Commit. Plan. Take action.
If you have bad credit, your future may feel pretty bleak. This is understandable, as poor credit comes with a number of side-effects including high insurance premiums and problems getting approved for loans. A negative score can even affect your ability to get a good job.
I’ve talked about tax season on the blog before. As you know, the closer to Tax Day we get, the more anxious I become. However, this year looks a bit different for our family. Thankfully, I’m not feeling very anxious about filing this year and we should have all of our paperwork soon to get things done.
If you’re like me and feel anxious around tax time every year, we are not alone! In fact, surveys have shown that at least 69% of Americans feel anxious around this time of year. The pressure differs from generation to generation too.
I happen to fall in the category of millennials. Seventy-eight percent of this demographic reports feeling anxious around tax time. Additionally, 82% of Gen Zers, 69% of Gen Xers, and 50% of baby boomers report some kind of anxiety about filing.
This year, it seems the top concern for most people is that they will not get a refund that will make a difference in today’s economy. Many people are reporting refunds of only a few hundred dollars when they may have been expecting thousands. The average refund so far in the 2023 tax season has been about $1,997. That’s a startling 14% lower than last year. For some families, this makes a huge difference.
On top of that, there are worries about refunds being delayed for an extended period of time. Of course, everyone is concerned about getting audited because who wants to go through that?
I’ve been able to relieve some of my tax time anxiety this year by doing a few things to better prepare myself, mentally and otherwise, for Tax Day. First, we’ve been slowly gathering our paperwork since January 1. We both worked at a few different places last year, so there are a few things to sort through.
Next, give yourself time to file. The government is going to take its time getting you your refund either way. So, make sure you leave yourself room to go over your return a few times before submitting it to the IRS. Remember, if you need more time, you can file an extension as long as you do so before April 18.
Don’t ignore the IRS or the fact that you have to file. It’s part of life. Accept it. Grab some snacks and file your taxes! When you are done you can sigh a breath of relief and treat yourself to a nice meal. It can be stressful, but Tax Day doesn’t have to rule your life at this time of year.
Readers, do you have Tax Day anxiety? How do you cope?
I’ve come to the blog to talk about how we manage our money month-to-month before. I manage most of the money for our family, paying the bills and making sure we have cash where we need it when we need it. It’s not an easy task all the time, but it is well worth being able to live without scrounging paycheck to paycheck. However, I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without our personal finance calendar.
When I started talking about my financial calendar to some of my friends, I realized I’m the only one taking this approach to money these days. For the most part, the people I talk to are plugged into some kind of app or tech solution that helps them keep an eye on their finances. While I’d love for that to be my life (so much less paper involved), it just doesn’t work for me. So, if you’re wondering about how you can create your own personal finance calendar, here’s how I organize mine.
A personal finance calendar will help you organize your financial life. Initially, I started using my PF calendar to get my budget down on paper. I marked down the days I’d go grocery shopping + the budgeted amount for the said shopping trip. I also jotted down the bills and what days they are due, plus the amount. Additionally, I added in the days we were getting paid and how much. Seeing everything written down on paper helped a lot.
That didn’t give me a full-picture view of my finances though. While it helped me pay my bills on time and stick to a budget, bigger expenses and other things tended to creep up on me. So, I decided to make some changes by adding bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, and annual expenses to the calendar as well. This included things like car maintenance, property taxes, registration fees for the car, doctor’s bills, birthdays, holidays, vacations, celebrations, etc.
Going through and adding all of those things really made my financial calendar more well-rounded. It gave a full view of what we had going on, where our money is going, what we have planned, and what we are saving for.
If you’re interested in creating your own personal finance calendar, it’s fairly easy. First, you need to gather a few things…
Once you have what you need, it is time to start organizing your calendar. The first thing you want to write down is all of your expenses that remain the same month-to-month. For instance, we pay $1,767.50 in rent every month. That will not change until the end of the year when we renew our lease or move. The number $1,767.50 is written down along with “RENT” on the 1st day of every month. Similarly, our car payment of $698 is written down on the 14th of every month. Until we get it refinanced, this is the static monthly cost.
Once that is complete, start listing the expenses that may vary in cost each month. For example, you have to pay utilities on a monthly basis. However, our electric bill goes up in the summer due to running the air conditioning. In the winter, the gas bill is higher. Make an estimate for how much you’ll spend on these items (it’s a good idea to round up).
Following the addition of those costs, you can start adding in the less frequent expenses. For us, this includes our annual registration fees for our car, property tax on the vehicle, car maintenance, paying our taxes, renewing annual subscriptions, celebrating birthdays, holidays and vacations, and ensuring we have enough money to pay for annual check-ups.
