3 simple steps to avoid financial struggles

These three steps are the keys to improving your financial situation as quickly as possible.

12:31 24 April 2013

We all know people who have dealt with financial struggles, and we’ve probably been in the same boat at some point in our lives. Surviving those struggles means creating an aggressive and comprehensive plan to come over obstacles successfully.

 

 

Financial struggles take a toll on our psyche and can cause some major depression, but having a plan can give you a bit of a reprieve and allow you to feel a little bit more in control of the situation.

 

Follow these tips to help you though financial struggles, or to try and avoid them altogether. We never know what life is going to dish out, but we can sure try to prepare.

 

• Create surplus income. This is easier said than done, but here are a few options to try: try finding a job which pays better, sell your vehicle and carpool to work, relocate to a less expensive area if possible, reduce unnecessary spending, check into energy efficiency schemes to lower utility bills.

 

• Pay off debt. Also seems to be a no-brainer, but without the above surplus you feel like you’re going nowhere fast. Once you’ve created a surplus, are strict with yourself and pay off the bills that will give you the most return per month. If you have a high-interest rate one, but the balance is low, pay that one off first then you’ll have a larger surplus to put towards paying off another debt. This is one of those “good” snowball effects that will set you on course to weather financial struggles, or avoid them.

 

• Start a savings account. Even if you can only put a small amount in the bank each month, it will add up. It’s best if you can convince yourself that there’s no money in the account (easy to do when you only deposit small amounts here and there), so you won’t be tempted to take the money out. Also using an automatic deposit

 

With these three simple steps you’ll be well on your way to financial success and avoiding financial struggles, or at least minimizing the possibility of them.