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Dealing with debt is one of the most important tasks when managing your money. While it’s very common to be in debt, there are several different scenarios that can arise when you owe money. If your debt level is increasing, or you’re finding it more difficult to keep up with repayments, here are some steps to take today. 

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Analyzing your finances

It can be tough to keep track of your accounts when you have multiple direct debits set up, you can tap a card to pay, and you purchase items at the touch of a button. If you tend to spend money without really thinking about it, or your balance is usually lower than expected when you look at your mobile banking app, it’s wise to take a good look at your statements. Check your balances for every account, review transactions, and take stock of your financial situation. Write down how much money you owe in total and note down the details for each individual payment. 

Draw up a budget

Budgeting is one of the most effective ways to take control of your money. It is particularly beneficial to monitor spending and set limits if you are trying to clear debts and prevent further borrowing. Your budget should contain figures for your income, your regular outgoings and one-off payments you need to make in the month ahead. Once you have all the data in front of you, you can work out how much you can afford to either save or put towards debt repayments. 

Repay your debts

There are two scenarios to consider when talking about debt. The first is manageable debt. If you’re paying a mortgage or a loan and you’re on top of the repayments, you don’t need to worry. If you can afford to pay back your debt, keep going as you are. The second scenario is more precarious. If you have debts that you’re struggling to repay, you are borrowing more money or you’re paying more in interest every month, it’s important to take action. There are multiple avenues to explore. 

If you have high-interest debts, it’s worth trying to bring the value down as quickly as possible to save you money. You could do this by using any savings you have, you could sell an annuity or you could look into a debt consolidation loan. This type of loan is designed to help you pay off all your debts and start again with a single monthly repayment. The best thing to do if you are worried about your debts is to seek expert advice. Financial advisers can recommend products and make suggestions based on your individual circumstances. 

Ask for help

Money worries are among the most common sources of stress, and during the pandemic, more and more people have found themselves struggling to repay debts. If you have concerns about your financial situation, or you don’t know how to go about trying to clear debts, reach out. Contact financial advisers, charities and nonprofits that offer free advice and helplines and research online. There is help and support available, and there are always options, no matter how bad things get. 

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Debts can spiral out of control, and it’s always wise to try and maintain a firm grip on your finances. If you’re keen to start tackling your debts, take these steps today.

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A salary is extremely important as it’s what someone gets paid for a living. This is the money that ends up in your bank account for doing a job, and you need to have a big enough salary to cope with all the various expenses in life. Speaking of which, one of the biggest problems people have is that they need a better salary. They aren’t getting paid enough by their employers, so they want to take action.

There’s an issue for employers as well! They know that salaries are crucial, but they’re also managing a budget. It becomes a question of trying to pay your employees what they deserve without spending too much.

On the topic of salaries, we’re going to go over a few things that both employees & employers can learn from the world of professional sports. Pro sports is arguably the most expensive industry in the world, but it’s also one where salaries are made public. When you look at this world, you start to see that there are a few things we can maybe adopt in the normal world…

Demanding new contracts

You will see that a lot of professional athletes flat-out demand new contracts when they think they deserve to be paid more. This happens a lot when young players break into a team, start performing really well, but are still stuck on a youth contract. They’re being paid way less than people in other teams who perform worse than them. So, they make it widely known that they want a better contract or they’ll leave. 

It’s an ultimatum that puts the employer on the spot. They need to decide if they’re willing to give them a raise or lose a valuable team member. The same can apply in your workplace. If you think you’re being paid less than you deserve, make a fuss about it. Give your boss an ultimatum, then alert any other companies about the situation. If you’re good at your job, you will be snapped up by a rival company in no time. This is further encouragement for the employer to act fast and give in to your demands, increasing your wages. 

