5 Things you need to be doing to get financially stable
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Majority of the world don’t have endless cash flow and have to worry about finances.
I know I definitely don’t bleed money….
Check out my Budget Worksheet, and Daily Agenda, and Account Tracker printables I created to help you get your life and finances under control. I use these puppies regularly and I’m making them available to you guys absolutely FREE in hopes you’ll find them helpful as well!
Did you know that money is number 2 on the list for the top reasons causing the 40-50% divorce rate in the U.S?!?!
It doesn’t really surprise me. The term “Money makes the world go round”, is something that I often say when discussing finances with people. Whether we like it or money is what determines our quality of life. It’s how we eat and stay warm and safe.
Yet a lot of us put very little effort into, creating a solid financial plan. How much sense does that make? To be fair a lot of us probably don’t know where to start, or how to change things to really make a difference.
My parents growing up didn’t really teach good habits about money to me or my brothers. In fact, they were not very good or smart with their money, so they didn’t set very good examples for us as children to learn from.
Over time though I have taken steps to correct that, and have found a list of tools that I used to start making an immediate change. So I decided to focus today’s post on the top 7 things to do that will help to finally get you financially stable starting today.
These aren’t on the list but like I mentioned above, these tools are what I used when I first started making steps towards getting my finances under control. Although, I didn’t have these cute printables when I started. So make sure to print off my Account Tracker, Budget Worksheet, and Daily Agenda printables that I put together for ya’ll. They’ve all really helped me through the stressful process.
- Set up multiple accounts
I used to just have a checking account and a savings account. I used my checking account for everything paying bills, random purchases whatever it was.
Eventually, though I decided to compartmentalize my expenses into separate accounts. I had four different accounts one for bills specifically, two for savings, and one for what I called “Fun Money”.
The bills account is self-explanatory, but the two savings had specific purposes as well.
Both were to be left alone and not withdrawn from, but one was more of a retirement fund, where I put 10 to 20% of my paycheck in the account every month. The other was an emergency account. Throughout my life I have had terrible luck with cars, things would randomly break down on my vehicles and they were always large expenses.
Because of this, I had my emergency account in the event that something unexpected happened I had a small fund put away for backup. I also had a rule that I needed to keep a minimum of a couple grand in there at all times. I recommend this same strategy to everyone in case of an accident. You can choose your own appropriate amount that should be in there at all times, but better safe than sorry.
The “Fun Money” account was used for purchases like a mini shopping spree, or going to the movies or lunch, you can think of it kind of like an allowance.
If I put a set amount into the “Fun Money” account and I spent it all in the first two weeks well I was SOL, I just had to make it a rule that I was not allowed to borrow from other accounts.
With this strategy, money is not getting pulled out randomly from one main account, and I you’re able to more easily manage what you spend, and keep track of how much is being spent on unnecessary purchases.
- Set up automatic deposits to a Savings account
I have always been bad about putting money into my savings, I definitely had a savings account, but when I’d get paid it would go into my checking and I would leave it there, spending money as I needed to.
At one point I switched banks and when setting up my checking they had two different options, a normal checking account or one that when every time I swiped my card and made a purchase the remaining amount of change would get automatically deposited into my savings account.
I chose this option, and now recommend everyone set up a similar system at their banks. Doing this allows you to always be adding to your savings without having to think about it, it’s very passive.
The amount that’s being deposited are in such small amounts you don’t notice but because it’s done so frequently it starts to add up in your savings quicker than you’d think, without really having to do anything.
You can choose which account you want to set this up for, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a saving account it could go into your “Fun Money” account, but I recommend setting it up for your savings because people tend to be bad about consciously putting money into that account.
- Use rebate and Coupon Apps
We live in an age of technology, and like everything in life that fact has, it’s pros and cons. But one of the pros about living in a technology-driven world are the money savings apps that have come out.
Did your mom, or you ever spend Sunday cutting coupons from the Sunday paper? My mom still does this, but now they have apps out there that make collecting coupons super easy. There’s several out there but here’s a few I recommend.
The first one is called ibotta. Ibotta is a rebate app that will give you money back on your purchases. All you have to do is look at what rebates are available on ibotta and if any of those are on your shopping list add them on ibotta.
You can share your referral code with friends, and get a little bonus if they use it when they sign up. My referral code is oadsbop if you decide to signup I’d love if you used my referral code!
No hard feelings if not though of course 😉
Then when you go shopping keep the receipt and take a photo of it with the app when you get home and ibotta matches it with what you’ve selected and they’ll rebate you within 48 hours.
Another app I use is called Flipp
You may have seen commercials about it in the past. Here’s how it works. You can create a shopping list and search for products on your list and Flipp generates all the coupons available at a variety of different stores, or you can browse all coupons available. Flipp has a rebate option too!
These other two apps are downloaded on your computer. They are Honey and Wikibuy.
They are price comparison apps and coupon finding apps. The best part about these two guys is they do all the work for you after you install them on your computer, every time you go to make an online purchase they’ll tell you if it’s the best deal or if the price dropped in the past, and it’ll find any coupons that might be available for you.
There are a ton more than the few I mentioned. You can go HERE to view my post where I listed the top 15 money saving apps.
- Write out a schedule
There are so many things that I have to pay for throughout the month and it’s hard to remember when things are due. This is where you need to have a calendar with written out dates of when things are due and how much.
I have an awesome free printable finance managing calendar that helps with this process and has places for you to add phone numbers and other important details.
I’m one of those people that prefers a written out physical schedule rather than a digital one. If you’re like me, and you want one you can enter your email below and I’ll send it to you!
- Get off of autopay
Some of you may have read number 4 above and thought, duhh that’s why you use autopay!!! Yes, the auto pay is great and makes paying for bills easy and in a lot of cases makes your bill cheaper with this option. But there’s a reason why I don’t use autopay anymore and discourage people from using it.
If you’re reading this post it’s probably because you’re not incredibly financially stable as it is and there may be times where you have to pick and choose what bills you CAN pay. I know because I’ve been there many times.
If you have autopay set up and all your bills start getting paid but you don’t have enough money for every bill, guess what’s going to happen?
You are going to get an overdraft fee if you allowed that option when you set up your account
OR
You’re going to get a failed attempted withdrawal from your bank AND and failed attempted payment or late fee from the provider attempting to collect.
I have dug myself a good sized whole using autopay. Providers are usually pretty reasonable and if you realize you won’t have the money to pay a bill on the due date, you can call them and it’s likely they’ll push back your due date and work with you.
Plus they will appreciate the communication. You’re a customer to them and customer retention is real. I guarantee they would prefer to work with their customers to make them happy and keep in as a client, then make you mad by over-drafting your account, and possibly lose out on business.
Alright, guys so this was my Top 5 things you should start doing today to get financially stable. Just a friendly reminder to remember to print off my Monthly Budget Worksheet, Account Tracker, and Daily Agenda printables, they are lifesavers. Let me help you start living a happier life!!
As always I want to thank you for visiting me on the blog today, whether your a first-time visitor or a longtime reader, your support means so much to me and I hope you find my posts helpful.
If you have any suggestions for improvement or would like me to discuss a specific topic here on the blog or if you just want to say hello, leave a comment below!!
