Magical Penny

Commuting to and from work is something that is a necessary thing to do, as many of us aren’t able to live close by to where we work. So as such, it is a pretty unavoidable cost and it can be pretty expensive when you have to pay for travel day in and day out. So with all of that in mind, here are some of the things that you can do to help to reduce the costs of commuting. 

Car Sharing

If you are in a position to car share, then you it can be a great way to cut the costs of your commute as it can be cut in half when you’re able to share the costs. If you live close by to a colleague that you could share with, then it is definitely worth looking into. You could think about alternating who drives, or you could work out a weekly contribution towards fuel costs if only one person decides to drive. If you don’t live close by to a colleague, then there are a lot of car sharing sites that you can look at, to connect with local people. That can help to cut your fuel bill in half, and in some areas, can mean that you can use carpool lanes if they are where you live. 

Cut motoring costs

If car sharing or public transport isn’t a good idea for you, then there are some things that you can do to make sure that you are able to cut down the costs of driving your car. 

• Driving more efficiently is something that is going to help to cut down on motoring costs. If you keep your overall speed low and doing things like changing gears early on, then it will use less fuel. 
• Switching off your air con is also something that can help to keep costs low. If you keep it on, it can use up a pretty surprising amount of fuel. 
• Reducing your costs of getting a car is a really good idea too. It could be something like buying a used Range Rover over a brand new one, and making sure that you look for some bargain car insurance.
• If you try to avoid rush hour for travel to work, then it can mean that you spend less time in idle traffic, which will mean saving money on fuel. 
• Tyre pressure is something that is so important to managing fuel efficiency and keep fuel costs low.
• Flexible working is something that could help to reduce your travel costs. If you chose to work for one day a week, then you can use much less fuel. 

Think Bike

If you have a commute is pretty short, then getting out a bike could be a good idea over a car or even public transport. It not only serves a function to get you to your destination, but it can serve a purpose to get you fit and healthy too. Your employer might have a cycle to work scheme to get you a good deal on a bike, as it is a great way to travel to work, as well as doing your bit to help the environment.

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When making the decision to purchase a car, there are several options available to you in how you want to pay for the car.

You can purchase the car outright, lease, or finance it.

Depending on your financial situation, you will know which of the above is the best option for you so that you don’t ruin your financial future.

Many people today opt to go with financing their vehicle.  Many car dealers also try to push financing on their customers.  This can help them try to upsell the car with some extras that you may not have been considering when initially looking at the vehicle.  

There are some things to keep in mind when deciding to finance your vehicle.  

Monthly Payments

When you finance your vehicle, you will be able to work out a length of payment for the car.  Depending on your credit score, you could have a low rate, thus reducing your monthly payments.  But, if your credit score isn’t as solid, you will be looking at hefty monthly payments. In addition, a down payment is usually expected, whether it be in cash or a trade in.

The positive thing in having these monthly payments is that once you are done paying off your loan, the vehicle belongs to you.  You will also be building up equity with each payment that you make. You can keep on driving the vehicle while having the luxury of no more payments, or you can decide to sell the vehicle and move on to something else with some money in your pocket.  In the end, only you will know the smartest financial situation for your car.

Mileage

As opposed to leasing a vehicle, if you finance it you will not have to worry about the number of miles you put on the car.  If you leased the vehicle, you will have restrictions on how many miles you can travel per year. Leasing a vehicle isn’t a bad idea if you don’t have to travel long distances for work or other circumstances.  But, if you would have concerns with your mileage, you would want to look to finance the vehicle.

Maintenance

One of the perks of financing a newer vehicle is you won’t be running to mechanic on a frequent basis.  There is a good chance that you will have a warranty with a newer vehicle, but if you decide to get a used car and pay full cash for it, it may hurt you in the long run with repairs and upkeep.

Financing a vehicle also make the vehicle yours to do what you want with it.  You can change the interior design to add the effects to fully make it yours. It is nice to know that any little dents or nicks, you won’t be responsible for paying if you had to turn the car in after a lease.

