Increase your income with some simple strategies that anyone can implement, yes YOU!
Today I want to dig deep into some strategies to help you efficiently increase your cash surplus as well as discussing the importance of structure and organization with your finances. This will help you achieve your goals sooner or even to ensure you achieve these goals in the first place.
When we want to look at increasing our cash surplus there are two key ways in which we can do this. We can either look at ways in which we can increase our income, or alternatively we can look at ways at reducing our expenses. If you really mean business and are super motivated and focused you might look at implementing both, increasing your income and decreasing your expenses. Increased Income + decreased expenses = Higher Percentage saved!
Increasing your Income
There are a multitude of ways to look at increasing your income. To increase your income means that you are going to have to stay motivated, focused and be consistent with what you are doing to achieve this.
At lot of people that know me know that I have a huge work ethic and am a hard worker. I’ve worked multiple jobs for years, sometimes 7 days a week 12-hour days all to get me towards my goals sooner. When you say you don’t have time or it’s too hard, you’re just making up an excuse in your head. It’s not going to be easy, however it all comes back to how bad you want to achieve your goals. As I tell people all the time, “ain’t nothing to it, but to do it!” Rip in and get it done, it doesn’t have to be for years, it doesn’t even need to be for a whole year. You could even choose to work harder in the winter months when there isn’t much going on and spend a little more time enjoying the warmer summer months. This works differently for different people and the key here is to find what works for you and your lifestyle.
Pay rise
You might be working hard and being that model employee that your boss wants you to be. Performing at a high level and meeting and exceeding your KPI’s. If you are doing this your boss may provide you with a pay rise, or you might back yourself and get your negotiation boots on and ask your boss for a pay rise. Always remember to document your achievements and accomplishments to use as ammunition and know what you’re worth.
Second Job/Overtime
You might work a full-time job and can work overtime, or you might have the opportunity to work weekends where there are penalty rates. Be punctual and reliable and communicate to your employer you’re willing to do any overtime available or work the weekend shifts. Once you start to do this, you’ll be surprised how much your employers appreciate this and they will go to you first before giving the opportunity to someone else.
Getting a second job is another great way to earn some extra money if the opportunity for overtime or penalty rates isn’t available at your full-time job. You might get a job at a pub, restaurant or café and work the early morning shifts, night shifts or weekend shifts. The wonderful part about this is you will find you aren’t out on the weekend spending as much as you normally would, and you are making more money than before. Increasing your income, decreasing your expenses ultimately increasing your percentage saved.
Side Hustle
Living in 2021, although these are challenging times, there are also many opportunities and many ways to look at creating a side hustle. What are you good at and could sell for a profit? You could be an artist and sell your paintings. You could start an online business of some sort or find products that you are passionate about that you could sell locally at the markets. You might reach out to your neighbors and see who will pay you cash to mow their lawns. Sell old furniture or clothes on gumtree or marketplace. You could do some uber driving on the side. The possibilities are endless, get creative and think of something outside the box. Always remember as well not to worry what others may think or verbalize to you.
Structure and Organization
Now that we have discussed various strategies on increasing our savings through both increased income and also reducing expenses, we need to ensure that the final steps in our savings are set up in a way that are going to make all our hard work pay off and set ourselves up for success. There are two important factors that we need to get right to make sure we are across the fixed target amount or the target percentage each and every week.
Pay yourself first!
The famous words of Robert Kiyosaki who wrote Rich Dad poor Dad, a great book to read if you haven’t already! Robert you’re welcome for the plug! Now it’s important to pay yourself first each week, fortnight or month depending how you get paid.
For example, if you are paid every Wednesday you need to either transfer your savings goal across manually as soon as you are paid, or you can automate this and set it up as a scheduled payment in your internet banking.
Completing it this way ensures that you don’t accidentally start spending more than you should and therefore have less to save then you were intending to. Make sure this is the first payment you make!!
Limited Access Savings Account
Once you have started the habit of paying yourself first and ensuring that payment goes across before you have time to spend it, you want to structure the savings account in a way that you are less tempted to withdraw funds from the account.
You can limit the access on your internet banking to view only access. Different banks may refer to this differently however the benefit is the same. You can only view the account on your internet banking and not able to transfer from the account. This way you can see the balance grow, but you can’t have a couple of the old silly sauces on the weekend and think you are made of money and blow your hard-earned savings. We’ve all been there before.
When you do need to access the savings for a worthwhile purpose, it may mean you need to attend your local branch, this might seem painful, however, it’s a small price to pay to increase your chances of ensuring you are hitting your savings goals.
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