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Achieve Regular Financial Savings By Incorporating These Simple Tricks Into Your Life

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Regardless of your financial situation, wasting money is never advised. After all, you wouldn’t offer your business services to an employer or client for free. If you’re going to work so hard to maximize your earning potential, you’d be a fool not to do the same with your spending.

Of course, there are a variety of major life moments where you can save big by doing your research. However, mortgages and car purchases shouldn’t be your only concerns. Making positive steps in your daily life is just as vital. Here’s what you can do to unlock those savings to see your money last longer.

Become Eco-Friendly

Living a greener lifestyle has become a growing trend in modern society. However, the environment isn’t the only beneficiary. Simple ideas like cycling to work rather than driving or switching to LED light bulbs can soon start boosting your bank balance.

Likewise, improving home insulation and cutting down on household waste can work wonders for the cause. You might only save a few cents each day, but those small savings will soon add up. The fact that you’ll be living a better life in the process is only another incentive still.

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Look For Direct Money Savings

The best way to save money is to do literally spend less money on your purchases. Haggling might be a dying art that is now restricted to the big purchases. However, the internet has opened up the opportunity to take another tradition to the next level. Learn to research your options, and you’ll find the best deals in no time.

Price comparisons can be useful for many services. Meanwhile, using printable coupons could make a huge hole in your daily spending. From clothes to groceries, spending less money on those regular expenses will soon make a huge difference to your life. Do not underestimate it for a second.

Do Things Yourself

The DIY game is a longstanding idea that can allow you to complete home upgrades and various chores without breaking the bank. Once upon a time, you had to boast skills, ideas, and the right tools. Nowadays, virtually anyone with the right level of determination can achieve those goals.

Online tutorials can show you how to fix various home problems, as well as other issues. Meanwhile, upcycled fashion and furniture is becoming a bigger trend than ever too. When combined with suitable care to ensure that those items last longer, your financial situation will look far brighter.

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Quit Expensive Habits

We’re all guilty of wasting money in this life. This could manifest itself in a number of ways, including gambling and smoking. Learning to rid yourself of those habits that offer no real benefit can work wonders for your health as well as your wealth.

Those expensive habits could also include throwing items away when they could be sold. Your trash could be another man’s treasure. In turn, it could mean a few extra dollars in your pocket. Even if you sell $50 worth of goods each month, that’s one less bill to worry about.

 

6 Great Tips When Moving House

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Undoubtedly, one of the more stressful experiences we go through in life is moving house. To make your life easier, these are some of the things you need to consider before the big day.

Throw away things you don’t need

Now is the perfect time to declutter your house. To save on packing, get rid of those things you don’t need anymore. That magazine subscription you have collected for years? Ask yourself, how often do you flick through back copies. Still have toys that your children played with ten years ago? They probably aren’t collector’s items if they are covered in scuff marks. Get rid of them. Of course, you don’t need to throw unwanted items in the trash. Give them to charity shops so somebody else can make use of your once cherished possession.

Pack early

Packing takes time, and you will be amazed at what you have collected over the years. Begin with the rooms you don’t use frequently and start packing the items that are not needed on a daily basis. By starting to get ready early, you will be able to collect all the packaging you need for your precious items. Be sure to label them all as well, for easy access when you get to your new home. So what if you live in a house of boxes for a few days? It will only add to the excitement of your pending move.

Hire a removal company

You could just hire a van, or make a hundred trips back and forth in your car. However, you can save yourself a lot of work, and back breaking pain, by hiring the professionals to do it for you, for example, this London waste removal company.  Whether you are crossing over to the next town, or moving interstate, the cost of getting somebody to help you will cross one extra chore from your list.

Keep hold of the essentials

There are a few things you will always need to hand, so be sure to pack them in a separate container. There will be items necessary for the car journey, and on your arrival at your new home, so don’t give them to the removal men. Items such as the kettle, mugs, tea bags, bottled water, paper towels and toilet rolls, are just some of the things you might deem important.

Tell everybody

Unless you are planning on moving house in the shadow of night, so nobody can find you, it is probably a good idea to let your friends and neighbors know you are moving. They may be able to help you on the day you leave, and it would be good to exchange contact information so you can keep in touch. You could even ask a neighbor to keep an eye out on any mail you receive, so leave a forwarding address.

Stay positive

You may be feeling emotional at the prospect of leaving your home, but you can still take those memories with you. It’s time for a new start, keep it together and get ready for the next chapter.