You will be able to discuss your financial situation at the car dealership and they will be able to give you an idea of what you might be able to afford each month.  Many websites like Newtons Of Ashley have financing calculators on their site to help you figure out where you stand for payments.

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Unmanageable debt can be scary, and it’s something that can happen to anyone. However, it’s not to say that borrowing money is always a bad thing, and in many cases it can be hugely beneficial. The key is to do it sensibly, so if you’re thinking of taking out a loan, credit card or any other kind of debt then here’s what you need to know.

Know the difference between ‘good debt’ and ‘bad debt’

First things first, it helps to know whether it’s worth getting in the red in the first place. And there really is a difference between good and bad debt. Good debt is an investment that will grow in value or generate long term income- for example, taking out money to pay for education is expensive, but in the long run it could score you a better job with more money. Purchasing a home, again a massive expense upfront for a deposit and fees, but it’s something that will accumulate in value. Borrowing money to start a business could be considered good debt. Taking out money to buy luxuries that you can’t afford right now are a bad way to get into debt, so holidays, clothes, technology. It’s not to say you can use credit cards or loans to buy these things in moderation if you really need them, but start getting spendy and you’ll end up with a huge amount of interest for items that will probably be worthless in a year or two. Purchasing a car using credit is a bit of a grey area. If you don’t have a vehicle and a car would enable you to get a better job further out for example then it could be considered good debt. Maybe your current car is unreliable and expensive, and upgrading will save you money on insurance, tax and repairs.

Shop around to get the best rates

Interest rates and deals vary wildly from company to company. To make sure you’re getting the best deal for you, it’s important to shop around. Use price comparison sites to see interest rates, and get clued up on different forms of credit and how they work. For example, what balance transfer cards and consolidation loans are, and what an offset home loan is. When you’re educated on what these kinds of things are, you can make better decisions and go into things with your eyes wide open. The last thing you want to do is take out a debt and realise later on that it’s not affordable to keep on top of. It’s how you fall behind and start \racking up more interest and fees. This can eventually lead to bailiff visits, county court judgements and in the case of car or home loans, you can have the asset recovered from you.

Improve your credit score

If you’re applying for loans or credit cards and finding that you’re only being offered very high interest rates (or being rejected altogether) then it’s worth regrouping and spending some time working on your credit score. Use a website to access your credit report and see what’s causing issues. In some cases, there might be mistakes that can be rectified. It might be that you’ve never had any credit before, and so need to spend time building up your score. If you’ve had credit in the past and not managed it well then this could be harming your score, unfortunately it can take six years for this to fully ‘drop off’ your report. In the mean time, make sure you’re not missing any more payments and that your finances are all in order. If you want to borrow money for a mortgage for example, it might take a while to repair your score as time is the best way to go about it. The more historic the defaults and CCJs are the less impact they’ll have on your report, but you’ll probably find that you never get the best rates until they’re gone and you’ve improved your score with positive influences.

Rejig your budget

If you find a credit deal that’s right for you and are happy to accept it, take a look at the repayment terms and adjust your budget accordingly. Set up a direct debit to cover the payment each month, or in the case of a credit card you can set up an order with the bank where the full amount is taken each month. This enables you to spend on your card but ensures it’s paid off once you get your wages and as you never carry a balance you don’t pay any interest. This is useful if you’re taking out a card purely to rebuild your credit. As you’ll need to be spending on it each month, but you don’t want to be paying interest. Paying in full keeps you in control of your debt, it prevents it from spiralling.

Turn off automatic credit limit increases

Speaking about spiralling, one way that debt can really get out of control is when lenders automatically increase your credit limit. Having access to a large amount of funds can be really tempting for some people, and if you think there’s a chance that you might end up spending or going on a shopping spree then it’s crucial that you turn this feature off. If there’s no otpion to do so, call your creditor and ask them to reduce your limit to something you’re comfortable with and request that they don’t increase it again, they’ll be more than happy to do this. Having lots of available credit can actually reduce your credit score if this is something you’re trying to improve, since creditors know that people can easily fall into financial trouble and then stop paying them back if their borrower can quickly access a large amount of funds.

