Becoming a parent is one of life’s biggest adventures. Not only are you now responsible for keeping another human alive, but you have to look after your new son/daughter financially too.
There can be a lot of pressure to maintain a healthy cashflow while saving for vacations, putting money aside for your child’s education and paying all the bills that come in each month. Sounds like a challenge, right?
The following are four financial tips to help you navigate the financial side of parenthood.
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Sell Your Life Insurance Policy
Do you need access to quick cash? Do you have a life insurance policy that you no longer need? If so, it’s possible to get cash for your policy in a transaction called a life settlement. You can estimate the value of your life insurance policy in seconds online and review a guide on everything you need to know about a life settlement.
The main thing to understand here is the purchaser becomes the policy’s beneficiary after the sale. It’s also the responsibility of the purchaser to pay off the remaining premiums.
Budget
Budgeting is the only way you can keep your expenses under control, notice unnecessary spending and pay attention to your financial priorities. It involves tracking all income (both fixed and variable) and expenses (fixed, variable and periodic) so you know where you stand at all times. You can go old school and use a pen and paper or a Google spreadsheet.
Our advice is to download an app to your phone as you’ll be able to input expenses when you’re on the go. Extra bonus features in these apps can include budget reports and easy syncing across different devices.
Start Yourself A Side Hustle
If you are a mom who is looking for a way to earn some extra money so that you have more control of your finances, then you may decide you want to start a side hustle. There are so many out there that you truly are spoiled for choice such as dog walking, child minding, blogging and so many more. You can even look into different types of investing to see if any of these pique your interest. An example of this would be if real estate perhaps seemed like something you would like to invest in, you could research property investors to get the help you would need to do this.
Side hustles are an amazing way to bring in some extra cash, so it’s certainly something to think about!
Shop Smart
Are you one of those people that fill the shopping cart without looking at the price of items? It’s time to think twice as you could be costing yourself hundreds of dollars each month. Every cent counts now that you have more than yourself to look after so know where your dollars are going.
You can avoid impulse purchases when out shopping by making a shopping list and sticking to it. Shop items on sale in bulk and make use of any vouchers or special offers that you can avail of.
Buy generic brands at the supermarket where possible, assuming the quality is the same as other brands. And, finally, compare prices for the same items in different stores to grab the best deals.
Teach Your Kids About Money
Many parents don’t believe in teaching kids about money. They want them to have everything in life and let them spend money like there’s a money tree growing in the basement.
We’d all love to have a tree like this but it’s not real life and letting kids believe that there is no end to money is just not fair as they’ll get a big shock when they become adults and have to face up to financial responsibilities.
Get your kids involved in money matters from a young age and teach them the value of money and how hard it is to get.
Not only will this prepare them for adulthood, but it will also make them think twice when asking you for the latest tech gadget in the toy store. And you can only imagine how much money that will save you.
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