Financial rule for life: Tune-ups are required. Automation is a great way to free up precious time, especially since life may be very hectic sometimes. Still, without an occasional financial tune-up, unnecessary costs and missed income opportunities build up. Like properly maintaining a musical instrument, electrical tool, or vehicle, the occasional “financial tune-up” ensures that families get the most out of their circumstances. Here are seven quick fixes to help ensure that every dollar is earned and used to the max.
Question Recurring Charges
Many people love the convenience of automated billing, where purchases are billed monthly or annually to credit cards. The problem is that consumers will often leave the payment arrangement in place long after they stop using the service or product—a terrible waste of hard-earned dollars. While the time saved from limiting bill paying is priceless, it’s worth going over all recurring charges here and there. Turning off the spigot to gyms never visited, magazines left unread, and obsolete web services leaves more money in your pocket for the newest subscription you want to try.
Ask For a Raise
Asking for a raise, whether from a boss or clients, takes guts but is often the best path to significant income enhancement. It’s all about the value provided, and as skills improve or the marketplace shifts, higher fees and salaries are often justified. A struggling businessman acknowledged to me that, out of fear and inertia, he hadn’t raised his service charges even though he was in great demand and market rates had gone up significantly. By overcoming this hesitation, he quickly added tens of thousands of dollars to his bottom line! Don’t be greedy, but don’t be bashful either about getting what you’re worth.
Follow Geico’s Motto
Insurance companies may rely on customers’ apathy and ignorance to steadily jack up rates or at least not lower them despite the customer’s changed risk levels. It’s worth shopping around occasionally to keep them on their toes. If “15 minutes can save you 15% or more on your car insurance,” as Geico claims, imagine what an hour may do to lower your cost of insuring your life, health, home, or business.
Put Your Cash to Work
Depending on how much money you keep in cash, it may be very rewarding to shop around for better rates on your savings accounts and CDs. Many banks, especially the biggest ones, have been very slow to raise interest rates, and by looking around, it’s easy to earn an extra few percentage points over their puny offerings. As long as FDIC-insured banks are used (easily verified on the FDIC website), the size or location of the financial company doesn’t matter, and most make themselves easily available via online transfers. While working to earn an additional 1% on $20,000 may not be worth the effort, those who maintain large sums of cash should definitely spend the time to get their “money’s worth.”
Refinance Your Mortgage
One of the easiest ways to free up hundreds of dollars a month is to refinance your mortgage to a lower rate. Interest rates are constantly shifting, and something better may come along. (Admittedly, this is unlikely if you are fortunate enough to have locked in the bargain rates often available between 2012-2022.). It’s worth calling or emailing a good mortgage broker occasionally to check what’s currently available. As long as the interest savings more than cover the cost of the additional fees incurred (for redoing the paperwork), refinancing your mortgage equals no-brainer savings.
Lower Your Tax Bill
Tax management can make a huge difference in a family’s income and wealth. Even those who don’t earn enough to owe a lot of taxes can benefit from learning how to maximize their refundable credits. There are many ways to affect tax bills by using retirement and health savings accounts and business entities, shifting money between tax years, and through tax-efficient investments and capital expenditures. Most people don’t have the time, interest, or knowledge to do in-depth tax planning and should meet occasionally with accounting professionals to discuss opportunities for tax mitigation.
Go the Extra Mile
As long as you don’t get sucked into buying what you don’t need or can’t afford, credit cards can be convenient and also profitable. Promotional cards offering either cash back or travel rewards can be an easy way for many families to earn hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. And businesses that do their purchasing with these cards can earn significant amounts of free money, significantly increasing their cash flow.
Just Do It
It’s enticing to imagine some kind of big fix to financial challenges, but realistically, most problems are solved by a combination of many small solutions. Whether these tasks are grouped together into one annual tune-up job or sprinkled as an occasional mini project during a quiet week, the financial results of the effort can be surprisingly worthwhile.