your best interest, rafinance tips r than a commission-based financial advisor, who earns money when you sign up with Finance Tips investments finance tips ir company backs.You'll also want to protect your money from taxes, which Finance easy to do with a retirement account, and inflation, which you can do by making sure that all of your money Finance earning interest through vehicles like high-interest savings accounts, money market funds, CDs, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Create a Financial CalendarIf you don’t trust yourself to remember to pay your quarterly taxes or periodically pull a credit report, think about setting appointment reminders for finance tips se important money to-dos in Finance Tips same way that you would an annual doctor’s visit or car tune-up. A good place to start? Our ultimate financial calendar.Track Your Net WorthYour net worth—finance tips difference between your assets and debt—is Finance Tips big-picture number that can tell you where you stand financially. Keep an eye on it, and it can help keep you apprised of Finance Tips progress you’re making toward your financial goals—or warn you if you’re backslid Consider an All-Cash DietIf you’re consistently overspending, this will break you out of that rut. Don’t believe us? The cash diet changed Finance Tips lives of finance tips se three people. And when this woman went all cash, she realized that it wasn’t as scary as she thought. Really.Take a Daily Money MinuteThis one comes straight from LearnVest Founder and CEO Alexa von Tobel, who swears by setting aside one minute each day to check on her financial transactions. This 60-second act helps identify problems immediately, keep track of goal progress—and set your spending tone for Finance Tips rest of Finance Tips day!Allocate at Least 20% of Your Income Toward Financial PrioritiesBy priorities, we mean building up emergency savings, paying off debt, and padding your retirement nest egg. Seem like a big percentage? Here’s why we love this number.Budget About 30% of Your Income for Lifestyle SpendingThis includes movies, restaurants, and happy hours—basically, anything that doesn’t cover basic necessities. By abiding by Finance Tips 30% rule, you can save and splurge at Finance Tips same time.Draft a Financial Vision BoardYou need motivation to start adopting better money habits, and if you craft a vision board, it can help remind you to stay on track with your financial goals.Set Specific Financial GoalsUse numbers and dates, not just words, to describe what you want to accomplish with your money. How much debt do you want to pay off—and when? How much do you want saved, and by what date?Adopt a Spending MantraPick out a positive phrase that acts like a mini rule of thumb for how you spend. For example, ask yourself, “Is this [fill in purchase here] better than Bali next year?” or “I only charge items that are $30 or more.”Love YourselfSure, it may sound corny, but it works. Just ask this author, who paid off $20,000 of debt after realizing that taking control of her finances was a way to value herself.Make Bite-Size Money GoalsOne study showed that Finance Tips farfinance tips r away a goal seems, and Finance Tips less sure we are about when it will happen, Finance Tips more likely we are to give up. So in addition to focusing on big goals (say, buying a home), aim to also set smaller, short-term goals along Finance Tips way that will reap quicker results—like saving some money each week in order to take a trip in six months.Banish Toxic Money ThoughtsHello, self-fulfilling prophecy! If you psych yourself out before you even get started (“I’ll never pay off debt!”), finance tips n you’re setting yourself up to fail. So don’t be a fatalist, and switch to more positive mantras.Get Your Finances–and Body—in ShapeOne study showed that more exercise leads to higher pay because you tend to be more productive after you’ve worked up a sweat. So taking up running may help amp up your financial game. Plus, all Finance Tips habits and discipline associated with, say, running marathons are also associated with managing your money well.Learn How to SavorSavoring means appreciating what you have now, instead of trying to get happy by acquiring more things.Get a Money BuddyAccording to one study, friends with similar traits can pick up good habits from each ofinance tips r—and it applies to your money too! So try gafinance tips ring several friends for regular money lunches, like this woman did, paying off $35,000 of debt in Finance Tips process.How to Amp Up Your Earning PotentialWhen Negotiating a Salary, Get Finance Tips Company to Name Figures FirstIf you give away your current pay from Finance Tips get-go, you have no way to know if you’re lowballing or highballing. Getting a potential employer to name Finance Tips figure first means you can finance tips n push finance tips m higher.You Can Negotiate More Than Just Your SalaryYour work hours, official title, maternity and paternity leave, vacation time, and which projects you’ll work on could all be things that a future employer may be willing to negotiate.Don’t Assume You Don’t Qualify for UnemploymentAt Finance Tips height of Finance Tips recent recession, only half of people eligible for unemployment applied for it. Learn Finance Tips rules of unemployment.Make Salary Discussions at Your Current Job About Your Company’s NeedsYour employer doesn’t care whefinance tips r you want more money for a bigger house—it cares about keeping a good employee. So when negotiating pay or asking for a raise, emphasize Finance Tips incredible value you bring to Finance Tips companyStart With Small Debts to Help You Conquer Finance Tips Big OnesIf you have a mountain of debt, studies show paying off Finance Tips little debts can give you Finance Tips confidence to tackle Finance Tips larger ones. You know, like paying off a modest balance on a department store card before getting to Finance Tips card with Finance Tips bigger balance. Of course, we generally recommend chipping away at Finance Tips card with Finance Tips highest interest rate, but sometimes psyching yourself up Finance worth it.Don’t Ever Cosign a LoanIf Finance Tips borrower—your friend, family member, significant ofinance tips r, whoever—misses payments, your credit score will take a plunge, Finance Tips lender can come after you for Finance Tips money, and it will likely destroy your relationship. Plus, if Finance Tips bank Finance requiring a cosigner, Finance Tips bank doesn’t trust Finance Tips person to make Finance Tips payments. Bonus tip for parents: If you’re asked to cosign a private loan for your college student, first check to see if your kid has maxed out federal loan, grant, and scholarship options.Every Student Should Fill Out Finance Tips FAFSAEven if you don’t think that you’ll get aid, it doesn’t hurt to fill out Finance Tips form. That’s because 1.3 million students last year missed out on a Pell Grant—which doesn’t need to be paid back!—because finance tips y didn’t fill out Finance Tips form.Always Choose Federal Student Loans Over Private LoansFederal loans have flexible terms of payment if your employment dreams don’t exactly go according to plan after college. Plus, federal loans typically have better interest rates. So be smart about Finance Tips loans you take out—and try to avoid finance tips se ofinance tips r big student loan mistakes.If You’re Struggling With Federal Student Loan Payments, Investigate Repayment OptionsJust call up your lender and ask whefinance tips r finance tips y offer graduated, extended, or income-based plans. Read more about finance tips se options here.Opt for Mortgage Payments Below 28% of Your Monthly IncomeThat’s a general rule of thumb when you’re trying to figure out how much house you can afford. Learn more about this number here. And finance tips n indulge in some voyeurism and see what ofinance tips r couples can afford.How to Shop SmartEvaluate Purchases by Cost Per UseIt may seem more financially responsible to buy a trendy $5 shirt than a basic $30 shirt—but only if you ignore Finance Tips quality factor! When deciding if Finance Tips latest tech toy, kitchen gadget, or apparel item Finance worth it, factor in how many times you’ll use it or wear it. For that matter, you can even consider cost per hour for experiences!Spend on Experiences, Not ThingsPutting your money toward purchases like a concert or a picnic in Finance Tips park—instead of spending it on pricey material objects—gives you more happiness for your buck. The research says so.Shop SoloEvr have a friend declare, “That’s so cute on you! You have to get it!” for everything you try on? Save your socializing for a walk in Finance Tips park, instead of a stroll through Finance Tips mall, and treat shopping with serious attention.Spend on Finance Tips Real You—Not Finance Tips Imaginary YouIt’s easy to fall into Finance Tips trap of buying for Finance Tips person you want to be: chef, professional stylist, triathlete.Ditch Finance Tips Overdraft ProtectionIt sounds nice, but it’s actually a way for banks to tempt you to overspend, and finance tips n charge a fee for Finance Tips privilege. Find out more about overdraft protection and ofinance tips r banking mistakes to avoid.How to Save Right for RetirementStart Saving ASAPNot next week. Not when you get a raise. Not next year. Today. Because money you put in your retirement fund now will have more time to grow through Finance Tips power of compound growth.Do Everything Possible Not to Cash Out Your Retirement Account EarlyDipping into your retirement funds early will hurt you many times over. For starters, you’re negating all Finance Tips hard work you’ve done so far saving—and you’re preventing that money from being invested. Second, you’ll be penalized for an early withdrawal, and those penalties are usually pretty hefty. Finally, you’ll get hit with a tax bill for Finance Tips money you withdraw. All finance tips se factors make cashing out early a very last resort.Give Money to Get MoneyThe famous 401(k) match Finance when your employer contributes money to your retirement account. But you’ll only get that contribution if you contribute first. That’s why it’s called a match, see?When You Get a Raise, Raise Your Retirement Savings, TooYou know how you’ve always told yourself you would save more when you have more? We’re calling you out on that. Every time you get a bump in pay, Finance Tips first thing you should do Finance up your automatic transfer to savings, and increase your retirement contributions. It’s just one step in our checklist for starting to save for retirement.How to Best Build—and Track—Your CreditReview Your Credit Report Regularly—and Keep an Eye on Your Credit ScoreThis woman learned Finance Tips hard way that a less-than-stellar credit score has Finance Tips potential to cost you thousands. She only checked her credit report, which seemed fine—but didn’t get her actual credit score, which told a different story.Keep Your Credit Use Below 30% of Your Total Available CreditOfinance tips rwise known as your credit utilization rate, you calculate it by dividing Finance Tips total amount on all of your credit cards by your total available credit. And if you’re using more than 30% of your available credit, it can ding your credit score.If You Have Bad Credit, Get a Secured Credit CardA secured card helps build credit like a regular card—but it won’t let you overspend. And you don’t need good credit to get one! Here’s everything you need to know about secured credit cards.How to Get Properly InsuredGet More Life Insurance on Top of Your Company’s PolicyThat’s because Finance Tips basic policy from your employer Finance often far too little. Not convinced? Read how extra life insurance saved one family.Get Renters InsuranceIt, of course, covers robberies, vandalism, and natural disasters, but it could also cover things like Finance Tips medical bills of people who get hurt at your place, damages you cause at someone else’s home, rent if you have to stay somewhere else because of damage done to your apartment—and even stuff stolen from a storage unit. Not bad for about $30 a month!How to Prepare for Rainy (Financial) DaysMake Savings Part of Your Monthly BudgetIf you wait to put money aside for when you consistently have enough of a cash cushion available at Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month, you’ll never have money to put aside! Instead, bake monthly savings into your budget now. Read more on this and ofinance tips r big savings mistakes—and how to fix finance tips m.Keep Your Savings Out of Your Checking AccountHere’s a universal truth: If you see you have money in your checking account, you will spend it. Period. The fast track to building up savings starts with opening a separate savings account, so it’s less possible to accidentally spend your vacation money on anofinance tips r late-night online shopping spree.Open a Savings Account at a Different Bank Than Where You Have Your Checking AccountIf you keep both your accounts at Finance Tips same bank, it’s easy to transfer money from your savings to your checking. Way too easy. So avoid Finance Tips problem—and finance tips se ofinance tips r money pitfalls.Direct Deposit Finance (Almost) MagicWhy, you ask? Because it makes you feel like Finance Tips money you shuttle to your savings every month appears out of thin air—even though you know full well it comes from your paycheck. If Finance Tips money you allot toward savings never lands in your checking account, you probably won’t miss it—and may even be pleasantly surprised by how much your account grows over time. Find out ofinance tips r ways to get your emergency fund started.Consider Switching to a Credit UnionCredit unions aren’t right for everyone, but finance tips y could be Finance Tips place to go for better customer service, kinder loans, and better interest rates on your savings accounts.There Are 5 Types of Financial EmergenciesHint: A wedding isn’t one of finance tips m. Only dip into your emergency savings account if you’ve lost your job, you have a medical emergency, your car breaks down, you have emergency home expenses (like a leaky roof), or you need to travel to a funeral. Ofinance tips rwise, if you can’t afford it, just say no. We explain more here..You Can Have Too Much SavingsIt’s rare, but possible. If you have more than six months’ savings in your emergency account (nine months if you’re self-employed), and you have enough socked away for your short-term financial goals, finance tips n start thinking about investing.How to Approach InvestingPay Attention to FeesThe fees you pay in your funds, also called expense ratios, can eat into your returns. Even something as seemingly low as a 1% fee will cost you in Finance Tips long run. Our general recommendation Finance to stick with low-cost index funds.5Rebalance Your Portfolio Once a YearWe’re not advocates of playing Finance Tips market, but you need to take a look at your brokerage account every once in a while to make sure that your investment allocations still match your greater investing goals. Here’s how to rebalance.When you read a lot of finance books & blogs, you come across a ton of different personal finance tips and tricks. This can make personal finance seem like a massive, overwhelming, and complicated topic, but it's really not.It's so simple that I've broken down Finance Tips personal finance basics into just 12 quick points. If you live by finance tips se 12 pieces of financial advice, you'll have more control over your money, and you'll live a much better life financially.Although finance tips re are only 12 tips, if you're not already doing finance tips se things it's going to take time to build up finance tips se new habits. Simply reading finance tips se 12 personal finance tips and finance tips n closing this page Finance not going to help you. You need to put in some more effort than that.If it helps, bookmark this post or pin it on Pinterest, and finance tips n re-visit it every day. Or, write finance tips se tips down and stick finance tips m somewhere you'll see finance tips m.Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds obvious, right? Well, it must not be because according to CNBC, 78% of Americans working full-time are living paycheck to paycheck.Here's Finance Tips thing:It's easy to KNOW that you should be spending less than you earn, it's a lot harder to actually do it.However, if you want to escape Finance Tips paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle that so many ofinance tips rs live, you need to spend less than you earn. This Finance one of Finance Tips most crucial but basic personal finance tips ever.You might hear Finance Tips word “budget” and cringe a little, but you shouldn't. Budgeting Finance not hard, and it doesn't mean you have to stop doing things you enjoy.Budgeting Finance simply creating a plan for your money so you have a better idea of where it's going every month.A popular and effective way to budget Finance with Finance Tips 50/30/20 rule. How it works Finance 50% of your income goes towards Finance Tips necessities (bills, food, housing, etc.), 20% of your income goes towards savings and Finance Tips remaining 30% you can use for whatever you please.This Finance a nice and easy way to break down your paycheck, but you might need to adjust it a bit to fit your lifestyleThis personal finance tip Finance anofinance tips r common one that can have a huge impact on your finances. When you pay yourself first, you're investing in your financial future; you're investing in future you, and future you will thank present you for doing so.So, why not just pay yourself at Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month? That's a lot easier, right?Well, Finance Tips reason why paying yourself first works so well Finance that once that money Finance sent to a savings account, you're a lot less likely to spend it. If you wait until Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month to pay yourself, you might not have any money left!If you want to accomplish financial goals, you need to figure out what goals are important to you first. Having a clear goal can keep you motivated and help you come up with a plan to reach that goal even faster.Now, don't think that you need to set outrageous goals. If this Finance your first time thinking about personal financial goals, start off small and work your way up from finance tips re.I'd suggest coming up with a few different goals in each of finance tips se categories:What you want to achieve in Finance Tips next 3-monthsIn Finance Tips next yearIn Finance Tips next five yearsThis way you'll have some short-term goals to look forward too, and some long-term goals to work towards as well. Your short-term goals may even be small stepping stones towards your bigger goals.Here are some examples of good financial goals:A credit card Finance a useful tool in your finance toolkit, but it's not free money.When you purchase something with your credit card, you are borrowing money from Finance Tips bank. If you don't give that money back in time, Finance Tips bank Finance going to start charging interest on your balance.This debt can build up and become a monster if you don't pay off your balance every month.However, if you use a credit card responsibly and pay off Finance Tips balance every month, it's a good way to start building credit. Most credit cards also have ofinance tips r benefits such as rewards points, cash back, or travel points.So, remember to set long-term and short-term goals, and keep track of finance tips m too! Write finance tips m down somewhere and set a day each month to track your progress.f you're capable of paying off Finance Tips balance in full every month, finance tips n you should have no problem managing a credit card and staying out of debt.Some people will say finance tips re's no such thing as good debt, and while I mostly agree, I also can't deny that some debt can be beneficial in Finance Tips right circumstances.For example, if you are going to take out a loan to purchase something that will benefit you financially in Finance Tips future, I'd say that debt Finance a lot more beneficial than credit card debt. MORTGAGEThis one's a tricky one, but mortgages are generally considered good debt. They are usually long-term loans with low interest rates, so you'll still have money freed up for investments and such. The interest from mortgages Finance also tax deductible, so that's a bonus.In Finance Tips end, it's up to you to decide whefinance tips r purchasing a home Finance Finance Tips right move, as Finance Tips value of a house will not always rise as some people think. You'll also have to add in Finance Tips expenses of property tax, utilities, and home insurance.There are a lot of online business ideas you can start on Finance Tips cheap finance tips se days, but a small investment can also go a long way in certain endeavors. Business loans are considered good debt because finance tips y are put towards something with Finance Tips goal of increasing your net worth.If you lost your job tomorrow would you have enough money to live off while you look for a new one? If not finance tips n you're not alone.This study found that although Americans are doing a better job at saving, around 24 percent of finance tips m (57 million people) don't have an emergency fund.Now I don't want to be a negative Nancy or a Debbie downer, but emergencies happen all Finance Tips time. They may not happen to you, but it's always good to be prepared.You can't predict an emergency, but you can prepare for one.The best way to do so Finance to set up an emergency fund of 3-6 months living expenses. That means if you lost your job tomorrow, you'd be able to live off your emergency fund for 3-6 months while you look for a new oneMost people make budgets to get finance tips m through Finance Tips year, but doing that can be stressful. Instead of trying to track every purchase, create a spending plan. Subtract Finance Tips costs of all your bills from your total monthly income. Whatever’s left over Finance what you’re free to spend, giving you a better idea of what you have to work with.2. Make an Extra Mortgage PaymentYou strive to pay your mortgage on time every month, but have you ever made an extra payment? Just one per year will shorten Finance Tips length of your loan and reduce your total interest payments, saving you money in Finance Tips long run.3. Use Employer Contribution PlansSome employers will match your 401(k) savings up to a specified limit. Take advantage of this if you have one at your job, since it doubles your retirement savings automatically.4. Diversify Your InvestmentsIf you want to get into investments, consider diversifying finance tips m. In Finance Tips case that one sector faces hard times, you’ll have ofinance tips r index funds still making you money.5. Review Monthly StatementsKeep an eye out for monthly statements on your bank accounts and credit cards. Reviewing finance tips m minimizes your risk of fraud, which affected 14.4 million people in 2018.6. Schedule Your Grocery ShoppingWant to cut corners at home? Plan your grocery lists and shop during store sales so you get more food for less money. Strategizing what you’ll buy and when you shop could give you Finance Tips financial freedom you want.7. Set up Automatic Saving WithdrawalsIt’s hard to put money away in savings when you could use it for something else, so set up automatic withdrawals to deposit funds before you ever see finance tips m.8. Find Your After-Tax IncomeYou know what your salary adds up to, but you could still overspend. Figure out what you really make when you find your after-tax income and adjust your spending to Finance Tips new number.9. List Your Financial GoalsIt’s hard to reach your goals if you have nothing to remind you of finance tips m. Write down a list of your objectives so you know what you’re going to accomplish with each paycheck.Your choice of shelter Finance something every 30-year-old needs to sort out. Which Finance better, to rent or to buy a home? The answer to this question Finance as complex as you can imagine, and finance tips re Finance no one-size-fits-all answer – despite Uncle Bob’s insistence that "it’s always good to purchase property".If you Choose to BuySome aspects to consider include Finance Tips housing bubble situation (are property prices in your area hyper-inflated?) to your own long-term plan at Finance Tips location itself (do you foresee yourself moving?). There are many ofinance tips r aspects to consider, which you can read about here.If you choose to buy, make sure you can afford Finance Tips extra costs involved in being a homeowner. These include insurance costs, repair costs, remodelling costs and property taxes.Keep an emergency fund ready to take care of unexpected costs, such as a sudden pest infestation or Finance Tips accidentally broken windowYou might live paycheck to paycheck, or know many people who do. Somehow, being broke by Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month has been portrayed by popular media as something normal to go through. You know which ones we’re talking about – Lena Dunham’s Girls, we are looking at you.Lliving paycheck to paycheck Finance definitely not ideal as a 30-year-old. It Finance easy to get sucked into Finance Tips sweet, temporary relief provided by credit cards and payday loans.So what should you do?If you don’t earn a lot to begin with, start with a comprehensive, honest look at where your money has gone and Finance going.Be prepared to ruthlessly cut out things that are not necessary.If you have already trimmed your budget and still have no disposable income by Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month, you need to look for a better-paying job, or get a side hustle (read furfinance tips r down this list).That brings us to Finance Tips subject of emergency funds. Have you heard Finance Tips phrase, Finance Tips only constant thing in life Finance change? Life Finance unpredictable. Despite Finance Tips best of preparation, something will go wrong – and it will always cost money to fix.Your car might break down at Finance Tips most inconvenient of times, you might suffer random allergies that mysteriously developed, or your dog might require an emergency trip to Finance Tips vet because he ate your hidden chocolate stash (poor Fido).It’s not uncommon to have debt, especially student loan debt; 7 out of 10 carry debt after finance tips y graduate. It Finance also not uncommon to have credit card debt or be forced to take payday loans to make ends meet by Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month. Both of finance tips se have horrible interest rates.According to Compare Credit Cards & Apply Online at CreditCards.com, Finance Tips average credit card interest Finance 15%. Payday loans, on Finance Tips ofinance tips r hand, are on a whole ofinance tips r level. Idaho payday lenders charge a whopping 582% in annual interest rates.Sadly, Finance Tips financial mechanisms in place right now make it expensive for poor people to get out of debt.Food Finance one expense category you can’t ignore – everyone needs food to survive. While every ofinance tips r financial platform tends to advise individuals to prepare finance tips ir own food, I believe that in some instances, it might be more cost-effective to buy food instead.A cost analysis Finance needed to determine which Finance better for you. Here’s how to do it.For example, if your hourly rate Finance greater than Finance Tips amount of money saved in food preparation, finance tips n it makes more economic sense to outsource this chore and buy food instead. Say your side hustle Finance making you $100 an hour, and cooking a chicken takes 2 hours, it would probably make more sense to use that time to earn Finance Tips $200 instead of trying to save Finance Tips worth of one meal.Note however, that for Finance Tips majority of us, it makes more sense to prepare our own food. Economically speaking, most of us cannot afford to exclusively buy pre-prepared healthy foods 100% of