Going above and beyond to reward loyalty

If you are an employer with a small business, one lesson you can take from pro sports is to go above and beyond to reward your loyal employees. We can look at a couple of instances where this has been shown, so let’s look at the NHL for an example. In 2018, Drew Doughty signed an 8-year contract worth $88 million for the LA Kings. It followed many impressive performances for the team, and they rewarded him with a long-term contract that saw him as one of the top-paid athletes in the division. 

Patrick Mahomes in the NFL is another great example. Again, his excellent play and loyalty were rewarded with a 7-year contract worth $150 million in 2020. In both of these cases, you see the employer doesn’t just reward them financially, they also ensure they’re locked in for a long time. As an employer, this is something to consider when setting salaries. Give them a contract that includes a salary for many years, making them feel financially secure at their job. It helps you retain employees, which is great for business!

Constantly providing raises

It is incredibly rare that any athlete will play for a sports team and not get a raise when signing a new contract. In the real world without million-dollar contracts, raises are harder to come by. It seems that businesses are less inclined to give them out, but it’s something they should start doing. If you employ people, raising their salary is the easiest way to give back and show appreciation for what they’ve done. 

From an employee’s perspective, you should learn from this as well. It’s a case of knowing your worth and knowing when you deserve a raise. So many people will stay at the same job for years without a raise, purely because they don’t think they deserve one, or are maybe resigned to the idea that raises are rarely given. Learn from sports; good performance deserves rewards. Ask for raises if you think you deserve one!

Obviously, there are huge differences between pro sports and most of our jobs! The money involved is completely different, so you can’t expect huge raises of million-dollar contracts. Nevertheless, there are certainly ways of doing things that you see in pro sports that can be applied to normal jobs. If you have salary issues at work, this post should give you a few things to mull over.

A growing family can be an expensive thing; whether you’re bringing a new life into the fold, or your children are rapidly growing and seemingly eating everything in sight, you’re going to be spending a lot more than your budget might be comfortable with! 

And that’s something we should focus on tackling, for the sake of your household turnover and your peace of mind. So, without further ado, here are three top things to do to help cut down the costs of raising children – better yet, they can be done right now! 

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Negotiate for Cheaper Child Care

Child care can be hard to pay for if you don’t have any family members to step in. But we can try to change this. After all, one of the best ways to cut down on child care costs is via working from home, or remote working. If your workplace does not already offer this as an option, there are some great ways to suggest it out there – a bit of confidence can go a long way to saving you money! 

Invest in Insurance

Insurance is a great thing for a family to have, simply because so many things can get broken when there are young children in the house! However, some insurance policies are better than others, so you’ve got to be smart about what type you take out here. 

Life insurance, for example, is going to be a worthy type to invest in. If you can rest easy at night, knowing that if anything happened to you your family would have the money to guide them through, you’ll be dealing with far less financial stress. 

So make sure you do your research; take a look at the most popular providers and compare them – you can start with these Primerica reviews, but make sure you look a little deeper into the contract and what’s on offer. You may also want to look into health insurance, or refining your current policy, and it never hurts to look into long-term disability insurance as well. 

Tackling the Food Shop

The food shop is probably the number one thing you dread; shopping for two or more people is difficult, and kids are notoriously fussy eaters! However, if you always buy when something is on offer, and buy in bulk, you’re going to be able to save a lot of money in the long run. 

Try to practice this principle with non-perishables, as they’ll keep it in the cupboard for a long time. Similarly, make sure you know how to properly store fresh food, and always mix those small leftovers into other, more substantial meals. Try to buy frozen wherever you can. The cost of a growing family can be huge – at last count, it stood at over $200,000 to raise just one child! So when you have a bigger family, it can feel impossible to manage a budget; make sure you keep the above ideas in mind to tackle the most troubling areas.

We all wish that money grew on trees. Let’s face it: it’s the one thing in the world that most of us just do not have enough of and if there was a way to make more than don’t compromise your sleep or your family, you’d do it! The thing is, making your money grow is really in your hands, even if it does mean a few sleepless nights in the meantime. You don’t have to be at the mercy of your boss all the time, and you don’t have to feel helpless that your current circumstances will never change – they absolutely can. 

