Let’s face it, most of us aren’t too hot with our cash. If you’re anything like me, you probably always end up having to scrimp and save just to make it through the month until payday! However, struggling with your money isn’t a healthy way to live. It can cause you a lot of stress, which can lead on to various health problems. But, more importantly, all of your bad habits with money won’t be doing your bank balance any good. It might never come out of the red, and you may end up relying on loans to get you through. This puts your life on very shaky foundations and isn’t sufficient to secure your future. When you think of all this, there is no wonder why so many of us are continually fighting to get our finances back on track. Thankfully, you don’t have to fight for too long. Here are some super quick fixes that can help to give your financial situation a little boost!
Review Your Credit Card Bills
The next time you have a few spare minutes in your day, it is a good idea to use this time to go through your credit card bills and statements. Take a look at each payment that is one the bill and ask yourself whether it is really necessary. We often amass a lot of regular payments on our credit cards, most of which we end up forgetting about. Are you still paying for a subscription service that you never use anymore, such as a monthly magazine? If so, it will certainly be worth cancelling the subscription, making that one less payment for the month. Go through your bill and strike through any payments that you cancel. You will find that it helps you free up a lot more cash, and you will have a lot more left in your bank at the end of the month compared to what you are used to.
Consolidate All Your Debt
Do you have various different debts and credit cards with different companies? If so, you will know just how stressful this can be! You will find that you have all these different companies chasing you for payments, and this can be very overwhelming for most people! However, there is one very easy way to get all these different debt collectors and loan companies off your back. You just need to consolidate all your debt with one loan company. To do this, you could speak to a company who specializes in personal unsecured loans. You will be able to take out a large loan to pay off all your other debts. That way, you are now only paying off one loan company rather than multiple ones. This will make your monthly repayments much easier to handle. Having just the one company come after you for payments is a lot less stressful than having a number of different ones hound you all the time!
Double Check Your Tax Bill
Did you think that your tax bill was particularly huge last year? Well, it could be time to speak to a professional about this. Quite a few of us do our tax returns ourselves as it can be a lot cheaper than hiring an accountant. However, it can actually work out better for you if you do get an accountant to review your taxes and help you file. Sure, you will have to pay them for their help. But they can help you save a whole load of money on your tax bill, which could work out a lot cheaper for you, even if you do pay for the accountant’s services. Accountants know lots of loopholes that can reduce your tax bill. Not only that, though, but they also know what kinds of business expenses you claim, which can reduce the amount you have to pay even further.
Switch To Digital Only
Lots of companies and suppliers that provide households with their utilities, such as electricity and water, now offer their customers two ways to receive their bill. You can either get your bills through the post on paper, or you can sign up for an online account so that your bills get emailed to you in a digital format. More often than not, companies offer discounts to customers who have opted for an online account. This also has the added bonus that you will be helping the environment by reducing the amount of paper needed in the whole billing process.
Raise Your Insurance Excess
When you take out insurance, whether it is travel, car, or life insurance, you will be asked to state an excess amount. This is the amount you need to pay before the insurance company starts to pay out what you are entitled to. For instance, if you crash your car and have an excess of $100, you will need to pay this amount for repairs before your insurance covers the rest of the costs. If your excess is currently very low, you should consider raising it. That is because this will reduce your monthly repayments. Generally speaking, the higher your excess is, the lower your monthly insurance payments will be. For more information about this, you should speak to your insurance provider.
Make Your Savings Automatic
We all know that it is important to try and save some cash, no matter how little the amount may be, on a monthly basis. However, hardly any of us do this because we forget and end up spending the cash in our bank account. Thankfully, there is an easy way to make sure that you never forget a monthly payment into your savings account. And that is to set up an automated direct debit from your everyday current account into your savings account. As long as you have the money in your current account, it will be taken out and deposited into your savings without you having to do anything.
Struggling with your money? Hopefully, all of the above tips will help you get sorted!