That’s it – once you’ve jotted down all of the financial “things,” you have a reference point for managing your money throughout the rest of the year.
Readers, how do you stay on top of your finances? Do you use a personal finance calendar or other methods of organization?
This update has been a couple of weeks in the making but we wanted to make sure everything was final before announcing. In some of my most recent blog posts, I talked about planning a debt-free wedding. That will definitely still be happening but in a different timeframe and manner than we’d originally planned.
I’m ditching the dream wedding. We are having a courthouse ceremony next Monday. Then we are moving four hours South to Atlanta!
My (very soon) hubby-to-be has gotten his dream job offer down in Atlanta. He’ll be running a Porsche shop there. This is a huge career move for him and it comes with a ton of perks for us as well.
Of course, I work from home so there is nothing keeping me rooted here work-wise. In addition to the “dream job,” he will be getting a decent pay raise and we will also have a rental house to live in “rent-free.” I say “rent-free” because it will be considered a portion of his initial salary.
The house is only four miles from the shop he’ll be managing. Not to mention, we will finally have a yard for Enzo!
All those small perks aside, what has really driven our decision to move forward with this move has been the financial aspect. Yes, of course, this is an absolute dream come true and this could be where my other half spends most of his career.
On the financial side of things, we have the opportunity to finally pad our emergency savings the way we’ve needed to. We will have the money to pay off debt (and way faster than we’d initially planned). In fact, if everything goes to plan, we could find ourselves being debt-free in a year and on our way to buying a home.
Since my husband-to-be received the offer, we have been over-the-moon excited. It almost seemed to good to be true and I am thrilled to get to start our married lives together in a city neither of us has spent any time in before. It will be a fantastic adventure and will put us on the right track financially for the rest of our lives together.
That isn’t to say we won’t miss being close to family and friends. Of course, we will. We will also miss out on the big “shebang” of a wedding we were planning later this year. But, we can always throw a celebration down the road and will celebrate with the immediate family able to make it this week.
Incidentally, you probably shouldn’t move without a job waiting for you. However, if you are in the situation, my friend Kelan over at Moneyminiblog has a good article on things should think about if do find yourself forced to move, here.
All in all, I can’t wait to see what this next move does for our family, our relationship, and our finances. And, I can’t wait to keep you updated about it here!
It may seem a bit early to you, but I’m ready to start prepping our family’s summer spending plan. Generally speaking, the warmer months tend to be more expensive for us. We go out more. This year, we may even get to take a day trip or two to the beach. Not to mention, the cost of cooling our home in the South can be shocking at times.
So, now that spring is officially here and warmer weather is on its way (it’s 85 degrees and sunny today), I’m ready to start plotting out some of our plans for the summer.
As I briefly mentioned above, the summertime tends to bring along some additional expenses for my family. Nobody wants to stay inside when it’s a beautiful warm day. So, there are often additional expenses that pop up.
Namely, our electric bill usually goes up to about $200/month from $100 or less during the winter months (we have gas heat). On top of that, it is generally a time of year when we take more trips, have more day adventures, and living is easy. We simply don’t always pay as close attention to our finances as we should from June to September.
That being said, we started tackling a summer spending plan a few years ago that helps us map out necessary expenses as well as things we’d like to do during the warmer months.
I haven’t written out our summer spending plan in its entirety yet, but I know we are planning to do a few things…
Right now, we are working on nailing down what our budget for the summer needs to be and how much money we will need to save for certain holidays, trips, etc. For instance, Father’s Day falls in June, we will budget a little extra money for the holiday and find something my husband would like to do.
We are still hashing out the details, but these are the four things impacting our summer spending plan right now. Readers, do you construct a different budget or spending plan for different seasons? I’d love to hear about how you manage it.
Having trouble with your broadband? You’re not alone. These days, having a good internet connection is as important as having running water. Even though tons of different internet service providers SAY they’re the best – they can’t all be, can they?
If you’re looking to switch broadband providers and get the best value high-speed internet possible, then you’re in the right place.
In this article, we’re going to look at how to find the fastest broadband – so that whether you’re considering the best satellite internet options in your area or settling with the greatest wireline internet services you can find, your family can download, game, and stream to their heart’s content.
So many different things rely on a fast internet connection these days. Gone are the times when you’d fire up your dial up connection just to read a few pages of text.
Now you can stream TV shows, play high-spec games, shop and more. And often, in a family household all of this is happening at once. Fed up of the complaints from your son about the lag time on his games? And fights over slow Netflix streaming?
You need faster broadband.