What tips would you give people when it comes to borrowing money sensibly?

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A new car (even a pre-owned, new to you, car) is a big purchase.

For most of us, aside from a house, and perhaps a once in a lifetime trip, cars are one of the most expensive things that we will buy. Few of us can rush out and just buy a car whenever we fancy it. It takes time to choose the right vehicle for our needs and to find a car that meets our standards. But, it also takes time to save, and unfortunately, we don’t always have that time. If you suddenly find yourself facing a commute to work or school, you need a vehicle. If you find out your family is about to grow, you might need a larger car, and if your current vehicle starts having more severe problems, you might find that you need a replacement sooner than you might have hoped. So, let’s take a look at some ways to save for a new car when you don’t have as much time as you’d like.

Shop Around

You might not be able to afford a brand new car, let’s face it, not many of us can. And, even if you can, you might have other things to spend your money on, and a second-hand car can be exceptionally good value. But, even then, some cars are much more expensive than others. Shop around using sites like Trade Price Cars, but don’t ever sacrifice safety, to get a better price.

Explore Financing Options

Buying a car outright can be expensive, and it can take a long time to save once you factor in associated costs like insurance and tax. Fortunately, that’s not the only way to buy. Explore options like car finance, which could allow you to split the cost over a more extended period. If that’s not an option, you might want to consider a loan or borrowing money from a family member.

Trade In Your Current Car

If you are looking to bring costs down, it can be worth exploring the option of trading in your current car. Private traders will often buy old cars, or you might be able to trade towards the cost of your new vehicle. If this isn’t possible, you might want to try to sell your car for yourself, or you could at least sell it for scarp to cover some of the costs.

Make Some Cutbacks

Not everyone wants to take out financing plans or borrow money. Some of us prefer to pay for things in full, even if that will take longer. If you need a car soon, the best thing to do is save money by making cutbacks at home. Build a household budget and look at easy ways to make savings. Could you cancel any contracts or memberships? Or make some reductions? Could you spend less on food or luxuries? See what you can afford to save, open a high-interest account, and set up a direct debit for that amount. When you can save more, do it. Another option is working overtime or finding a lucrative side hustle.

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From some people’s perspective, it would seem that saving money is a near impossible task now. Unless you are super rich, or entitled to every benefit under the sun, if you fall in that middle ground where you need to save money, but you either don’t earn enough, or can’t get any support, it just feels like you are financially treading water. This is when it’s time to start putting your brain into overdrive to see exactly what is going wrong. The answer could be very simple, but on the other hand, it could very well be a combination of factors that are impacting your ability to save or make money. Is your financial savviness due an overhaul?

Finding Out Why You’re Treading Water

When we earn a certain amount of money, which makes us not entitled to certain benefits or perks, the most frustrating part of it is that we are too rich to be entitled to anything, but also, not rich enough to be truly better off. And this is why we’ve got to start making alterations to our lives to ensure that we don’t tread water. As the cliché goes, we always live within our means. The modern-day means that credit cards are being thrown at us, which, to the untrained accountant, could very well do it as free money, with the added benefit of the card being interest-free for a certain amount of time.

The reality of the situation is that, even though we don’t have to pay it back right away, we need to pay off a certain expense right now. Whether this is an overdue water bill, or there are things that we deem essential, like petrol. But once we get into this mindset, this is where the slippery cycle of debt can get the better of us. But it’s learning how to identify the real culprits…

Is Your Home To Blame?

Our home can be a drainer of finances in so many ways. It could very well be due to the fact that we haven’t made appropriate renovations to the property so that we can save money on our heating bill, or it’s due to a larger issue, such as ploughing money into an extension; we’ve got to look at how our home is going to put us in the poor house eventually. Real estate is a worthy investment, but if there are issues at play that will drain us of our money over time, how can we fix these things? There are so many people that feel they’ve made a big mistake in buying a property. If this is a recent eventuality for you, and you only just got onto the property ladder after years of scrimping and saving, it may very well be a shock to the system to find that the property has to have numerous investments put back into it, not just to keep it up to code, but also to make sure that it’s a place that will stay valuable if you decide to sell up.

