Tag Archives: making money

Managing Money

Can You Be A Courageous Investor?

According to financial experts, investing over the long haul is one of the safest ways for you to not only make money but to help save your money. How is this possible? Here’s the quick down and dirty of it all.

via Fotolia

First, you get into a money market type of account, where your investments are spread out among a lot of companies. What this does is protect your investment if one company starts to tank, and gives the person handling your account time to switch you to someone else more stable.
Continue reading Can You Be A Courageous Investor? →

Budgeting, Finances

You Can’t Be Comfortable And Make Real Money

A couple of articles ago we talked about 7 easy ways to get comfortable with money. This time around we’re taking a different slant on the topic of comfort and money because it’s a totally different topic than the previous one.

Yellow Camaro

In this case, we’re talking to the people who say they want to make more money so they can do anything they want to and can live the life they want to live. Whenever most people are asked how much money they respond “enough to be comfortable.”
Continue reading You Can’t Be Comfortable And Make Real Money →

Managing Money

Extend What You Can Do If You’re Self Employed

Back in January we wrote a post about self employment for those people who are thinking about working for themselves or are new to it. This time around we’re offering suggestions that could possibly apply to people who’ve been in business for a while but are either struggling or not taking advantage of everything they know to increase their business.

espresso
55Laney69 via Compfight

For instance, we’re an accounting firm. We’re pretty busy all year round, although we always welcome more business. 🙂 Still, if we weren’t as busy, there are a lot of other things we could offer that could help us not only bring extra income in but would help to advertise our business in the community.

For instance, myself or anyone else here could put on a program at a local hotel or elsewhere talking about accounting, Quickbooks, taxes or a number of other things. We could charge for it, advertise it in the newspaper and on this blog, and even if we only got 10 people to come that could make a nice little chunk of change.

We could do webinars and do the same type of thing, and our reach could be even bigger because of social media. Not only that but we could record it and sell it later as a product off our website. We could also take the material we produced, turn it into a book or ebook, and not only have another product but possibly something we could sell on a site like Amazon.

We find that most people see themselves as only one thing or only doing one thing. A friend of mine who works for herself saw her skills as a worker and that’s it. I had a conversation with her, saying that she was calling herself a consultant and that consultants don’t always just do work. She has the skill and knowledge to be an evaluator of processes for departments that are in her industry. She also knows how to offer advice, train, and handle interim management during periods where an organization might be in transition and need someone temporarily. She hadn’t thought of things like that and said she would think about it further and possibly alter her list of services.

When you work for yourself, it pays to take some time to sit down and think about all the things you can do within that business. While you’re at it, think about other things you might be able to do that relates to your business. For instance, there are a lot of people who have niche businesses that have turned it into a profitable speaking career. All it takes is some forethought, some confidence and the ability to speak to people and you could find yourself being seen as an authority in your industry.

Don’t rule out anything you might be able to do unless it’s something you don’t like doing. Being flexible is one of the wisest things those who are self employed can do to help them get by when things slow down.
 

Managing Money

The Correct Way To Go For Your Money Goals

Back in November we wrote a post giving our advice about some financial goals to shoot for in 2016. Those are good goals at any time, and in that article we shared other goals we’ve recommended over the years.

The best thing about goals is they help us to keep on track for what we hope to accomplish. The worst thing about them is that, if we don’t reach them, sometimes we get depressed or frustrated, which leads us to giving them up.

Recently there was an article that talked about financial goals in a way that makes a lot of sense. In essence, the person who wrote the article said that most people look at the big picture when it comes to goals. For instance, if they want to make $10,000 more a year than the previous year, they start at the end, which is the $10,000, instead of at the beginning, which is figuring out how to generate more income in the first place. That’s the difference between having an actual goal and having a dream to shoot for; it’s an important distinction.

Let’s take that $10,000 as an example. If you work at a corporation making $40,000 a year and your goal is $50,000, yet the company usually only gives 3% raises every year, you don’t have a chance to hit your goal if that’s all you have to count on. This means you have to either get another job, a part time job or find another way of making money on the side.

Let’s say you did either of these things.

