Your finances might seem to have a mind of their own. You want them to do one thing, you have such good intentions for them, but they just do their own thing and often leave you left to scrape every last penny together to live life before the last week of payday.
But we guarantee you work so hard to get the money you’re going to get, and it feels as though you’re accomplishing nothing with it. Everyone feels the same pretty much, and it is just a vicious cycle that we spend our lives in. We’re working to live, but living just costs so much. The difficulties will only be compounded if you also have outstanding debt. Securing a good credit score is vital to building long term finances with most credit repair specialists readily available to assist, like Credit Sage at creditsage.com.
So, what can we do to change that? Well, there’s a few things that you can probably change about the way you live your life that will mean you’re nudging your finances in the right direction.
Rather than spending your life worrying about money, let’s see if we can help you live your life doing as much as you possibly can, without having to worry about money. At the end of the day, life is too short for us to let it hold us back, so here’s how we can nudge our finances in the right direction.
Try Your Hand At Trading
Trading is great because it’s something you can do from the comfort of your own home. The only downside being you have to actually learn what you’re doing, and boy can that take some time. There are two options that you can go down for trading that we want to talk about today.
Bitcoin
The first is bitcoin. The thing with bitcoin is that it wasn’t so popular to begin with. People had absolutely no faith in it, and that’s something that has remained strong today. There is such a split view on whether it’s good or not, and the people who think it’s good are making their riches, and the people who think it’s a load of rubbish are missing out.
To actually understand bitcoin, it does take a lot of research, and it can be rather time consuming. To fully understand it you’ll have to do hours of reading, even more of watching tutorials, and even more where you’re trying to figure out whether you’re actually doing it right.
When you do finally feel as though you’re getting the hang of it, you can start to up the money you’re putting into it. In the beginning you should only test the waters with small amounts of money, just in case something does go wrong. What you need to do is make sure you’re using a good bitcoin miner hosting, and watch out for things that might jeopardize your investment.
For example, there’s always the risk of being scammed when mining bitcoin. You either try and do it yourself, which can take forever to get into. Or you can use trusted companies that will do it for you. Using some random person who is offering you a suspiciously cheap deal isn’t what you should be doing.
There’s also the risk of the bitcoin value crashing, which it does every so often. Something in the media could happen, or just a little bit of panic, and the value of bitcoin drops. That then sends people into a panic thinking they’re going to lose all of their money, so they cash out. When in fact, the value has always gone back up so far, so if you’re going to give this a go it’s best not to panic too much and make bad decisions.
Stocks
The second type of investment that doesn’t require much effort from you is an investment into the stock market. The stock market is booming, and it is always thought that people with a ton of money, or businesses, are the only people to invest.
This isn’t the case, the average person can invest into the stock market and gain just as much money as long as the right moves are made. Again, understanding how this all works is so complex, and you’re best off doing a ton of research before you actually give this a go.
At the end of the day, you’re here to try and make your money go in the right direction, not take 10 steps back. When you do feel as though you’re ready and you understand it, you’ll need a stock broker to carry out the trades for you on your behalf, and they might also be able to give you a bit of advice! Just make sure you’re drip feeding your money in to try and make a profit rather than piling it all in at once.
Getting Paid Better
If you want to put your money in the right direction, you first need to figure out whether you’re actually getting paid right. Some people are getting paid next to nothing for the work that they do, and it can be an absolute nightmare to try and manage finances from a wage that is just so small. Before you go and rush to leave your job, work out if your job is actually the problem.
If you’re getting paid a decent amount, but then you’re spending it all on nights out or takeaways, then you’re the problem, and your issues can be solved in the money management section. If you’re getting paid and the only thing your money is going on is the household bills, your car, and the essentials you need to live, then your job is the problem.
All you need to do is a little research to find out what career you might like the sound of, and what is going to pay better than what you already do. However, we strongly advise that you don’t just go for the role that is going to pay you the most money, we recommend you find one that you’re actually going to enjoy, and one that hopefully will pay better than your last role.
Managing Money Wisely
So, as we’ve said, you’re probably half of the reason why you feel as though your money might need a nudge in the right direction. You’re either someone who has all of the self control in the world, or you’re someone who spends money on absolutely everything when there’s hardly anything in the bank.
If you’re the latter, you need to find a way to manage your money that isn’t going to leave you with no life, but is going to restrict you slightly. A trick that works for a lot of people is this. Plan your money down to a T. So if you know you have a plan to go out for food, put that in. If you know you want your nails done, put that in.
Then, have a look at the money that you’ve got left over. If you’ve hardly got anything, try and reduce the number of plans that you’ve made for that month. If you have a fair bit left over, budget yourself some each week for luxuries. Just one small treat a week should get you through to the end of the month.
This is the money that you need to withdraw and keep in a safe place in your house. When you’re ready to use it, take it, but try not to abuse it and just waste it all in the first week just because it’s sitting there. The rest of the money in your bank should be put into a restricted savings account so you can only withdraw it a certain amount of times a year.
Is Your Home Draining It?
It’s easy to forget the care free life that you once used to live before owning a home. There were so fewer expenses, and actually paying for things felt easy. With a home, it can feel as though all you’re paying is bills, and it can just be so stressful.
If you feel as though you’re paying too much, then you need to look at your own habits and whether they might be causing it. For example. Having the heating on, but the back door wide open is going to drain your heating, meaning you have it on for long, meaning you’re going to be paying for more gas or electricity. If you leave the water running whilst you do a whole bowl of washing up, rather than actually filling the bowl, you’re going to be spending a fortune. Learn ways that you can be smarter around the home and see if it’ll save you money.
There’s always the option of downsizing if you feel as though the home you’re running is too expensive. Although downsizing is a lot of hassle, it’ll be worth it when you’re not worrying about your money situation. If you have a family and downsizing isn’t an option, educate your children on how they can help you save money round the home as well.
Hopefully after reading this your finances will have a nudge in the right direction, no one likes to be stressed about money, so don’t live your life that way!