It's 2020, and that means that most of you have made at least one New Year's resolution for this year or even for the next decade. For most of you it will surround either diet or exercise, but for some of you, getting your financial plan in order may rise to the top of the list. With the average American now surpassing more than $7,000 of credit card debt, student loans at more than $1.6 trillion, and 50% of the people in America who are 55 years and older having no retirement savings at all, it may appear cash flow management will be THE term we all need to learn for the next decade. In Your Smart Money Moves fashion, here are my ideas for a sticky 2020 financial New Year's resolution that can help you grow your bottom line.
- Get Your Financial House In Order
- Take The 21 Day Budget Cleanse - I just published a new book to help Americans get a leaner budget, a fatter wallet, and a bigger net worth in 2020. Do you know what you spent on groceries in 2020? Do you know how much you spent on dining and entertainment? When was the last time you read your credit card bill looking at every charge you made? The Budget Cleanse can help fix these problems in 2020, and it's good whether your family makes $50,000 or $500,000.
- Set Up An Online Safety Deposit Box - We also knew that electronic storage was going to be a big win for families because most of your financial information is still literally sitting in a filing cabinet. At oXYGen Financial, we can set up and organize this for you as part of our electronic technology package.
- Balance Your Personal Family Budget
- Set Up A Family Profit (or Loss) Spending Plan - (We don't want to use the "B" word for budget) because budget seems to be such an ugly word. However, you need to treat your family finances like the way you run a profit and loss statement for your company. It's important to recognize that no family has an infinite amount of revenue, so you need to determine the best ways to make your family more profitable.
- Goal: 50/30/20 Rule - (50% of cash flow to fixed expenses, 30% to variable expenses, 20% to savings). We used to discuss this mostly as the pay yourself rule, but it is also important to realize that the reason people live paycheck-to-paycheck is that they have lost transparency of their money. Consequently, they just don't know how much money really goes to fixed expenses and how much goes to variable expenses. My outline here is a rough outline to determine if you are in the correct spending lanes.
- Get Down To Two Credit Cards
- The average individual credit card debt is $7,000 in America- this is a sobering statistic. The key with your resolution is to get down to two credit cards. (i.e. one AMEX and one Visa (unless you have a business)
- Avoid store cards at all costs due to the interest rate that they charge you. The finance charges can run up to 29.99% if you aren't careful enough to read the fine print.
- Increase Your Savings By Just 1%
- The SECURE Act I wrote about last week has some really good nuggets in it- most importantly, your employer's ability to enroll you at 6% of your pay and scale that up to 15% of your pay over time. The most important, and easier, way to save money is to get it out of mind and out of sight. Go into your 401(k) NOW and just increase your savings by 1%. You won't miss it.
- Take Advantage Of Free Money
- Coupon more with Honey and PriceBlink - Installing these two applications alone or putting them on your toolbar in Google Chrome can help you bring back $500 to $5,000 of shopping savings during the year. You can't move fast enough to see all the deals, so let the computer do the work for you.
- Don't forget to reassess your overall frequent flyer points as you consider where you will take your 2020 trips or the large purchases you need to make in 2020.
Is it time to start your 2020 resolution off to the right foot? E-mail us at contact@oxygenfinancial.net to get your budget cleanse done here in 2020.
If you would like to receive more information on making smart money moves for your future, be sure to contact us today!