Some people go out there and make a lot of money from other people making money, like Jorge Hank Rhon, who owns some of the biggest Mexican casinos. You may have to ask your boss for a raise from time to time, but it’s not the only option out there. You can be in control of financial growth, and we’ve got some of the simplest ways for you to make your money grow.

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1. Start tracking all of your finances. From the spending to the investments, savings, and more, you need to start getting a handle on what you’re spending. The best way to do that is to have a plan in place for tracking all of this and creating a budget plan so that you can better spend your money properly. If you know where your money is going, you can track the waste that’s happening and stop that in its tracks. This will also allow you some more disposable income as a result.
2. Always pay yourself first. If you want to grow the money you need to add money to your savings account before you put money into disposable incomes. You need to know that your savings are a part of your expenses, and you can ensure that you enjoy every second of that spare cash to spend elsewhere. Build your savings into your budget and you won’t skip out on it.
3. Start a side hustle. Whether you are going online to flutter some cash and multiply it on gambling sites, or you’re making clothes and selling them online, you need a side hustle to get you going. You can budget and track your spending properly and by paying yourself first, you can spend much less than you expected to.
4. Build a residual income. This can be done easily enough and when you have a passive income, you’re earning money without having to do much in the first place. Take the time to learn about all the different passive income streams and you can get started on a whole new way of earning.

Making your money grow is so important and if you want to ensure that you continue to grow it, then follow the tips above and make your money work for you. Take your time – your cash can be grown the way that you want it to be! Your money should work for you, so make it happen.

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We all need to manage our finances. Otherwise, we can find ourselves experiencing debt and other financial issues. A happy life tends to be a well financially managed life. So, what can you do to get everything in order and make things as simple for yourself as possible? Here are just a few steps that you should take into consideration to get the ball rolling in the right direction!

Creating a Budget

Everyone, no matter how much or how little money you may be earning, needs to stick to a budget. A budget is a tool that we use to determine how much money we’re bringing in, how much money we need to spend and how much money we have leftover to do as we please. Of course, a lot of people don’t have a budget. But this can often lead to overspending and other problems that result in debt. So, if you don’t have a budget yet, follow the steps below to get yourself off to the best start possible.

Work Out Your Total Income After Tax

The first step you need to take towards creating your budget is to work out your total income after tax. All too many people assume that the figure on their salary is the figure they get to take home. But this isn’t the case. If you are employed, your employer will deduct essentials such as tax and national insurance from each pay packet. If you are self employed, you need to deduct this yourself. The amount of tax you have to pay will depend on the tax bracket you fall into. Of course, there are plenty of easy to use and free to use online calculators that will figure out how much of your salary is dedicated to taxes and how much you actually take home.

Covering the Necessities

Once you know how much you take home each month, you need to deduct costs associated with your essential spending. These are amounts of money that you have to pay or are tied into paying. They can include your rent or mortgage payments, council tax, bill payments for energy, bill payments for water, a set amount for food shopping and any payments you may need to put out on contracts, car payments, insurance, and credit card or loan payments.

Disposable Income

The sum you’re left with after all of these payments have been taken out of your monthly payment is what is known as your disposable income. This is the money that you can feel free to spend on whatever you wish. Whether that’s clearing debts faster, putting money into a savings account, booking a holiday, going out for a meal, ordering takeaways, buying clothes, or anything else. Just make sure that you never spend more than your disposable income, as this is when you will find yourself sinking into debt.

