There may come a time in your life, when you get sick of living paycheck to paycheck, and you decide that you’ve had enough of trying to make your money stretch, and not knowing when you’ll next be able to afford some new clothes or whatever.
Maybe you’re coming up to retirement age, or maybe you want to start a family but want to settle down and get some financial stability first. Well, this is exactly what this article is here to help with. I’m going to give you my 5 tips on reaching and maintaining a sense of real financial stability.
Please feel free to scroll ahead to any section that jumps out at you. Here goes.
1) Consolidate your debts
One of the first things I would recommend doing is looking for a personal loan that you can use to pay off all your smaller existing loans, such as overdraft loans, an overdraft itself, credit card debts, or any store card debt you might have.
This way rather than having several smaller debts to pay, you only have one debt to pay each month instead. And so long as the total you have to pay off each month comes to less than all those smaller amounts added together, then you’re winning financially.
Not only will you have more free cash at your disposal every single month from that point on, but in doing so, you will also boost your credit rating. This means that if in the future you need to use a credit card or some such again, you will have no problem being accepted.
However, I don’t recommend taking a loan out against the family home if you can help it. You should treat that option as a last resort. Instead, I would recommend that you get yourself an unsecured personal loan, such as the ones available with CreditNinja’s NV personal loans.
2) Get a stable income coming in
If you’re on a zero-hours contract as so many people are these days, you never really know how much money you’ve got coming in from one week to the next. This makes any kind of financial planning incredibly tricky.
This is why I recommend that you set your sights on a job that pays a stable, regular, consistent income. Even if it means giving up a job and a working environment that you really like.
Achieving a stable income is particularly difficult when you are self-employed, or when your industry is somewhat seasonal. Certain jobs cannot be done when the weather is against you, or when there is no market for any products you are trying to sell.
And sure, it can be really nice to be your own boss and work for yourself, but if your income is really up and down, due to such things as having little time for marketing, or having a low demand for your services, then this is quite the downside. And if financial stability is becoming increasingly important to you it may be worth you using your skills and becoming an employee of a more stable firm or organization.
3) Get everyone to contribute
I’m also in favor of getting everyone in your household who is old enough to contribute to the total household income. The onus for bringing money into the home does not have to sit with just one person and one person alone. It’s only fair that everyone contributes, even if they can’t all contribute equally.
You don’t have to ask for a lot of money from each individual, just enough to cover the household bills and groceries. As to who pays how much, you can either divide the figure equally or devise a more suitable method, according to earnings.
4) Put money aside for irregular payouts
If you don’t plan ahead for expenses you know will come up at some point, then when they do show their head, you could be at a loss as to how to pay for them. But there are things that you can predict, such as birthdays, Christmas, new tires for your vehicle, quarterly bills, and so on.
These things do not have to break the bank if you plan right. You can set money aside for them every single month, a little at a time, enough to meet the demand. This way these expenses don’t have to hit you like a wrecking ball, and you’ll be fully prepared every single time.
5) Make saving automatic
Saving money is something that most of us struggle with. We often feel we don’t have the time, or the willpower to save. Or maybe we think that we need to spend our savings before we can put them away. But any excess money you have coming in doesn’t burn your pocket if it doesn’t get spent, you can put that money aside for when you truly need it.
And the good news is that you can make saving money automatic. You can set up automated transfers from your checking account to your savings account, making sure that your savings get deposited every month.
Final Thoughts
So, those are my 5 tips. But maybe you can think up more…