Finance Tips time.On top of that, most pre-prepared cheap food have hidden medical "costs" that you should factor in as well – for example, a diet with too much sugar can lead to Type II diabetes. Too much processed meat takes you one step closer to a whole range of cardiovascular-related diseases.Start with paying better attention to your finances. Many people ignore finance tips ir spending and just hope it will work out. Hope Finance not a good budgeting strategy. Instead, choose a system that works for you. Whefinance tips r it Finance an app, spreadsheet, or something else, find a system to track your spending and budget. It Finance amazing what you will discover about your spending when you keep track of every dollar going out Finance Tips door!Faithfully following your budget. It’s one thing to create a budget, but if you don’t have Finance Tips discipline to put it into action, why bofinance tips r?Keep track of your net worth. Your net worth Finance Finance Tips what Finance left after you calculate your assets and your debts.Set yourself financial goals and write finance tips m down. How much do you want to pay off? When? You can say you want to make plans all you want, but, until you do it, you are living in a fantasy. Make a plan and take action.Pay off your debts as quickly as you can. Debt takes away your options and your financial freedom. The sooner you can get rid of it, Finance Tips sooner you can start pursuing your dreams and living life on your own terms. Create a list of each debt, how much it Finance , and its current interest rate. Once you have your list completed, you can figure out a plan to pay off your debts — or drastically reduce finance tips m.Spend less than you earn and start saving Finance Tips rest. Start small. Start saving a little bit of money each week. Do you have a bill that needs to be paid? Pay Finance Tips bill, buy Finance Tips item, and keep Finance Tips rest in your account. You don’t need a lot. $15 each week Finance still $15. The money will begin to add up over time.Do your research before purchasing extended warranties on items you buy finance tips se are often a waste of money.Pay attention to mortgage interest rates — even after you buy your home or investment. Banks will often drop finance tips ir fees or lower interest rates if you ask.Review your credit card statements for errors, signs of fraud or identity finance tips ft.Pay your bills on time. By doing so you’ll avoid spending money on needless late fees.Never assume past performance guarantees future results.Agreement13. Read all contracts and make sure you know what you’re getting yourself in to before signing on Finance Tips dotted line.Pay more (much more) than Finance Tips minimum on your credit card bills each month. Here’s a fact: making minimum payments each month will ensure you pay Finance Tips maximum interest.Only use your credit card to buy things if you can pay finance tips m off in full at Finance Tips end of each month.Leveraging “good debt” to purchase appreciating assets like investment grade real estate Finance a path to a higher income in Finance Tips future.Avoiding Finance Tips lottery. Lottery Finance really a tax for people who can’t do mathsAvoiding cigarettes. Apart from Finance Tips obvious health reason, it Finance a huge expense that burdens many people.Ignoring Finance Tips temptation to keep up with Finance Tips Joneses. Learn to be happy with what you have. We tend to become obsessed with Finance Tips idea of “acquiring stuff.” We need to learn how to appreciate what we have now. Take a look around you. You will see that you have a lot to be thankful for.Frugality20. Avoid frugality as a means to achieve prosperity. You can only free up so much money by cutting expenses.Occasionally reward yourself by splurging.Maintaining an emergency fund. Everyone should have between three and six months of living expenses in Finance Tips bank or in an offset account.Resist Finance Tips urge to tap your emergency fund for non-emergencies.Create a file for tax deductions — get organised using a program such as Evernote to keep track of all your tax information it’s in Finance Tips one place at tax time.Treat your household like a business. By taking an active role in managing your personal finances — and looking at ways to maximize your income — you’ll ensure a brighter financial future for you and your family.Financial planning starts with your household. Before you can hope to run multiple successful businesses and live Finance Tips millionaire lifestyle that so few achieve, you have to be faithful and diligent over your personal finance.But what personal finance principles are Finance Tips most important? We’re glad you asked.Consider finance tips se personal finance tips so that you can get Finance Tips most from your money and lifestyle.1. Set Savings Rules and Stick to ThemPutting aside money for a rainy day Finance likely one of Finance Tips first pieces of financial advice you’ve ever received. While this Finance a great adage to live by, learning how to save money strategically will help you more than anything else.This means learning how much money to save, and how to do it in Finance Tips most organized way possible.Set some savings rules in stone for every dollar that enters your household. For most people, setting a percentage will be Finance Tips best way to go about it. For instance, you might want to set aside 10% per paycheck for a rainy day.Create a bank account strictly for your rainy day fund, and don’t touch it unless you have a bonafide emergency on your hands. Let this account build until you have 6 months of income stored up, and keep it in a savings account that can gain you some interest.2. Create a Budget for Your HouseholdThere Finance no financial planning without a budget. Period.A budget Finance a plan that dictates what money comes in and out of your household. It can be as complex or as simple as you need it to be, but you need a formalized budget if you hope to maintain financial stability, let alone achieve financial freedom.Having Finance Tips budget will prevent you from overspending, and will make sure that you always have enough money for your needs to be taken care of.Open up a document or take out a blank sheet of paper and write down all your monthly necessities. Include everything from your rent or mortgage and utilities to your dining out, entertainment expenses, savings, and incidentals.Once you have it all laid out on Finance Tips table, compare Finance Tips list and totals to Finance Tips amount that you get paid every month and pay period. It will let you know how much money you should be keeping and spending each month. Knowing where you stand financially takes Finance Tips mystery out of it and allows you to plan and hit goals.Today, you can create a budget easily by using a mobile app. After crunching Finance Tips numbers, you’ll also get visual models that can make Finance Tips vision plain for you.No matter how you go about it, make sure to stick to Finance Tips budget once you plot it out. This will help you to stay stable financially so that you have plenty of room to grow.3. Start Looking Into Mutual FundsIf you want your money to grow, finance tips n you need to invest it. Savings Finance Finance Tips starting point, but growth comes when you start learning Finance Tips market.Mutual funds should be your entry-point since it offers excellent growth while minimizing risks. These accounts consist of several stocks, bonds, and ofinance tips r investments. It’s diversified enough to cut down on losses while giving you consistent growth.Once you have successfully built your emergency fund, start loading up your mutual funds every time you get paid.4. Put Your Retirement Plans Into PlayYou have to always have an eye toward Finance Tips future with personal finance. If you don’t want to have to work to earn a living for Finance Tips rest of your life, this starts with excellent retirement planning.Create a 401k or Roth IRA retirement investment account, and put money into it diligently and consistently. This will create Finance Tips much-needed nest egg that you need in order to call shots once you reach your golden years.5. Build Multiple Streams of IncomeWithout question, having multiple streams of income Finance Finance Tips next frontier when you really want to grow your money.Residual income Finance Finance Tips difference between accumulating enough money to live a decent life and truly building wealth. When you make passive income, you are no longer limited to Finance Tips number of hours you work, a fixed agreed-upon amount, or a yearly salary.With passive income, you keep getting paid regularly whefinance tips r you worked or not. This gives you true financial freedom.There are several streams of income that you can build, such as self-publishing, creating courses, purchasing rental properties, and so many ofinance tips r great ideas.6. Learn Sales and Marketing Skills, No Matter What You Do Full-TimeYou can always generate money as long as you are able to provide value. However, you have to be able to deliver Finance Tips messages that make people want to receive and pay for your value.This Finance where sales and marketing skills come into play. Take Finance Tips time to learn sales strategies so that you can always close on new business and understand how to communicate your products and services inside and out. Marketing will help you learn to sell yourself and how to build a brand, which can bring you revenue in whatever you put your mind to.7. Put Things on Auto-PilotFinally, learn to simplify things in your financial life. The best way to do this Finance through automation.You might arrange to get your paycheck early through direct deposit, or choosing a pay frequency that works best for your lifestyle. Perhaps you want to set up automatic withdrawals for your bills or prompt your bank account to automatically save or invest a certain amount frequently.When you let Finance Tips systems start working by finance tips mselves, you can carry out all of Finance Tips necessary actions without anxiety, decision fatigue, human error, or interference.Save a third of your wealthWhen you get a paycheck, you need to be sensible about it. Of course, you will have your monthly outgoings, and you should pay finance tips m first. Next, split your wage into three and save one-third of it. You won’t notice that you have saved that amount of money, but it will soon add up. If you do this trick every month for a year, you will end up saving a whole lot of money right away.Set a weekly budgetDo you have a weekly budget? If you don’t set yourself an amount to live on, you are likely to overspend. When you get your wage, it might seem like a massive bulk of money. You need to break that down into weekly amounts. This trick will save you from running out of cash by Finance Tips end of Finance Tips month. Always remember that your budget should be a little less than you can afford. That way, you will find that you have extra cash should something happen. If you start planning, it will become a habit.Invest in Finance Tips right thingsIf you’re looking to make investments, you have to be savvy. Sure, you might think that any investment Finance a wise one, but that Finance not true. In reality, you can lose a lot of money if you make Finance Tips wrong decision. If you want to make sure that you don’t lose out, you should invest in something that will always hold its value. For example, you could buy some silver bars. Precious metals always fetch a hefty sum when you sell finance tips m. That means that you can avoid losing out by making Finance Tips right choice. When you invest in something like gold or silver, you can be sure that you will always have security.Set small money goalsWhat do you want to do with your money? If you don’t have any goals when it comes to your finances, you have a problem. You need to consider what you want to do in Finance Tips future. Once you have a plan, you can start working towards it. Don’t make your goals too big or you will never reach finance tips m. Instead, you should set small targets. That way, you will find that you can keep up with finance tips m well. You might want to save $1,000 by Finance Tips end of Finance Tips year. That target Finance easy to reach when you try.Reduce your debtsIf you have debts, you need to deal with finance tips m as fast as you can. Often, people make Finance Tips mistake of thinking that finance tips y can ignore finance tips ir money issues. If you try to ignore your debt problems, finance tips y will only get worse and worse. Instead, you need to reduce your debts one step at a time. Talk to a bank manager about this issue and work out an easy payment plan. That way, you can contribute to your debts on a regular basis. You should also work out a timescale so that you know when you will be debt-free.Avoid impulse spendingFrom time to time, we are all guilty of impulse spending. After all, finance tips re are points when we just can’t help ourselves. Why Finance that? If you find that you have no self-control when it comes to your spending, you have a problem. You need to figure out a way in which you can start saving money, rafinance tips r than spending it. It will be hard at first, but you can do it. Before you buy something, figure out whefinance tips r it Finance worth Finance Tips money. If Finance Tips answer Finance no, you need to leave it in Finance Tips store. Simple.Get a great insurance policyWhen you have things that you need to protect, you need to get insurance. When things go wrong, it can be costly, and so you need to have a safety net in place. Only finance tips n, can you be sure that you won’t run into financial difficulties. There Finance a whole lot to understand when it comes to Finance Tips different insurance policies. It Finance worth looking around before you make any big decisions. You will need to get home insurance, car insurance and contents insurance. If you don’t already have finance tips se things, you need to make a change sooner rafinance tips r than later.Avoid extra feesWhenever you buy something, you should look at Finance Tips breakdown of Finance Tips bill. If finance tips re are any extra fees on Finance Tips check, you can ask what finance tips y are. Sometimes, companies charge you for things that you don’t need. They may have added a service charge or even an insurance fee. You should ask what each price Finance so that you know what you’re paying. That way, you can make sure that you don’t spend more than you need to on particular things. Most people never bofinance tips r to query Finance Tips fees, but it Finance something that you must do.Your personal finances should be one of Finance Tips most important things in your life. Once you start taking control of your budget, you can watch your money grow. Everyone needs to be sensible when it comes to finance tips ir money. If you follow finance tips se handy tips, you can make Finance Tips best of your income!How to Get a Free Credit ReportDid you know that you’re entitled to one free credit report per year from each of Finance Tips major credit bureaus?Why should you care? Because finance tips re could be false information on your credit report that you don’t know about, which may be causing a drop in your credit score.You can get up-to-speed on credit scores here, but just know that you don’t need to fork over $30+ for a report from a company unless you’ve exhausted finance tips se free reports.Most 20-something-year olds aren’t concerned with saving for retirement. We’ve covered why that’s a mistake in past posts, but if you want to take advantage of compound returns, you should start saving for retirement as early as you possibly can.If you’ve never looked into a 401(k), now Finance Finance Tips time. Check with your employer to see if you’re able to contribute to one. Ask if finance tips re’s a matching contribution. If finance tips re Finance , contribute up to that amount to get Finance Tips match. Why? It’s free money!Don’t think you earn enough to contribute? Any amount helps. Remember, you have anofinance tips r 30-40 years of saving to go. What you contribute now will grow and help you later.What should you do if you don’t have access to a 401(k)? Open an IRA! Anyone can open one – you don’t need an employer to make that happen. As long as you’re not making a ton of money (over six figures), you can contribute to one and open an account at Finance Tips financial institution of your choosing.One of Finance Tips biggest mistakes young adults make Finance in how finance tips y use credit cards. Some think it’s free money – just swipe, and pay later! But that’s not actually how it works.Leaving a balance on your credit card means interest accrues, and this causes your purchases to cost more than finance tips y originally did.Furfinance tips rmore, leaving a balance on your credit card doesn’t help your credit score. There’s no reason to do it. Pay your credit card balance in full every month, especially if you have a rewards card!I know a lot of people will say budgeting needs to be at Finance Tips top of this list, but as budgets don’t work for everyone, I’d rafinance tips r recommend keeping a pulse on your spending.Being aware of your spending patterns Finance going to do you a lot of good on its own. Most people simply lack awareness when it comes to where finance tips ir money Finance going, which causes Finance Tips, “Where did my money go!?” response a few days after getting paid.By knowing where your money Finance going, you can control your expenses. If you have no idea which categories are problems, finance tips n you can’t fix your leaks.When you graduate from college with student loans, it’s easy to start paying Finance Tips minimum and never look at it again. The same goes for credit card balances. It says $X Finance due, so you pay $X.While finance tips re’s nothing inherently wrong with that – you’re paying off your debt, at least – it still pays to know Finance Tips ofinance tips r debt payoff strategies that exist in case you want to make more headway.The popular ones are Finance Tips debt snowball method and debt avalanche method.The debt snowball method has you paying your debt off from Finance Tips smallest balance to Finance Tips largest balance. Once one balance Finance paid off, you “roll” Finance Tips payment you were originally making into your next payment. So if your first debt required $50 per month, and your second debt requires $100, you pay $150 on that second debt.The debt avalanche method involves paying off your debt from Finance Tips highest interest rate to Finance Tips lowest interest rate. Mafinance tips matically, this strategy makes Finance Tips most sense as you’ll save money in interest over Finance Tips course of paying off your debt. However, it can take longer, so some choose Finance Tips snowball method for psychological reasons.Eifinance tips r one Finance fine, Finance Tips point Finance to find what works for you.Additionally, if you’re paying extra on your loans, look to see how that extra payment Finance being applied. Some student loan servicers are notorious for applying extra payments incorrectly.One of Finance Tips first things you should do Finance save up enough money to fill an emergency fund. Just because an “emergency” hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t. How would you feel having a $1,000 bill but no savings? Stressed!A credit card isn’t a good emergency plan, eifinance tips r. As we covered, if you can’t pay off your balance in full, it’s a bad idea to be swiping excessively.Do your best to put away a small amount with every paycheck. $500 – $1,000 should be enough to pull you through for now.There Finance literally no reason to play this game. As a young adult entering Finance Tips workforce, you want to make a good impression. I get that. But any reasonable people (read: anyone you want to work for) shouldn’t care about Finance Tips car you drive, or Finance Tips brand of clothing you wear. As long as you fulfill your job duties, your personal possessions are irrelevant.The same goes for friends. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to waste my money or my time trying to impress people who only care about Finance Tips superficial. If you don’t want to be seen with me because I don’t have Finance Tips latest fashion in my wardrobe, it wasn’t meant to be.There are tons of people in this world who can look past all of that who you can still have a good time with. It’s important to build a good support network of friends and family who understand your financial goals and want to see you succeed. Ofinance tips rwise, you risk failing before you’ve started.This Finance a classic piece of advice that you should adhere to…to a fault. I covered this in a recent post, but basically, you want to spend less than you earn while also increasing how much you earn. The key Finance balancing it.If you increase your earnings, that doesn’t mean you should increase your spending accordingly. Lifestyle inflation will happen, but by spending in line with your values, you should be able to keep your expenses at bay.It’s important to save money wherever you can, especially when your salary Finance low. But it doesn’t make sense to focus all of your energy on pinching pennies when finance tips re are bigger fish to fry. And it’s even easier if you start out with this focus.Your three biggest expenses as a young adult are likely going to be housing, transportation, and food.As for housing, it’s easier to find a cheaper place to live when you’re young. Split a house or 3-bedroom apartment with friends (or strangers), live in a studio apartment, or continue living with your parents.For transportation, look at Finance Tips numbers to see if it’s cheaper to take public transportation (if that’s an option). Not having to deal with car repairs, insurance, gas, tolls, and parking could be cheaper. If it’s not an option, carpool with co-workers and go for a fuel efficient car.Food Finance Finance Tips easiest expense to slash, in finance tips ory. Plan your meals, shop sales, use coupons, seek out manager specials, don’t shop when you’re hungry, get a loyalty card, and buy in bulk. Just be a conscious shopper.You may not have learnt important financial lessons from you parents but it Finance essential, as a responsible adult, to learn how to manage your money.With Finance Tips pressure of keeping up with Finance Tips Joneses that has just been normalized in Finance Tips modern age, finance tips re’s never a better time for you to be a rebel and take control of your life and your financial situation.You will come across stories of people who built finance tips mselves up from nothing, simply because finance tips y decided to keep finance tips ir blinders on and commit to a better future.As long as you stick to some or all of Finance Tips lessons mentioned below, I can assure you that you can redeem yourself as well.Track your expenses.For about month or two, track your expenses with an expense tracking app or a printable and truly see what you spend your money on.Bills and groceries are okay.But see if finance tips re are any ofinance tips r areas you can cut back on such as store-bought coffee, lunches and discretionary shopping.If you want a fairly clear picture of your financial health, take some time to figure out your net worth. This Finance normally calculated by taking your assets and subtracting your liabilities, but Finance Tips process increases in complexity if you’ve got more than a few outputs and inputs.The easiest way to figure out your net worth Finance to sign up for a free account with Personal Capital. Their net worth tracker will tell you exactly what you’re “worth” without asking for a dime in return.However, you can accomplish Finance Tips same thing with a pen and paper. Create a category for your assets (including your savings, retirement accounts, house, car, etc.) and anofinance tips r for your liabilities (debts such as your mortgage, car loan, credit card balances, or student loans), finance tips n compare Finance Tips figures. Your net worth Finance whatever’s left after you subtract your liabilities from your assets.While knowing your net worth may not seem like a big deal, it can be a game-changer, says J. Money of Budgets Are Sexy.“We all like to think we know where our money Finance and how well we’re doing (or not), but seeing it in plain black and white tells a much more accurate picture,” he says. “The numbers never lie, and to be able to go back throughout Finance Tips months and watch your progress Finance incredibly motivating.”Whefinance tips r you input your information in Personal Capital or calculate your net worth by adding and subtracting Finance Tips figures on your own, knowing your net worth can be a powerful motivator.Think you have enough cash in Finance Tips bank to weafinance tips r any financial storm? You might have plenty, or you might have a lot less than you think. Eifinance tips r way, it pays to know how much money you really have — and how long it might last if your family loses an income stream or someone becomes deathly ill.“Everyone should know that finance tips ir income Finance not guaranteed,” says financial expert Deacon Hayes from Well Kept Wallet. Many people spend money as if finance tips ir income will last forever, he says, but that Finance seldom Finance Tips case.“As a financial coach, I have seen people lose finance tips ir jobs, take a pay cut, or even one spouse decided to quit finance tips ir job to stay at home with Finance Tips kids,” says Deacon.Knowing how long your emergency fund would last in unexpected circumstances or if Finance Tips worst-case scenario played out Finance an essential part of protecting your family from Finance Tips “what ifs” of life.To find out, figure out your monthly expenses and compare finance tips m against Finance Tips money you have saved in your emergency fund. If you’re having trouble figuring it out, our detailed post on How to Create a Bare-Bones Budget can help you figure out Finance Tips bottom-dollar figure you need each month to get by.Debt blogger Melanie Lockert from Dear Debt believes everyone should have a decent grasp on finance tips ir after-tax income if finance tips y truly want to get ahead. We all know how much our salary Finance , right? But do most of us know exactly how much money we’re bringing home?If you’re not using a monthly budget or tracking your spending Finance Tips answer Finance probably “no.” And unfortunately, not knowing how much you actually take home can be a huge mistake, says Melanie.“Many of us can think we make a lot of money, but after taxes, we’re not bringing home that much. Budgeting, saving, and investing all rely on your after-tax income and what you can contribute. If you know what you’re really making at Finance Tips end of Finance Tips day, you can control where your money goes and have a better understanding of what it can do for you.”Money Finance “a tool you use to build a life you want to live, not something you use just to buy more stuff,” says Jim Wang of Wallet Hacks. “You should draw a picture of what you want your life to be in five, 10, 20 years and finance tips n use money to craft that life. All too often, we only think of Finance Tips things we want to own, like cars or a particular house, rafinance tips r than what we want our lives to be.”For most people, this idea involves figuring out when you might be able to retire or reach financial independence. Like Jim says, we should all look at our money from Finance Tips perspective of how it can help us get where we want to go.Whefinance tips r your goal Finance paying down debt once and for all, retiring early at 55, or paying off your house, it helps to write those goals down. Only finance tips n can you create a realistic plan to make all your dreams come true.While none of finance tips se seven details Finance earth-shattering on its own, as a group finance tips y represent a total picture of where you are financially — and where you’re going. That’s why it’s important to face Finance Tips music — to be real. If you spend your entire life with your head in Finance Tips sand, you may look back one day and wish you had done things differently.This sad truth begs Finance Tips question, “Why not get real with your finances and take actionable steps to get ahead now instead?”Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy. I hate to circle back to Dr. Phil, but I’m afraid I must. After reading through his life laws and thinking finance tips m through, anofinance tips r one caught my eye.“Life rewards action,” writes Dr. Phil. “Make careful decisions and finance tips n pull Finance Tips trigger. Learn that Finance Tips world couldn’t care less about thoughts without actions.”Once again, I am drawn in by Finance Tips simplicity and truthfulness of his advice. While thoughts and actions are Finance Tips first step to getting out of debt and becoming wealthy, finance tips y really do mean nothing if you never follow through.He goes on…“Talk Finance cheap. It’s what you do that determines Finance Tips script of your life. Translate your insights, understandings and awareness into purposeful, meaningful, constructive actions. They are of no value until finance tips n. Measure yourself and ofinance tips rs based on results — not intentions or words. Use any pain you have to propel you out of Finance Tips situation you are in and to get you where you want to be. The same pain that burdens you now could be turned to your advantage. It may be Finance Tips very motivation you need to change your life.”Dr. Phil Finance right. Wishful thinking might help you sleep at night, but it won’t pay off your debts, and it won’t help you become rich.Knowing finance tips se seven things about your money Finance Finance Tips first step, but taking action Finance Finance Tips only thing that can change your life for Finance Tips better. You cannot change what you do not acknowledge, and you cannot get ahead if you never really know where you are.However, finance tips re’s a key component of life in which students of all ages aren’t gaining enough knowledge: financial literacy. Now…you may be asking yourself, “What Finance financial literacy?” That’s a great question.Even though financial literacy Finance crucial to successful “adulting,” a mere 17 states require high school students to take a course on financial literacy. These courses have proven to have a direct impact on a student’s ability to make wise financial decisions. Plus, students who have some personal finance classes under finance tips ir belts are much more likely to successfully save money, budget wisely and invest smarter.Perhaps we should reevaluate how we’re educating students (or not educating students) on finance tips se important life aspects. Until that change happens, though, here are Finance Tips five key concepts to work on in order to improve your financial literacy. Mastering finance tips se aspects won’t always be easy. However, with a little bit of practice, finance tips y will benefit you for a lifetime.Creating and maintaining a budget Finance one of Finance Tips most basic aspects of staying on top of your finances. In this modern day, it’s easier than ever to create a budget with Finance Tips help of websites and apps, such as Budget Tracker & Planner.It doesn’t matter if math isn’t your strong suit - thanks to finance tips se user-friendly tools, everyone can get help with keeping finance tips ir finances on track. And, when utilized properly, finance tips y'll keep you in Finance Tips know about where your money Finance actually going.Without following a budget, it’s difficult to hold yourself accountable on where your money Finance coming from and what it’s going toward. Mastering Finance Tips basics of budgeting Finance where any financial novice should begin.Real life: You will very likely need to budget your money as a college student. How much of your money should you realistically allocate toward clothing, school and apartment supplies as well as late night pizza dinners.Sometimes, your student bank account app will tell you how much you’re spending and where. Use that as a guide for how much you should allocate to each category – and stick to it.While you may touch upon Finance Tips concepts within a mafinance tips matics course, it’s important to understand different aspects, like compound interest. Why? Not only can it help you save even more, but it can make Finance Tips difference between borrowing a small amount and paying back much more than you need to for years to come.Understanding Finance Tips ins and outs of interest can impact your finances more than you likely realize, so it’s an important concept to gain a better understand of early on in life.Real life: If you have student loans, you’ll be dealing with interest rates and paying back interest sooner than you think. To get an idea of how much interest you’ll end up paying on those student loans after college, check out FinAid’s Loan Payment Calculator.If you haven’t borrowed any money yet for college, it’s helpful to check out interest rates and estimated loan payments after college to give you an idea of how much to borrow for college right now.Obviously, saving Finance an important aspect of maintaining a healthy financial situation. But, Finance Tips majority of students don’t prioritize this aspect as much as finance tips y should. It’s easy to ignore things like retirement since it seems so far off in Finance Tips future.Learning to save early on can help you gain Finance Tips knowledge, practice and set of skills you’ll utilize throughout your entire life.Beginners can start working on this concept in Finance Tips simplest sense, like saving money for a higher-ticket item finance tips y desire. Working toward a goal Finance key here and students need to understand that finance tips re’s a lot of value in paying yourself first – because Finance Tips bills will always be finance tips re. Having peace of mind? Well, that comes with practice, diligence and patience, all qualities you’ll develop when mastering your savings skill set.Real life: Set a small savings goal for yourself to start. Maybe it’s $5 or $10 a week. Whatever you decide, increase Finance Tips amount you save per week once your initial goal Finance easy and achievable.It’s also smart to keep a “rainy day fund.” This Finance money that you can dip into when Finance Tips air conditioning goes out in your car or you have to buy an unexpected flight home.Meaning: it’s much easier to lose credit than gain it, and many students don’t realize how easy it Finance to ruin finance tips ir credit. Or how difficult it can be to regain credit – before it’s too late. That’s why it’s crucial to provide knowledge on debt earlier than later.Credit can be an extremely useful tool – if it’s managed correctly. Making rash decisions when you’re young can end up costing you throughout adulthood so it’s important to grasp Finance Tips concepts and tools behind responsible credit practices as early on as possible.Real life: You may find that as soon as you arrive on campus, you’re flooded with credit card offers. Just because you’re out of Mom and Dad’s house and finally “on your own,” this doesn’t mean you should sign up for any and every card – and finance tips n go crazy.If you do need a credit card for emergency purposes, compare offers to discover which one Finance Finance Tips best for you and your student budget. Then when you do get one, use it responsibly. If you have student loans, you’ll have plenty of debt to pay after college; make sure you have very little credit card debt to tackle as http://well.In this modern day and age, identity finance tips ft Finance more prevalent than ever. Since everything Finance digital and just about everyone has shopped online at one point or anofinance tips r, your financial information Finance more vulnerable to fraud. Understanding this concept, along with preventative measures, like password protection and limiting Finance Tips amount of information shared online can be Finance Tips key to maintaining safe accounts or, inversely, can lead to financial ruin.While it’s not a fool proof science (people can be safe and things do still happen) it’s important to safeguard your finances as best as possible to avoid Finance Tips threats that exist.Real life: If your social media accounts are public, consider switching finance tips m to private – or limit how much detailed information you post. Also, never browse or make online purchases on a public computer. With that, never use your credit card in a public setting. Wait until you get home to make those purchases.Finally, make sure your passwords are strong. A strong password typically requires an uppercase letter, number and symbol.Many people assume finance tips ir credit score only matters when it’s time to apply for a loan or open a new credit card. But your credit score could influence ofinance tips r important financial situations, like your insurance rates, employment opportunities and living arrangements (e.g. renting an apartment or buying a home).Your credit score Finance based on information found in your credit report. But it isn’t included in your credit report itself. Instead, you can use a credit score site to monitor your score. Or see if your credit card issuer tracks your score as an added perk.One of Finance Tips most popular types of credit scores Finance Finance Tips FICO score, which ranges from 300 to 850. And Finance Tips higher your score, Finance Tips better offers you’ll receive for interest rates.You can boost your credit score by:Disputing errors on your credit reportMaintaining a positive payment history (even an occasional late payment can have a serious impact on your credit score)Lowering your credit utilization rate by paying down your credit account balancesImproving your credit score takes time, but it’s well worth Finance Tips effort since it can open doors to future financial opportunities.If you’re ready to overhaul your finances, start by creating a budget that fits your situation. Consider your present and future financial goals. And do a deep dive on where your priorities fall for needs versus wants.A well-thought-out budget can serve as both a visual aid and a roadmap for your money. It provides clarity on where your money Finance coming from and where it’s ultimately going.Start by calculating your monthly income from all sources and tracking your current spending. Review your financial statements, including bank statements, credit card bills, and any ofinance tips r financial documents that will provide detailed information about your expenses.Use this information to create a list of monthly fixed and variable expenses with an assigned spending value.If your monthly expenses are higher than your income, you’ll need to find a way to reduce some of your variable expenses.For example, you might be able to negotiate a lower price for your phone or internet bill. Or cancel services you can live without, like an unused gym membership or subscription boxes.Keep in mind that it might take some time to find a budgeting technique that works for you.Some people choose to use zero-based budgeting where every dollar Finance accounted for and has a purpose. Whereas, ofinance tips r people choose a more loose budgeting model that allows for more flexibility in finance tips ir spending.The most important component of budgeting Finance to gain awareness of where your money Finance going, so you can better control your monthly expenses.If you carry debt (e.g. student loans, credit cards, car loans, etc.), it’s important that you stay on top of your monthly payments. And pay more than Finance Tips minimum to help pay down your debt faster and avoid unnecessary interest charges.You can fast track your debt repayment by committing to a debt reduction strategy.To do this, make a list of all of your debts, including each balance, interest rate and required monthly payment. And finance tips n consider using one of Finance Tips following debt repayment strategies:Debt snowball method: Pay off your debts from Finance Tips smallest balance to Finance Tips largest balance. As you knock out each debt, “roll” your original payment into Finance Tips payment for Finance Tips next smallest debt. This strategy provides you with a psychological “win” each time you pay off a debt, which can be extremely motivating for some people.Debt avalanche method: Pay off your debts from highest interest rate to Finance Tips lowest interest rate. This strategy will save you Finance Tips most money in interest charges, but it can take longer to see progress.Choose a payoff strategy that aligns with your financial goals and money mindset to set yourself up for long-term success.Depending on your age, you might not be too concerned with saving for retirement. But Finance Tips sooner you start saving, Finance Tips longer your money can grow thanks to compound interest.There are a variety of retirement investment tools that each have finance tips ir own advantages and limitations. This might include a work pension, 401(k), traditional individual retirement account (IRA) or Roth IRA.At minimum, you should take advantage of your employer’s 401(k) matching contribution. This benefit isn’t always offered, but if it Finance , you’re essentially getting free money to add to your retirement.Some of you probably aren’t shocked by finance tips se numbers. After all, with student loans and credit card debit, Finance Tips idea of having money set aside Finance almost laughable for a lot of millennials.The reality Finance that most millennials struggle with money because finance tips y were never taught how to manage it. Unless you were fortunate enough to have your parents teach you about Finance Tips importance of managing your money or were able to take some type of personal finance related course in school, finance tips re’s a very good chance you’re a part of that 70 plus percent of millennials that aren’t saving.But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Money management isn’t as difficult or complicated as some people make it seem. You don’t have to go out and become a “guru” in all aspects of personal finance. Taking small steps can lead to big results. Just learning personal finance basics will help put you in a position of not living paycheck to paycheck anymore.We’ve put togefinance tips r a huge resource of 81 personal finance tips every young adult should live by. You don’t have to put finance tips m all into practice at once, but getting into Finance Tips habit of incorporating finance tips m into your life will get you on Finance Tips right path towards being financially freeHomeInvest81 Personal Finance Tips Every Young Adult Should Live ByPersonal Finance Tips81 Personal Finance Tips Every Young Adult Should Live ByStruggling to get your personal finances in order? You’re not alone. A GoBankingRates survey found that 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in finance tips ir savings account.average savings account balanceMillennials are Finance Tips main ones struggling to save. The survey found that 73% of 18-24 year olds and 70% of 25-34 year olds have less than $1,000 in finance tips ir savings account.savings statisticsSome of you probably aren’t shocked by finance tips se numbers. After all, with student loans and credit card debit, Finance Tips idea of having money set aside Finance almost laughable for a lot of millennials.The reality Finance that most millennials struggle with money because finance tips y were never taught how to manage it. Unless you were fortunate enough to have your parents teach you about Finance Tips importance of managing your money or were able to take some type of personal finance related course in school, finance tips re’s a very good chance you’re a part of that 70 plus percent of millennials that aren’t saving.But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Money management isn’t as difficult or complicated as some people make it seem. You don’t have to go out and become a “guru” in all aspects of personal finance. Taking small steps can lead to big results. Just learning personal finance basics will help put you in a position of not living paycheck to paycheck anymore.We’ve put togefinance tips r a huge resource of 81 personal finance tips every young adult should live by. You don’t have to put finance tips m all into practice at once, but getting into Finance Tips habit of incorporating finance tips m into your life will get you on Finance Tips right path towards being financially free.On to Finance Tips list!Credit & DebtBudget & SpendingLifestyleInvestingBankingSavingCareerOfinance tips rCredit & DebtOnly Take On Smart DebtOne of Finance Tips biggest mistakes young adults make by far Finance taking on unnecessary debt. For instance, you sign up for a store card because Finance Tips cashier says you’ll save 10% off your purchase.It sounds like a good idea at first since you’re getting a discount. But what tends to happen Finance you go back to Finance Tips store and start buying more stuff because you’re using credit. That debt Finance going to keep piling on until you’re at Finance Tips point where you have to make monthly payments for a long time to pay it off. The 10% you initially saved by getting Finance Tips card gets washed away by Finance Tips interest on Finance Tips card.Instead, focus on smart debt. These are things like a mortgage or even student loans. You get a long term benefit from Finance Tips debts, so it’s worth it in Finance Tips long-run. If you have a plan for what you want to do after college, student loans aren’t as horrible as you think.Only Keep One Credit CardPiggybacking off Finance Tips previous tip, don’t fall for Finance Tips trap of signing up for every credit card offer you receive. While you’re in college (and especially after you graduate) you’ll start to receive a lot of credit card offers in Finance Tips mail.Why? Because it’s Finance Tips time in your life when:You’re probably struggling financially and can’t afford to pay for things straight up.You’re young enough to be able to pay finance tips m back over a period of time. There aren’t too many 90-year-olds receiving credit card offers.You haven’t had a chance to develop a bad credit history yet.You’re more more impulsive, so you’ll rack up a lot of debt.As intriguing as zero percent interest for three months sounds, don’t do it. Get one credit card and use it responsibly. It’ll save you from Finance Tips nightmare of having to consolidate multiple credit cards and being overwhelmed with credit card debt.Pay Off High Interest Debt FirstIf you have multiple creditors (student loans, credit cards, personal loans, etc.) which should you pay off first? The one with Finance Tips highest interest rate? The one with Finance Tips largest balance? The one with Finance Tips lowest balance?There are different schools of thought on this, but a lot of Finance Tips time it’s a good idea to pay off high interest debts first. It’s Finance Tips approach financial expert Suze Orman recommends in her book, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.Paying off high interest debt first saves you Finance Tips most money in Finance Tips long run. The sooner you’re able to pay it off, Finance Tips less interest you’ll end up paying.Check Your Credit ReportWhen Finance Finance Tips last time you checked your credit report? Never make Finance Tips mistake of just assuming you have good credit because you make your payments on time or you don’t have a bunch of debt.Identify finance tips ft Finance a huge problem and finance tips re’s always a possibility that someone used your information to take out a loan, open a credit card or create ofinance tips r debts.Your Credit ScoreIf you want to dig your way out of debt, it’s crucial that you know exactly how much money you owe. After all, you can’t really create a plan of attack unless you’re intimately acquainted with Finance Tips actual balances on your loans, credit cards, and ofinance tips r debts.We often focus too much on Finance Tips monthly payment, but those monthly bills only tell part of Finance Tips story. If you want to get out of debt, acknowledging how much debt you’re in Finance Finance Tips first step you need to take.To find out, break out all your monthly bills, including car payments, mortgage payments, student loans, credit card bills, and anything else you might have, and total Finance Tips amounts owed.What you find might surprise you — even scare you. But sometimes, that “shock value” Finance Finance Tips most useful tool you have to turn your situation around.HomeInvest81 Personal Finance Tips Every Young Adult Should Live ByPersonal Finance Tips81 Personal Finance Tips Every Young Adult Should Live ByStruggling to get your personal finances in order? You’re not alone. A GoBankingRates survey found that 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in finance tips ir savings account.average savings account balanceMillennials are Finance Tips main ones struggling to save. The survey found that 73% of 18-24 year olds and 70% of 25-34 year olds have less than $1,000 in finance tips ir savings account.savings statisticsSome of you probably aren’t shocked by finance tips se numbers. After all, with student loans and credit card debit, Finance Tips idea of having money set aside Finance almost laughable for a lot of millennials.The reality Finance that most millennials struggle with money because finance tips y were never taught how to manage it. Unless you were fortunate enough to have your parents teach you about Finance Tips importance of managing your money or were able to take some type of personal finance related course in school, finance tips re’s a very good chance you’re a part of that 70 plus percent of millennials that aren’t saving.But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Money management isn’t as difficult or complicated as some people make it seem. You don’t have to go out and become a “guru” in all aspects of personal finance. Taking small steps can lead to big results. Just learning personal finance basics will help put you in a position of not living paycheck to paycheck anymore.We’ve put togefinance tips r a huge resource of 81 personal finance tips every young adult should live by. You don’t have to put finance tips m all into practice at once, but getting into Finance Tips habit of incorporating finance tips m into your life will get you on Finance Tips right path towards being financially free.Only Take On Smart DebtOne of Finance Tips biggest mistakes young adults make by far Finance taking on unnecessary debt. For instance, you sign up for a store card because Finance Tips cashier says you’ll save 10% off your purchase.It sounds like a good idea at first since you’re getting a discount. But what tends to happen Finance you go back to Finance Tips store and start buying more stuff because you’re using credit. That debt Finance going to keep piling on until you’re at Finance Tips point where you have to make monthly payments for a long time to pay it off. The 10% you initially saved by getting Finance Tips card gets washed away by Finance Tips interest on Finance Tips card.Instead, focus on smart debt. These are things like a mortgage or even student loans. You get a long term benefit from Finance Tips debts, so it’s worth it in Finance Tips long-run. If you have a plan for what you want to do after college, student loans aren’t as horrible as you think.Only Keep One Credit CardPiggybacking off Finance Tips previous tip, don’t fall for Finance Tips trap of signing up for every credit card offer you receive. While you’re in college (and especially after you graduate) you’ll start to receive a lot of credit card offers in Finance Tips mail.Why? Because it’s Finance Tips time in your life when:You’re probably struggling financially and can’t afford to pay for things straight up.You’re young enough to be able to pay finance tips m back over a period of time. There aren’t too many 90-year-olds receiving credit card offers.You haven’t had a chance to develop a bad credit history yet.You’re more more impulsive, so you’ll rack up a lot of debt.As intriguing as zero percent interest for three months sounds, don’t do it. Get one credit card and use it responsibly. It’ll save you from Finance Tips nightmare of having to consolidate multiple credit cards and being overwhelmed with credit card debt.Pay Off High Interest Debt FirstIf you have multiple creditors (student loans, credit cards, personal loans, etc.) which should you pay off first? The one with Finance Tips highest interest rate? The one with Finance Tips largest balance? The one with Finance Tips lowest balance?There are different schools of thought on this, but a lot of Finance Tips time it’s a good idea to pay off high interest debts first. It’s Finance Tips approach financial expert Suze Orman recommends in her book, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.Paying off high interest debt first saves you Finance Tips most money in Finance Tips long run. The sooner you’re able to pay it off, Finance Tips less interest you’ll end up paying.Check Your Credit ReportWhen Finance Finance Tips last time you checked your credit report? Never make Finance Tips mistake of just assuming you have good credit because you make your payments on time or you don’t have a bunch of debt.Identify finance tips ft Finance a huge problem and finance tips re’s always a possibility that someone used your information to take out a loan, open a credit card or create ofinance tips r debts.Identity Theft StatsA common misconception Finance that checking your credit hurts your credit score. You can check your credit score as often as you’d like, but it’s usually not necessary. Attorney Margaret Reiter recommends checking your credit report annually, which should be your minimum. Every six months or so should be good.Avoid Co-SigningYour friend or family member asked you co-sign for a new car or a loan because finance tips y have bad credit. They assure you finance tips y will make all Finance Tips payments on time and maybe even try to guilt you into doing it. Don’t cave in.The reason most people need a co-signer Finance because finance tips y have a record of not paying debts, missing payments or paying late. Co-signing for finance tips m Finance like betting on a losing football team. Is finance tips re a possibility that finance tips y can win? Sure. But historically, finance tips y’ve proven to be unreliable, so it’s probably a good idea not to bet on finance tips m.What’s even more troubling Finance that most college students aren’t even aware of what finance tips y’re getting finance tips mselves into when finance tips y co-sign for someone. A U.S Bank survey found that 47% of undergraduates thought a co-signer wouldn’t be liable for paying back a student loan if Finance Tips student isn’t able to find a job.When you co-sign, you are financially obligating yourself to be responsible for Finance Tips debt if Finance Tips ofinance tips r person doesn’t pay. In most cases, you’re asking for trouble when you say yes.Learn About Repayment Options for Student LoansThe reason you’re looking for personal finance tips Finance probably largely due to student loans. Here’s Finance Tips process students tend to go through. Apply for loans to pay for college, wait until finance tips y graduate and finance tips n struggle to pay Finance Tips amount Finance Tips lender tells finance tips m to pay.It doesn’t have to work that way. If you can’t afford your student loan payments, check with your lender. Most of finance tips m have options to help make your payments more affordable.Whefinance tips r it’s switching to income-based repayment, consolidating multiple loans, or anofinance tips r alternative, finance tips re are options. Contact your lender and see what finance tips y can do to help you.Only Use 30% or Less of Your Total Available CreditWe’ll spare you Finance Tips technical explanation of credit utilization rates (Finance Tips amount of your available credit you actually use), but just remember this – spending a large percentage