7 Great Money Tips

All of us wish to achieve financial freedom in our lives. In order to attain this, we need to understand finance and steps we need to take as preparation to lead a satisfying and monetarily independent life.

1) Investing regularly requires discipline and most of us find it difficult to do so. If we can ensure that a certain percentage of our income is automatically deducted on a periodical basis, we will be able to save more. This could also include utilizing the company’s 401k, self employment plan. The advantages are two fold:
a) You can avail of tax benefits
b) What the eye doesn’t see, the heart does not grieve about.

You can start with allocating 10% of the income towards this.

2) Over the years, we have seen that housing demand never slackens as more and more families look for accommodation. Investing in a house is a good bet for the future as land prices always appreciate. There are other advantages:

a) Paying rent is expensive over an extended period of time.
b) Installment payments on your housing loan enable you to claim tax benefits.

3) Contribution towards medical and life insurance plans should be a must lest you regret it when something untoward occurs. This is something you owe to your family. It is not necessary to take whole life plans but simple term plans over 20 years that is available at a lesser cost online should be enough. You can either go for your company’s plan or join plans offered by Blue Cross since they have a reputation and are long term players

4) Buying a new car is a strict no since they depreciate by 25-30% the moment you start using it. It is better to go for a two or three year old vehicle, as somebody would have already paid for that depreciation. Modern cars can easily run over 150,000 miles. A vehicle which has been on the road for over 3 years will ensure initial purchase costs as well as insurance and levies costs are saved. Doing one’s homework and assessing one’s credit score will also help to ascertain one’s loan eligibility. Doing this online can save you valuable interest money that you would have otherwise been charged by your dealer.

5) It is imperative to pay off your debts at the earliest especially where the interest payout is high. Alternately, you can avail assistance from one of the not-for-profit agencies who will get you better terms on your debt. One should also exercise discipline in one’s purchases and indiscriminate usage of credit cards needs to be curbed. One must also chuck away extra cards including the store cards as they only serve to induce you to purchase extra.

6) When you resign from a job make sure that you part on good terms. You can even help your company in finding a replacement if you can find the time. It can give you a good reference useful when you seek another assignment or your company may even call you back with a better offer. Using your networking skills regularly can also provide you extra links which can be tapped in the future. One should also be humble to ask for favors and be ready to return them when the occasion demands. The Karmic
rule – helping others to help yourself invariably plays out.

7) Having a charitable disposition and volunteering for assistance either monetarily or in terms of time to help somebody will make you feel wonderful about yourself. Your success should spur you to assist people less lucky. The Karmic theory says that you will be rewarded many times over of what you give back.