Clearing Debts

If you do have debts, it’s important that you work at clearing them. The sooner you clear your debt, the better, as they generally have interest attached, which means you’re wasting money on essentially nothing. Of course, there are various ways to go about clearing debts. But some good steps to take include:

• Taking on extra work to generate extra income
• Balance transferring credit cards to interest-free cards
• Consolidating debts with a low-interest loan
• Reducing nonessential spending and using the money towards debts instead

Planning for the Worst

Of course, we never really want to think about the inevitability of passing away, but for many people, passing away will leave their family and loved ones in difficult financial situations. Everyone should plan for their funeral to relieve others of the financial burden attached to it. You should also make preparations for what will happen with your finances and assets should you pass, as well as taking steps to provide for loved ones financially even when you are gone.

Taking Out Life Insurance

While we all hope to be around for our families until we reach a ripe old age, this is unfortunately not the case for everyone. Some of us can pass before we expected. This is why we should all prepare and take out life insurance if possible. A life insurance policy can help to ensure that anyone who is dependent on us will be completely financially covered until they are able to support themselves. A life insurance policy can also cover the cost of things like a funeral, headstones, and urns from Memorials.com. If you have children, in particular, this is important, as you’re going to want to make sure that they are protected and able to get by should we no longer be able to provide for them. A good life insurance policy will ensure that your dependents receive a payout should you pass away. Of course, there are countless policies out there, so it’s important that you take some time to browse through the different options available to you. It’s highly recommended that you use a price comparison site to make sure that you’re genuinely getting the best deal for your money. You should also make sure to input your details correctly, accurately, and honestly to avoid the policy becoming void. Then, make sure to read the terms and conditions thoroughly and make sure that you always make your payments on time.

Writing a Will

If you’ve spent your whole life working towards building assets, you need to ensure that you know who they will be left to should you pass. Make sure to write a will to ensure that any savings you have, your home and valuable assets like vehicles are left to the people who you want to receive them. This is a legal document, so make sure to receive professional help from qualified will writing services.

These are just a few areas of focus to consider when it comes to managing your finances as best possible. Hopefully, some of the information will come in useful to you and really help you along the line!

As we approach the end of what has been a very strange year, many of us will start to think about how we can make sure we are prepared financially to enter a new year. Some of us set New Year goals that are finance-related, whereas others just look towards much of the nation reopeneing in a post-pandemic world. Hoping to all start seeing more paydays, every day. However, there are things that you can do now to ensure that you are savvy with your finances and ready for the new year ahead. With that in mind, here are some of the things to think about. 

Get your taxes checked and sorted

One of the first things you need to think about is getting your taxes sorted and checked out. When you have money owed out to taxes, you need to think about getting those bills paid and not letting them turn up unexpectedly. This is when using specialists and field experts like Suraj Kumar Rajwani or researching accounting firms like Foley & Giolitto could be a good idea. Helping you to understand what is owed and putting money aside can help you to budget in other ways. The last thing you want is to have to pay out a big amount when you least expect it. 

Look at your outgoings and make some savings

Another thing you can do is to look at your outgoings and see where you can potentially make some savings. Not only does this give you an accurate amount that you pay out each month, but it also gives you the opportunity to cut back on things you no longer need. Getting rid of different subscriptions, for example. You may also be able to make some savings on regular bills such as energy or insurance products. This could help you to get more in control of things and only pay out what you need. 

Set up small savings pots 

Savings are crucial for when you need to replace items that are broken, to pay for birthdays and even Christmas towards the end of the world. So setting up small savings pots can help you to start doing this more regularly. It is a great idea to help you to stay on credit as well so you avoid having to use credit cards or loans to pay for things when you need to. Savings pots can also be for small things from petrol and food shopping to other things like saving for your new car or a holiday. Putting money into these pots can help to visually give you an overview of where you are at with your money. 

Make your goals and come up with a plan 

Finally, it is a good idea to make some goals and come up with a plan for the financial side of things. Are there any big changes you want to make next year? Are you wanting to achieve something or pay for something specific? Having your finance goals written down will help you to stay accountable and also motivate you to make it happen. 

Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to making sure you are savvy with your finances.