Individual Grants

Advice For Personal Finances That Will Help You Stop Treading Water

Knowing how to budget money and to spend wisely is vital to surviving in life. When our grandparents learned about money, they learned from the school of hard knocks, which taught them to save, live within their means, and to be grateful for everything they had. We approach money differently today. If you use these personal finance tips, you can stretch every dollar further.

Today is a volatile time; it’s wise to diversify your investments. Put some money into a standard savings account, leave some in your checking account, invest some money in stocks or gold, and leave some in a high-interest account. Using a combination of these savings strategies (or even all of them at once) will help you protect your money.

Fancy Feast

To make your financial life better, don’t pay full price. Forget about your attachment to specific brands and instead buy what you have a coupon for. If you always buy Purina Cat Chow, but this week’s online coupons has a coupon for Fancy Feast, you might be able to get the Fancy Feast for less than the Cat Chow for once.

To maintain a good credit score, use more than one credit card. Remember, however, not to go overboard; do not have more than four credit cards. Having just one card will make it longer for you to get a better credit score, while five or more cards can make it harder to deal with finances. Use two cards to start, then add new cards as needed to build your credit.

Avoid eating out in general and save a lot of money. Creating meals at home can save you hundreds of dollars every month.

Families can pool their funds to buy major purchases that everyone can enjoy. Perhaps it is a third television, and then you can get everyone to chip in.

FICO scores are impacted by credit card balances. The higher balances you have, the more negative your score will be. Your score will go up as the balance goes down. Ideally, your balance should remain at less than 20 percent of your credit line.

Consider letting your profits ride when you are trading in the Forex market. Use this tactic wisely; greed should not interfere. Even if you’re making a profit, there comes a point where you need to get your money out.

One way to help protect your budget is to enroll in overdraft protection through your financial institution. While it may cost you a couple of dollars monthly, it’s much less than the usual overdraft charge of $20 or more for each transaction.

Rule #1 of good personal finance is “income must exceed expenditures.” Individuals who spend their entire paycheck or overspend and take out loans will never be able to save a dime. Figure out how much you make, and spend less than that.

Knowing about personal finance is invaluable. Your life will be a lot less stressful if you know how to manage your hard earned money effectively. You can reach any of your financial goals with the tips you just learned.

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