Important Steps In Getting Your Loan Approved

Getting approved for a loan certainly isn’t the easiest process in the world. With Brexit pushing the future of the nation’s economy into uncertainty, lenders are less strict than they were during the recession of the noughties, but more strict than they have been in the past. Bottom line: it’s still very important to present a great package if you want your loan to be approved. Here are some important steps to getting your loan approved…

Review your Personal Preferences

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Before you head straight to your bank and start asking questions, spend some time researching the market, and seeing what your alternatives are. This is an essential step to ensuring you can get your hands on some of the best offers on the market. This means thinking about the type of loan you’re looking for, the terms that you can reasonably afford, and how you’re going to pay off the loan in the shortest period of time possible. When you’re looking for a specific type of loan, such as a personal loan, auto loan, or a mortgage, scouring the market and avoiding impulsively jumping at any of the offers that arrive in your email inbox, is absolutely essential to coming out on top.

Know your Limits

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When you’re pursuing a loan, it’s important to be aware of your current credit score and your history. All good lenders will tell you the bracket of credit scores required for approval for a certain loan. You can prepare in advance by requesting a copy of your credit and history a few weeks prior to your actual application. Start reviewing your history for accuracy, and make sure you have enough time for correcting any kind of errors in your history. These days, lenders put a lot of emphasis on how you’ve used credit in the past. If there are any mistakes left in your report, you may wind up with a much lower score, which can obviously hurt your chances of being approved. Always consider your personal finances when you’re planning to pursue a loan, and target deals based on your limits, and realistic ability to make repayments which you can comfortably afford.

Manage your Expectations

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We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: rushing through the process of applying for a loan is never a good idea. Loan officers have very strict protocol to follow when they’re approving loans and getting the money to applicants. Through the entire process, you should be discussing the sequence of your events so that you’ll know what to expect moving forward. While some loans can be pre-approved right out of the gate, you may not know all the specifics until a number of weeks have passed. Ask the experts when it comes to following up. Your overarching goal should be securing a loan that you definitely have the means to repay. Getting turned down for loans can be frustrating, but it’s important to understand your situation thoroughly and manage your expectations, and not to ruin your credit by applying for loan after loan.

Uncovering The Links Between Poor Health & Debt

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The vast majority of people out there have some form of debt. It might be a home loan, for example, a credit card, or maybe just a monthly prescription you pay for services received. But, whereas debt seems to be entirely normal these days, bad debts are a huge issue – not just to people’s finances, but also to their health and wellbeing. And if you are looking for reasons to teach your kids about the importance of sound financial knowledge, the fact that bad debts will harm them in the future should be all you need to start educating them right now. Let’s take a look at some of the links between bad debts and poor health – and see how we can all make sure our children never suffer from either.

High blood pressure levels

Having bad debts means that your lenders will, to all intents and purposes, be after you. Phone calls, letters, emails – your creditors will be trying their damnedest to get their money back by almost any means necessary. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to stressful health issues such as high blood pressure. A study in Norway found that adults with high debt-to-asset ratios suffered from higher blood pressure than others, and also suffered from poor health in many other areas. And it’s also important to note that those adults studied were in their prime, too; between the ages of 24-32. It’s important to bear this in mind for your children, as it could only be a decade or so before bad debts could start impacting their lives – and blood pressure. Don’t’ forget, developing a higher blood pressure means people will be more at risk of heart attack or stroke – it’s that serious.

Lowers immunity

Chronic stress doesn’t just affect your blood pressure – most researchers and scientists understand that stress can also suppress your immune system. So, the more down the dangerous debt spiral you go, the more your blood pressure rises, and more at risk your body will be to general illnesses. Being in debt also has a tendency to keep you awake at night with worry so you won’t be sleeping well. And, as every doctor will tell you, sleep is vital for giving your body a chance to recover and recuperate, as well as fighting off any infections.

Feelings of anxiety

It’s not much of a surprise to hear that the more debt you are in, the more anxious you will become. Anxiety is a symptom of stress, and owing a lot of money is obviously an incredibly stressful experience. Feelings of anxiety can seep into all kinds of different areas in your life. You might struggle to be sociable, for example, and withdraw from your friends and family networks. It can impact on your productivity at work, too – meaning you are more likely to have to take time off or maybe even lose your job. And anxiety is also an indicator of high blood pressure, which, as we mentioned above, can lead to heart problems and stroke.

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Depression

When you owe a lot of money and can’t afford to pay it back, you tend to feel helpless. And the impact of those feelings can be dramatic on your psychological makeup. Unhappiness can quickly lead to depression, and the feeling for many people in debt is that they are underwater and incapable of helping themselves, which exacerbates those depressive feelings even further. And while many people discount depression as not a serious issue, the simple fact is that it has a terrible impact on people and those that love them. Families can break up, people can lose their jobs and find themselves unable to work, which increases the debt spiral further. As a parent, one of the worst things you can face is your beloved child developing depression, and feeling like there is nothing you can do to help them.

