Thursday, December 31, 2015

2016 Ideas for Home Financial Gain



How many have included home financial goals in their New Year’s Resolution for 2016? If you are like most, it’s more about healthy living, exercising, and increasing quality of life resolutions than money issues. Consider new goals and achievable plans for your New Year’s resolutions with your home finances. Money deserves our attention because it is the tool that affects every aspect of our life. So be sure to reminisce your money mistakes and anticipate the positive changes you can make in the New Year to help your home financial situation.  
I have enjoyed taking a holiday break from my blog but as the New Year reminds ticks closer, I am reminded to get back at it. My school studies and responsibilities to share quality information improves focus that helps me achieve my goals and allows an opportunity to share what I learn along the way.
So let’s ring in the New Year of financial income gain with these tips. Some I have personally used and others I will implement myself in 2016. Hope you find this information useful, practical, and applicable to help increase your home financial income too.
Consider saving your income tax refund to compensate your monthly income through the year. For instance, most do file taxes. Many get back income refunds and spend it so fast, they have no idea where it goes.
Example: $1200 refund money. Put $1200 in a checking account. Withdraw $100 a month to add to your regular income. If we were not paying taxes, we’d have this income in our NET income. This would make it easier if we didn’t have to wait all year to get it. But if you get income tax refund, save it to use through the year. This could be used for entertainment, clothing, groceries, or emergencies.
I know many anticipate their income tax refund to spend it without planning. However, by planning to use income tax refunds wisely, there will be less chance for wasting it. This can greatly add supplement income through the year. By saving the income tax refund to use through the year, it will help balance the feast and famine that most working class Americans struggle with through the year. In the summer months, utilities costs go down. They increase in winter. In having a small nest egg, as income tax refund, this can go a long way to having extra funds monthly through the year.
Consider saving $10-20 a month or a larger amount if you can afford. It make sound like a large sum of money for those who do not have excess funds. However, we all have excess funds if we regulate, monitor, and focus control on our “controllable” bills. Electricity, cell phone, landline, satellite/cable and utility costs are controllable bills that require monitoring of use to maximize savings.
Do you need those 250 television channels now as you once did? Do you need unlimited global call or text plans as you once did? Do you really need to have all those extra lights on your home of room unoccupied?  What about water use? Do you turn on the water wide open or do you decrease the water stream for only what you need? There are ways to decrease expenses. But it takes awareness, want too and dedication.
Electric companies try to teach us to unplug items we do not use frequently. Leaving items plugged in that are not used regularly does contribute to the light bill. However, many things of controlling and monitoring use of bills as this does require dedication of wanting to lower expenses. The lower the expenses are; the more increase of profits one can achieve.
In business, same period last year or same period last month or time slots are given for exact amounts of previous operation expenses. These totals are usually figured into this year’s data of operational expenses to customize a budget projection of what costs will increase and how much revenue or gain maybe lost, due to rising costs of operation.
A home budget is no different. Most bills have cycle dates of use on it. Utility and phone bills will usually have a same period last month or last year on it. Weather, temperature, medical issues, unforeseen emergencies, and life circumstances can produce more expenses this year than last year. However, in monitoring what was used to back then to how services are being used in your home now will help you learn where and how you can decrease operational expenses. If you would do this for your employer, why not implement this into your home budget? It is never enough to just pay a bill. Home bills should be monitored and regulated in responsible use as your employer expects from you. It’s good financial sense. It is easier than you think once you implement positive financial changes in your home. The rewards of trying are worth it.
Now let’s look at credit ratings as a financial New Year’s resolutions. Many have credit issues or do not even know what their credit score is. Credit is the system of commerce in our great democracy of America. It is not a fair and equal system. This system does not start everyone out on the same scoring number. Credit score numbers reflect how well your ability is to problem solve, manage your personal finances, and to make wise money decisions to obtain, receive, and maintain credit. This score is similar scoring system to a report card you received in college or high school. The more you apply yourself to achieve higher grades and do the academic work required, the higher your grade. The more you learn of how to help your unique credit score, the more you can change to apply and use it to your benefit. By fighting and being bitter or resentful to credit score system does nothing productive. So try new ways to approach old problems. With learning and patience, you can achieve the credit score you want in the ways you can afford.
