When your income is barely enough to cover your expenses, it may seem impossible even to think of saving for the future. However, there are ways to improve your financial situation, despite today’s harsh economic realities. Consider the following four tips for better managing your cashflow.
Tip #1: List Your Income and Expenses
This can be as simple as downloading a budgeting app or using an Excel spreadsheet. Once you’ve got all your expenses listed next to your total monthly income, you can see whether your income is sufficient or your expenses too high. From there, you can proceed to cut your spending and/or increase your income. Read on to find out how.
Tip #2: Lower Your Spending
There are many ways potentially to reduce expenses. These can include brewing your own coffee, cooking at home instead of eating out, postponing any exotic vacations, buying clothes at thrift stores instead of brand-name outlets, opting for a cheaper data plan, and many more. Make sure you minimize your unnecessary expenditures until your finances improve.
Tip #3: Increase Your Income
This can be tough to achieve given Ontario’s highly competitive labour market. Nevertheless, there are a few different ways in which you could increase your income:
- Ask for a raise. If you’re a good worker, you may have a higher chance of getting approved for a raise.
- Change careers. Sometimes, you may need to switch careers entirely. Consider lucrative careers such as software development.
- Change companies. Working for a larger company may result in better pay and benefits.
- Get a part-time job. This could be a low-stress weekend gig.
- Start a side hustle. For example, you could sell your art online.
Tip #4: Pay Off Your Debt
There are a couple of different approaches to tackling your debt:
- Use debt consolidation to combine all your monthly payments into a single payment, possibly at a lower interest rate.
- Use your preferred debt repayment method. Whether you choose the snowball method or the avalanche method, make sure you stick to it. The snowball method focuses on smaller debts first, building up to the largest debts. The avalanche method focuses on the debt with the highest interest rate first, followed by the ones with lower interest rates.
Conclusion
While it’s never been more difficult to afford life or save money, the above four strategies should help you get back on track. Use these tips on your financial journey. If you need help covering urgent expenses, apply for a personal loan via OntarioCASH. The online application process has never been easier, and you will get an immediate response! We don’t check your credit score during our simple online application process. If you need to check your credit score or detect any possible mistakes on your credit report, sign up for Credit Verify. The registration process takes only a few minutes.
