What are a few ways to get to your personal finance goals and accomplish what you want?
1. Have an all-in-solution to keep your bills low
A recent Experian survey showed that 66% of Americans are actively looking for ways to trim expenses from their monthly budget. Some of us do the math in our heads, some of us have a spreadsheet but it’s way easier to have something automated doing it for you.
People have probably seen the commercials about boosting your credit score. Great. But they also have an entirely different suite of tools you can use for everyday financials. They offer resources that can potentially help consumers save on the cost of their auto insurance, monthly bills like their cable and cell phone bills, and find the best credit card for their financial needs.
The most important part is having automated bill negotiation. Anyone who has ever spent any time dealing with customer service will know that. But having an automated tool that detects better deals for Internet, phone and a variety of other expenses, negotiates them and applies them, that’s worth it. Experian negotiates the cost of eligible bills directly with many providers like Spectrum, AT&T, DirecTV, and SiriusXM, with 81 percent[1] of bills negotiated resulting in savings.
2. Consider buying property
A couple months ago Apple made a lot of news when it launched their own high-yield savings account. An annual return over 4% while maintaining some liquidity with your money. Not bad at all, especially if most of what you do is already integrated with Apple already. But keep in mind every other bank subsequently raised their rates too and now if you do comparison shopping there are some as high as five percent. The long and short of it is that these kinds of accounts always exist and at the bare minimum you should be taking advantage of them.
But, if you’re lucky enough to have a good chunk of money you don’t need for ten to fifteen years – or you’re a creator and you need to create an ad hoc retirement plan, property still works. REITs (real estate investment trusts) can be appealing at first. You invest your money with a group in large scale property and never have to deal with renters. The problem is, like a timeshare, it can be hard to get your money out in a timely fashion because the trust needs that money to keep owning property. The smarter play, the one I have seen other financial advisors do, is grab 2 to 4 unit rental properties. Anything over 4 is not only a hassle but with zoning requires increased insurance costs. Put 20% down, have people pay the mortgage off for you over time. Look for ones that sold recently too so you don’t see a large spike in the valuation of the property which then comes with a subsequently large spike in property taxes.
Interest rates might be high but despite popular belief it’s actually easier to get a loan now than ever. One of the biggest players in digital lending, MeridianLink recently got much bigger by partnering with PortX to expand data access and ZestAI to help banks utilize AI-enabled underwriting. This allows banks and credit unions to provide faster decisioning while safely offering credit access to more consumers and has already led to up to a 25% increase in approval rates for customers.
3. Have some great efficiency tools in place
A Wave report shows that 51.1 million people in the U.S. work independently today, and creators are one of the fastest growing segments of side businesses. Using an invoicing and payments tool is not just a time-saver to allow you to do more. It helps you get paid faster and if you get paid faster you can do more with that money. Time really is money. Tools like Wave also come with advisors that can help you set your pricing strategy and figure out how to maximize what you’re doing.
Don’t be afraid to embrace automation in some tasks. Cleo, Monarch and Mint all have AI budgeting tools that can track what you’re doing and make suggestions to maximize your finances. Not using some version of AI will soon be like being resistant to use a calculator. It’s there, use it, especially if you know what to ask from it and what prompts to write.
You would think payments are easy but when you’re running your own business they get more complicated. Dwolla just launched Connect which added some massive tools to accept payments faster and transfer money across any platform. A bank-agnostic approach allows people to use existing commercial accounts at top US banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, to effortlessly initiate payments. The goal is to easily send and receive payments directly from bank accounts, so no more waiting 30, 60, 90 days for payments. The tech is here now, so no excuses if a place tells you they can’t pay you in three months or need an elaborate accounting process. This helps because a lot of clients aren’t going to pay you in Zelle or Venmo so this makes it possible.
Finally, there’s only going to be more and more data when it comes to finance so keep it secure. The financial industry is doing a great job of tightening up security. Calian has a niche working with leading cybersecurity partners such as Meraki, Cisco and Okta to keep financial companies – and all the data they are entrusted with – secure from attacks. Credit card companies are much better at detecting fraud. Buying something from a third party with PayPal creates some added fraud negotiating protections. But make sure your own steps too to keep your financial data secure.
4. There might be some money out there you didn’t know was available
Cleer provides a helpful guide for navigating the full calendar year of tax season and how to identify efficiencies. Even in 2023 there are still programs available to help small businesses and consultants impacted by the pandemic. Businesses can still apply for an employee retention credit (ERC), if they haven’t previously, for up to three years so this will be the year to do it. That can be worth up to $26,000 per employee.
5. Find some advice you can trust
Consider the source. It’s easy to watch a Short, TikTok, Reel and get some advice. Sometimes it’s useful and efficient. Always keep in mind what that person is selling and what their motivation might be. It’s okay if they are selling their expertise. That’s valid and necessary. However, if they are they trying to drive up the price of a questionable “stonk” or an NFT, hard pass. A lot of modern-day financial advice is rooted in speculation and anything speculative requires more and more people getting excited about it to drive up the price.
There are whole investment strategies around fading Jim Cramer’s picks on CNBC to give you an idea. But check out Erin Lowry, Tonya B. Rapley or Winnie Sun for some honest advice that’s just there to be helpful.
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