It’s understandable so much demand on the service you need a better internet connection at home. While one PC might have been hooked up to the web in the past, now you’ve got multiple laptops, smart TV and phones all accessing the internet simultaneously.
That’s why considering speed when looking for a broadband supplier is so important.
When you have a look at switching broadband providers from your current provider to spectrum internet, for example, look at overall speed. This is normally represented in mbit per second. While it’s a hugely important factor in choosing a good broadband provider – it’s not the only one.
Those speeds generally refer to how quickly you can download data. Whether it’s something quick (loading a page), or something slower (downloading a film).
However, that’s not the only measure of speed that’s useful.
If you play a lot of online games, you’ll also want a low ping. That’s the speed it takes for a signal to bounce back to you, and it has a huge impact on how smoothly most online games perform.
You’ll also need to consider contention rates. If lots of people in your area use the same broadband provider, will this slow down your activity?
Thankfully, it’s easy to find good deals for broadband in your area. You can start with price comparison sites online and have a look at reviews. You might also want to consider how good the customer service ratings are and look at any other issues people might have had with a particular ISP.
The right broadband comparison service could save you a lot of money.
Just because you switch broadband providers, that doesn’t mean you’re getting a new line put in. Many of these ISPs (internet service providers) will use the same telephone network but simply package and charge differently.
If you want to take things to the next step, you can consider getting fiber installed to make your connection even faster.
Switching is easy these days. All you have to do is phone up. You shouldn’t notice any downtime and should be able to start using your new connection straight away.
Everyone needs a vacation once in a while, but a family vacation shouldn’t put a huge gap in your wallet.
You deserve a vacation that is relaxing and not going to be a financial strain on your family.
Whether you plan on traveling near or far keep reading to see a list of 10 fun budget friendly family vacations.
If you’re like many parents, then you try your best to make your children feel special on their special day. Every year when their birthday rolls around, you take stock of what they like, look at what’s trendy, and put together an invite list for a birthday party.
However, there’s often one thing in your way, your budget. And you’re not alone. Despite what they show on reality television, the average American just doesn’t have the money to spend on elaborate celebrations.
Handling debt collection can be a daunting task, whether you are a business owner striving to recover unpaid invoices or an individual grappling with mounting debts. Seeking assistance from a reputable debt collection attorney who offers a complimentary consultation can significantly impact your case.
A debt collection agency is a company hired by creditors to recover outstanding debts from individuals or businesses. These agencies specialize in debt collection practices and utilize various strategies to pursue payment from debtors. Debt collection agencies may purchase debts from creditors or work on a commission basis, where they receive a percentage of the recovered amount.
Here are six compelling reasons why you should take advantage of this valuable opportunity:
Debt collection attorneys specialize in the legal procedures for recovering unpaid debts. With their extensive expertise and experience in this field, they can offer expert advice tailored to your specific circumstances. During a free consultation, you can engage with the attorney, gaining personalized guidance on the most effective steps to take towards debt recovery.
Navigating the intricacies of the legal system, especially in debt collection matters, can be challenging. Debt collection attorneys possess a profound comprehension of the legislation and rules governing debt collection. They can enlighten you about your rights as either a creditor or debtor and suggest the optimal legal strategies to resolve your debt collection concerns.
In a free consultation session, a debt collection attorney will evaluate your case meticulously and provide an unbiased assessment of your success possibilities. By examining any documentation or evidence you present, they can gauge the strength of your case. This evaluation equips you to make an informed choice on pursuing legal action.
Engaging a debt collection attorney may appear as an additional expense initially, but in the long term, it can prove to be a time and cost-saving decision. Availing a free consultation offers insight into the potential expenses associated with your case and the probability of success. This information empowers you to make a financially prudent decision regarding legal action.
The process of dealing with debt collection can be emotionally taxing and overwhelming. By seeking a debt collection attorney’s free consultation, you can gain assurance knowing that a legal expert is advocating on your behalf. They manage all communications and negotiations with the opposing party, allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of your life or business.
In summary, pursuing a debt collection attorney’s complimentary consultation offers you access to expert advice, legal insights, an objective evaluation of your case, cost-effective solutions, peace of mind, and efficient handling of debt matters. If you are grappling with debt collection challenges, do not hesitate to contact a debt collection attorney for their free consultation. Their support can assist you in navigating the legal process and striving towards a favorable resolution.
In conclusion, a debt collection attorney’s free consultation provides invaluable expertise and guidance for navigating the complexities of debt recovery. Take advantage of this opportunity to secure your rights, explore legal options, and pursue a cost-effective resolution to your debt collection issues.
A gig worker cash advance app is a digital platform that provides freelance or gig workers with the ability to access their earned income before their scheduled payday. These apps are designed to help workers bridge the gap between paychecks and cover immediate expenses such as bills, groceries, or transportation costs.