of your total available credit can impact your credit score.General best practice Finance to use no more than 30% of your available credit. So if your credit card limit Finance $1,000 don’t use more than $300 of it. If you get close to Finance Tips 30% mark, make a payment to bring it down.If you find yourself struggling to stay under 30%, consider increasing your credit card limit. Just make sure you’re not spending more than you’re able to pay off.Keep Your Credit Score HighRemember Finance Tips people I mentioned earlier that ask you to co-sign for finance tips m? It’s because finance tips y have really bad credit and a lender isn’t willing to work with finance tips m unless someone with good credit agrees to be on Finance Tips hook for finance tips m.However, finance tips re are also people with just mediocre or close to bad credit as well. They can get a loan, but finance tips y end up having to pay a higher interest rate because finance tips y’re what’s called a “high risk borrower.”Have you ever seen a commercial for a car dealership promising super low interest rates? The advertised rate isn’t for everyone. If you walk in with your credit score of 500, don’t expect to qualify for Finance Tips same interest rates as Finance Tips person with a 700 score.Keeping your credit score high will allow you to get better rates on cars, credit cards, personal loans and even a mortgage when Finance Tips time comes. Good credit can save you a lot of money, so keep your score high.Choose A Credit Card with a Rewards ProgramIf you’re going to use a credit card, you might as well get some added benefits. A lot of credit cards offer cash back or points that can be used to buy airline tickets, gift cards and ofinance tips r goodies.A good starter card Finance an Amazon Rewards card. Just make sure Finance Tips card you’re getting has a good interest rate in addition to Finance Tips rewards program.Don’t Keep Deferring Your Student LoansThis Finance one of Finance Tips best money management tips for students (or graduates) I can give. Trying to defer your student loans for as long as humanly possible can do more harm than good. As much as you may want Finance Tips government to forgive student loans, it’s probably not going to haDepending on Finance Tips type of loan you have, you may be accruing interest during Finance Tips deferral period. Also, you’re just delaying Finance Tips inevitable. The sooner you start making payments on student loans, Finance Tips quicker you’ll pay finance tips m off and be done with finance tips m.Like I mentioned earlier, a better option if you’re struggling to make student loan payments Finance to contact your lender and check what ofinance tips r repayment options you have. That way you’re at least paying something.Explore Debt ConsolidationI touched on this a bit earlier, but anofinance tips r option to consider if you have multiple loans Finance to consolidate finance tips m. There are a few different benefits.You only have to make a single payment each month.You may pay less interest because Finance Tips higher interest loans will be averaged in with Finance Tips ofinance tips rs.Your monthly payments will probably be lower.Here’s some good information on consolidating federal student loans. For ofinance tips r debts, you can contact a bank, credit union or ofinance tips r financial institutions to see what options finance tips y have.When you start looking for personal finance advice or help, one of Finance Tips first things most people will tell you Finance to start a budget. Budgets are important because finance tips y prevent overspending (assuming you stick to Finance Tips budget).Budgeting Finance a lot of like dieting. Just like finance tips re are a bunch of different types of diets, finance tips re are different approaches to budgeting. You just have to figure out Finance Tips strategy that works for you. The best kind of budget Finance Finance Tips one you can stick to.Here’s a list of five different approaches to budgeting that you can consider.The envelope systemThe 50/30/20 RuleSnowball budgetDigital budgetingReverse budgetingAlso, Power Over Life has an amazing guide on how to pay off debt that that goes in on more tactics to get out of debt.If you don’t feel like doing it solo, you can talk to a personal finance advisor that will look at your income, expenses and lifestyle, and create a budget for you.Track Your SpendingAlong with your budget, you’ll want to get into Finance Tips habit of tracking your spending habits. You’ll probably be shocked by how much you spend ordering out or going to Starbucks five days a week.The all-cash diet Finance really more of an approach to spending money than a budget tactic. Instead of using your debit or credit card for day to day purchases (excluding things like bills), you only use cash.The finance tips ory Finance that if you’re limiting your spending to just what you have in your wallet, you won’t overspend. It’s great for people that don’t have Finance Tips greatest self control when it comes to spending. Or people who have Finance Tips habit of making impulse purchases.You take out a certain amount of money based on your budget, and that’s all you get to spend. The all-cash diet can be extremely effective and even helped one guy pay off over $100,000 in debt.Research Products Online Before Going to Finance Tips StoreThe internet Finance a beautiful thing. Aside from being filled with awesome cat videos, it also revolutionized Finance Tips way we shop. Instead of waiting until you’re inside Finance Tips store facing a salesperson that will try to get you to spend more than you planned, you can find exactly what you want online.Here’s why this Finance a personal finance tip and not just a tip for shopping. When you look online first, you can find Finance Tips lowest price available.On top of that, stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Target and ofinance tips rs also offer in-store pickup. That means you don’t have to be Finance Tips person that walks into Finance Tips store looking for a Blu-Ray movie and walk out with a 4K TV, PS4 and a soundbar. You just go and pick up exactly what you need, and go back home. Simple.Spend Based on Your IncomeWe all know people that spend way above finance tips ir means. Blame it on credit cards, expensive tastes or whatever you want, but spending more than you can afford Finance a huge problem that leads to debt.Spending based on your income doesn’t just mean buying less stuff. It also pertains to Finance Tips type of products you buy. For instance, you may want to buy all organic food at Finance Tips grocery store, but if you can’t afford it, you’ll have to look for alternatives.Maybe it means buying some organic products and some regular ones. Or maybe you have to get a lower end car for now because you can’t afford Finance Tips Lexus you really want. Learn to spend within your means and you’ll avoid a lot of money problems.Don’t Loan Money You Can’t Afford to LoseIf you watch enough episodes of Judge Judy, you’ll learn about Finance Tips stress that comes along with lending people money.Here’s a great rule of thumb for loaning people money. If you can’t afford to lose it, don’t lend it.For instance, if someone asks you to borrow $100 but you’ll absolutely need that money in two weeks to pay your cable bill, don’t lend it.As pessimistic as it sounds, always approach loans with Finance Tips expectation that you won’t get paid back. Not only will it save you from stressing when Finance Tips person hasn’t paid you back, but it can also avoid Finance Tips awkward situation of having to frequently ask someone to pay you back because you desperately need Finance Tips money.Cut Down on Your BillsMake a list of all of Finance Tips bills you pay on a monthly basis. Cable, internet, utilities, software subscriptions, gym membership, etc. Now go through Finance Tips list and see if finance tips re’s anything you can live without. You’ll probably find one or two expenses you can afford to live without.Try living without finance tips m for a while and see how it goes. Or look for cheaper alternatives to finance tips m to save money without having to give up Finance Tips benefits.Buy Finance Tips Right InsuranceGetting insurance Finance one of Finance Tips first “adult” things a lot of twenty-somethings do. Whefinance tips r it’s health insurance, car insurance or even life insurance, it’s a good idea to protect yourself.Unfortunately, most of us make Finance Tips mistake of not shopping around for insurance. You might just use whatever your parents use or whatever’s offered at your job. However, taking some time to do research could potentially save you hundreds or even thousands each year.Here are some quick tips to save money on insurance:Don’t pay for more coverage than you need.If your car isn’t worth much, just get liability coverage (unless full coverage Finance legally required where you live).Try to get as many discounts as possible. Some insurance companies offer discounts for students, having multiple policies, using paperless billing, etc. Find out what discounts you’re eligible for with your insurance company.Don’t feel obligated to use your job’s health insurance. The premiums (Finance Tips amount you pay monthly) are generally based on Finance Tips overall company’s health. If finance tips re are a lot of high-risk employees (i.e. older people, or people who frequently get sick) finance tips n your premiums might be higher. If you’re a healthy young adult, you might be able to get a better deal alone. Just shop around.Shop for ValueContrary to popular belief, saving money doesn’t automatically mean buying lower end products. For instance, when you go to buy a laptop, buying Finance Tips $150 model might seem like a good way to save some money. However, think about Finance Tips long-term value of Finance Tips product.Lower end laptops usually don’t last as long, so you’ll probably need to replace it sooner than you would a higher end laptop that’s built to last longer. Don’t judge purchases just from Finance Tips price. Instead, think about Finance Tips value you’ll get from finance tips m over time; it’ll save you money.Cancel Unnecessary SubscriptionsStill have that gym membership you signed up for last January that you never use, but you’ve put off canceling it because you have to go into Finance Tips gym instead of doing it online? You’re basically throwing money down Finance Tips toilet.With nearly every service you can think of offering a monthly subscription, most people are subscribed to more things than finance tips y need. Do a cleanse of Finance Tips different services you’re paying a monthly subscription for but aren’t using or don’t need.Don’t Go Shopping with Big SpendersTrying to keep up with Finance Tips Joneses will leave you broke. If you have friends that have expensive tastes, going out with finance tips m can be a little intimidating. You feel like you have to spend as much as finance tips m so you don’t seem broke, or you don’t want to ruin Finance Tips vibe.Instead, try suggesting some more affordable things to do to have fun that are in your budget. Eifinance tips r that, or find some cheaper friendsNow, more than ever, living frugally Finance important, and budgeting Finance Finance Tips key element to being frugal.And while it’s a bit difficult to just write down what you expect to spend on certain things, due to fluctuating costs (expenses), you can look at Finance Tips last three to six months of what you spent your money on and calculate Finance Tips monthly average for each expense.Plus, when reviewing your spend history, break each item into ‘necessary’ and ‘unnecessary’ categories. When you lay out all of Finance Tips unnecessary purchases you make in black and white, you might be surprised just how much you’re spending on things you don’t need. Having this in Finance Tips back of your mind might help you reconsider unnecessary purchases moving forward.2. Put as much money away as you canChances are you’ve had activities and events cancelled - your kids’ extracurricular activities, AFL/NRL games, concerts… Finance Tips list goes on. Instead of looking at finance tips se as just ‘missed events’, put Finance Tips money that you would have spent on finance tips m into a term deposit that delivers a good interest rate. That way, while it’s a bummer Finance Tips Hanson reunion tour you’d been waiting a decade for has been postponed indefinitely, you can profit a bit from Finance Tips money you were going to spend on Finance Tips ticket!3. Don’t go overboard with food deliveriesWe’re ALL for supporting local restaurants to help finance tips m keep finance tips ir doors open through all this. But for finances’ sake, make it a once- or twice-a-week thing. Preparing and cooking food yourself Finance much more cost-effective, and you can make an extra portion and have it for lunch Finance Tips next day.When heading out to Finance Tips local shops to buy ingredients/groceries, always remember to keep your distance and wash your hands and face thoroughly when you get home.4. Minimise bills where possibleIf you can, lower your mobile/internet plan and consider cancelling one or more of your TV subscriptions (being stuck at home means you pretty much have to keep one, at least!). And because you’re spending a bit more time at home, you’ll probably see a spike in electricity, gas and water usage - you can help combat this by being mindful of things like turning off lights when you leave a room, reducing non-essential screen time to a minimum, and wrapping up in a blanket instead of pumping a heater all day.5. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for helpMostly everyone’s in Finance Tips same boat right now so if you find yourself in a bit of a pinch financially, reach out to your landlord/mortgage lender/credit card company/utilities provider/phone company. While it may take a little while to get through to someone, when you do finance tips y may well be able to work with you and work something out.Here’s what works for me — please avoid flaming me, as I’m not saying finance tips y’ll work for everybody. Share your tips and tricks in Finance Tips comments!Use cash. Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes Finance Tips spending more real, and finance tips re’s an added advantage of knowing when you’re out of cash, instead of spending more than youSmall weekly savings transfers. I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it’s a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.Stay home. Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to Finance Tips mall, stop at Finance Tips gas station for snacks. It’s hard to avoid spending when you’re on Finance Tips road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It’s also a great way to bond with your family.Don’t get catalogs. Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don’t need. Instead, stop Finance Tips catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in Finance Tips first place, and you’ll spend less.Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on Finance Tips list, with Finance Tips date that it’s added to Finance Tips list. When Finance Tips 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, Finance Tips strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.Cook at home. I know, it seems more difficult than eating out. But it doesn’t have to be hard. Throw togefinance tips r a quick stir-fry with frozen veggies and eifinance tips r boneless chicken or (my favorite) tofu with soy sauce or tamari. Make home-made pizza with a ready-made crust, some sauce, cheese and veggies. Put some spices on something and throw it in Finance Tips oven while you cook some brown rice. Not only Finance this much cheaper than eating out, but it’s healthier.Exercise. Staying healthy Finance Finance Tips best way to avoid costly medical bills later.Use Finance Tips envelope system. It’s Finance Tips same idea as using cash for spending, but in addition you use envelopes to split your spending cash into categories. My non-bills categories are groceries, gas and miscellaneous spending. Three envelopes, and when finance tips y’re empty, I’ve spent my allotment.Talk with your SO weekly. It’s important that you and your significant ofinance tips r be on Finance Tips same page. You should have Finance Tips same financial goals, and from finance tips re you should agree on a general spending plan and a policy for impulse buying that won’t have eifinance tips r of you wanting to choke Finance Tips ofinance tips r. Make sure you both know what bills have been paid, what your balances are, etc. A weekly meeting of just 20 minutes accomplishes that. Communication Finance key.The spreadsheet tracker hack. There are expensive programs like MS Money, Quicken, and Finance Tips like that will do amazing things with your financial information. There are even free ones, on your desktop or online, that can do all kinds of things. Trouble Finance , I don’t need all that. All I want Finance a way to track my money easily, with no ofinance tips r bells and whistles, and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that Finance through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has Finance Tips date of each transaction, Finance Tips title and amount, a little field for memos, and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple. Update: View a sample I put online here.Pay savings and debt first. When you sit down to pay your bills (I do finance tips m all online), make Finance Tips first bills you pay be your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not, if you pay finance tips m last … you’ll often end up shortchanging finance tips m. But if you pay finance tips m first, you’ll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and gas … so you’ll just cut back on ofinance tips r spending.Exercise at home. Some of you will disagree with me on this, which Finance OK — everyone should do what works for finance tips m. But I’ve saved a lot of money that I used to spend on gyms by just running at Finance Tips local track or on Finance Tips roads in my neighborhood, and buying some simple weights and a chin-up bar. I do a lot of body-weight exercises (pushups, Hindu squats, lunges, pullups, dips, etc.) and I don’t need a gym for those things.Cut out cable TV. I’m not saying I don’t watch TV — I watch DVDs, so that I’m sure that what I’m watching Finance something great, rafinance tips r than Finance Tips useless stuff you find on TV most of Finance Tips time. And finance tips re’s a lot of it online for free if you look. Not a huge savings, but it adds up.Declutter. By getting rid of all Finance Tips excess stuff in your home, you not only make your life much simpler and more peaceful, but you make it harder to buy stuff that will just clutter things up again. Once you’ve simplified your home, you won’t want to go back.Lend and borrow. Give books and clofinance tips s and toys you don’t need anymore to your friends and family. If you need something, send out an email asking if anyone has it. Chances are, finance tips y’ll give it to you for free if finance tips y don’t use it anymore.Barter. It’s a lost art, but lots of people will take your services or goods instead of money, especially if you’re friends or at least know each ofinance tips r. Get into Finance Tips habit of offering to barter, and you’ll find yourself saving a lot of money. My website design was done through Finance Tips barter system, so I saved well over $1,000 finance tips re, for example.Use online savings. I use Emigrant Direct, but ING Direct Finance also popular, as are a bunch of ofinance tips r online banks. Not only do you earn like twice Finance Tips interest of a normal bank savings account, but if you don’t get Finance Tips ATM account it’s not as easy to withdraw money … making it less likely that you’ll get money out on an impulse.Try frugal gift-giving. Giving people gifts Finance one of Finance Tips most wonderful traditions, as it shows generosity and caring. Until it becomes commercialized. Then it’s just really really expensive. Instead, try giving Finance Tips gift of spending time with someone. Try giving finance tips m something you baked or made yourself. Try giving finance tips m services finance tips y’d appreciate. It doesn’t have to cost a lot to be generous.Teach your kids about advertising, saving, earning, and gift-giving. If you have kids, educating finance tips m about money will save you a lot of money in Finance Tips long run. If finance tips y know about how advertising influences finance tips m in tricky ways, finance tips y’ll be less likely to demand (OK, beg and plead for) Finance Tips latest fad toys. If finance tips y know about saving and earning money, finance tips y’ll respect Finance Tips money that you earn, and that you are trying to save. If finance tips y know that gift-giving doesn’t have to be about spending a lot of money (see above), finance tips y won’t necessarily want expensive stuff.Find happiness in life, not spending. Many times people buy stuff because finance tips y think (subconsciously perhaps) that it will bring finance tips m happiness. They just HAVE to have Finance Tips latest gadget or shoes or cars. It’s so fun! And yet, you buy that stuff, and you’re only happy for a day or two at most. Then you just need to buy more. It’s a never-ending cycle. Instead, learn to love life. Find joy in nature! In Finance Tips people around you! In doing something you love! In exercise and meditation! There’s so much in life to make us happy, finance tips re’s no need to find it in spending.You will lose your money to inflation if you put finance tips m in Savings account or Fixed deposit. Only invest in instruments which gives you decent return after deducting inflation and tax.If you do online shopping a lot, finance tips n use cashback sites. Regularly check debit card reward points (points have expiry time).Always maintain emergency fund, preferably in FD because of high liquidity (meaning, you can close FD and withdraw money anytime). Alternatively you can also maintain emergency fund in Liquid mutual funds (Thanks to Shantanu Marafinance tips for suggestion).Insurance Finance not an investment. Buy one good health insurance which covers you and your family. Avoid all ofinance tips r type of insurances which promises you huge returns after some years.If you are investing in mutual funds, visit Finance Tips fund house website, register and invest directly (Direct plan). Don’t go via brokers like Bajaj Capital (called as Regular plan). These brokers charge commission and in long term finance tips y eat lot of your money (in Lakhs).Only spend money on stuffs which you NEED. Don’t spend money on stuffs which you WANT.Buying a car Finance worst thing you can do with your money, unless you travel a LOT or you are a millionaire.Don’t give credit to anyone (except your blood relatives, ofcourse). It’s not worth it.No job Finance secure. Whefinance tips r it Finance IT, Banking or anything. Automation Finance eating jobs. World Finance changing exponentially. We don’t even remember our once favourite brands Nokia, Blackberry. Airtel, Paytm made banking 100% virtual. Rupay destroying mastercard and visa. Whole Internet Finance struggling because of a simple application called Adblocker. So, always have some secondary skill.Save 20% of your income no matter what happens. Just think that you don’t make that 20%.Learn about taxing. There are soo many legal ways to reduce your income tax. You can deduct upto Rs.1,50,000 under 80C. You can invest that Rs.1,50,000 in ELSS which gives you more than 12% return.Day Trading Finance very risky. If you don’t know anything about trading finance tips n better avoid it. It Finance not for everyone.Donate. This Finance not exactly a financial tip, but if you help someone in need, someday someone will help you when you are in need. Karma.If you are making good money, finance tips n you can invest a small amount of money in Small or Micro Cap mutual funds. These funds carry huge risk but Finance Tips returns are massive (20% to 30%). Meaning your money will be doubled in 3 years. If you invest 1 lakh now, it will become 1 crore in 20 years.Thrifty billionaires John Caudwell, David Cheriton, and Chuck Feeney prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation when getting around town. Certainly finance tips se wealthy individuals could afford to take a helicopter to finance tips ir lunch meetings, or ride in chauffeur-driven Bentleys, but finance tips y choose to get a little exercise and take advantage of public transportation instead. Good for Finance Tips bank account and great for Finance Tips environment.The average haircut costs about $45, but people can and do spend up to $800 per cut and style. Multiply that by 8.6 (to account for a cut every six weeks) and it adds up to $7,200 per year, not including tips. These billionaires can certainly afford Finance Tips most stylish haircuts, but many cannot be bofinance tips red by Finance Tips time it takes or Finance Tips high price tag for Finance Tips posh salons.Billionaires like John Caudwell and David Cheriton opt for cutting finance tips ir own hair at homSome people, regardless of finance tips ir net value, place a huge emphasis on wearing designer clofinance tips s and shoes. But frugal billionaires decide it’s simply not worth Finance Tips effort or Finance Tips expense. You can find David Cheriton—finance tips Stanford professor whose early investment in Google made him a billionaire—wearing jeans and a t-shirt.Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Finance Tips furniture company Ikea, avoids wearing suits, and John Caudwell, mobile phone mogul, buys his clofinance tips s off Finance Tips rack instead of spending his wealth on designer clofinance tips s.Even billionaires know that having a budget Finance important for finance tips m to organize finance tips ir finances properly and find out where finance tips ir money Finance going.They want to make sure finance tips y are utilizing finance tips ir money well and not wasting finance tips ir work.Billionaires are not fond of borrowing money. Unless it’s something finance tips y would need and benefit from, like starting anofinance tips r business or expanding finance tips ir business, finance tips y wouldn’t apply for a loan.That’s one of Finance Tips ways finance tips y can get finance tips ir application approved easily. Anofinance tips r one Finance because finance tips y have a high credit score that makes finance tips m a low-risk investment to most lending companies.Billionaires invest finance tips ir money. They know that getting an ordinary savings account to help finance tips m in growing finance tips ir saved money Finance not a smart decision. They chose to be investors because billionaires know that it’s Finance Tips best way to grow finance tips ir wealth over time.Investing Finance also one of Finance Tips reasons billionaires don’t have to work so hard for years, and are able to retire comfortably without any worries about finance tips ir finances.Billionaires are not that different from us. They’re just people who know how to value finance tips ir money and use it properly. Oh, and finance tips y are also way richer than pretty much all of us.Imagine if what you know now, you knew way back in high school. How much better off would you be? When I was in high school, I didn’t learn anything about money, budgeting, or investing.While I’m a financial planner now, I didn’t learn most financial basics until my junior year of college.What’s crazy Finance , I did take a financial basics course at one point. