July Financial Wellness
5 helpful Personal Finance Tips
When you have a plan for your money, you are more likely to turn your dreams into reality—buying a home, protecting your savings, retiring comfortably, and more. The key is knowing the ways money can work for you. Here are five personal finance tips to help get you thinking about money differently.
1. Quick Ways to Save $1,000
- Work Overtime. If it fits in your personal schedule and aligns with your company’s policy, ask about working a few extra hours a week. If your business pays extra for working over 40 hours, this can be a great, quick way to get to $1,000 in your savings.
- Sell Something. Hosting a garage sale or selling your items online are popular ways to clean house and make a dollar.
- Limit Eating Out. Eating at home can save you around $10 per meal based on the average fast-food meal versus at home grocery shopping.
- Evaluate Phone and Insurance Plans. Annual commitments like your cell phone or auto insurance are typically placed in the ‘set it and forget it’ budgetary items, but shopping could give you back $20-$100 a month in savings.
- Cancel Unused Subscriptions Services. We recommend the 30 Day Savings Challenge with subscriptions. If you pause your subscription for 30 days and find you don’t miss it or need it, that can be automatic savings.
2. Pay off debt with the “snowball effect”
The ‘Snowball Effect’ is a method for paying off the smallest, fixed debts first and moving on to the larger debts after those are paid in full. To get the most out of the ‘Snowball Effect’, stay dedicated to it for 18-24 months.
3. work towards saving 3-6 months expenses
Saving three to six months of your monthly income is a great way to build security into your finances. After you outline a budget, look at where you might be able to put extra funds into an emergency savings account.
4. budget and live below your means
Make sure your basic needs and monthly bills are paid and look at what is left in your budget. Remember: just because there is money to spend doesn’t mean you should.
5. pay yourself first
Paying Yourself First is a personal finance method designed to make sure enough income is saved or invested before monthly expenses or discretionary purchases are made.
Creating a budget is the first step. Make a budget with our free, online budgeting tool to get started on getting the most out of your finances.
Whatever your personal finance journey looks like, we want to be there for you. To become a member of Together Credit Union, you can start the membership application online or contact Teresa Evans, branch manager at our Columbus location at tevans@togethercu.org or 1-614-888-2299.