Homes, vehicles, personal loans, and many mostly require credit to make large or personal purchases. This requires skills to build knowledge of how to use the system to benefit you. It’s not a choice of chance.
Credit scores require making a committed choice to learn. Creating a personal plan to work for your finances. There are many ways you can play the system to make it work for your situation. No matter how horrible your credit score is or if you have no credit; you can rebuild. But you must be willing to learn, make a plan, and achieve these goals to succeed increasing your credit scores.
For instance, most usually buy gasoline, groceries, and household cleaning supplies and necessities monthly. Most do have a checking account. Regardless of what your credit score is, you can be on your way to achieving a better credit score. How?
Apply for a credit card. Even if you must apply for a secured credit card, it’s worth it to invest money to build/rebuild your credit score. If you do as you should to responsibly manage credit, the secured credit card will go to unsecured and you will get your deposit back increasing your limit and opening you to new lower APR opportunities and larger credit lines.
The items you purchase regularly such as gasoline, groceries, and household cleaning supplies can be budgeted and used only for this credit card. If the balance of total credit on the credit card is: $150. You will not want to exceed 20% of the $150 balance.  You would spend no more than $30 on a month on this credit card. You’d pay the balance off each month before the due date. This immediately increases your credit score. It’s a new account. It would be a responsible account staying below 20% of the total account balance.  It’s a financial step in the right direction. Credit scores are like a ladder that you can never give up on trying to climb and master. Credit score numbers are more important than your GPA or report cards of school. It can make or break your financial opportunities and your quality of life.
It will take time to build your score where you want it to be. It didn’t get broke overnight. It will take time to fix it. But if you used a few accounts to do this, you’ll build your credit up in no time using funds you already have. You will be using your budgeted monthly amounts differently to rebuild or establish credit. There would be no interest charges because your balance should be paid off every month.
It may appear aggravating to open a credit card to pay that bill instead of using debit or cash for your monthly expenses. But it depends on how serious you want to be in rebuilding or stabling credit. This system works. You can only try it to believe it. Most secured and non-secured cards offer free credit tracking report cards so you can monitor you progress and see areas where you can improve on. It’s an investment.
Some credit cards will charge small monthly fees or annual credit fees. View the fees as a small investment to pay for a larger goal to be achieved. You can do more on your own of learning and applying than paying some else to do what you can do on your own.
We pay into a 401K waiting until retirement to cash out. What’s the difference? Checking accounts can charge fees if the balance falls below their margin too. So we spend more toward financial investments than we realize. Why not invest in rebuilding or establishing credit too?
Looking for new ways to spend money differently can improve and achieve larger goals with greater returns of profits. The word, investment; is the only way to view money to properly budget, allocate, and spend money wisely and responsibly.  
There are many more financial tips I will share in my blog as the New Year progresses.
Finances are a stressful situation in all occupations. In the retail industry, you are dealing with everyone’s money to create responsible, mature, and honest integrity. In the medical industry; this is done through medical coding and billing. In filing our taxes, we are helping our America to financially function and operate. Granted, politics can ruin money in their methods of how they spend our money. But the truth is, do not worry about the money of others. Do the job you have with all money and be responsible with money at work and at home. If your finances are not balancing responsibly at work and at home, it’s time to analyze and find out why. The problem of money will not go away with negligence. It will only decrease. The only way to grow money opportunities is to be aware to them, learn about them, and apply new and healthier ways of financial control and wise spending habits.
There is always room for financial improvement in business and even more in personal finances. Many can operate a profitable company while their personal credit rating is down the toilet. Why is that? Home finances do require a system of checks and balance and knowledge; as much as, our occupations ever do.
Money can only work for you as a tool in personal finance as you are willing to learn the many roles it can take on to grow and work for you.
Let’s use more patience, less impulse, and work to create financial plans to achieve our financial goals in 2016. If individuals in this country can retire on minimal funds and live comfortably in a quality life of limited budgets than you better believe the rest of us can. No more money excuses in 2016. Let’s turn America finances around by beginning in our homes. Happy New Year!