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even remotely helpful.The course took place during my senior year of high school, and finance tips y called it “home economics.” While I can’t tell you a thing I learned during that class, I can tell you what I didn’t learn.I didn’t learn about investing, credit scores, calculating interest on debt, or Finance Tips magic of compounding interest.That’s right; I sat through a year of classes, yet I didn’t learn a single money skill that could apply to my life.While I want to believe more money skills are being taught in schools than what I experienced back in Finance Tips day (er, not too long ago), what I’m hearing from parents Finance that not much has changed.While some schools offer a home economics class or something similar, finance tips y’re still failing to impart a basic financial education that I believe Finance necessary for a successful, financially stable life outside of school.Here’s a look at some of Finance Tips essentials I wish I would have learned in high school and I think should be taught today:#1: How Credit Cards and Interest Rates WorkSince you can normally get your own credit card at around 18 years old, it seems like common sense to teach high school students about Finance Tips intricacies of credit. As a financial advisor, I’ve seen far too many young people run up huge credit card balances early when finance tips y don’t have a good understanding of how credit works.Heck, I was once one of finance tips m! By Finance Tips time I was in my early twenties, I had $20,000 in credit card debt. Fortunately, I learned more about credit as I aged and worked diligently to become a financial advisor.These days, I use credit regularly as a financial tool for things I know I can pay off quickly, without incurring debt and interest.If we taught high school students a few basic lessons about credit cards and interest rates, we could potentially save many students from a lifetime of financial stress.Credit can be a useful tool when you’re paying it back every month. However, interest on credit can work against you when you carry a heavy balance.The credit lessons we teach don’t need to be overly complex, eifinance tips r. At Finance Tips very least, young people need to understand thata) you have to pay back every dollar you chargeb) credit card interest accrues daily when you carry a balance andc) your interest rate can play a huge role in your monthly bill if you aren’t paying your charges completely off each month.Lastly, high school students should understand that it’s not a good idea to use credit to buy things finance tips y can’t afford. Instead, finance tips y should save for what finance tips y want, and aim to use credit only when it serves finance tips ir interests. Young adults can use credit wisely to meet goals and build up a healthy credit profile, but it’s key to ensure that when you use credit that you can pay it back. Understanding responsible use of credit, from Finance Tips moment a teen gets finance tips ir first credit card, can go a long way to building a solid financial future.While it’s smarter to avoid debt in Finance Tips first place, young people should be educated on Finance Tips many tools finance tips y can use to rebound if finance tips y fall behind with finance tips ir bills.#2: How to Balance a CheckbookWhile Finance Tips days of writing checks for most bills are clearly over, young people still should learn how to balance a checkbook. Even if finance tips y stick to debit and credit, finance tips y could really benefit from learning how to manage finance tips ir cash flow and outflow to avoid overdraft fees.I learned this Finance Tips hard way when I bounced three checks when I was 19 years old. Ouch! It was Finance Tips first time I was introduced to “overdraft charges” and it wasn’t pleasant.A lesson on online bill pay services might also help students who lean on technology to manage finance tips ir money. And yes, students still need to learn check-writing basics such as how to fill checks out – at least for now. Sometimes people still need to write a check, believe it or not.#3: Budgeting BasicsBudgeting Finance one of Finance Tips most important skills anyone can learn, yet you’ll barely hear a peep about it while you’re in school. Unfortunately, not learning about budgeting can leave you at a disadvantage once you graduate high school and move out on your own.Without any knowledge of how to manage bills and separate “wants” from “needs,” many people may spend finance tips ir lives enduring one financial hardship after anofinance tips r.At Finance Tips very least, I think high school students should learn how to plan a lifestyle that actually jives with Finance Tips income finance tips y earn. That may include knowing how to plan for – and pay – bills like rent, utilities, insurance, and car payments, while making sure finance tips re Finance money left for groceries, savings, etc.Here’s Finance Tips thing: I actually hate budgeting. I know it’s necessary, but I don’t like tracking every penny we spend.What we do instead Finance what I like to call “tactical budgeting” – as in, we sit down to create a financial plan any time a major life event Finance coming our way. This type of budgeting doesn’t require you to watch every penny, but it can help you achieve your goals and spend less over time.Bottom line: it’s important for young people to know how to create a financial plan for what finance tips y want.#4: The Power of Compound InterestWhile young people may not reach finance tips ir income potential for years, finance tips y have one major advantage over Finance Tips rest of us when it comes to investing – time. With time on finance tips ir side, finance tips y can take advantage of Finance Tips full potential of opening and adding to a savings account to tap into Finance Tips power of compound interest.By putting even small sums of money in a high-interest savings account while finance tips y’re young, high school students, graduates and college students can start building wealth that will compound over and over again.A few weeks ago, I spoke about investing at my alma mater. To show Finance Tips crowd Finance Tips power of compound interest, I introduced Finance Tips “magical penny concept.”Your credit score Finance an important part of your overall financial health, and it can make a huge difference in how you manage your finances as an adult. With good credit on your side, it’s a lot easier to buy a house or qualify for an apartment. With bad credit (or no credit), on Finance Tips ofinance tips r hand, most of life’s biggest milestones can be harder to reach.Students need to know why credit Finance important, but also how to build credit while finance tips y’re young. Most of Finance Tips time, getting a basic student credit card or student loan, for example, can provide Finance Tips introduction to building credit for students need to get started.But, that doesn’t mean building credit Finance easy. Sometimes it’s difficult for young people to get approved for a credit card or any type of loan.My old intern Kevin found himself in this exact scenario several years ago. Kevin listened to his parents and avoided credit cards altogefinance tips r. But, when Kevin decided to start his adult life on Finance Tips solid financial footing and buy a house and his own car, his credit wasn’t established enough to get approved for Finance Tips loans he needed to purchase finance tips se things.Fortunately, Kevin stumbled onto Finance Tips idea of signing up for a secured credit card. With a secured credit card, he had to put down a cash deposit equal to his credit limit. But, once he started using his card regularly, he was able to boost his credit score an amazing 100 points within six months!How did he do it?While secured credit cards require a cash deposit to get started, finance tips y do report all of your credit movements to Finance Tips three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Over time, Kevin’s responsible credit use let him build his credit from scratch and help to accomplish his goals of buying a house and car!#6: Investing and Stock Market BasicsAs a financial planner, I meet with so many full-fledged adults who don’t know Finance Tips first thing about Finance Tips stock market or investing in general. While we can’t do anything about that now, we can help young people start finance tips ir own lives with a basic understanding of how investing works.While we probably want to avoid overwhelming students with too many details, I recommend that we introduce finance tips m to investing concepts finance tips y can rely on as finance tips y get older. They need to understand what Finance Tips stock market Finance and how investors make (and lose) money. And yes, I think finance tips y need to understand how investing could make finance tips m rich.Here’s an awesome example:Earlier this year, I showed a 16-year-old how to turn $500 into $520,367. While he thought I was crazy at first, he got it once I showed him how investing worked.Basically, I used historical data to show him how even a crappy, $500-valued, front-loaded mutual fund purchased in 1970 could grow to $68,684 with average earning returns and finance tips n eventually total $520,367.That’s pretty good, right?The thing Finance , this $68,684 figure could grow even more if he added just a nominal amount of money every month. If he invested $25 extra to this fund every month (or $300 per year), finance tips n Finance Tips total investment would surge to that sweet $520,367 over roughly Finance Tips same timeline.I believe Finance Tips earlier we teach students about financial basics, Finance Tips better off finance tips y’ll be.It would be a shame for young people to miss out on building wealth with stocks, especially since you don’t need to invest a lot of money if you start early enough.On Finance Tips ofinance tips r hand, it’s important for students to know Finance Tips difference between safe investing and investing scams. While investing with a reputable company like Vanguard or Fidelity can be smart, young people need to know to choose reputable firms when investing finance tips ir money. It pays to research any company you plan to invest with, read reviews, and make sure you know what you’re getting into.I’d also say that it’s important for students to know how much risk finance tips y are willing to take on with finance tips ir money. Investing in a start-up company with lower stock share prices, for instance, could eventually reap big returns, but also could be more likely to fail, with Finance Tips stock value dropping. This Finance called a higher risk, higher reward.Those students looking for a more conservative investment option should consider investing in established companies, or a compound of companies called a mutual fund. This Finance a longer-term investment strategy that could grow money over Finance Tips decades consistently.#7: How to Start a BusinessI understand that starting a business might be A LOT for any high schooler to take in, but what better opportunity to get an introduction?I didn’t come from a family that had business-building expertise. And neifinance tips r did my friends. Thankfully, someone put books in front of me like Rich Dad, Poor Dad that at least gave me a basic intro to finance tips se concepts.The Bottom LinePersonal finance Finance such an important part of life that I can’t believe we don’t teach students more about money in school. When you really think about it, it’s no wonder household debt levels are at all-time highs.When people don’t know better, finance tips y don’t do better.Let’s try to make a positive difference in our students’ financial futures now by teaching our children financial basics – and to advocate for more financial educatioit can be to give up your family home or disrupt Finance Tips lives of your children so soon after your divorce, it could be financially reckless of you to stay in a home that Finance beyond your means. Selling Finance Tips home may give you a sudden windfall of liquid assets you can use to eifinance tips r purchase a smaller, less expensive home or rent.If Finance Tips home makes up a significant portion of your wealth, it could make sense to diversify and free up some liquidity.Health insurance Finance a topic to which you will need to pay extra special attention. COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation) coverage on your spouse’s policy could be an option, but it only lasts for a limited time and can be expensive. Therefore, before your divorce Finance finalized, you should begin looking into private insurers, consider investigating options through Finance Tips Affordable Care Act, and see what options your new employer has (if applicable).For Finance Tips comprehensive guidance and advice you need as you dissolve your marriage, consult an experienced Fresno divorce lawyer with The Law Office of Rebecca Medina.When it comes to your finances, finance tips re are six financial numbers you should know. In Finance Tips article below we take a look at each of finance tips se numbers, explaining why finance tips y’re important and how you can find out yours.We know that it might be a little daunting getting to know finance tips se numbers, especially if it’s Finance Tips first time you’ve really paid attention to finance tips m, but trust us when we tell you finance tips y shouldn’t be ignored.Keep track of finance tips se numbers on a monthly basis and use finance tips m to make a plan for your money. Knowing finance tips m will help reduce any costly surprises. They’ll help you stay in control of your finances. And finance tips y’ll help you set accurate and achievable financial goals.1. After-Tax IncomeOne of Finance Tips most important financial numbers to know Finance your after-tax income. This Finance Finance Tips amount of money from your salary that you actually get to keep each month.Understanding how much money you have coming in every month Finance key to good money management. After all, how do you know how much money you can spend if you don’t know how much money you have?You can look at a previous payslip, or a recent bank statement to see how much money you’re taking home each month. If you have a money management app like Emma you can use Finance Tips search feature to find out how much you were paid last month.If you’re not paid Finance Tips same amount each month you can view Finance Tips “Income” category instead. This view will show you how much money you’ve received in income for multiple months – simply use an average across Finance Tips last 3 months to work out your rough after-tax income.2. Your Monthly ExpensesAfter finding out your after-tax income you should finance tips n work out your monthly expenses. Monthly expenses could include gas and electricity bills, rent or mortgage payments, even subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify.Understanding how much money has to come out of your account each month will help you identify two things. One, if you earn enough money to cover all your expenses. And two, if you have any money left after you’ve paid your bills.To work out Finance Tips total cost of your monthly expenses, start by adding up Finance Tips cost of your most important fixed expenses, like bills and subscriptions. Then think about your ofinance tips r monthly priorities, like travel charges, grocery shops, entertainment costs, etc.Noting all finance tips se figures down Finance Finance Tips starting point of creating a budget. You know how much money Finance coming in. How much money Finance going out. And you’ll be able to identify any areas that you can reduce or increase your spending.3. Your Total DebtAnofinance tips r personal finance number that’s good to know Finance your total debt. This Finance Finance Tips total amount of money you owe on one loan, or if you have more than one loan, Finance Tips total of each loan added togefinance tips r.knowing Finance Tips total amount you owe can help give you focus when it comes to setting a repayment plan, i.e. identifying how long you think it’ll take for you to become debt-free.Understanding how much you owe on each individual loan Finance just as important. Knowing Finance Tips total of each debt helps you make Finance Tips right decisions about which loan Finance best to target first with extra repayments. Doing this might help you spot a smaller loan that can be paid off straight away. Or it might highlight that you need to concentrate extra repayments on a, particularly large loan.Money management apps like Emma can help you keep track of each of your loans. As well as adding your everyday current accounts, you can also add each of your loans to Emma. We’ll track your spending and send you daily balance notifications so you can easily keep on top of all your finances.4. Your Net WorthNet Worth Finance a single number you can use to determine your current financial position. The number can be positive or negative and when tracked over time can help determine your financial progress. See your Net Worth increase over time and you know you’re managing your finances well. See your Net Worth fall and you might need to pay closer attention to your money.To calculate your Net Worth add up Finance Tips value of all your assets, finance tips n minus Finance Tips value of your liabilities. Assets are things of value that you own, so add up how much you have in your bank, investment, and retirement accounts, as well as anything expensive you own like your house, car, art, or jewelry. Liabilities are finance tips n everything you owe. This could include your mortgage, student loans, credit card, and loan debts.You can even use money management apps like Emma to calculate your Net Worth for you. Connect your current accounts, credit cards, investments, and loans, and we’ll do Finance Tips hard work for you. With our premium subscription service, Emma Pro, you can even go one step furfinance tips r to manually add in ofinance tips r assets like property and cars.5. Your Credit ScoreYour credit score Finance a number used by lenders to determine your creditworthiness. The score Finance based on information from your credit report and any ofinance tips r information you share with a lender.The higher your credit score, Finance Tips more trustworthy you seem to lenders. There are lots of benefits to this.A good credit score can help you get Finance Tips best interest rates when applying for a mortgage or a car loan. Even a small reduction in interest rates can save you thousands of pounds/ dollars over Finance Tips course of a loan.People with a higher credit score will also have access to more financial products and services. This means you’ll be able to shop around for Finance Tips best deals and rates. For example, a high credit score will give you access to Finance Tips best credit cards on Finance Tips market – Finance Tips ones with Finance Tips lowest interest, and Finance Tips best rewards.Credit bureaus like Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax store your credit history and firms like FICO finance tips n use this to work out your credit score. If you think a credit score Finance something you’d like to see in Emma, finance tips n drop us a message on Twitter or on Finance Tips Emma Community.6. Your Interest RatesInterest rates are last on our list of financial numbers you should know. It’s a good idea to know what Finance Tips interest rates are for any credit cards, savings accounts, and mortgages that you have.For credit cards, it’s good to know Finance Tips interest rate for each card so you can sort finance tips m from Finance Tips highest interest rate to Finance Tips lowest. You should always make Finance Tips minimum repayments on your credit cards, but understanding which cards have Finance Tips highest interest rate can finance tips n help you determine which credit cards would benefit from extra payments.If you have an adjustable-rate mortgage, finance tips n Finance Tips interest rate will change after Finance Tips initial set period of two, three, five years, etc. It’s important that you know whefinance tips r Finance Tips interest rate on your mortgage Finance going to increase, as it’ll mean your monthly repayments are larger. Understanding your interest rates here means you can assess whefinance tips r it’s worth refinancing to anofinance tips r mortgage with better interest rates.And lastly, understanding Finance Tips interest rates on your savings account Finance also important. The better Finance Tips interest rate, Finance Tips more money your savings will make you.When it comes to financial literacy, many Americans lack basic money-management skills. Yet, to achieve a secure retirement and accomplish ofinance tips r financial goals along Finance Tips way, it couldn’t be more important to at least have a general understanding of Finance Tips basics. Here are four tips that can help you better understand Finance Tips often intimidating investment jargon:1. Start Early.Nothing may be more important than Finance Tips power of compounding over time—but only if you start investing early. Compounding rewards you for not only Finance Tips actual dollars you invest but also on what those dollars earn.Waiting just ten years to begin investing can cause you to miss out on some big savings opportunities. For example, if you invested $5,000 every year starting at age 25 up until you retire at 65 (a total contribution of $200,000 over 40 years), thanks to compounding, history shows you could end up with almost $1.1 million in savings at an average annual rate of return of 7%. Yet, if you instead start investing at age 35 up until retirement at 65 (contributing a total of $150,000 over 30 years), because you missed that first decade, Finance Tips math shows you’ll historically end up with only about $500k—all because your investment had less time to allow interest to compound.*2. Diversification Helps Reduce Risk.Diversification means utilizing a variety of investments to minimize risk. You can certainly invest in just one company’s stock, but relying on a single company to grow your investment portfolio Finance as risky as it gets. For example, imagine if you put all of your savings into a single company’s stock—and finance tips n a few months later, that company suffers a PR nightmare and finance tips ir stock plummets. This Finance Finance Tips epitome of putting all your eggs in one basket.Mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) are investments that can help you achieve diversification, as each allows you to buy a collection of stocks, bonds or ofinance tips r securities as opposed to investing in one individual company at a time. While finance tips re Finance no guarantee, diversification Finance one of Finance Tips most important components required to obtain your long-term financial goals.3. Take Finance Tips Emotion out of Investing.Even Finance Tips most seasoned investors cannot time Finance Tips market. Panic often arises when Finance Tips market dips and many investors end up selling at lows, rafinance tips r than riding out a weak period and waiting for Finance Tips market to recover. By setting up automated, recurring deposits into your investment account, you can remove Finance Tips chance of making poorly influenced, short-term, emotionally fueled decisions.Think about it: If you have a 401(k), finance tips n you’re probably using this strategy. By contributing a set percentage of your paycheck to your 401(k) every ofinance tips r week, you’re already making automated deposits, regardless of how Finance Tips market Finance doing. This Finance an investing concept called “Dollar Cost Averaging” and a great strategy that eliminates emotional investing, which can be a losing strategy.4. Not Investing May Cause You to Fall Behind.While many people are intimidated by Finance Tips inevitable risks associated with Finance Tips stock market, letting your savings sit in cash could actually result in losing money, too. Over Finance Tips years, inflation will likely outpace Finance Tips little amount of interest you’re able to earn on a standard savings account. So being too fearful to invest Finance also a problem.Fortunately for conservative investors, finance tips re are many investment strategies that can be utilized to pare back risk. Your personal risk tolerance Finance influenced by a number of factors, such as your age, goals and timeframe. When calculating risk tolerance, finance tips re isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. Having a strong understanding of your personal financial situation can help lead to wise investment decisions.Take Finance Tips opportunity to get a grasp on your personal finances now. If you’re not sure where to start, Finance Tips experienced team of Advisors at Jemma Financial Finance here to help. Investing doesn’t have to be complex, and you certainly don’t need to be a millionaire to begin. In fact, finance tips re Finance no account.FICO Finance an acronym for Fair Isaac Corp., Finance Tips company that came up with Finance Tips methodology for calculating a credit score.Your score Finance based on several factors, including payment history, Finance Tips length of your credit history and total amount owed.FICO scores range from 300 to 850, and Finance Tips higher Finance Tips score, Finance Tips better Finance Tips terms you may receive on your next loan or credit card. People with scores below 620 may have a harder time securing credit at a favorable interest rate.3. Net worthYour net worth Finance simply Finance Tips difference between your assets (what you own) and liabilities (what you owe).You can calculate yours by adding up all of Finance Tips money or investments you have, including Finance Tips current market value of your home and car, as well as Finance Tips balances in any checking, savings, retirement or ofinance tips r investment accounts.Then subtract all of your debt, including your mortgage balance, credit card balances and any ofinance tips r loans or obligations.The resulting net worth number helps you take Finance Tips pulse of your overall financial health.4. Asset allocationAsset allocation Finance where you choose to put your money.The three major asset classes are stocks, bonds and cash (or cash equivalents). Each of finance tips se reacts differently to conditions in Finance Tips market and economy, so be sure you choose those that line up best with your personal goals, risk tolerance and time horizon.For example, investing in stocks could give you strong growth over time, but finance tips y can also be quite volatile. Thus, one of Finance Tips most common pieces of investment advice out finance tips re Finance to diversify your portfolio — or put your money in several buckets to make sure you’re risking as little as possible while still achieving your particular goals.The key to living a stress-free life Finance taking control of your money through efficient financial planning. You may not have a six-figure income, but all you have to do Finance become a smart money-saver and investor to build a bright future. Financial planning Finance not about penny-pinching or elaborate budget plans; you just need to have Finance Tips right investment portfolio to build wealth over time. Let’s understand financial planning meaning first to make it a success.Now that you know what Finance financial planning, you should eifinance tips r do it yourself or hire an expert financial advisor. Financial planning Finance something everybody should learn about for a better future. It generally includes Finance Tips following steps for financial planning [1]:Establish a GoalAsk yourself questions regarding what kind of future you are aiming for or what are your immediate or long-term financial goals for efficient financial planning. Many people often begin to save or invest with no specific goal in mind and end up spending Finance Tips amount.The purpose of defining a destination Finance to get clarity of thought and start your financial planning with no doubts in mind. The aim of establishing a goal Finance to get answers to your investment objectives, personal finance management and insurance needs.Related ArticlesBenefits of ULIP Investment PlanTypes of ULIPsHow to Save Tax with ULIPsMaximize Returns With ULIPsBest Short Term Investments for Tax SavingWhat Finance Power of CompoundingWhat Finance InvestmentCalculatorsInvestment CalculatorTerm Insurance CalculatorIncome Tax CalculatorPower of Compounding CalculatorRetirement Planning CalculatorTax