If you have a grand plan for what to do with your home between now and the time you decide to retire, there can be a few alterations that are worth thinking about. For example, rather than putting an extension onto the property, you could take advantage of one of the many granny flats available. This is a far more sensible investment and it gives you more control over the design and the layout. But in addition to this, it becomes an extension to the property without all that money being invested. Other investments to the property on more subtle, and can save you money over time. Keeping your home up to code in an environmental sense is definitely worth looking into, especially if you’ve got an old home that was originally a fixer-upper. If you haven’t insulated the property, and found that heat escapes, these are simple things for you to cut back on excessive bills.

Do You Need A Money Mindset?

But what if you feel you’ve covered everything? Is it down to the fact that you don’t have an appropriate mindset in which to make money? As we tend to live within our means, it could very well be a result of the money bubble you’ve put yourself in. We can see so many pieces of advice out there about how people got out of debt, by tackling certain methods, such as the debt snowball method, but they are useless if you don’t have the right mindset.

It’s not something worth beating yourself up about, because if you have struggled in the past, or there are new debts that you need to get out of, it can feel like an overwhelming tide that you just can’t swim away from. On paper, you may feel that you’ve got a well-paid job or the accoutrements associated with good living, but you still feel bound by debt. It’s not about the items you own that reflect your personality, but it’s how you choose to spend money. There’s a very simple way of checking this. All you have to do is go over your bank account statement, look at how much you spend in any given month, but do this in comparison to how much you really earn. If they are evenly matched you’ve got your answer! It’s at this point where you need to change your attitude to money. You can either choose to continue down the path you are on, or make appropriate steps to ensure that you living appropriately within your means. One approach that may prove to be a wake-up call would be to see if you can follow the 50/30/20 rule.

In essence, this is all about using your money (after tax) where 50% goes on your “needs,” such as the car payment, groceries, housing and utilities. 30% goes on your “wants,” like your hobbies and shopping, and 20% goes in savings. If you can follow this rule, it’s an automatic way to budget your life. The tricky bit is differentiating between your needs and wants. If you can follow this, you won’t go far wrong. In addition to this, there are apps you can use, such as Plum, which will use algorithms to help you tackle your budget, and even put money aside for you based on the information you provide. That way, if you really do think that you struggle to save money, you can always be surprised as to what can be put away, no matter how little it is. Mindset is all about altering your attitude to money and this isn’t just in terms of spending it, but it’s about seeing where the essential payments are in your life.

Is It Time To Diversify?

It seems that everybody has more than one job these days. Whether this is due to necessity, because they lived in an area of great expense, or due to personal dissatisfaction, many people are now performing more than one job. This is something that you can take inspiration from, not just so you can earn a bit of extra cash, but you can also get a bit more enjoyment out of this thing you do part-time. Naturally, we can all feel exhausted by the very nature going to work Monday to Friday but if you are struggling under the weight of your finances, getting some sort of side hustle or part-time endeavour could prove to be the answer.

Sometimes we need to find the right part-time job that suits our life. You may think about becoming a landlord, especially if there’s a spare room in your property, but if you are not so keen on this approach, you’ve got to find something that can earn you money, but without overexerting yourself. This may seem like an impossible task, but there are so many jobs that can be performed at home, online. Companies like Appen or Pactera provide work at home opportunities, and if you could find the right job, it’s something you could do on top of what you already do, and because they will pay you per task, this means that you are able to do it around your primary job, as well as around your lifestyle.

It’s Not Easy…

Living in the modern world means that’s there are constant stresses, and financial worries are, undoubtedly, at the top of the pile. If you find that you’re just hitting a wall, and whatever you’re doing isn’t resulting in any money been put aside, or there are a bunch of factors that are impacting you, it’s important to find out what these problems are, not just so you can minimise your debt right now, but begin to imbue yourself with habits and attitudes towards money that will potentially save your life. Money is one of those all the essential components, but while there are people like minimalists doing their best to avoid excessive expenditure, when we live a life that, at the very least, we’ve got to pay through the nose just to keep afloat, we’ve got to start putting our money saving abilities into overdrive.