Users can generally request money in advance using the app. The money will be sent directly to their bank account or prepaid card. Lenders typically base the amount they can advance on the user’s earnings history and may charge a fee or interest.
This type of app offers gig workers flexibility and financial security, allowing them to better manage their cash flow and avoid falling into debt. It can also help to reduce financial stress and provide peace of mind knowing that they have access to their earnings when needed.
There are several reasons why gig workers may choose to use a cash advance. One of the main reasons is the unpredictable nature of gig work. Gig workers often have fluctuating income and may experience periods of financial instability. In these situations, gig worker loans can provide immediate access to funds to cover expenses such as rent, bills, or unexpected emergencies.
Additionally, gig workers may not have access to traditional forms of credit, such as credit cards or loans, due to their non-traditional employment status. Instant cash advance for gig workers can be a convenient and accessible way for gig workers to access funds quickly without having to go through a lengthy application process or credit check.
Furthermore, cash advances can help gig workers manage their cash flow and avoid falling into debt. By receiving a cash advance, gig workers can cover their expenses without having to rely on high-interest credit cards or payday loans. This can help them avoid accumulating debt and maintain financial stability.
One of the main concerns with a cash advance for independent contractors is the potential for high fees and interest rates. Some apps charge exorbitant fees for borrowing money, which can quickly add up and make it difficult for users to repay the loan. Additionally, the terms and conditions of these apps can be complex and difficult to understand, leading to confusion and potential financial hardship for users.
Another concern with an instant line of credit for gig workers is the security of personal and financial information when using cash advance apps. Users are often required to provide sensitive information, such as bank account details and social security numbers, in order to access funds. This information could potentially be at risk of being compromised in a data breach or cyber attack, putting users at risk of identity theft and fraud.
In the name of transparency, some lenders such as Klover, make it publicly known that they generate revenue by sharing applicants’ information with their partners.
One of the key benefits of a cash advance for gig workers is that it typically does not require a credit check. This means that individuals with less-than-perfect credit scores can still qualify for this type of financial assistance. Instead of relying on credit history, cash advance providers may look at factors such as income and payment history to determine eligibility.
To account for the additional risks associated with payday or rideshare loans loans for gig workers, lender may charge a monthly fee for the continuous use of their services.
Cash App Borrow is a short-term loan pilot program offered through Cash App, allowing eligible users to borrow up to $200 for emergencies. Here are the key details:
Rideshare drivers face several challenges when it comes to obtaining loans. One major issue is the fluctuating income that comes with the gig economy. Lenders may be hesitant to approve a rideshare loan for someone whose income can vary greatly from month to month. This can make it difficult for rideshare drivers to qualify for traditional loans with fixed monthly payments.
Additionally, rideshare drivers often have unconventional employment arrangements, which can make it harder for them to provide the necessary documentation for a loan application. Many lenders require proof of stable employment and income, which can be challenging for rideshare drivers who may not have traditional pay stubs or tax forms.
Another challenge for rideshare drivers is the high mileage and wear and tear on their vehicles. This can make it more difficult to qualify for a loan, as lenders may be concerned about the condition of the vehicle and its potential resale value. Additionally, the cost of maintaining a vehicle for rideshare driving can be high, which can impact a driver’s ability to make loan payments.
Payday loans and cash advance apps are both options for gig workers who need quick access to funds. Payday loans are typically short-term loans that are repaid on the borrower’s next payday, often with high interest rates. These loans can be obtained from traditional brick-and-mortar lenders or online lenders.
On the other hand, cash advance apps are mobile applications that allow users to access a portion of their earned wages before their next payday. These apps are popular among gig workers who may not have a steady income and need access to funds quickly. Cash advance apps typically charge a small fee for the service, but the fees are often lower than those associated with payday loans.
When comparing payday loans and cash advance apps, gig workers should consider the interest rates, fees, and repayment terms associated with each option. Payday loans may be a quick solution for those in need of immediate funds, but they can also trap borrowers in a cycle of debt.
Cash advance apps, on the other hand, offer a more flexible and convenient way to access funds without the high costs associated with traditional payday loans. Ultimately, gig workers should carefully weigh their options and choose the option that best fits their financial needs.
The emergence of gig worker cash advance apps offers a promising solution to financial challenges faced by individuals in the gig economy. With their convenient access to funds, flexible repayment options, and minimal eligibility requirements, these apps provide much-needed support to gig workers seeking financial stability. As the gig economy continues to expand, the role of cash advance apps in supporting the financial health of gig workers is likely to become increasingly significant.