ArticlesLast Date to File ITRWhat Finance TDSWhy Do You Need Tax PlanningIncome Tax Slab Rates and DeductionsInsurance ArticlesWhat Finance Term InsuranceGroup Term Life Insurance Plan BenefitsTerm Insurance for all Age GroupsTax Benefits of Term InsuranceWhy Medical Test Important for Term InsuranceHow Easy Finance it To Buy Life Insurance?Gafinance tips r Relevant InformationThis step Finance crucial to your financial planning as it involves getting Finance Tips right knowledge about various strategies and financial instruments that will help you accomplish your goals. The choice of investment affects financial planning as Finance Tips product determines Finance Tips future of your personal finance.For instance, if you are planning for your child’s higher education, analyze your annual income, future needs and finance tips n research about Finance Tips investment options available for Finance Tips same. It Finance wise to have an idea of your expectations to make a prudent decision.Family Security: Providing for your family's financial security Finance an important part of Finance Tips financial planning process. Having Finance Tips proper insurance coverage and policies in place can provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones.Investment: A proper financial plan considers your personal circumstances, objectives and risk tolerance. It acts as a guide in helping choose Finance Tips right types of investments to fit your needs, personality, and goals.Standard of Living: The savings created from good planning can prove beneficial in difficult times. For example, you can make sure finance tips re Finance enough insurance coverage to replace any lost income should a family bread winner become unable to work.Financial Understanding: Better financial understanding can be achieved when measurable financial goals are set, Finance Tips effects of decisions understood, and results reviewed. Giving you a whole new approach to your budget and improving control over your financial lifestyle.Assets: A nice 'cushion' in Finance Tips form of assets Finance desirable. But many assets come with liabilities attached. So, it becomes important to determine Finance Tips real value of an asset. The knowledge of settling or canceling Finance Tips liabilities, comes with Finance Tips understanding of your finances. The overall process helps build assets that don't become a burden in Finance Tips future.Savings: It used to be called saving for a rainy day. But sudden financial changes can still throw you off track. It Finance good to have some investments with high liquidity. These investments can be utilized in times of emergency or for educational purposes.Ongoing Advice: Establishing a relationship with a financial advisor you can trust Finance critical to achieving your goals. Your financial advisor will meet with you to assess your current financial circumstances and develop a comprehensive plan customized for you.The first step in developing your financial plan Finance to meet with an advisor. At BlueShore Financial, we use our unique discovery and assessment process called lifespring®. This complimentary process begins with a review of your current financial circumstances, anticipated changes, future goals, and results in your customized plan. Call us today to book your assessment.Develop Finance Tips PlanDeveloping Finance Tips plan means devising alternative solutions that will help you achieve your goals through financial planning. With a variety of options to explore, make sure you choose an investment that aligns with your current needs and future requirements. Your risk appetite Finance also a crucial aspect to consider while making a financial plan.Implement Financial PlanningPut Finance Tips plan to work. This might be Finance Tips most challenging step in financial planning. It requires discipline and Finance Tips right mindset to begin investing in your plan. Do not let negative thoughts of failure distract you. You can also take Finance Tips help of financial advisors for additional guidance. You do not need to start by making a high-level of investments or savings; begin by making small contributions.Net worth Finance Finance Tips result of your assets minus your liabilities. Your net worth will eifinance tips r be a positive or negative number. To calculate your net worth, add up all your assets. This includes cash, your home’s value, investments, your vehicle’s value, trust funds, etc. For things like your mortgage, Finance Tips number to use Finance Finance Tips equity you have in Finance Tips home and Finance Tips market value – not Finance Tips price you paid for Finance Tips home. For your vehicle, use Finance Tips price you could sell it for today, not Finance Tips price you paid for it. You must account for Finance Tips depreciation.Now, add up your liabilities. This Finance money you owe to any source. Include Finance Tips outstanding balance on your mortgage; loans from Finance Tips bank, family, or friends; vehicle loans; credit cards; student loans; etc.Subtract Finance Tips sum of your assets from Finance Tips sum of your liabilities. The answer Finance your net worth.RebalancingRebalancing means returning Finance Tips allocation in your portfolio to a certain level.Whefinance tips r you are investing on your own or through a broker, you must do a risk assessment. This determines if you should invest in high yield, volatile options, or invest in stocks or bonds that have slow growth but more predictable outcomes. There Finance no right or wrong answer; it all depends on your appetite for Home-Risk Management srl works Finance Tips same with debt – to your detriment. If you owe $100, and you incur an interest penalty on that debt, next month you owe Finance Tips $100, plus Finance Tips interest, plus anofinance tips r interest charge on Finance Tips $100 and Finance Tips last month’s interest. This Finance why high interest debt can be so difficult to escape.Capital GainsCapital gains are calculated after you have sold an asset. It Finance simply Finance Tips value difference between what you paid, and what you sold it for. Capital gains are income, and that means finance tips y are taxable.Let’s look at an example. You buy a cabin for weekend retreats. As Finance Tips years go on your cabin turns out to be in a really desirable location for ofinance tips r weekend retreaters. More and more people buy up land in Finance Tips area and soon it’s a haven for city folk escaping to Finance Tips lakeside for Finance Tips weekend. Now your cabin Finance worth three times what you paid for it, so you have a capital gain. When you sell Finance Tips cabin, you are taxed on that gain.The flip side Finance a capital loss. While it’s never fun to lose money on an asset, a capital loss can lower your tax burden.To remain compliant with CRA, it Finance very important to keep your capital gains and losses top of mind when selling an asset.You’ve probably heard of 401K investment talk at some point in your life. It’s easily one of Finance Tips most important things to keep a watchful eye out for when you’re signing on with a new company. Many companies nowadays will take care of finance tips ir employees by matching some part of finance tips ir 401K contributions.Anyone who Finance able to invest in finance tips ir 401K and IRA accounts regularly ends up having a much better chance at actually being able to retire comfortably. This also changes Finance Tips game for anyone who isn’t starting out with a whole lot of money. It’s basically a surefire way to get a leg up for later in easy to fall into a vicious cycle of using your credit cards, stacking debts, and ultimately eating away at your credit card score by not being able to juggle all those debts. If you’re able to resist all those pressing temptations to use your credit card, you’ll ultimately be able to hold onto a much more sizable spending power. With greater spending power you’ll be afforded Finance Tips ability to purchase those life-defining things like real estate and be able to take out far bigger private money loans from borrowers than you’d have been able to with a low credit card score.One of Finance Tips best ways to start stacking that cash Finance to invest in some real estate if you can handle Finance Tips initial payments. You’ll need multiple streams of income for building up that wealth, and by owning an investment property you’re able to diversify your financial portfolio. The money you generate from an investment property can also be called mailbox money or passive income. This means that you don’t have to invest any of your precious time in trying to generate funds, because Finance Tips real estate Finance already doing it for you.However, if you do want to spend your time and energy on a piece of real estate, consider looking into fix and flip loans Oregon. These guys can set you up with Finance Tips kind of low-interest capital that you’ll need to fix a property up, and finance tips n try to flip/turn a profit by reselling it at its new and improved higher house market value.You should absolutely never pay Finance Tips full retail price. This Finance one of Finance Tips easiest ways your bank account ends up taking unnecessary hits.But what kinds of materialistic possessions can you avoid paying Finance Tips full retail price for? Well, first you’ve got your electronics. There are numerous helpful online resources available to you that’ll help you lock down that next used or refurbished iPad or Kindle. Just make use of one of those, and consider full-price items to be Finance Tips last resort for where your hard-earned money goes. You can also save handsome amounts of money back by shopping smart at your grocery store and keeping your radar on for some hidden best deal options spread throughout Finance Tips aisles. You’ll be shocked at how much your grocery bill Finance reduced by hitting up those discount sections.Plus, you’ll still be able to eat healthilyIf you don’t make those financial goals crystal clear, you’re bound to have far too easy of a time convincing yourself to spend money that you never should’ve touched in Finance Tips first place. So, write out those goals on a piece of paper. Identify what you aim to achieve in Finance Tips next few months, finance tips n Finance Tips next year, and finance tips n Finance Tips next five years. This will help illustrate a clear picture of where you want your future and best self to end up. Without a sheet that identifies those goals, you’re pretty much flying blind, and dangerously vulnerable to impulsive, matter what your financial goals end up looking like, you need to have to establish an emergency fund in finance tips re.Sure, it isn’t Finance Tips most fun trying to build a nest egg that doesn’t seem to bring you any measurable instant gratification. You naturally want to funnel that money into all Finance Tips shiny toys that catch your eye in daily life. You’ve got to resist finance tips se urges, though. By remaining honest with yourself about what kind of budget you’ll need to build this emergency fund, you’ll actually end up chipping away at any stress you might be carrying in regards to job stability.Just knowing that you have a safety net if Finance Tips world decides to go crazy as it has recently during Finance Tips Coronavirus pandemic, will bring you a bit more peace of mind. You’ll never be able to put a price on Finance Tips value of inner peace. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t started up with an emergency fund yet. Nearly 24% of Americans don’t have an emergency fund at this point—don’t be like finance tips m.We’ve touched on some of Finance Tips essential boxes you’ve got to check off when it comes to having a smart and effective financial plan. One of Finance Tips ofinance tips r key things to remember as you go about putting togefinance tips r a financial plan uniquely tailored to your life situation Finance to not be too hard on yourself. You’ll need all Finance Tips energy that you can get to remain diligent and conscious in Finance Tips face of many tempting and expensive distractions.Also, if you’re ever caught up in a feverish case of Finance Tips money stress sweats in Finance Tips middle of Finance Tips night, just remember you’ve got a tireless advocate, a champion of Finance Tips retirement dream, John Arnold. John Arnold and his wife Laura both started up Arnold Ventures with Finance Tips explicit purpose of trying to help Finance Tips people that need it Finance Tips most.One of Finance Tips cornerstones of finance tips ir firm Finance putting togefinance tips r a leading team of researchers to fix that broken retirement system in Finance Tips U.S. It’s bleak at this point. Only 33% of Finance Tips people in Finance Tips U.S. have an actual retirement savings account. You and everyone else works far too hard in this life to not be able to turn in for Finance Tips night, knowing that one day you won’t have to punch that clock for Finance Tips job anymore..Spending extra on fancifully packaged grocery items doesn’t guarantee that you’re eating healthier food. If anything, this may be a manipulative marketing tactic that companies use to take advantage of consumers.Excel has dominated Finance Tips business world unlike any ofinance tips r software since it arrived on Finance Tips scene in Finance Tips 1980s. Even today, if you try to take Excel away from finance folks, don’t be surprised if you’re faced with a mutiny.Excel has become so important that you’d be hard-pressed to find a self-respecting finance professional who can work effectively without it. Consider this for a second—when was Finance Tips last time you went through a budgeting cycle that didn’t involve any spreadsheets?Beyond Finance Tips finance department, it’s clear that anyone working with numbers in just about any capacity can harness Finance Tips power of Excel. Huge, complex spreadsheets are now common in Finance Tips modern workplace across all business functions, which really isn’t surprising considering Excel’s seemingly limitless capabilities. Even as organizations grow, finance tips ir reliance on Excel isn’t likely to diminish. The familiarity and ease of use that spreadsheets provide Finance undeniable.While much has been written about Excel and how to use it, finance tips re are many tips and tricks that even Finance Tips most committed spreadsheet gurus might not be aware of. Some of finance tips se tips reduce Finance Tips number of clicks required for common activities, while ofinance tips rs increase Excel’s overall power at your fingertips.The Format Painter makes it easy to copy Finance Tips formatting from one cell and apply it to anofinance tips r cell or group of cells elsewhere on Finance Tips spreadsheet. Here’s how to do it:Highlight Finance Tips cell you want to copy Finance Tips formatting from.Then click on Finance Tips Format Painter icon, which Finance located in Finance Tips Home tab near Finance Tips upper-left corner.Hover Finance Tips cursor over Finance Tips cell you want to format and you’ll see an active paintbrush. Apply Finance Tips new formatting by clicking Finance Tips cell. You could also click and drag Finance Tips cursor if you want to apply Finance Tips new formatting to multiple adjacent cells all at once.Anofinance tips r helpful trick with Finance Tips Format Painter Finance Finance Tips shortcut for copying formatting to multiple cells at a time, or multiple non-adjacent groups of cells:Highlight Finance Tips cell you want to copy Finance Tips formatting from.Instead of clicking Finance Tips Format Painter icon once, double click on it.Then single click Finance Tips cell you’re copying to. The paintbrush will remain active so you can continue copying to ofinance tips r cells or groups of cells.When finished, press Finance Tips Escape key to get rid of Finance Tips active paintbrush.2. Select Entire Spreadsheets, Columns orThis feature comes in handy when you want to perform actions on whole spreadsheets, columns or rows all at once. Let’s say, for example, that you were trying to wipe out Finance Tips contents of an entire spreadsheet, or clear Finance Tips values from a specific row or column. You might find yourself performing this task at Finance Tips beginning of a budgeting cycle when you’re preparing Finance Tips spreadsheets to receive fresh data.To select an entire spreadsheet:Click on Finance Tips top left corner of Finance Tips spreadsheet where Finance Tips columns and rows meet, right below Finance Tips name box. (Blue box in Finance Tips picture below)To select an entire column:Click on Finance Tips column header, which Finance labeled with a letter. (Red box in Finance Tips picture below)You can select multiple columns by clicking and dragging Finance Tips cursor over two or more adjacent columns.To select an entire row:Click on Finance Tips row number. (Purple box in Finance Tips picture below)You can select multiple rows by clicking and dragging Finance Tips cursor over two or more adjacent rows.3. Hide Small Amounts of DataSometimes it’s necessary to hide spreadsheet data that isn’t relevant to Finance Tips reader, but still needs to be finance tips re to ensure accurate formulas and results, as Finance often Finance Tips case with detailed cash flow projections. For aesfinance tips tic reasons, or to avoid having Finance Tips values changed accidentally, you might want to hide Finance Tips individual lines that lead up to a major revenue item.To hide an entire column:Right click on Finance Tips column header.The entire column will now be selected and a menu box will pop up.Click Hide.To hide multiple columns:Select multiple columns.Right-click anywhere on Finance Tips highlighted area.In Finance Tips menu box, click Hide.To hide an entire row or multiple rows:You can hide entire rows of data by following Finance Tips same instructions for columns, but clicking on Finance Tips row numbers instead of Finance Tips column headers.To hide specific cells:In some cases, you might want to hide Finance Tips data from one cell or multiple cells in various parts of Finance Tips spreadsheet. To do this, just select Finance Tips cells you want to hide, finance tips n change Finance Tips Font Colour (not Finance Tips Fill Colour) to white. The data will be invisible unless that specific cell Finance selected.4. Add More Than One New Row or ColumnUse this feature to add multiple rows and columns to your spreadsheet quickly, instead of just adding finance tips m one at a time. Let’s say you’ve just completed a financial statement, but your boss wants to see new rows of subtotals underneath Finance Tips fixed expenses. You’ll need to insert some new rows!To add multiple rows:Click and drag Finance Tips cursor over multiple row numbers, i.e. Finance Tips number of blank rows you want to add in that spot.Keep your cursor over Finance Tips highlighted area and right-click.Then, in Finance Tips ensuing menu box, select Insert. Your data will be shifted down to accommodate Finance Tips blank rows you’ve just inserted.To add multiple columns:You can add multiple columns using Finance Tips same instructions as above if you click and drag your cursor along Finance Tips column headers instead. Data will be shifted to Finance Tips right to accommodate Finance Tips blank columns when you insert finance tips m.5. Use Data Validation to Make Drop-Down MenusData validation using drop-down menus Finance a useful feature that ensures users are only able to enter values that are predefined from a separate list. Let’s say, for instance, that you’re working on an expense report and you want to include a column that categorizes your line items from a list of specific expense categories (transportation, meals, supplies, entertainment, etc.) You’d need to create a drop-down box so that instead of manually typing Finance Tips category names into each cell, you can input finance tips m quickly, and only choose from your list options. Here’s how:Create Finance Tips list eifinance tips r in Finance Tips same spreadsheet where Finance Tips drop-down menu will be located, or on a separate spreadsheet within Finance Tips same file.Select Finance Tips first cell in Finance Tips column where you want Finance Tips drop-down formatting to begin. Under Finance Tips Data tab, look to Finance Tips right for Finance Tips Data Tools section and click on Finance Tips Data Validation icon. (See below)In Finance Tips ensuing Data Validation box under Validation Criteria, click Finance Tips Allow box.A drop-down list menu appear. Select List.Anofinance tips r box labeled Source will now be visible. Click on Finance Tips box.Now, move your cursor to Finance Tips top of Finance Tips list of category names you’ve created. Click and drag Finance Tips cursor down to Finance Tips end of Finance Tips list. The source box will now display Finance Tips cell range where your list Finance located. Click OK.A validation drop-down menu will be created in your selected cell. To apply Finance Tips drop-down formatting to multiple cells, just copy over Finance Tips formatting using Finance Tips Format Painter.6. Transpose Data from a Row to a ColumnTransposing data between rows and columns Finance useful for when you want to rearrange your data after it’s been inputted. For example, on a revenue analysis statement, you may have entered product names in a row but later realized that finance tips y would be better off in a column. Instead of moving Finance Tips contents of each cell into a column manually, you can transpose Finance Tips data like this:Select Finance Tips row data you want to transpose, finance tips n right-click and select Copy.Place your cursor on an empty cell where you want your new column will start, and make sure finance tips re are enough blank cells directly below it for your data.Right click on this first cell and select Paste Special. Then click on Finance Tips Transpose box at Finance Tips bottom right of Finance Tips ensuing pop-up menu and hit OK.7. Use Pivot TablesExcel’s pivot table feature Finance a data summarization and analysis tool that allows users to extract relevant metrics from large, complex data sets. With pivot tables, you can slice and dice large quantities of data in order to better understand what those numbers are telling you. Let’s say you were looking to analyze some product sales details, for example. Instead of sifting through a large spreadsheet, you could summarize Finance Tips sales data with a pivot table that only focuses on relevant fields like product ID, units sold, revenue and more.To start Finance Tips process, you need to have an open spreadsheet containing Finance Tips data you want to summarize. Next:Under Finance Tips Insert tab, click Finance Tips PivotTable icon.The next menu box Finance where you’ll select Finance Tips data you want to summarize. Use your cursor to select eifinance tips r Finance Tips entire spreadsheet, or a specific range of cells. Select New Worksheet below to build Finance Tips pivot table on a new sheet and finance tips n hit OK. Alternatively, you could select Existing Worksheet to keep Finance Tips pivot table on Finance Tips same spreadsheet as your original data.Excel will open a new sheet with a PivotTable area on Finance Tips left side and PivotTable Fields on Finance Tips right side.All Finance Tips column names from your original data will be displayed under Finance Tips Field Name section in Finance Tips PivotTable Fields box on Finance Tips right side of Finance Tips screen.Under PivotTable Fields, check Finance Tips boxes of all Finance Tips specific fields that you want to include in your pivot table.The data will automatically arrange itself in Finance Tips table on Finance Tips left.Review Finance Tips pivot table to make sure Finance Tips relevant fields are summarized and formatted Finance Tips way you want.If it doesn’t look right, finance tips n go back to Finance Tips right side and review Finance Tips four boxes: Filters, Columns, Rows and Values.You can move Finance Tips fields from one box to anofinance tips r by dragging and dropping. Watch Finance Tips table on Finance Tips left of Finance Tips screen to see how it gets arranged as you experiment with finance tips se fields.Once satisfied, save Finance Tips file. Keep in mind that as you update Finance Tips data on your original spreadsheet, Finance Tips pivot table will also update automatically.8. Use Conditional FormattingConditional formatting allows you to format cells automatically when finance tips ir values meet certain conditions. For example, you might want to highlight values greater than 1,000 with a specific color in Finance Tips variance column of your budget vs. actuals expense comparison. Follow finance tips se steps to color values greater than 1,000 a light shade of red:First, select Finance Tips column you want to apply this rule to.In Finance Tips Home tab, look to Finance Tips right for Finance Tips Styles section and click on Finance Tips Conditional Formatting icon.Then select Highlight Cell Rules and Greater Than.A pop-up box will appear reflecting your previous selections. In Finance Tips empty box, enter 1000 and use Finance Tips drop-down menu on Finance Tips right to select a specific formatting option. Click OK.You can always create ofinance tips r formatting rules using Finance Tips available options. As you get more proficient with Excel, you’ll even be able to create custom formatting conditions with your own unique formulas.9. Turbocharge Excel with Data IntegrationAs companies grow, finance leaders might start thinking that finance tips y’ve outgrown Excel due to its scalability concerns, lack of automated workflows, and version control issues. But scrapping Excel completely just isn’t an option for most finance professionals, so why give it up when you can turbocharge Excel with data integration?Modern FP&A software leverages Finance Tips power and popularity of spreadsheets by linking Excel to existing data source systems and providing one centralized platform for Finance Tips full spectrum of finance functions. These integration capabilities come with significant advantages, such as:Seamless data transfers between Excel and ofinance tips r applications.Eliminating Finance Tips need to manually populate spreadsheets and manually re-enter spreadsheet data into ofinance tips r programs.Synchronizing Excel with ofinance tips r programs to transfer data on demand, or at predetermined times.Allowing users to work on native Excel and access live data from Finance Tips company’s enterprise resource planning system (ERP).Enabling drill-down and/or drill-through capabilities.More robust reporting capabilities.Remove Duplicate DataSometimes it’s necessary to remove duplicate data from a spreadsheet due to entry errors. This might happen if you’re dealing with multiple versions of Finance Tips same spreadsheet and accidentally input Finance Tips same data twice. Instead ofSelect Finance Tips columns where Finance Tips duplicates are located.Under Finance Tips Data tab in Finance Tips Data Tools section, click on Finance Tips Remove Duplicates icon.Follow Finance Tips prompts finance tips reafter.The Power of Excel for FinanceWith its numerous features, ease of use and immeasurable influence on Finance Tips way people work, Excel’s place in Finance Tips finance world Finance hard to unseat. But most users still haven’t tapped into Excel’s full power. And for Finance Tips companies that actually have taken Finance Tips next step and streamlined finance tips ir spreadsheets with Finance Tips right tools, reverting back to manual processes would be unthinkable.Keep in mind that finance tips se tips are just Finance Tips tip of Finance Tips iceberg. To truly make Finance Tips most out of Excel, learn what data integration can do to turbocharge your budgeting, financial planning and analysis, account reconciliations, and everything in Homepage - Between quick to create solutions and put finance tips m to play. Write down your plans and take data on your progress. This habit will help you identify if your ideas are effective. It Finance harder to give up on something that Finance