How do I Make Sure I Don’t Run out of Money before the End of the Month?

How do I Make Sure I Don’t Run out of Money before the End of the Month?

With increasing options to spend money in the market living within one’s budget is becoming more of a challenge for people with defined monthly incomes. Making it through the month with a paycheck as your sole source of income is trustworthy indeed, but it can become a challenge at times. It is not necessarily a huge change or demand. Sometimes the slightest of happenings out of the ordinary lifestyle can disrupt your budget which makes the last days of the month a problem to survive through.

It all begins with the day you get your paycheck! It feels like the day to the party which if lasts a bit too long into the month becomes troublesome. So, to avoid that the simple solution is management. As you tend to organize every part of your lives, you should also tend to your finances with the same care and concern. It requires skill and smart living to get there, but it is not that much of a difficult thing to achieve. It may sound strange, but a few steps to alter your living and you will be managing quite reasonably within your paycheck.

The simple steps to take involve:

  • Understand Your Income

The first step to saving money is to understand your money. It begins with learning about your sources of income. You must understand your earnings and keep in mind all the money that you bring in. Once you know your sources of income, add up all the money you are earning to get the exact amount you get in hand for the month.

It also includes respecting your income and staying loyal to the sources of it. Work with dedication and keep yourself invested in your work that pays. Remember, the concentration will result in better work output which can promise a raise in your paycheck which means more income!

  • Track Your Expenses

Once you know what you are earning it comes down to the next part. With finances, it is the expenditure. You earn money to spend it of course and thus, you must keep track of your expenses. Keep a list of all the times your actions result in a decrease in your income. It is an expense to list down.

You must stay true to your list and not cheat. Do not leave off the expenses you do not want to account for. No matter how much you wanted to spend money on that, it still counts as an expense so it must be list down.

  • Filter the Living Expenses

Now, once you know your income and you have recognized all your expenses, here comes the difficult part. It is time to be a little hard on yourself. Overview that list of expenses and highlight your living expenses only. Living expenses, you ask?

They include the money you spent on your essentials. The money that goes into providing for the necessities of your life, count them all. They include all your utility bills, food expenses, and others that you just cannot avoid. Highlight all of these expenses and review the ones that remain on that list you made.

That remaining list must have many expenses that you might not want to give up, but that needs some serious dedication to survive within your paycheck. So, it might be a difficult thing to do, but take that step and cross them off the list. Remember, you have to live within the paycheck!

  • Save Some Amount

When it comes to finances it is not just about the income and the expenses. Financial management has another integral ingredient to it. The one people mostly forget. This third and vital part of the management of finances is your savings. For a successful budget, savings is a must. You cannot live without saving some amount of what you are earning.

Organize your expenses in such a way to ensure that the savings do exist. While tracking your expenses you must cross out all the unnecessary ones. Continue to do that throughout the list even if your expenses are less than your income because that is when your savings come into play. You will get the amount of savings from that check on your expenses.

  • Work It Out Yourself

Remember! No one can come and help you out with your finances. You cannot be dependent on your financial management on someone. You earn money. You spend the money. It has got to be you who saves the money as well. The motivation and determination to do that come from within.

Once you know you have the dedication to make it work, take the next step. Save your money on the little tasks you hire people to do for you. A little fixing, a little renovation or a little cleaning around; do it yourself. Work on it on your own and get the work done, It will not only help you stay active but also help you save money.

  • Shop Smart

You go out shopping? Well, the smart thing would be to steer clear of the places you cannot resist yourself. Plus, you need not be the first one to buy the trendy stuff out there. Wait your time out, no one is judging you and buy those same articles in sales. Wait for the sales and save money.

  • Hold Yourself Accountable

Do not just plan it out, but make sure you execute. Do you know what makes execution unavoidable? It is the process of accountability. Review your success with financial management and even ask your friends to help keep an eye on you for that matter. Force yourself to follow the plan you design for cutting back on expenditures. Thus, judge your own actions to make it work it to the end of the month in good condition.

Thus, stick to these steps and you will surely survive the month well within your paycheck while saving some for emergencies.

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What Should be the Next Steps After You Go Bankrupt?

What Should be the Next Steps After You Go Bankrupt?

Getting up after you have fallen is relatively easy than getting back up after you have gone bankrupt. It is the accumulation of all your bad credit habits and mismanagement over the time that has finally come alive to eat you up – and it did. The only way out is to file for bankruptcy, which is not an easy way out. However, it is not a difficult situation to stay at, only if you understand the process and have enough patience to let it all pass. It may seem overwhelming and daunting to re-establish your credit profile all over again, to attain a good credit rating and to regain your lost confidence.

If you know how to see the wisdom behind all the happenings, you would see bankruptcy as a fresh start, a second chance to avoid repeating the same mistakes and to prove yourself in front of the credit world. Your second chance can be very rewarding if you plan and strategist what your next step would be. You do not want to go wrong now. Which is why there are 3 steps that you need to take after filing bankruptcy.

     Stop letting your mistakes haunt you

This is the first and the most important step before you go any further. You cannot allow your mistakes, even blunders, to keep haunting you and mocking you back. It will only eat away your confidence and you will feel stuck in the place you have landed. It clouds the way ahead and does not let you see the opportunities that you seize. The right attitude here will as your armor. You need it.

