Personal Finance

We’ve all encountered a time when say out loud “I need money desperately.” When the money just isn’t there it can feel as if the whole world is crumbling down around you. But there are options on the table available to you. What can you do when you need money desperately?

Steps to Take When You Desperately Need Money

Step 1 – Take Advantage of Your Immediate Income Sources

To conquer your immediate needs, you should take advantage of any immediate income sources available to you. If you lent money to a friend or family member it’s time to call that loan in. If you have something you’ve been meaning to sell it’s time to get around to that now. The first step requires the least amount of effort and no self-sacrifice.

Step 2 – Raid Some of Your Investments

Another income source you have at your disposal is your investments. Some of your investments will be more accessible than others. For now, you should stay away from your retirement accounts because you may not be able to get this money back and you’ll be penalized on your taxes for the early withdrawal. Selling some shares for an immediate payoff from your taxable investment accounts (non-retierment accounts) is an easy way to get the money you need now.

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The following is a guest post by Greg Powell, author of Better, Richer, Fuller: How Building Your Financial House Can Help Protect Your Loved Ones, Grow Your Assets, and Free You to Live the American Dream. If you’d like to submit a guest post, check out Money Q&A’s guest posting guidelines for more information.

Everyone needs a financial blueprint. Why use the term blueprint? Because people understand the value of a blueprint.

If you are building your dream house you wouldn’t give your money to an architect or builder who after an hour says to you, “I’ve gotten enough ideas, I’ll start on your house tomorrow.” No, you would review with an architect the vision you have of your home, how many rooms, bathrooms, fireplaces, and etcetera. Then the architect would develop a set of blueprints from which the builder and construction team would work.

Too often in the financial services industry, the “I’ve gotten enough ideas” approach is used by advisors when someone meets them for the first time and begins to share their vision for their life.

Financial planning doesn’t have to be complex or intimidating. However, it does need to be in depth and take into account the dreams and goals of your life and your family. There are questions in the financial blueprint process that everyone needs to ask or have discussions about.

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When did you last have a pay rise? For a fair few people, the answer to that question might be hard to answer. Wages have been incredibly slow to recover from the financial crisis of 2007-08. Indeed, the last decade has been characterized by fairly stagnant salaries, with ‘real wages’ – accounting for inflation – falling by 10.4 per cent between 2007 and 2015.

That’s all left us with some pretty tough choices to make. With pressure on packets, many of us has had to pinpoint items of spending to trim down so that the essentials could be purchased.

Yet, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. The Bank of England predicts that wages should rise by about 3.5% in 2017. That should mean good news for your bank balance – or at least give you the chance to broach an awkward subject with your boss.

Getting the pay you deserve is important. By maximizing your earnings, you can be in a better place to be able to afford everything life throws at you. As this infographic shows, there are plenty of challenges that crop up throughout our ‘financial lifecycle’ and preparing for what’s to come is key to managing your money…

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The following is a guest post by Jon who blogs at Money Smart Guides, a personal finance blog whose goal is to help you get out of debt and start investing for your future. If you’d like to guest post on Money Q&A, be sure to check out the site’s Guest Posting Guidelines.

We all know that small expenses add up over time. This concept has been popularized and tagged as “the latte factor” by various experts and authors. The idea goes, if you cut the spending on smaller items, not only will it be easy, but you can reap a large amount of savings over time. 

While the potential for saving money is not in doubt, many people solely focus on the small expenses and forget about the big ones, when in fact, the big ones can help you learn how to save a ton of money. Here is why you should focus first on the big expenses first, and then concentrate on the small ones.

How to Save a Ton Of Money on Large Purchases

Bigger Potential Savings Mean Bigger Impact

While cutting out a $3 coffee two days a week will add up to a nice $312 extra over the course of a year, if you focus on the big expenses in your life, you can easily save much more than this.

For example, I shop my insurance needs every year or two. At first, I was skeptical that I could save money doing this. After all, I thought the company I was with for over 10 years valued me and offered me their best rates.

Boy was I mistaken. It turns out many insurance companies use the practice of price optimization. What this means is that those who don’t shop around for insurance coverage pay for those that do. How does this work?

At its most basic, let’s say you are with ABC Insurance Company. I shop around and get a quote from ABC Insurance. They offer me an incredible deal to come on board. This deal might even cost them a few dollars. How do they overcome this? They raise the rates on their long-term (loyal) customers, who happen to be you.

If you don’t shop around for insurance coverage, most likely you are costing yourself money. When I switched companies the other year, I ended up saving $200 a year

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