Since the new year has just started, this is the perfect time to sit down, inspect your finances and come up with a way to boost your cash flow. It’s also the perfect time to reassess your financial behavior so far and see whether you can tweak it so that your financial inflow significantly outruns your spending habits.
Boosting your income has never been easier than it is today, so you really have no excuse not to start managing your finances better and smarter. Here, we’ll explore some of the easiest ways you can improve your financial inflow and take full control over your personal finances. So, let’s dive right in.
Organize your finances
When talking about financial paperwork, accounts and bills, keep in mind that less is always more. What this means is that you should inspect all of your bank accounts and see how you can reduce them in numbers. The thing is that any person can, more often than not, get away with having just one main checking and one main savings account, you really don’t need multiples. Additionally, if you want, you can have a third account you can use only as a liquid emergency fund or, if you have a family, you can opt for a joint checking account for family expenses.
Organize your life
While this doesn’t seem to correlate with the main topic significantly, according to a study conducted in 2013 and published by the Journal of Consumer Research people who lived in a cluttered place, as well as those who are generally disorganized, are more prone to impulse spending. So, try to organize your day-to-day as much as possible, and declutter both your living space and your workspace. This will do wonders for your self-control and, in turn, your personal finances as well.
Find an additional source of income
Nowadays, boosting your personal finances with an additional source of income has become practically mandatory. However, you don’t need to find a “second job” per se. Instead, you can actually turn your hobby into a moneymaker. For example, if you love writing, you can start your own blog and make money off of it. One of the ways you can do so is through various affiliate programs, where you can refer your reader base to someone’s products and/or services in exchange for a certain commission on either a sale, lead or an action. If writing is not your cup of tea, you can try selling your crafts on websites like Etsy or, if you like photography, you can collaborate with stock photography websites.
Automate your bill paying & savings
This will not only help you save money but time as well. In such a technology-rich world we live in today, there really is no need to waste time waiting in line in a bank to pay your bills or spend money on commission. Instead, automate this process with various mobile apps. Besides, by having your funds automatically withdrawn for your bills and allocated to your savings account as soon as you get a paycheck, forgetting to take care of it yourself becomes virtually impossible. This way, you’ll also avoid late payment fees which can sometimes get pretty high.
Learn more about finances
The fact of the matter is that we don’t actually know a lot about finances. So, it’s only logical to assume that, had we known a bit more about them, we’d be able to manage them more efficiently. Therefore, if you have enough free time and you love to learn new things – especially those that are actually very beneficial – try to get more familiar with the world of finances. No, we’re not saying that you should strive towards becoming an expert (actually, why not?), but learning more about them will certainly make taking care of them much easier.
Invest wisely
Personal investments are also a great way to boost your finances, but you need to be careful. First and foremost, when it comes to investing, you should be asking yourself the question of whether you should buy coinbase shares yes or no (Coinbase Aktien kaufen ja oder nein), or whether you should invest in something that will guarantee a significant ROI instead. Furthermore, before you invest, determine your possibilities and goals to avoid losing your investment on a bad decision. If you are considering digital currencies, check the value and see how easy it is to invest in such assets. Platforms like Coin Cloud might help buy and sell digital currencies. Finally, do know that short-term investments always come with bigger tax obligations than long-term investments, so keep that in mind as well.
Yes, managing finances is not easy but it’s not impossible either. The key is to know exactly how big your income is and be realistic about your expenses so that you can balance the two in the most efficient way. Finally, if you add some additional income and a few well-placed investments to the equation, you’ll boost your financial inflow in no time.
Author bio:
Jessie Connor is a passionate writer and researcher from Brisbane, contributor at several business and lifestyle blogs, hooked on yoga and healthy living. She loves to spend her free time travelling, reading and of course – shopping!