     A lifestyle change

The next step is obvious; you cannot keep living the way you did before. Your lifestyle must change to accommodate your current financial situation, a situation that will take time to get better. Cut down your unnecessary expenses. Identify your necessities and essential expenditures. Cut down on luxuries to save money in order to pay off your debts. If you have filed for chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will have to do this at all costs. The authorities will ask you to reorganize your expenses, and until you have paid all of your debt off, it will stay this way. If you have filed for chapter 7, then you will be asked to use your money carefully, No credit will be given to you at any circumstance until your case has been discharged.

     Reestablish your credit rating

Once your case has been discharged, the next step is to build your credit profile. It is a misconception that you cannot get any credit, once you have gotten the word “bankrupt” on your credit report. What you need to do to improve your credit report. For this, start paying all your bills on time. If you have a house, then do not miss out on any of the mortgage payments.

After that, get a secured credit card. It is not as same as the regular credit cards, but it is the stepping-stone you need to cross. It allows you to deposit a certain amount and that amount becomes your limit. They will see how you are repaying your loans, and according to that, will up your limit whenever they feel you are finally learning from your mistakes.

HOW YOUR CREDIT HISTORY AFFECTS YOUR CREDIT SCORE

HOW YOUR CREDIT HISTORY AFFECTS YOUR CREDIT SCORE

Bygones are not bygones in the world of banking and finance. What you do in the past, always comes around and determines the course of the future for you. In the world of credit, your worth is determined by a magic number called a Credit score. This is a mathematical way of expressing the creditworthiness of a person who is applying for credit approval.  A credit score is determined by taking five elements into consideration.

  • Amount you owe
  • Length of time you have been using credit
  • The credit mix you have
  • New credit accounts you open
  • Payment history

Every element has a different weightage when it comes to evaluating your credit score. However, your credit history takes the big chunk of it and has the most significant impact.

The first thing a creditor looks at is your credit history, to get an idea of whether you are good at keeping up your end of the bargain or not. Whether you made the payment at a time or not.

The type of accounts, which the creditors consider when checking your credit history, are;

  • Primarily your credit card.
  • The retail accounts you have.
  • All the installments that are due every month including your car installment or any appliance you got on installments. And how regularly you pay them.
  • Your history with other financing companies.
  • Your mortgage payments history.

Your credit history is like a report card that a creditor sees. If he sees that you have made late payments, it will not immediately affect your score but if there are late payments for consecutive months, you will have to face some consequences and those consequences will then have an affect your credit score.

First, you will be charged with late credit fee. Then your interest rate will be increased. That increased interest rate is never a good sign. It shows that they have reservations when it comes to trusting you with credit.  It will also make it more difficult for you to stick to credit then because it will become more expensive and therefore increase the risk of late payments or no payments at all. This stays on your report for a significant amount of time, maximum for seven years.

Other than this your credit score is also negatively affected by any foreclosures you have against you, any lawsuits that were filed against you, wage garnishments, or if someone has withheld any of your property till the time you pay them off. These all factors are also taken into account including bankruptcy in any form as well.

Credit history constitutes 35% of your credit score, thus a good credit history guarantees that you have a good credit score and more options of credit available to you. A low credit score lowers your credibility as it implies the presence of unfavorable information on your credit report.

Debt problems 3 Tips to avoid bankruptcy

Debt problems 3 Tips to avoid bankruptcy

Today, the average American has more than a single credit card. This coupled with the American lifestyle of “gotta have it now” has led to a lot of problems. Specifically speaking, it has led to a lot of debt. In fact, in many cases, the debt has gone out of the control and individuals have been forced to file for bankruptcy. Believe me, bankruptcy is something you’d want to avoid. After all, living at the mercy of others is never a good feeling.

Are you facing financial difficulty and pondering filing for bankruptcy? If yes then you’re not alone. Make it absolutely clear that your debt has got nothing to do with your personality or way of living. Even the very finest of people may go bankrupt at some point in their lives. Most people who suffer bankruptcy are regular, hard-working people who encounter some sort of blockade. A single blockade whether it was an accident, reduction in wages or the loss of job can send you in the wrong direction.

Come what may, you cannot prevent the aforementioned blockades. What you can do though is limit living on credit. Your debt will start to multiply as soon as you start using your credit cards to pay for what you can’t afford. Eventually, your debt will cause you to go bankrupt. The best thing you can do to prevent such a situation from occurring is avoiding the things that lead to bankruptcy in the first place. Following are 3 tips to avoid bankruptcy that credit counselors recommend.

Develop a budget

This is a no brainer. If you don’t have a budget, there is a 90% chance that you’ll go bankrupt. Basically, you need to list down all your monthly expenses and allocate resources/money to them based on their importance. Limit the money you spend on unimportant things such as home décor, branded clothing, designer shoes, and so on. This will help you to better manage your debt and avoid bankruptcy.

Pay off your debt over time

If your debt hasn’t yet gone out of control, sit down and determine how much you owe. In such a situation, it is more than possible for you to pay off your debt on your own if you re-adjust your budget and use a debt management plan. Also, taking to a credit counselor would be a good thing to do in this situation.

Take help from credit counselors

As mentioned above, credit counselors can help you to better manage your debt. Additionally, they can advise you how to avoid bankruptcy. Knowledgeable people, credit counselors have a sound financial background and can tell you anything and everything you’d need to know about avoiding bankruptcy.

 

Bankruptcy is not a good situation to be in. Luckily, you can avoid bankruptcy by using the tips mentioned above.