These days, even people with good jobs are having trouble making ends meet. According to CNBC, 42% of six figure earners are living paycheck to paycheck. No matter how much you earn, you’re always going to struggle if your financial habits are the root of the problem. Right now, you probably spend more than you earn, have minimal savings and no budget. But you can always turn things around.
Create a payment schedule
When you miss a bill payment, you can be charged a late fee, damage your credit score and your interest rates can rise. That’s not the kind of headache you need when you’re already struggling. Review your bills to see what needs to be paid and when. Write the due dates on a calendar, along with the dates you get paid. This will make it easier for you to setup a payment schedule, so you never miss another due date.
Find a budget that works for you
Things may feel a little hopeless right now, but there’s still time to improve your situation. A key step in getting back on track is to find a budgeting method that works for your lifestyle. Having a budget makes it easier to manage your money and achieve your financial goals. Here are a few popular techniques that can help you.
- Envelope system – Divide your income into different envelopes based on your most common spending categories. When you make a purchase, the money must come from the appropriate envelope. You cannot borrow money from other envelopes.
- 50/30/20 rule – Spend 50% of your take home pay on needs, 30% on wants and 20% goes towards savings or paying off debt.
- Zero-based budget – Decide how you’ll spend every penny of your monthly income (expenses, debt payments and savings), so there’s nothing left over at the end of the pay period.
Reduce your expenses
Many people are broke because they’re trying to maintain a lifestyle that they can’t afford. Realistically, you only need a few things to survive, which are a place to live, food to eat, water to drink and clothing to keep you warm. Everything above that is more of a want than a need. Review your bank and credit statements and decide which expenses you can eliminate or scale back on. Then follow through.
Make more money
If you’ve crunched the numbers, made sacrifices and it’s still not enough, you may need to suck it up and get another job. With the new gig economy, it’s easy find part-time work like driving for Uber or Lyft, data entry from home, or delivering orders for a supermarket or restaurant. Although you may hate the idea of working more, remember it’s only temporary. Use the extra money to catch up on bills, pay off debt faster or build your savings so you have peace of mind. Once you reach your goal, you can kiss your second job goodbye.
Build your savings
Twenty-five percent of Americans have no savings. That’s far less than the 3 to 6 months of living expenses experts recommend. A simple way to build your savings is to automate the process. You can set up automatic transfers from your checking to savings. Just pick an amount and the date you want the funds moved then you’re done.