A part time job might do it for you, and it’s probably your best immediate option. If you found a job paying $10 an hour and committed to 100 hours a month you’d earn $12,000 in a year, which would put you at your financial goal. Or maybe you could try to find a way to create your own income. Either option is viable, as long as you recognize one important thing – it’s going to take some time.

That’s not a bad thing, but it’s something that’s hard for a lot of people to consider. That’s why goals need plans, because the plan will help you realize how long it may take you to achieve your financial goal, whether it’s making money, reducing debt, or saving money. If you invest $10 a month into stock options, it’s going to take a very long time to get that money to grow; if you could afford to pay $1,000 a month it’ll grow faster, but even there if you have big dreams for great wealth it’s going to take time to realize it.

The article recommended people get used to the idea of financial growth by thinking in small increments. If you’re looking to reduce debt, concentrate on one bill at a time as the one to pay off while still making payments on the rest. If you’re trying to increase your income, start by trying to find a way to make $100 of extra money, then see if you can expound on it.

We want to see everyone living in comfort and financial responsibility. We’re not dream providers but, as accountants, we can help you learn where you are and figure out where you might want to be financially. After that, the skies the limit if you have the patience to ride out the time.
 

Finances

Will You Have Financial Goals In 2015?

Back in 2013 we had an article on the blog titled Setting Financial Goals. In that article we laid out what we considered the 3 most important things for any financial goals one might wish to set: saving money; reducing debt; and increasing income.

Money Shirt
Creative Commons License Rob Lee via Compfight

Every once in a while we get the opportunity to work with clients to help them set financial goals for the year. The year doesn’t always start at the beginning, but it’s a good time to do it because it fits with the tax time period.

Almost everyone that comes in wants to talk about one thing, which doesn’t quite fit any of the three, though comes closest to saving money; reducing how much they might owe in taxes. It must be an occupational hazard for being a consultant because, though it’s a big part of what we do, it’s not the only thing we do.

Truth be told, taxes aren’t a major concern when other needs are met. Although you sometimes hear a few rich people complaining about having to pay too many taxes, the overwhelming majority don’t have a problem with it because they have enough money and, if they’ve got good accountants, all that is taken care of and they still have lots to play with.

If you’re worried about having to pay taxes, learning how to save money and cut corners on spending will provide you with enough to pay your taxes. Also, if you’re really good you can make sure you’re having enough taxes taken out of your paycheck if you’re still employed.

If you reduce your debt you invariably end up with more money. That’s because as you pay your bills down you owe less, and even if you keep paying them at the same high rate you’ll pay off the debt sooner, which means you’ll have a nice chunk of cash you can move elsewhere.

If you increase your income… well, we already touched upon that part. 🙂

With that said, do you have any ideas on what types of financial goals you really should have? If not, we’ll give you 3 to think about:

1. Find ways to generate more income in 2015. There are so many ways for people to do this that all it takes is an hour of uninterrupted thought every day for a week to plan it out and you could be making more money in another week. The idea is to think about what you can do, how much more money you’d like to make, and then go for it. Many people are doing it; you can also.

2. Set a goal to pay off one of your bills where the payment starts at least at $100 a month. If you don’t have anything like that good for you. If you do, realize that if you could pay one of those bills off you have the opportunity to have an extra $1,200 a year and it’s tax free! Pay off more debt and you’ll have more money the same way.

3. Think of one thing you’re willing to give up or alter that will help you save even a little bit of money. For Christmas one of my friends got a coffee maker and many bags of special coffee that can be made at home. The reason was her daughter hated knowing that her mother was stopping at a national coffee location buying expensive coffee every day, both going to and coming home from work.

Suddenly, her mother can now save $10 a day, which equates to around $300 a month, which can be applied to other things. And the coffee will be just as good, maybe even better because that same brand can be bought in many stores if she wishes to stick to that brand and will still cost her less than paying someone else to make it.

Financial goals don’t have to be really big to make a big impact. All it takes is a little bit of ingenuity adn the willingness to make a change here and there. After all, isn’t a new year a good time for resolutions and goals?

We wish everyone a safe and happy new year, and of course a financially successful year as well.