Are you ready to kick start the new year with a bang?
To help you do just that, I have put together a month long financial boot camp, with two tips per week and a call to action. Together, we will review several aspects of your financial life to make sure you start the year in good shape.
We have already looked at your utility bills and I put together a detailed guide about how to lower them, as well as your monthly debt payments.
Then, we talked about how you can reduce one of your biggest expense: your mortgage, and how you can challenge your council tax banding.
We also lowered your grocery bill, your leisure budget and your transportation costs.
We even made sure you have the best credit card to pay for all those expenses.
courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
So what is left, after a month of diligently trying to lower your living expenses? Well, earning more. It is much more important than living lean. Why? Because you can’t cut your expenses past a certain level, without sacrificing your comfort, maybe even your health. A survival budget is fine when you are in dire financial situations, but life is meant to be enjoyed, and for that you need money.
Say you make £25,000 a year, but you do not get to see most of it once you paid your rent, bills and food. You can try to live on £24,000, thanks to all the tips we shared since the beginning of the year, and have £1,000 for entertainment, or to save for a big ticket item.
Next year, if you still make £25,000, and inflation stands at 3%, instead of spending £24,000, you will need £24,720 to cover the same way of life. And what used to be £1,000 in savings is now a pale £280.
BUT, if you decide instead to make an extra £1,000, as you grow used to working more, being more efficient, and start getting more customers for whatever you are selling, or more working hours from your boss, you can make an extra £1,200 next year. Inflation will still eat £30-odd of it, but you will be left with over £1,000 for your efforts.
The potential for making more money is unlimited, while you will always need some money to pay for food and put a roof over your head. So how do you make more money?
I have so many ideas I made a whole website about it.
The easiest way for employed people to make more money is to leverage their day job. You work full time at minimum wage? Ask for more hours. Get trained for a supervising position with a better hourly rate.
You work at the bottom of the pay scale in your company? Be good at your job and ask for a promotion. Again, learn a new skill so you can command more. Be on the lookout when the company is about to hire someone (a temp or a new person) and offer to do the job, or part of it, for more money.
It is more convenient to work more at your day job as you do not have to commute to another job, you only get one payslip and do not need to register as self employed, and you don’t even have to apply for the job as it is already yours. You just have to provide something of value that your boss wants to pay for.
The second easiest way to make money would be through self employment, unless you have a non compete agreement with your firm, you can provide services to your current customers, and use your company to get more exposure.
As an example, I worked with some of my old clients to translate their website or to do some copywriting, two services my former company did not provide, so I was not competing with them, yet, the clients knew where to find and hire me because I worked there.
If people ask you “hey, do you know someone who could XYZ for my company?”, offer to do it as a contractor if you have the skills. Do not assume it is a full time position that would require leaving your day job, most of the time it is not.
The third way to make money is much harder, as it is via starting your own business or brand. It will require a LOT of work, marketing, thinking, administrative tasks… before you start making your first penny. If you have the entrepreneur mindset, I encourage you to start a side business while you are still employed, and once your income reaches that of your job, you can walk away from the latter without risking too much. It can take a long time, but there are some small endeavors that can be kept as a side hustle, like a window cleaning service on weekends, developing an app, a dog walking service, etc.
Last, congratulations on wanting to make more money, although if you manage it poorly, next year you will be in the same situation, wondering where it did all go and lamenting being broke. So let’s have your money make money.
At the very least, you should open a cash ISA and put the money there so it grows interests tax free. Then you can think about a stock and shares ISA, or invest your money on the stock market, in real estate, and whatever else you fancy. Do your research and only invest if you are comfortable with the level of risk, and the duration of the investment.
Do not leave the money at the reach of inflation on your current account, this is your hard work disappearing one pound at a time!
To sum it up, anyone can make a little more money each month. Easy ideas to make more money include
Selling your old stuff on Ebay
Flipping phones and other items on Ebay
Freelancing
Website design
Starting a website (well, it’s not that easy to keep running but it takes less than £50 to get started)
House cleaning
Paper route
Bartending
Flipping burgers at McD on weekends or working a Saturday shift at the GAP
Renting a room in your apartment long term
Renting your whole place short term while you are on holiday
Teaching yoga
Walking dogs
I could go on for days, just wanted to give you a small list so you have no excuses.
Tasks for this week
1. Make a list of your skills. And choose some marketable skills that can earn you money. Do you speak a second language, like animals, are good with kids, play tennis to a high lever, can design a website…?
2. Market your skills. It can be putting an add on Fiverr to do some small tasks or a local ad to get regular clients for a Zumba class.
3. Find motivation. Nobody wants to go out in the cold winter to work more after a tiring day at work! But start thinking about what you’ll be able to afford with that money. A holiday at the end of the year, a shopping spree, a new kitchen or a car? It is up to you to make it happen faster.
4. Drop me a line and let me know how you will earn more money this year!
I plan on earning more this year by
– Improving my online efforts on all three websites I own (mainly boosting up traffic and affiliate sales).
– Renting my house on Airbnb as a guest house for people visiting Guatemala.
– Offering them more services like meals, car rental, pickup, etc.
– Being more aggressive with my Forex trading (I could lose money, so I am still a bit cautious on that one).
– Raising rents on my rentals
This post was featured on the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie, thank you!