I’m sure many of you are wanting to achieve financial freedom in some form, and you probably have some money-related goals/resolutions for the future. I know I do! If you want to get ahead, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and/or you want to gain control of your finances so that you can learn how to achieve…
I’m sure many of you are wanting to achieve financial freedom in some form, and you probably have some money-related goals/resolutions for the future. I know I do!
If you want to get ahead, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and/or you want to gain control of your finances so that you can learn how to achieve financial freedom, I recommend you continue reading below.
I have packed some of my best money tips into this post, and I definitely think you can improve your finances by instilling at least some of the money advice below into your life.
1. Stop letting money control you.
If you want to gain control of your financial life, then you need to gain control of your money.
This means you need to stop worrying about all of the things that are holding you back, and instead create an action plan so that the littlest things do not tear you down or stress you out.
This pretty much leads into everything in this post. You should create a budget, make extra money, lower your debt, have an emergency fund, lower your spending, and more in order to stop letting money control you.
2. Create a budget.
If you complain about money but you don’t have a budget, well, YOU NEED ONE. If you spend more money than you bring in, then you need a budget as well. If you have debt, then you need to create a budget.
I don’t know how else to put it.
If you want to achieve financial freedom, then read this money saving tip – Create a budget with realistic expenses along with your actual income. This can help you figure out what your money problem is, what areas you need to improve in, and more. It can help you save money because you will be tracking your spending and you will most likely figure out what your problem with money is.
3. Make extra income.
Here on Making Sense of Cents, I discuss extra income, side hustles, offline income, and how to make money online a good amount of the time. I do this for a reason…
I believe that earning extra income can completely change your life in a positive way. A person can stop living paycheck to paycheck, they can pay off their debt, and more all by earning extra money.
Many people have at least a few extra hours each day or each week that they can devote towards making extra money. If you want something, you just have to make time for it. I know it’s harder for some than it is for others, but it’s all about how bad you want it.
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4. Eliminate your debt if you want to reach financial freedom.
If you have debt, then you should be working to lower it. Unless you know exactly what you are doing and have taken advantage of something (such as a low interest rate, a loan that you don’t have to pay off because of work reimbursement, or something else), then you should be actively working to eliminate your debt. This way you won’t feel bound by it and feel stuck.
Eliminating debt is a great way to reach financial freedom. Another money saving tip related to this is that lowering your debt will also lead to less money going towards interest.
Have you ever calculated how much of your money goes towards interest DAILY?
Related post: How I Paid Off $38,000 In Student Loans in 7 Months
5. Have an emergency fund.
We have a well-funded emergency fund, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It gives me financial freedom in that I don’t have to worry about a bad business month, repair expenses, unexpected budget busters, and more.
Instead, we have money saved up for a rainy day so that stress doesn’t have to take over our lives.
Everyone prefers something different when it comes to their emergency fund. I like to have around one year’s worth of expenses, whereas others like to have three months. It all depends on your circumstances when it comes to how much should be in an emergency fund. There are emergency fund calculators out there that can probably help you with this.
Read Everything You Need To Know About Emergency Funds.
6. Stop keeping up with the Joneses is a TOP money saving tip of mine.
Keeping up with the Joneses is something that many people have been guilty of at least one point in their life. However, you need to learn how to stop, because who cares about what someone else has?
Shouldn’t you only care about what YOU need and want?
When trying to keep up with someone else, you will most likely be spending money that you do not have. You might put expenses on credit cards so that you can “afford” things. You might buy things that you do not care about. The problems can go on and on.
Keeping up with the Joneses can make you broke and lead to major debt.
7. Save for retirement in order to achieve financial freedom.
Learning how to achieve financial freedom means you need to save for retirement. How can you ever really feel free if you aren’t saving any money? Whether your goal is to retire early, financial independence, or something else, this is a BIG step when it comes to gaining control of your finances.
You never know if something will happen later on that might prevent you from saving for retirement. It’s always best to save now. You can still lead a great life while saving money for retirement.
I highly recommend that you check out Personal Capital (a free service) if you are interested in gaining control of your financial situation. Personal Capital is very similar to Mint.com, but 100 times better as it allows you to gain control of your investment and retirement accounts, whereas Mint.com does not. Personal Capital allows you to aggregate your financial accounts so that you can easily see your financial situation, your cash flow, detailed graphs, and more. You can connect accounts such as your mortgage, bank accounts, credit card accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and more, and it is FREE.
8. Be properly insured.
This one is a little different from the rest, but I always like to include this in my posts when I can. I always think that a person should be properly insured when they can.
This means have life insurance, car insurance, rental insurance, home insurance, health insurance, and/or whatever other type of insurance policy that you need. Of course, everyone doesn’t need everything, but you should evaluate your situation and see what you truly need.
Not being properly insured can cause stress and a crazy amount of debt. No one wants that. If you want to reach financial freedom, you need to make sure you are properly insured to prevent any financial disasters. No one wants a large problem to pop up in their lives, but being protected can shift a lot of the financial burden to an insurance company instead of everything falling on you.
9. Have regular money talks.
You need to have regular money sessions with yourself or money talks with your loved one in order to reach financial freedom. This is so that everyone can be on the same page.
For example: If one person is regularly busting the monthly family budget and the other person is a strict saver, this can cause problems.
10. Work to increase your credit score.
If you need a loan for anything in the future, you can do easy things to increase your credit score. Watch your utilization rate on your credit cards, pay your bills on time, watch the amount of hard inquiries on your credit report that you have, and so on.
Your credit score is important because it can affect your interest rate and whether or not you will get approved for a loan. A difference of just a few percentage points can save you hundreds of dollars a month.
That’s the possibility of saving THOUSANDS extra each year just by increasing your credit score. You can check your credit score for FREE with Credit Sesame.
Are you in control of your financial life? Why or why not? What are you doing to achieve financial freedom now?