Doctor’s visits

When you owe a lot of money, some things in life that you deem unnecessary will often take a hit. That might mean paying fewer visits to your doctor, even when you are sick. There is a direct link between those who have high levels of credit card and medical debt and those who are less likely to visit their doctor for regular checkups. And the simple truth is that when you tie in the many health problems debt can cause and fail to see a doctor, there is more chance of serious issues arising.

Severe injuries

You can be leading a perfectly sensible lifestyle one minute. But a serious injury or accident can change everything in a single moment. Not only will you have to consider quitting your job, but you might also have to find tens of thousands – possibly hundreds – to pay for medical care. Health insurance can help, of course, as can finding a personal injury lawyer to claim for compensation. But there are no guarantees that your insurance company will pay out, or that you will win your case. The reality for many people who suffer serious injuries is that their finances will take a hit, their lifestyle opportunities will dramatically reduce, while their debt levels will increase. You can’t teach your child to avoid accidents, of course. But you can teach them how to prepare for the worst.

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Aches and pains

Nasty letters from debt collectors and angry lenders can even lead to you developing physical symptoms such as headaches, pains, and muscular tensions. In fact, researchers have found almost one in every two of those who were in bad debt also reported frequent migraines, headaches, and digestive problems. So, if you want your child to grow up physically healthy, it’s worth teaching them the benefits of financial security.

Eating habits

When you are in the midst of a severe debt problem, it’s not unusual to stop being mindful of what you are eating. Stress levels can keep your hunger at bay, and when you eventually crash, you will often reach out for quick fixes such as sugary snacks and fast food. And make no mistake about it, when you are eating too much garbage, it is going to have a grave impact on your body’s ability to fight other issues. Your stress levels will rise, too, as you aren’t getting enough nutrients, and feelings of depression are also likely to follow because you end up not taking care of yourself. Again, it’s being in debt that can lock you into a vicious cycle of ailments that can lead to others – and increases the damage they cause.

Exercise

As surprising as it might be to hear, research suggests that more than sixty percent of people with bad debts don’t take enough exercise every week. While the reasons for the link are not clear, it is an alarming statistic, given that exercise is part of the key to a healthy and long-lasting life. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain, which can protect you against depression and stress, both of which can arise due to having bad debts. For parents with growing children, it’s important to realise the positive impacts of exercise on their futures. And it’s also vital to understand that if they do have bad debts, it might even protect them against some of the many health issues that being in debt can cause.

As you can see, there is a broad range of links between poor health and bad debts. The pressures and strains of being in debt can take a toll on anyone’ s mind and body – and it’s something you need to prepare your children for in the future. We have been recommended this comprehensive guide about what action you can take when feeling blue and how a mental health diagnosis can be empowering.

Ways to Save for a Mortgage Deposit

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Buying your first home is a big step, and if you want to avoid falling into the trap of forever renting, there are several things you can do which will speed up the saving process. Here is a quick guide to get out of rented accommodation and to saving for a house deposit.

Whether you are looking to buy a luxury Meriton apartment or a simple two-storey home, it is likely that you won’t be able to save much money if you are renting. If you feel that you can sacrifice your personal space so that you can save, there are a few options for you.

One option is to move back in with your parents for a little while. However, only do this if you get on well with your parents and live close to them. If moving in with them will add another hour or so to your work commute, it’s hardly worth it more the extra travel expenses. Talk to them about how much you will stay, what you will contribute towards rent and how you will help out around the house.

It is also possible to sub-let your spare room and get a lodger. This will help subsidize the cost of your home and allow you to gain control of your finances and save for a deposit. Before you start searching for a new flatmate to move in, you will need to talk to your current landlord and see if they are happy with what you are planning. They may agree to either of the following options:

  • Advertise commercially for a new housemate and reduce your rent
  • Allow you to advertise and sub-let the spare room in your rented accommodation

Either way, you will be saving money on your rent and able to put more away. Be strong, and remember that this extra cash isn’t supposed to be for extra fun and set up a direct debit to go straight into your savings.

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If neither of the above are options for you, it’s probably time for you to look for a cheaper place to live. Ask around and see if any of your friends have a spare room that they are willing to rent out for a few months – remember to talk to them about rent, bills and what you will do around the house before agreeing to anything. If you have no friends with a spare room, then there are loads of websites available which advertise rooms in shared houses, such as:

A house share will be much cheaper than renting a house or apartment all by yourself, as you will be splitting the cost of the house between several people. This should enable you the wiggle room to save more money and, eventually, put a deposit down for your own home!

It can be difficult moving into someone else’s space and living with them, especially if they are family or close friends and you are used to living alone. Remember that they are probably feeling the tension too, so do your best to help around the house and not make a mess!