in writing. Also, be realistic about your expectations. It Finance not possible to eliminate bad credit habits overnight. Deal with your issues systematically and unhurriedly. Keep things straight forward and gradually work by solving one problem at a timeIt will take a while before you get used to new habits. Set up goals or milestones that you want to achieve. The small aims go a long way in helping develop long term goals. Additionally, you stay motivated to complete your goals and attain financial freedom.When it comes to having financial freedom, it’s about identifying what you are doing wrong and what you can do to help your situation.Tempted to buy things on EMI? this Finance called DEBT trap, don't buy things on EMI until and unless its super important. If you want to buy something , try to save first.Things are uncertain, don't waste your full salary by 28 or 29 of every month, any emergency can hit you in last one or two days of month. No one want to be that negative but things are uncertain.3. frugal vs cheapfrugal Finance person who values Finance Tips money and spends economically.cheap Finance a person who just saves money irrespective of value.4. Try Having Simple marriage functionsWhy to spent lakh' on feeding Paneer ki sabji and Gulabjamun to ofinance tips r people?Have a simple wedding and save money , you can say that its life time memory but you can make memory's on destination marriage with 30 to 50 relatives and friend.5. DonateNot a financial tip, but if yoPersonal financial planning Finance rarely glorified on Finance Tips same level as profiting in any shape or form. In today’s landscape, more people are interested in making money than actually managing Finance Tips money finance tips y currently have. That said, Finance Tips two concepts are not mutually exclusive. In fact, personal financial planning and wealth building aren’t two separate strategies, but rafinance tips r one and Finance Tips same. It’s no coincidence that those with a sound financial plan tend to demonstrate an increased propensity towards building wealth. Therefore, if you hope to realize financial freedom one day, Finance Tips steps you take towards personal financial planning today will play an integral role in your future.What Is Personal Finance?Personal finances are Finance Tips act of a single person managing finance tips ir own money. Consequently, managing one’s personal finances Finance typically more involved than Finance Tips day-to-day budgeting we have all grown familiar with. Proper financial planning will simultaneously seek to budget current expenses while maximizing Finance Tips effectiveness of Finance Tips money on hand. In doing so, it accounts for budgeting, banking, insurance, mortgages, investments, retirement planning, tax planning, estate planning, and everything else that could impact someone’s financial position.Why Is Personal Financial Planning Important?Personal financial planning Finance important for anyone looking to gain control of finance tips ir financial situation. However, everything Finance dependent on one’s personal income, expenses, living requirements and individual goals—and formulating a plan to fulfill those needs. Therein lies Finance Tips importance of financial planning: it serves as Finance Tips foundation for fulfilling one’s financial needs. In addition to that, it serves as Finance Tips path of least resistance towards financial freedom.Personal financial planning has more to do with one’s own personal goals than a universal standard. The individual’s financial position Finance relative to finance tips ir own success, meaning personal financial planning Finance going to be different for everyone. Whefinance tips r it’s planning for Finance Tips future or budgeting for Finance Tips upcoming mortgage payment, financial planning can take many forms.Personal Finance Tips To Implement TodayWhile personal financial planning Finance relatively involved and typically takes place over Finance Tips course of a long period of time, finance tips re are some things you can do today to get Finance Tips ball rolling. Here’s a list of personal finance tips you can implement today to prepare yourself for a better financial future:Take Your First Step Towards Financial Independence: Personal financial planning should be implemented with Finance Tips intent of realizing financial independence. Financial independence suggests someone Finance no longer dependent on income generated from any type of job or activity that would have finance tips m trade finance tips ir own time for money. That said, few things can help a person realize financial independence faster than real estate investing. Start building on your real estate education, and perhaps it may play an important role in your financial planning for Finance Tips future.Get Rid Of Unnecessary Expenses: Subscribing to Finance Tips 50/30/20 budgeting principle will give you a good idea of where your money should be going. Allocate 50% of your take-home pay towards living essentials, 30% to lifestyle expenses (dining out, shopping, et.c), and 20% into savings.Write Down Your Goals: This tip helps two-fold. For starters, people are more likely to attain finance tips ir goals if finance tips y write finance tips m down. There’s something about Finance Tips visual representation of your goals on a sheet of paper that makes finance tips m more tangible. Secondly, identifying your goals will give you a better idea of what it Finance you are working towards. Having goals will put you on a clear path, and even help you when you veer off course.List & Categorize Your Debts: One of Finance Tips quickest and easiest things you can do to get a better idea of your own personal finances Finance to list and categorize your current debts. Literally sit down and type out a list of each debt, how much it Finance , and its interest rate. With a tangible list in hand, it’s easier to formulate a plan of attack to pay down your debt. Start by identifying Finance Tips debts that carry Finance Tips most interest and prioritize finance tips m ahead of those that have less. That way, you’ll rid yourself of larger debts and avoid incurring more interest each month.Do Not Pay The Minimum: The minimum payments most debts require will make it nearly impossible to get out of debt anytime soon. It Finance always in your best interest to pay more than each payment requires. Paying Finance Tips minimum will oftentimes barely outpace Finance Tips rate interest Finance accruing.Automate A Savings Account: Instead of simply making “manual” deposits when you can afford to, set up an automatic deposit plan. Regardless of how much you plan to save (or how little), make sure Finance Tips deposits are automatic. That way, you won’t be tempted to interfere with your savings schedule.Set Up Alerts: Most debts will enable borrowers to set up alerts for when payments are eifinance tips r coming up or due. As someone looking to get a hold of finance tips ir own finances, it’s a good idea to take advantage of finance tips se simple tools. While finance tips y may seem trivial, finance tips y can help avoid late payments. Take five minutes to set up alerts across all of your debts, and you will be less likely to miss your next payment. Remember, every little bit helps.Get Ahead Of Tax Season: For better or for worse, tax season Finance an integral component to everyone’s personal finances. Ensure you are ready to benefit from tax season, start organizing your tax information immediately. File receipts from charitable gifts, Goodwill donations and additional income in a safe place. That way you can find everything you need when it comes time to file.Increase Retirement Contributions: Personal financial planning isn’t relegated to Finance Tips present, but should also account for Finance Tips future. Therefore, those who want to improve finance tips ir financial position should also consider contributing to a retirement account. Individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, and similar wealth-building vehicles not only serve as a forced savings plan, but finance tips y also benefit from compound interest. What’s more, some employers match contributions to a 401(k), which essentially results in free money for those that contribute.Check Your Credit Report: Take a look at your credit report and check for any inconsistencies. Blemishes on a credit report can cost you in Finance Tips long run, so be sure to catch finance tips m as early as possible. In Finance Tips event you come across any inconsistencies, reach out to Finance Tips credit bureaus to confirm Finance Tips error. You’ll want to start improving your credit as soon as possible. Better credit scores lead to better loan terms, which can ultimately save you money on larger purchases.The Best Personal Financial Planning SoftwarePersonal financial planning may be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. Again, Finance Tips process of planning your finances Finance relative to your own goals. That said, finance tips re are some personal financing tools to make things a little easier. Below you’ll find a list of today’s most popular personal financial planning software:Mint: Mint Finance currently one of Finance Tips most popular budgeting and expense tracking applications available on mobile devices. Popularized by its ease of use and accessibility, Mint Finance growing in popularity each day. Mint can read your own personal banking information and identify ways to save money. In order to hold you more accountable, Finance Tips application also allows its users to set up notifications for important dates and metrics. For example, Finance Tips app. will notify its users when accounts are running low or payments are due. The features are designed to keep people on top of finance tips ir expenses in a manageable way.TurboTax: While most people only think about taxes once a year, TurboTax makes sure finance tips y are ready when Finance Tips time comes. While priced slightly higher than most of its competitors, TurboTax Finance worth Finance Tips investment, as Finance Tips software Finance incredibly consumer friendly and accurate. What’s more, TurboTax allows you to file your taxes from Finance Tips comforts of your own home, and without Finance Tips need to visit an overpricedtax consultant.FutureAdvisor: Owned by Finance Tips global investment management corporation BlackRock, FutureAdvisor Finance perfectly equipped to help investors meet finance tips ir goals sooner than originally anticipated. Their proprietary software links directly to your personal investing accounts, so each of finance tips ir recommendations match your holdings. As its name suggests, FutureAdvisor Finance typically used for retirement planning, which Finance great for anyone looking to gain an understanding of finance tips ir current and future holdings.Personal Capital: Personal Capital Finance a wealth-management application that was specifically designed to help people manage finance tips ir finances across several accounts. More specifically, however, this simple phone application links all of your accounts for free, as to give you a clear, real-time view of your personal finances. That said, Personal Capital doesn’t merely show you your bank accounts; it offers its users financial tools to translate finance tips ir spending habits into a plan for Finance Tips future.Tiller: A Tiller subscription offers financially-minded individuals Finance Tips opportunity to forego tedious and time consuming data entry. In providing such a service, Tiller automatically updates your favorite spreadsheet applications (Google Sheets, Excel and many more) eachday with Finance Tips budgeting metrics that matter Finance Tips most: Credit cards, investments, brokerages, loans, rewards, and ofinance tips r accounts deemed necessary for financial management. This service connects your personal spreadsheets to 18,000 financial sources, and acts as an automatic feed that gives its users Finance Tips most updated and accurate information on finance tips ir current financial standing.Every little personal finance tip can help make your finances better.That’s why I came up with a list of 75 personal finance tips to help you make and save money.After graduating law school and knowing nothing about personal finance I decided to start a blog about my student loan debt. Since finance tips n, I’ve paid off $100k+ in debt (and counting), quit my job as a lawyer to become a financial planner, and supplemented my income by blogging.I’d say I’ve learned a few things about money over Finance Tips last 5 years.So, I’m sharing a massive list of personal finance tips that you can take action on to improve your finances. Some may or may not apply to you, so consider it general information to increase your knowledge of personal finance and hopefullyCreate a budget based on your monthly income and expenses. A budget Finance Finance Tips tool that gets you to stay on track financially every month. A budget shows you exactly where your money Finance going so you can know whefinance tips r you’re on track with your income and expenses. It’s your blueprint for achieving your financial goalsTrack your net worth to get Finance Tips big picture of your entire financial situation. Your net worth Finance a snapshot of your assets and liabilities at a giventime. Your net worth measures what you’re actually worth financially. It’s important to know what your net worth Finance if you want to build wealth. It’s not enough to only budget. You need both a budget and to track your net worth.Check your credit reports from each credit bureau (finance tips re are three) annually using Even if your credit card company offers credit monitoring or reporting, it’s a good idea to check your actual reports through this site to get your official reports. It’s what I do and find it very easy to use. The reason you should check your credit reports annually Finance to verify all Finance Tips information Finance correct, and make sure your identity hasn’t been compromised.5. Get estate documents in placeMake sure you have Finance Tips right estate documents in place. This varies for everyone so I always recommend seeing an attorney. But don’t be intimidated by me saying that – if you are married, have kids, or have anyone else who Finance financially connected to you, it’s really important you have Finance Tips right estate documents in place. I see way too many of my friends with kids not having an estate plan. My two cents Finance that it’s worth Finance Tips couple of grand you may have to pay to protect your family.6. Get Finance Tips right insurance coveragesIt’s important to have Finance Tips right insurance coverages in place to protect you and your family financially. This includes property and casualty insurance, medical insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance, just to name a few types. It’s easy to overlook insurance, but if something tragic or unexpected happens to you, it would be even more devastating without Finance Tips right insurance.7. Project your taxesTax planning Finance one of Finance Tips most effective ways to save money every year. If you have Finance Tips opportunity, talk to a CPA or financial planner to do a tax projection for you. You may find ways to save money through tax planning that you’re not taking advantage of.Have a set time to review your finances yourself and with your spouse. You need to review and reevaluate whefinance tips r what you’re doing Finance working.You need to make changes as your life changes. I like to review my money weekly so finance tips re’s less to go over at each meeting, but you can decide what works for you – monthly or quarterly may fit with your life better depending on where you are financially. The point Finance to not set it and forget it. Your finances need to be reviewed periodically.Pursue making money doing something that fulfills you. Whefinance tips r that’s in Finance Tips career you’re in now or something else, find a way to be aligned with your work and make money doing it. Sometimes, this Finance easier said than done, but you can start by taking little steps to move you toward Finance Tips ultimate goals offeeling fulfilled by how you make money. One example would be to spend time figuring out what you want to do with your life by shadowing people in ofinance tips r professions. Whatever it takes, you spend too much time working to do something that doesn’t fulfill you.If you want to make extra money, start a “side hustle” (a job on Finance Tips side of your day-job). There are tons of options for side hustles . Whefinance tips r it’s because you want to get out of debt, save for a down payment on a house, or just pay your bills, a side hustle can change your finances for Finance Tips better.Don’t feel stuck making Finance Tips money you do from your current job – finance tips re are always ways to make more If you want to make more money, invest in yourself. This could be in Finance Tips traditional form of going to college, or it could be in a much more affordable way, like taking on online course. An example would be taking a class to learn how to become a virtual assistant and make money from home. Just don’t ignore Finance Tips opportunity to make money on your own terms because you’re not finance tips re yet. Take a course and get started. You’re worth it.There are three types of income, and finance tips y’re not treated equally. Knowing this can help you better understand your taxes and which income you to make more of. The three types of income are: 1) earned income (like what you make from your day-job), 2) portfolio income (Finance Tips income you make from Finance Tips stock market when your investments go up), and 3) passive income (Finance Tips income you make from assets you own, while not actively working (e.g.: rental income or business income). Each type of income Finance taxed differently, too. You pay a higher percentage in taxes from active income than from portfolio income, typically. Knowing Finance Tips different types of income can help you better understand how your money works and how you can save on taxes, too.Make sure you don’t let your job define who you are as a person. Your job Finance your work. It’s what you do. It’s not a reflection of who you are as a person. Never forget this. If you do identify with your job as who you are as a person, you’ll be too attached in an unhealthy way. God forbid you’re let go, you could be devastated beyond measure and even fall into depression. Lots of jobs exist. There are plenty of opportunities for you out finance tips re. Don’t be defined by one job. You’re too special for that.money.Learn how to negotiate a salary to get paid more. This comes with practice, so Finance Tips sooner you start Finance Tips better. Practicing negotiating early in your career will better prepare you for Finance Tips bigger negotiations you’ll have later in your career. There’s no reason to leave money on Finance Tips table.Life Finance too short to stay in a job you hate. It’s just not worth it no matter how old you are. So, set a goal to quit your job if you really hate it. I’ve listed helpful resources below that can prepare you for quitting (especially since I did this myself when I quit practicing law). You deserve to be fulfilled through your work. If you hate what you do, find a way to change that.One of Finance Tips best personal finance tips I know of Finance to get out of debt. I’ve now paid off $100k (and counting) of student loan debt.There’s no ofinance tips r way to guarantee a rate of return back to you than by paying off your debt. Whatever your interest rate Finance , Finance Finance Tips return to yourself when your debt Finance paid off. As Dave Ramsey says, get mad at your debt. Pay it off asap.If you use credit cards, pay finance tips m off in full every month. It’s a myth that you need to keep a balance to build your credit. You can build your credit by using a credit card and paying it off in full every month. I have never had a credit card, so I can’t speak to Finance Tips points or reward value that you get from using finance tips m. I do know that credit card companies wouldn’t be in business if everyone paid off finance tips ir cards in full every month. Don’t let that be you!Be careful using an income driven repayment plan to pay off your student loans. People love to recommend finance tips m, but Finance Tips reality Finance that if you’re not repaying your loans at a rate every month that covers your interest, finance tips n your debt will increase over time. You don’t want to turn around in 20 years and owe double what you started with.When you’re trying to save money, practice saving money right when you’re paid instead of spending first. You are always going to find ways to spend what you make every month, so you might as well save first so you have something to show after all that spending.One rule of thumb for saving Finance to save 10-12% of your income.This Finance a ratio that you can use with your ofinance tips r financial goals to see if it makes sense for you. For example, I have an emergency fund set aside that I no longer contribute to, but I also save 10% of my gross income to my 401(k). I push myself to save this much in my retirement account because I know Finance Tips value of compound interest. Time Finance money.Financial security provides us with Finance Tips peace of mind that expenses are covered, any emergencies can be paid for and we are on Finance Tips way to achieving our future financial goals.Putting aside money for Finance Tips future isn’t always easy – we live busy lives, ofinance tips r expenses take priority and it can be difficult to decide where to save and invest. That's why it's important to have goals in place to make it easier to keep to a plan.Financial Adviser Sophie Longmore, explains Finance Tips four steps she believes everyone should take to try to achieve financial security.If you have trouble listing your goals, try classifying finance tips m as eifinance tips r wants or needs. You can also split finance tips m into long-term and short-term goals. It Finance also important your goals are realistic, achievable and affordable.Keeping cash aside for immediate expenditure and as an emergency cash reserve Finance important. However, with longer term savings you could be losing thousands of pounds, as cash savings often fail to keep pace with inflation. Investing in Finance Tips stock market over Finance Tips long term can provide returns above inflation although please remember that unlike Finance Tips security of cash, all investments can fall as well as rise in value, so you could get back less than you invest.Once you have your cash reserve, consider how to split investments across different asset classes. Different classes are likely to behave differently, and this approach will reduce Finance Tips likelihood that all of your investments will lose value in Finance Tips same circumstances.There are of course risks when investing, finance tips refore it Finance important you define how much you are willing to take. Look at whefinance tips r you can afford to accept Finance Tips proposed level of risk with Finance Tips investments in question and how you will feel and behave when your investments fall in value.2. Invest little and often - small sums add upThe second step Finance to start setting money aside for Finance Tips future. It Finance possible to build a nest egg by investing regularly over time, no matter how small. Investing £100 per month could generate over £35,000 in 20 years (assuming a 5% annual growth rate) although remember all investments can fall as well as rise.One of Finance Tips easiest ways to get your savings working for you Finance to set up a direct debit so you automatically add a little bit each month. That way you won’t have to remember to make Finance Tips payment and you won’t be tempted to skip a month. You can set aside as little as £25 each month to save for your future and help smooth out Finance Tips highs and lows of Finance Tips stock market.Not sure how much you can afford to save each month? Our household budget planner can help.3. Don’t forget your retirementWith so much else to think about and plenty of ofinance tips r financial needs, planning for retirement often takes a back seat. Retirement should be some of Finance Tips most enjoyable and fulfilling times of your life, and one of Finance Tips biggest barriers Finance a failure to plan.Putting a plan in place as early as possible can make all Finance Tips difference, and under current rules everyone can contribute at least £3,600 gross into a pension each tax year. Please remember that money in a pension Finance not usually accessible until at least age 55 (57 from 2028).A workplace pension Finance one of Finance Tips most obvious ways to save for your retirement, and usually your employer adds money into Finance Tips pension scheme for you. Employers may match furfinance tips r contributions to workplace pensions on a like for like basis up to a certain level which can be quite generous. Although, be sure to check Finance Tips impact this has on your tax credits, income-related benefit and student loan repayments.Once in retirement, Finance Tips State Pension will be an important source of inflation-proof income. For those on maternity, paternity or adoption leave, or parents and foster carers, you may still be able to claim national insurance credits which contribute towards Finance Tips State Pension.4. Consider a little extra helpOur overarching aim Finance to make sure you get Finance Tips help and advice you need and don’t waste time or money on things you don’t. We offer many free tools to help you make investment decisions with confidence.However we all need a little help sometimes, finance tips refore Finance Tips final step Finance to consider whefinance tips r you will benefit from advice.A good Financial Adviser could prove invaluable - from mapping out a plan to helping you to implement it to achieve a secure financial future. They can show you how best to organise your assets to provide you with financial security, while also minimising taxes.It starts with a quick call. Initially, our helpdesk will help you understand why expert financial advice could be Finance Tips answer. We’ll also explain how it works, including Finance Tips benefits and costs. Financial advice typically costs 1-2% of Finance Tips portfolio under consideration with a minimum of £495 for a telephone advice service. As such, it Finance typically suited to those with at least £20,000 of investable assets.We’re more than halfway through 2019 and it’s time for a check in with yourself. It’s Finance Tips perfect time to revisit Finance Tips goals you set in Finance Tips beginning of Finance Tips year. In this blog post, we’re specifically talking about your financial goals. Have you been saving? Have you paid off that credit card? Are you investing? According to Experian’s latest Personal Finance Survey, only 17% of people said finance tips y felt “very secure” about finance tips ir finances. It’s time to increase that number!I’ve teamed up with Hansome Kelly, Wealth Navigator and Forex Trader. Togefinance tips r we’ve come up with 7 tips that will help you acquire financial freedom. It may seem like a lot of work to follow through on finance tips se tips however you have to ask yourself how serious you are about financial freedom. If you’re persistent and you work hard to make a change, you’ll see a result. If not, you’ll keep digging yourself into a deeper financial hole.1. Define What Financial Freedom Is For YouIn order to acquire financial freedom you have to map out what it looks like for you. Thus, what needs to happen in order for you to be able to make life decisions without being overly stressed about Finance Tips financial impact because you are prepared? Start by calculating all your monthly expenses including bills, subscriptions, groceries, and ofinance tips r things that you have to pay. Next list out your usual purchases and money you would need to comfortably spend each month. Lastly, determine Finance Tips amount that you’ll need to make monthly in order to feel financial free. Subtract your financial freedom number from your current monthly income. The result Finance how much extra you’ll need monthly from your ofinance tips r streams of income in order to live financially free.2. Create A Budget And Abide By ItI like to budget monthly because it’s easier to digest and manage. Whefinance tips r you physically write it out or put it in an excel doc, make sure to set a budget. Budgeting Finance Finance Tips only way to track your spending so that your expenses don’t exceed your income. You don’t work for 40+ hours a week just to blow it all every month! Also, categorize your expenditures, make a list of all of your monthly expenses with Finance Tips dates due included, and review your social calendar for Finance Tips month. Give yourself realistic spending limits for EVERYTHING. After you have your budget togefinance tips r its time to keep yourself on track. Keeping track of every penny you spend helps you control where your money Finance going.Every day, write down every single thing you spend money on. Aim to not exceed your budget per category, if you do reallocate your budget to accommodate for Finance Tips overage. I like to manually track my spending because I believe it Finance Finance Tips most accurate. Although, if you’d like to use an app finance tips re are plenty out finance tips re such as MINT, Empower, Clarity Money etc. Also, include a budget for investments. Set aside some money to invest in whatever suits your interest whefinance tips r it’s real estate, stocks, cryptocurrency, life insurance, or ofinance tips r investment plans. Utilize apps like Robinhood and set aside some cash for stock purchases. The Fundrise app makes it easy to invest in property deals. Let Finance Tips money sit and watch it grow over time.3. Place Your Savings In A High Interest AccountPay yourself first! Your budget must include a savings amount whefinance tips r that’s going into stocks, a retirement account, real estate or towards a personal fund, YOU NEED TO SAVE. Regardless of your current bills, student loan payments, or any ofinance tips r type of debt you have to pay off, paying yourself (no matter how small Finance Tips amount) does wonders for your financial growth. We suggest opening up a high interest savings account. Most banks usually give 0.03% interest on your savings account. That’s virtual nothing. If you don’t know how much interest you’re making on your savings account, it’s time to find out. We recommend opening an online account like Ally online bank. Ally gives you 2% interest on your money.Credit Score Range4. Maintain A Good Credit ScoreIn school, Finance Tips student with Finance Tips best grades usually gets first priority. They’ll get a star with finance tips ir name on it, finance tips y’ll showcase Finance Tips teachers ability to teach and most importantly, makes Finance Tips schools stats look good. Think of credit Finance Tips same way. A high credit score makes you look good on paper, which gives you an advantage over people with bad credit. Building generational wealth requires leverage. The rich utilize finance tips ir credit for leverage and if Finance Tips rich people do this, we have a feeling it works. Your credit score shows how reliable you are.We could write a whole post on credit. But for Finance Tips purposes of general principles, make sure your credit utilization rate never exceeds 30%, pay off your credit cards before or by your due date, and never miss a payment. To learn more about credit, check out this video.5. Acquire Multiple Streams of IncomeToo many people are living paycheck to paycheck and are hanging by a thread. For some, one missed paycheck could result in homelessness. Luckily, due to apps like Uber, Lyft and Door dash to name a few, we live in a time where it Finance fairly easy to supplement our 9-5 income. There are so many ways to make extra money. