You may have a limited amount of monthly income, but by managing your money with proper budgeting you can have money left over for savings, vacations, or simply to buy something for yourself. It’s possible to become wealthy while earning a relatively low income, just like you can stay completely broke and even in deep debt even with an annual income in the six or seven figures. How you manage the money you earn will determine your long-term financial success.
In my early adult years and even the first half of my marriage with kids, I was broke. My income was so low that I didn’t pay any federal income taxes and yet I received thousands back as a “refund” each year. When I finally started earning good money and made six figures a year for numerous years in a row, I squandered it. I built poor credit habits, spent every penny I earned, and didn’t even both to save any of it, especially for retirement.
I eventually learned the error of my ways and fixed all of my financial issues in about two years. For the first time ever, I had earned a great credit score and bought a house for my family. Investing and saving for retirement become important so my money could finally start working for me. Learning to manage my personal finances the right way helped to change the life of myself and my family. This blog has been created to pass this knowledge along to you so you can take control of your own financial future like I did.
Save More Money
There are many different ways you can potentially reduce your monthly expenses to free up more expendable income. Extra money each month that isn’t needed to pay bills or buy necessities can be saved. It’s easy to pay attention to the big expenses. However, you may actually be wasting more money with smaller daily expenditures.
If you are not already in the habit of saving money, you really need to start as soon as possible. Everyone needs an emergency fund or some type of extra cash cushion in their bank account to avoid living paycheck to paycheck. By avoiding any kind of late payments, you avoid paying extra fees on top of your normal bills.
You’ll also want to save for a variety of other purposes like paying for college, dream vacations, house down payment, retirement and more. When you can take control of your money, you’ll have the power to control your financial future to make a better life for yourself and for your family.
Make Better Financial Decisions
Life is full of major financial decisions. Without someone to help guide you through them, it can be really easy to make a mistake that can cause real-world consequences that can last for many years.
Getting married, having kids, buying a house, starting a business, and buying a car are all big life moments that can have huge financial benefits or disadvantages. These big decisions in life can often be made in a moment but can affect you for many years or even the rest of your life. Take the time to consider big financial moves and how it will affect your finances immediately and years from now.
When I finally turned around my finances, I became a sponge for knowledge and wanted to learn as much as I could about managing my money the best way possible. I spent many years learning by trial and error with some great successes and some equally horrible failures. Now I’m passing this knowledge along to you so you can avoid as many failures as possible and pave a path towards a successful financial future.
My most recent personal finance blog posts can be found below…
How to Combine Your Finances After Marriage
When you get married, you basically merge your life and finances together. Combining finances after marriage can often be confusing and even a bit intimidating, but it can actually save you money in the long run. I’ve been married for almost 20 years. We’re not…
Continue reading →Tips for Lending Money to Friends & Family
Lending money to family and even friends can often lead to problems. This mixture of close personal relationships and activities typically performed by banks is a volatile combination. Banks are usually very strict and heartless because they live by the numbers. Family is supposed to…
Continue reading →Use a Debt Snowball to Quickly Wipe Out Arrears
Trying to get out of debt can be stressful and even overwhelming. There’s an easy strategy you can use to pay off your arrears fast and efficiently. It’s called a debt snowball. Debt snowballs are actually one of the most popular ways to pay off…
Continue reading →Maintaining Healthy Teeth & Avoiding Huge Dental Bills
It’s possible to be too frugal when it comes to your personal health. When you do a poor job at maintaining healthy teeth and try to save money by avoiding the dentist, you can actually end up with incredibly expensive dental bills as a result….
Continue reading →How to Dispute & Chargeback Credit Card Transactions
When you’re on a tight budget and a purchase goes wrong, it can be a bad feeling since you may not be able to afford to buy the product again. Luckily, there is one option you can use to dispute the purchase on your credit…
Continue reading →Pros & Cons of Having Rich Friends When You’re Broke
When you don’t have a lot of money, it can sometimes be tough to be friends with people that are rich. You often find yourself envious of the things that they have and their financial freedom. However, there are also a lot of ways you…
Continue reading →Paying Off Your Mortgage Early: Good Idea or Bad Investment?
Thirty-year mortgage loans are common, but many people will try to pay extra each month to pay off their house early. The ultimate question is whether it is a good idea to try to pay off your mortgage faster or would you benefit more using…
Continue reading →Paying for Expensive Weddings & Financial Repercussions
A lot of girls grow up dreaming about a big, fancy wedding. However, money is not usually thought about as part of those dreams. The average cost of a wedding that isn’t even all that extravagant can cost $20,000 – $30,000. It’s quite possible to…
Continue reading →Lower Your Cooling Power Bill This Summer
The cost of electricity often soars during the summer solely from heavier air conditioner usage. Luckily, you don’t have to wait for this to ruin your monthly budget. There are numerous proactive steps you can take to lower your cooling bill now that June is…
Continue reading →Solo Financial Responsibility Struggles as a Married Couple
When you’re married, the financial decisions of either person can have a drastic effect on your money situation. In some relationships, one person doesn’t like to deal with managing money and numbers. They then leave the financial responsibility of the entire family on their spouse….
Continue reading →When Should You Hire a Financial Advisor?
There can be many different reasons why you may consider hiring a financial advisor. Planning for retirement, figuring out how to invest a large windfall, or simply helping you with your existing investments are just some of these reasons. The idea behind Certified Financial Planners…
Continue reading →Highest Credit Score Possible: Is Perfection Worth It?
When you’re trying to improve your credit, you may wonder what the maximum limit is for credit scores. The highest credit score possible is 850 and the lowest is 300. A bit over 1% of the US population has a perfect score. Anyone that wants…
Continue reading →How to Get Approved for Financing to Buy a House
It can be both tough and stressful work trying to get mortgage financing approval. Fortunately, this process can be made a lot easier if you know what will happen in advance so you can be prepared. Instead of being blindsided and made more stressed out…
Continue reading →The Three Major Credit Reporting Agencies Explained
Your credit score and reports are controlled by the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax & TransUnion. Why do we even have three credit bureaus? In the past, these were smaller companies serving specific areas. Over time they acquired their competitors until they became…
Continue reading →How Much Down Payment Cash Do I Need To Buy A House?
It took me a lot longer to buy a house than it should have, largely because I was mistaken about how much of a minimum down payment I needed in cash to be able to buy a home. Family had filled my head with the…
Continue reading →How Much Monthly Mortgage Payment Can I Afford?
Anyone that is considering buying a house will need to know how much they can afford to spend on their mortgage payment each month. This simple sounding question can actually cause some confusion though. The amount you think you can spend each month on your…
Continue reading →Get a Home Loan with Bad Credit & Minimum Score Requirements
Many people that rent a house are interested in buying their own home but think that they cannot get approved for a mortgage because of a bad credit score. This guide will teach you the minimum credit score requirements to get a home loan. You’ll…
Continue reading →Boost Your Monthly Savings With Cash Back Cards
Some people live paycheck to paycheck and have such a tight monthly budget that there’s nothing leftover to save. Even when you can’t afford to contribute to your savings account, you can utilize cash back credit and debit cards to save anyways. The idea behind…
Continue reading →How Much Money Should You Save Each Month?
When you’re determined to start saving money for an emergency fund, a future dream vacation or especially for retirement, you may not know how much to save. How much to save each month is actually crucial with retirement planning in particular. If you’re not saving…
Continue reading →Saving Money With Your Monthly Food Budget
Food is expensive, and high quality or healthy food can cost even more. Many people don’t realize how much money they’re spending on their food budget each month, but this can easily be a major area where wasteful spending is occurring. Big savings can potentially…
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