Your family likely means everything to you. But families are expensive. With more mouths to feed and bodies to clothe, you’re always facing large grocery bills and your clothing budget may seem like it’s constantly expanding.
If you’re always looking for more money every month to take care of your family’s needs, you aren’t alone. Almost 80 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck, and that makes it hard to handle the unexpected expenses that always pop up with multiple people living under one roof. You aren’t stuck in this situation, however. You can take steps right now to improve your family’s financial situation.
Go Back to School
There are two parts to your family’s budget – how much you earn and how much you spend. The best way to improve your finances is to boost the amount of money you’re bringing into your home. Education is the key to improving your job prospects, and you don’t have to sign up for four years of college to see almost immediate results.
Pay for a training course or get a new certificate at work. Spending a few weeks learning a new type of software or getting a required license can open up doors to new positions that pay more. The biggest bang for your buck will come from specialized knowledge.
When you know how to do something that other people don’t, whether it is mixing drinks, fixing air conditioning units, reading X-rays or running databases, you are a more desirable employee and that will come with a bigger paycheck.
Of course there is a required investment in your future earnings – you have to pay to go to courses. To get started with new training immediately, consider personal loans. A small personal installment loan will get your signed up for your new courses and then the improved income will help you pay it back quickly. Some companies even reimburse educational expenses, which would essentially make your new knowledge and skills completely free.
Travel to the Jobs
If there aren’t any good jobs in your area, you aren’t helping your family much. Find the good jobs and then travel to them. The differences in cost of living are tremendous across different areas of the country. It’s just less expensive to live in some areas. Couple a less expensive area with a better paying job and you will jump from barely scraping by to living a more comfortably and being able to enjoy your family time more.
For example, it will cost you 38 percent more to live in New York City than it would to live in Amarillo, a medium sized city in Texas. For a family of four making $50,000 in New York, that would be like earning a $19,000 raise for doing the same job in a new location. Add to that the availability of jobs in Amarillo and you have a perfect opportunity to make a very profitable move.
Of course, moving can be expensive. If you’re hesitant to uproot your family immediately, you can use personal loans to help cover the cost of settling down in the new area with a better job. Then, when you’re established, bring the family over to join you. Personal loans can help bridge the gap between jobs and can help cover the cost of moving expenses as well.
Revamp Your Budgeting
Making more money is one side of the equation, and the other is reducing your monthly payments. Some payments are set, like your utilities and rent, healthcare or mortgage payment. Others can be eliminated or reduced, like your debt minimum payments, entertainment expenses and food budget.
For most families, coming up with extra money every month might be as simple as looking at your bank account where you’re spending your paycheck. If you’re spending a lot of money on cable channels, fast food and entertainment, look for areas you can reduce or even cut that spending. Spend a few months with stricter budgeting and you can use your extra cash to pay off small debts.
Paying off debts free up the money you were spending on those monthly payments which can be applied to other debts until you have bought yourself some breathing room. You can pay off debts and free up money even faster if you take on a side gig or sell items in your home that you’re not using.
If you have many small debt amounts, you can reduce the monthly payments immediately by consolidating those debt payments with a personal loan. Apply for one loan and then pay off the small cards and loans. You’ll then just have the one loan to handle with a fixed monthly payment amount, which can make your monthly budgeting much easier to handle.