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Going to university is an exciting chapter in your child’s life. It’s an opportunity for them to further their careers, but also a chance to meet new people from all walks of life. Everyone’s position and background in university is unique, and while some parents can afford to fully support their kids through university, for many it’s simply not feasible – and that’s ok.

But just because you can’t afford the tuition fees, living costs and other expenses that come with your child going to university, doesn’t mean that there aren’t other affordable ways you can help them financially.

Take a look at some of these ideas for helping your kids at uni, even when you can’t fund it all.

Help them with their rent

Students will be faced with a whole new load of financial responsibilities when they start university, with one of them being rent. The reality of university is that a maintenance loan only goes so far, and it often just about covers their rent. Even if you can’t afford to pay their full monthly rent, you could try giving them a certain amount towards it. The extra boost will make a huge difference and can ease some of the pressure of meeting this new cost.

Make sure they’re eating

Even though your child is away at university, you’ll still worry about them. One of the things that you’ll want to make sure if that they’re eating well. Many students will favour nights out and packets of noodles over eating good meals but this is where you can step in. By buying them gift cards to do their food shop, or doing an online shop for them, you can make sure that the cupboards are stocked and put your own mind at ease too. You can also teach them how to cook some great student meals to tide them over and ensure they’re not just eating ready meals and junk food.

Cover some of their other expenses

When you’re a student, any form of financial help is greatly appreciated. Could you help to ease some of your child’s other expenses, like their phone bill or fuel costs. By searching around for young driver insurance, you can find a great deal and help your child to cover some of their car costs. This will not only help them free up a bit of money each month, but it also means they’ll be able to afford to drive back and see you now and then too!

Having a kid at university is an exciting and proud achievement, but it can be stressful for families who aren’t well off financially. Fortunately, there are grants and scholarships available that could help your child during their time at university and make sure they have the time of their lives. Helping them out in small ways and teaching them how to manage expenses at uni are simple but effective ways of providing support, and your child will appreciate everything you’ve done for them. University will teach your child some great life lessons, and learning to manage their finances will be one of the most important.

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If you already have an idea board and know exactly how you would like to live your life in the future, it is important that you exhaust your buying options before you decide to self build. While there are loads of land offers available, without experience, you will be struggling to manage a big project, such as building your own home. Below you will find a few tips on how to decide whether to buy or build.

Renovation Properties

Just because you haven’t found a property that is perfect, you cannot exclude buying. You can actually go into property development without starting from scratch. Just look for low cost properties with a great potential and use your imagination to turn it into the perfect place to live for you and your family. This is likely to be a cheaper option than trying to tick all the boxes or spending years building a house.

Self Build

There are, however, some benefits of self build, too. You can get your ideas to come to life and tailor the home to your family’s needs. If you have some particular expectations that you cannot find in any property you have visited, this might be the right option. You will, however, have to be prepared for the challenges of managing a team of contractors and controlling your budget.

Economical Considerations

Some people choose to renovate or self build to make their lives fully sustainable. You might want to use sustainable materials or make your home more economical or greener. It is important that you focus on the long term return on investment and the resale value of the property. While the majority of people build  a home to live there forever, your kids might not find it suitable for their lifestyle.

Your Budget

Before you decide whether or not you should invest in a renovation property or land, you will have to create a budget for both options. You can check out prime locations, such as Wyndham Ridge and find out about the total cost of development, such as permissions, getting connected to the grid, and tax. The last thing you want to do is stretching your budget too far and getting into debt.

Location

Independent of the interior design that can be flexible, even if you are buying an older house, you will have to take into consideration the road networks and the local amenities. You might be happy at the location right now, but what about 10-15 years from now? Consider the times when your kids will have left and you will have to find your days after retirement. Would it be the perfect place to live? If the answer is yes, the decision is simple.

Relocating can be stressful and challenging. If you are currently at the stage when you are trying to decide where to live, and whether to embark on a property development project, you should consider the above options and ensure that you are not spending beyond your means.

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