While investing in cpxx may be a way to generate extra money, but when looking at your whole financial picture, freeing up extra money is important in reducing expenses, so that you can pay off debt, give yourself a cushion instead of living paycheck to paycheck, not to mention build up your nest egg so you can ensure adequate funds for when you do finally walk away from work. You can protect your financial future by making sure you take on a few behaviors that will help snow, and in the future.
Boost Your Credit Score
You know if you’ve gone to apply for a mortgage, loan, or credit card based on the advertisement interest rate, only to find that when it actually came down to proceeding with the loan, it was higher based on not having the top tier credit score. When you get to the top, you have the best rates on the market available to you, which in turn, saves you money each month. Just think that a percent difference off the mortgage interest rate, depending on the balance, could save you thousands of dollars every year.
Build an Emergency Fund
You can have as perfect of a plan as you want, going from month to month, but what happens when unexpected charges come out of the blue and throw you budget out of whack, how would you pay for needed auto repair, vet bill, or even if you lost your job and need to float for a few months? For what you can, probably put on your credit card and risk going into debt by carrying over a balance every month and paying interest, adding those monthly payments into a budget that is probably already pretty tight when it comes to money left over. By giving yourself a few months’ worth of expenses in an account, you can give yourself a needed emergency fund.
Track Your Purchases
It’s hard to reduce expenses when you don’t know every dollar that is going out, or at least can speak to how much you’re spending on monthly bills, food, gas, and entertainment money. By reviewing last month’s debit or credit card statement, and going forward for that matter, you can start to keep a close eye on where your hard-earned money is going and hopefully it will raise an awareness to reduce unnecessary expenses and only focus on those that are really needed.
Save for Retirement
While retirement may actually still be decades away, that doesn’t mean it should be the last thing on your mind, in fact, it’s better to start saving early on so you can increase each year, giving more time to build up between now and when you finally retire. Don’t forget to check at work to make sure you’re taking advantage of any company-matching contributions that you’re offered, so you are not missing out on any free money that will significantly grow over time. Increasing a percent, a year until you’ve reached the max contributions allowed will give you maximum savings.