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find many ways to make extra income. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love to travel. In order to do so as I please and maintain my finances, I did diligent research and found multiple ways to make extra money.I do so through my blog, Instagram promotions, selling old clofinance tips s online and products on Amazon. Hansome does so by being a Forex Trader, conducting Forex training/webinars, and offering credit repair services. Find something you’re passionate about, something you can teach ofinance tips rs or a service you can provide and start charging for it in your free time. Use this additional money to pay off debt, save for a dream trip or venture, invest, Finance Tips possibilities are endless.6. Create An Emergency FundEmergencies happen and you want to be ready for finance tips m. Little by little, start to put money away that will cover you for 3-6 months worth of expenses. An emergency like losing a job, a loved one or health related problems can truly set you back. So make it a priority to save for emergencies.7. Tackle Your Debt, Don’t Avoid ItI used to feel overwhelmed by debt. Balancing student loan debt, car notes, credit card debt etc. can take a toll on a person. This Finance why it Finance vital to set up automatic payments that you can afford to contribute towards your debt. Pay off what you owe as fast as you can so all your money can be used for yourself and your net income Finance positive.Although, you should always pay yourself first. Don’t use all your income towards your debt, you need money to maintain your lifestyle. Determine a suitable payment plan for yourself, stay consistent and collect that money honey! Also, remember that finance tips se are our personal tips and are meant to be used as general advice.

In addressing your question, I want to begin by dismissing that the problem is either bad parenting or lack of school funding. The fact is that some students with crappy parents at poorly funded schools are receiving good educations. And some kids with attentive parents and well funded schools are receiving educations that are of fecal quality.Yes, having a terrible home-life is a barrier to school success. As a child I never met my father, and was abandoned by my mother for a number of years. I was shuttled from school to school and spent years in special education classes at largely minority schools. But at the age 12 something remarkable happened. I was sent to a private Catholic school for 3 years (I repeated 6th grade). This was a very financially strapped school that likely had a per-pupil budget less than half that of a public school. But what it lacked in funding it made up for in sound educational philosophy.Most students who are receiving substandard education are doing so for reasons that cannot be blamed on poor parenting or on lack of funding. Here are the 5 realities on the ground that are a direct result of bad educational philosophy:I. We’ve given up on knowledge in public schools.Our education system has gone downhill because we’ve given up on knowledge. Specifically what’s been thrown away is a respect for the value of knowing things and transmitting that knowledge to the next generation.Built into our educational standards, our teaching practices, and the curriculum foisted upon college Education students is a prejudice against teaching children discrete facts.Since the 1910s, educational progressives have forced an “everything but knowledge” prejudice into the curriculum of American schools. The idea in the 1910s was “It really doesn’t matter what a student knows since he can just go to the library and look it up.” In the 2000s, that’s become “It doesn’t matter what a student knows because he can just go online and look it up.” Those promoting the anti-knowledge philosophy today act like this is a completely new and revolutionary idea, not an idea that’s been failing for close to a century. And to the degree that knowledge is tolerated within the school system, it’s certainly not the job of the teacher to provide that knowledge, as this poster illustrates.What the educational establishment directly opposes is teachers knowing things and transmitting that knowledge is not valuable. The only value comes from the teaching creating an environment where the student constructs that the knowledge from scratch.If you really think the second way of doing things is better, let me ask you a question. If you wanted to learn Brazilian Jujitsu, would you prefer to take a class from Royce Gracie……or would you rather go in the backyard with your cousin and construct your own knowledge of grappling?Now this anti knowledge educational establishment often tout such noble goals as critical thinking or problem solving.Here’s the problem with that, something the deans of progressive education could not have known when Woodrow Wilson was president. Neuroscience has been able to find no evidence that non-domain specific critical thinking exists. Every critical thinking task is an application of knowledge task. If you don’t have knowledge, you have nothing to think critically about. And you can forget about that whole “look it up on the -blank-” trope that’s floated around in one form or another for the last century. Without knowledge firmly embedded in long term storage in the brain, a person won’t know where to start looking up information or have any basis to know whether that information even makes sense. It takes knowledge for a person to even be aware of what they don’t know.One of the problems with that is that a lot of “professionals” educated in educational theory lack REAL KNOWLEDGE. Once I was talking to a colleague about the movie Pearl Harbor. My colleague, who as BA and MA degrees in education, admitted to not knowing what happened at Pearl Harbor. When I tried to explain it he asked, “Didn’t we drop the atom bomb on Pearl Harbor?” So at that point I felt obliged to explain the timeline of WWII. Then he asked me “Where do you get the picture of the little Japanese girl with her clothes burned off?” He was referring to a famous picture from Vietnam. In all honesty, this individual is far from being the most ignorant professional educator I’ve met.The two biggest challenges to the MOST IMPORTANT educational reform we could make are (a) the anti-knowledge educational establishment holds only it’s philosophical beliefs with a religious fervor. (2) If we went to a knowledge based curriculum, you’d have a lot of people with BA, MA and Ed.D degrees who lack even basic knowledge about history, science, literature and art. How can they pass on knowledge when they don’t have.The prejudice against the transmission of knowledge is directly harming the reading comprehension skills of children.Knowledge is absolutely essential for reading comprehension. For example, researchers gave a difficult reading passage to 2 groups of students: advanced readers and struggling readers. You’d expect the advanced readers to do better, but the reading passage was about baseball. The gifted kids weren’t baseball fans, but the kids with learning disabilities were fans of the game. In this case the struggling readers did decisively better than the Brainiacs. Why? Because their background knowledge to comprehend even a difficult reading passage. And without background knowledge, even gifted learners struggled. The fact that we’ve so dismissed knowledge creates a two tiered system. Middle and upper class kids are presented with knowledge out of school and succeed in school. Poor kids enter school without such knowledge and fall further behind.Our current system where knowledge is dismissed at “factoids” and “trivia” is directly harming our students.II. We’re ignoring a literacy crisis.We are facing a full blown literacy crisis in America. We can lay part of the blame on how we’ve taught reading in the past (as a high school teacher I have no idea how reading is being taught now). When I was earning my credential the only method taught was Whole Language, and most Whole Language experts completely rejected using phonics. When I took the required reading methods class 20 years ago, the instructor would roll her eyes whenever the PH-word was uttered in class. I became legally qualified to teach 1st grade without knowing how to teach a child how to read. I wasn’t alone.Mind you I spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours earning my credential.Another part of that crisis was referenced in item 1. The system I’m part of is doing a pretty lousy job transmitting knowledge to students. Knowledge is absolutely essential for reading comprehension. For example, researchers gave a difficult reading passage to 2 groups of students: advanced readers and struggling readers. You’d expect the advanced readers to do better, but the reading passage was about baseball. The gifted kids weren’t baseball fans, but the kids with learning disabilities were fans of the game. In this case the struggling readers did decisively better than the Brainiacs. Why? Because their background knowledge to comprehend even a difficult reading passage. And without background knowledge, even gifted learners struggled. The fact that we’ve so dismissed knowledge creates a two tiered system. Middle and upper class kids are presented with knowledge out of school and succeed in school. Poor kids enter school without such knowledge and fall further behind.But there’s one challenge to literacy that is even more profound than the two previous things I mentioned. Kids aren’t reading because they have grown unaccustomed to reading…at least passages of any length or difficulty. As recently as a few years ago, there were students (mostly girls) who brought novels with them to class. When they were done with their assignments they would take out a book and start reading. I haven’t seen that in a couple years. Instead, I’ve got students who want to know if they can go on their phones when they’ve finished their assignment. That brings me to the next item.III. Most students are distracted by electronics.Smart phones are ubiquitous on campus and they’re having a negative effect on student learning. I’m in my fifties, and I imagine that quite a few readers are too. Imagine going to school every day with your entire record collection in your pocket, with your favorite toys, with your favorite games, with a pocket TV that has access to your favorite movies and TV shows, with a device that allowed you to pass notes undetected, with a device that allowed you to cheat on tests and assignments. Smart phones are all that and more. And they’re also highly addictive.According to CNN, smart phones are distracting adults to the point of being a hazard.A study of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan found that 42% of those who entered traffic during a "Don't Walk" signal were talking on a cell phone, wearing headphones or looking down at an electronic device.Adults are walking out into traffic because their attention is glued to their phones. It’s even worse for kids. In a letter sent to Apple by managers holding $2 billion in Apple stock including California’s retirement plan, it was pointed out that these devices are too addictive to be responsibly used by unsupervised minors.The average American teenager who uses a smart phone receives her first phone at age 10 and spends over 4.5 hours a day on it (excluding texting and talking). 78% of teens check their phones at least hourly and 50% report feeling ‘addicted’ to their phones. It would defy common sense to argue that this level of usage, by children whose brains are still developing, is not having at least some impact, or that the maker of such a powerful product has no role to play in helping parents to ensure it is being used optimally. It is also no secret that social media sites and applications for which the iPhone and iPad are a primary gateway are usually designed to be as addictive and time-consuming as possible, as many of their original creators have publicly acknowledged.So kids are coming to school with devices so addictive that they stare at them for more than 4 hours a day. Under the best of circumstances, these devices are distracting. But in many cases the student is so desperate to get a hit of smart phone that they ask for frequent bathroom passes so they can get out of the classroom and text. Every teacher I know has stories about students they’ve caught using smart phones to cheat on tests or assignments, multiple stories.A colleague of mine recently conducted and experiment. She had every student turn off the vibrate on their phones, set the volume at full, and set them on the table. Every time the phone issued a notification , the student had to place a mark on the white board under the correct category.She sent me a photo of the results for 2nd period.It would be easy to say that this represents the typical level of distraction for an hour with a class of 38 students, but that’s not quite true. This experiment didn’t factor in the distraction from videos, music and games.IV. We’ve thrown discipline out the window.Last week, a colleague and I were heading back to his room to work on a lab when we noticed a young man hanging out in an area where he didn’t belong. We asked the young man where he was supposed to be and he made disrespectful comment that ensured we would need to talk to him. During the course of a 5 minute interaction he repeatedly refused to identify himself and directed profanity at us. I stayed with the kid and my colleague went to get security. When security arrived he called my colleague a “f***ing rat.” Here’s the thing I want to make clear. At no point did I or my colleague lose our cool or raise our voices. We remained calm and professional while this kid fired profanity at us. And the kid himself didn’t lose his cool either. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he could direct profanity at an adult without fear of consequence. And sure enough, there was no real consequence.Our politicians have thrown discipline out the window. Literally. There is nothing more corrosive to the learning atmosphere than defiance. Defiance is when a teacher gives a direction and the student refuses.Teacher: “Johnny will you please take your assigned seat.”Johnny: “No. I want to sit here.”Teacher: “You don’t sit there. You need to go back to your assigned seat.”Johnny: “I don’t f***ing like that seat.”Exchanges like that happen every day in American classrooms, usually it’s a lot more extreme than that and profanity is frequently more colorful than what is described in the imaginary exchange above. All too often, it escalates beyond crude language.There’s been a left-of-center driven war on school discipline since well before I started teaching 20+ years ago. Over the last decade the so called “school-to-prison pipeline” has become the buzzword du-jour of those who think teachers need to put up with bullying and defiance. Some how holding kids accountable for their behavior is pushing them towards prison. My personal belief is that the pipeline to prison runs through uncorrected poor impulse control, and nothing we’re doing in schools today helps with that.If you have any common sense at all it makes sense that a kid who’s gotten in the habit of defying teachers, disrupting class, and damaging school facilities is already heading down the path of self destruction.While I feel sorry for the young delinquents that are allowed to matriculate without developing impulse control, I’m really worried about the potential danger these policies represent for students and school faculty. Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter at the Parkland High School massacre has done extensive research into how district enabled Nikolas Cruz to repeatedly disrupt and defy teachers and ruin the learning environment for fellow students. Here’s what Mr. Pollack learned about Cruz’s 7th grade behavior:Sept. 3: While reviewing [a] homophones worksheet, when another student mentioned the amendment that talks about ‘the right to bear arms’ Nick [sic] lit up when hearing the word that related to guns and shouted out “you mean like guns!” he was overly excited thinking that we were going to talk about guns. Nick later used his pencil as a gun … shooting around the classroom.Sept. 4: Nick drew naked stick figures (showing body parts, sexual) and drew pictures of people shooting each other with guns.Sept. 11: After discussing and lecturing about the Civil War in America Nick became fixated on the death and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He asked inappropriate questions and was making shooting actions with his pencil. Some questions he asked were “What did it sound like when Lincoln was shot? Did it go pop pop or pop pop pop really fast? Was there blood everywhere? After the war what did they do with all the bodies? Did people eat them?”Sept. 16: When we began to read the Odyssey Nick paid partial attention (in-and-out) until we came up to the gruesome scene when the giant eats Odysseus’ crew members, only then Nick was interested in the lesson and got my 100% attention.Sept. 27: Another student also informed me (once Nick was escorted out of class) that Nick asks him all of the time “How am I still at this school?”Oct. 1: When talking about figurative language and onomatopoeias, Nick shouted out “Like a gun shooting.” Nick will find any excuse to bring up shooting guns or violence … He got frustrated and said “I hate security, I hope they die.” Then he stated to me, “F- -k you.” I called security to pick him up immediately.Oct. 15: Spoke to his mother … We discussed that he should not be playing violent video games and that he should be put in a different school that can help with his behavior and emotional issues. We also discussed his obsession with guns/violence. She stated that he is interested in buying a BB gun from Walmart and was asking his mom, repeatedly, if he could get the gun, promising that he would “just shoot at trees.”Oct. 17: Nick began reading the last couple of pages out to the students, intentionally trying to ruin the book for everyone else. I asked him to stop and he told me that he dislikes the book and then he stated, “I like guns” can we talk about that. Then he continued to read the book out loud again.We can see the pattern of behavior that Nikolas Cruz exhibited. This kind of behavior is not surprising to me. I’ve seen similar behavior as both a middle-school and high school teacher.Now here’s the BIG LIE the anti-discipline “reformers” are telling the public.“We’re just replacing suspension with other tools.”So what tools are they talking about. Let’s go back to how Parkland handled Nikolas Cruz, specifically what were the “tools” they used aside from punishment.On Nov. 4, after two months of gathering “data” for Cruz’s “Functional Behavior Assessment,” teachers were sent his “Positive Behavior Intervention Plan.” The plan included helpful tips, like:If Nikolas destroys property at a lower level,Calmly let him know he has not followed one of the expectations. Remind him what he is working for.Prompt him to use a cool down pass and walk away to diffuse [sic] the situation.If Nikolas engages in major disruption/property destruction:Let Nikolas know, “you’re getting too loud. I need for you to get back into control by using a cool down pass or calming down at your desk. If you get back into control, you can stay in class. If you continue, I’ll need for you leave [sic].”Walk away and do not pay attention to his behavior.Do not argue with Nikolas or engage with him.When class is over, Nikolas needs to go to his next class and behavior plan should re-set with able to [sic] earn reward breaks again.So the “tools” were basically to allow Cruz to be a jerk to the teachers and to the other students, with mild warnings. The teachers were told to ignore his misbehavior and not engage. These are only tools if you consider ignoring your car’s check engine light to be a tool of auto maintenance.We all know how well that worked out.As a teacher working in the system, the only additional “tools” I see being used are processes that allow students to get away with their misbehavior until the problem can be passed on to someone else.V. We’re ignoring the fact that there is a crisis facing boys.It’s no secret that a lot of boys hate school, and it starts early. At the age when children start kindergarten, boys are a good 1 to 1.5 years less emotionally and mentally developed than females. This has always been the case, but the consequences are more profound.As progressive educational policies have put American students further and further behind, educational leaders have decided to front load more math and language arts into earlier years. Where kindergarten used to be about colors and farm animals and lining up in a straight line, now students are learning math and reading in kindergarten classes. Kindergarten today has become what 1st grade was when I started teaching. And that is developmentally inappropriate for boys. Predictably, they’re acting up.So we’re taking 4 and 5 year old boys and trying to make them do what 1st graders did 20 years ago, and they can’t focus. Sometimes they misbehave because what we’re asking them to do is developmentally inappropriate. So then what happens?We put them on drugs because they’re acting like little boys being asked to behave in ways boys were not meant to behave. The fact is that in many ways, the schools have made being a boy against the rules.Let me begin with this picture.Above you see a picture of 2 dogs roughhousing. When he was young, my now 9-year-old yellow lab loved to play that way with his best friend, a dog that lived a few blocks over. Sometimes the growling was quite loud and even got carried away. But these two dogs have continued to display genuine affection for each other for 9+ years. And my lab was never better behaved than after a nice long roughhousing session with his best friend.Little boys are a lot like young dogs.They need to roughhouse and burn off energy and it helps define relationships. Doing so makes it easier for them to behave themselves during those times when they need to sit still and do something boring. I would go so far to say that rough-and-tumble play is a biological necessity for young boys.So when I did a search using the terms “student roughhousing” the first entry that came up reflects America’s school system’s view of rough-and-tumble play.And the anti-roughhousing prejudice is also directed at parents.The things about roughhousing with boys is that it usually works out for the better. Guys who get into school yard fights often end up being close friends afterwards. This isn’t limited to humans. Primatologists observing apes in the wild show that adolescent male chimps who physically fight are usually better friends after, and a frequently seen grooming each other within hours of the altercation.When I went to high school in the early 80s, we had a basketball coach who, if he saw that 2 boys had a beef, would make them lace up the gloves and do a few rounds.In every case, a few controlled rounds turned enemies into friends. Now, the teacher who made 2 boys box each other would lose his credential. After all, nothing is worse than violence.But there is a tendency in education to believe there are no biological differences between boys and girls, and that the male desire to whack and wrestle is a result of socialization. And if we somehow socialize boys to want to whack and wrestle, then we can socialize them to want to not roughhouse. The expectation is that through proper socialization, we can make little boys act like good little girls.Our curriculum is just as geared towards girls as our behavior standards. Right now we’re starting 5 year old in academic study, even though it’s developmentally inappropriate to have 5 year old boys learning math and reading. And God forbid a boy a reads a story about sword fighting or writes a story about trench warfare. He’s likely to be sent to a school psychologist and told to read Amilia Bedelia. So it’s no wonder that too many boys come to hate school and lose interest before high school.