You spend hours, or even days looking for the perfect stock pick, you decided that you need to have it. But you don't have the funds, you expected to have them but life got in the way.
So what do you do? Well, you first realize you missed an opportunity, but you don't just leave it at that. You decide to never let it happen again.
So how do you get extra money? There are two ways of thoughts of this the “save mores” and the “make mores”. Let's take a look at both and see which one you can do.
“Save Mores”
We all have the basic necessities of life, of which we don't all agree on. For instance, I have wanted to go to a one car family for years now. However my wife feels we need two cars, though we could probably make it work for the sake of my marriage we have two cars.
Coffee
Once you decide for yourself what the necessities of life are, then you cut everything else. One of the first things that people can cut out is their morning coffee. I'm not suggesting giving up coffee, just that you make it at home instead of getting an expensive single drink on your way to work. Paying even a few dollars a day can add up to hundreds throughout the year.
Cell Phones
Cell phones are an amazing thing, with them we, read blog posts, do our banking, or look at cat videos. They can also be very expensive things to have, especially if you have a large family each with their own phone.
If cutting your phone off altogether isn't an option, then you can call your current plan and see if they can offer any type of discount? If you mostly search the web at home do you really need to have all that data? Where I live there are tons of WiFi hotspots all over the place to the point where I almost never use my own data.
If you have cut your current plan down as low as it will go and this bill is still to much, consider a prepaid plan such as cricket, republic wireless, or Google Fi. All of which use the same service you are currently using for a fraction of the price, and even allow you to keep your same number.
Cable
The internet has made entertainment easier than ever. Many things are available for little to no charge. Take television for instance. For many years the idea was that you had to have a cable package including hundreds of channels even if you ever really only watched 2. Now though with the introduction of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime you can watch almost any show, or movie.
This comes with it's own problems where now you have the ability to watch years worth of shows, in a matter of days if you commit to it. This will take from away from much more important thinks like studying dividend investing.
“Earn Mores”
How many times have you said “if I just made a little more each month then I would be fine”. Truth is we all have. Is it possible to make more? Here's three ways how
Ask For A Raise
The first and easiest thing you can do to increase your income is to ask your boss for a raise. Now if you just started with a company, or you don't have the best work history with your current company, don't expect to get it. Instead spend 6 months going above and beyond what you are required to do and then ask for the raise.
Look For Another Job
It's sad but true that sometimes you just can't make more where you are. And, many times you can negotiate your salary a lot better when first getting a job then you can when you have been there for a while. This is the reason that many people get angry at their job.
New people come in making the same or even more than people who have been there for years. Is this practice fair? I'll leave that for you to decide, but it is the case so lets use it to our advantage.
Start looking, apply to places you know make more, and ask for more on interviews. If you are currently making $15 an hour ask for $16 or even $20. You are worth more than you are currently making, that's true whether your making minimum wage or a multi-million dollar salary.
Side Hustle
Grow a business, drive for uber, have a garage sale, just do something besides your day job and make money. I personally have done all of those things and am still doing them and many more.
With today’s technology you can run a business that grows well you sleep. Yes you do have to do a lot of work and preparation but if done right it will feel amazing.
Why Not Do Both
While I see points for both of the camps save and earn, I think we should all be doing both. I don't get my morning cup of coffee from Starbucks anymore because I don't need it. But I have traveled more in the last year than the previous 15 years of my life so I am still spending that money.
I also have started a business selling on Amazon, drive for lyft and uber, and own my own blog. I'm earning as much as I can, working some very long days and nights to make my dreams come true.
Conclusion
So let's go back to our original story. This time it's a few months later, we have followed the tips we learned here. We cut costs at home and saved more at the same time we increased our income living a nice pile of cash.
We do our research and find a nice dividend yield we want to invest in, and this time we have the money. The opportunity came and we were able to follow through. We now have another income stream for as long as we leave that money there which will grow and allow us to grow our snowball and ultimately lead to financial independence. All of this because we made just a few changes in our life.
Tyler Philbrook is a freelance writer who blogs at IamTheFutureMe.com. He has written for DiseaseCalledDebt.com, and DearDebt.com. He writes about debt, side hustles, financial books, and frugal living, all well realizing that we are all the future version of ourselves. You can contact him on twitter at @Tjphilbrook
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