Achieving financial independence is perhaps the most challenging task to undertake yet very essential for a better life. People have varied reasons for wanting financial independence, from getting out of debt, retiring early, to accumulating wealth. 

Whatever your reason might be, financial freedom will surely help you achieve your dreams and have a better future. There are many ways you can accomplish your financial independence, such as through investments and savings. 

While the latter can be somewhat risky, there are investment means that have proven to be safe. Consider forex trading as a prime investment plan. You can opt to partner with a bank or a forex trading company to help you realize your financial goals and choose a suitable forex trading plan.

As one of the best investment plans, forex trading offers you a range of options suitable for your current and future financial capabilities. There are forex traders who trade commodities and cryptocurrency, among many more. It is the best means to access market prices and make your investment earlier in life.

It takes a lot of determination, compromises, and focus on being financially independent.

No matter your financial goals, there are general levels of financial freedom everyone should work towards. They comprise of;

Early Retirement

You don’t want to be the 60-year-old in an office full of young workers only to earn a meager salary. No, you want an early retirement to do exciting things in your free time, like travel. With the increasing cost of living, early retirement is almost unachievable unless you’re a millionaire. 

Nevertheless, it is attainable only for people who take financial independence seriously enough to make early investments that will cater to their retirement life.

Emergency-Ready

Your primary financial goal should equip you to weather an emergency. As unpredictable as life is, preparations for the unforeseeable future are mandatory, and you can only accomplish this by being financially capable. 

Flexible investments are more suited for emergencies because you can withdraw funds at any given time. An emergency could also be any life-changing plan in your life, like insurance.

Independence From Your Paycheck

It can be quite frustrating to plan your life according to the dates you’ll receive your paycheck because otherwise, you can’t do what you want due to a lack of money. Your financial goal will prepare you to escape this nightmare and instead live your life spontaneously.

Time; and More Time

Most people crave time to do exciting things that will make them happy and help them relax. With a regular job, time is an expensive commodity. Planning your financial goals will help you quit your job and start doing what makes you happy, like starting your own business or retiring early to travel the world.

Clearing Debt

Debt makes you take extra shifts and get part-time jobs because they run you down to your last cent; bad credit is bad for your future financial plans like a mortgage. Therefore, you need to have a sustainable financial plan that will help you clear your debts to have the resources to make significant financial decisions.

Once you’ve established your financial capabilities and goals, you can go ahead to make investments that will be worthwhile. Use the general levels of financial independence to help you get started.

Being financially successful can have different meanings to different people. For some, it could mean being extraordinarily rich. For others, it could simply mean getting out of debt and gaining financial confidence.

Whatever your specific financial goals are, I guess no one will reject the idea of financial security. For someone is not so good with money like myself, there’s still hope to be financially successful with just a few simple changes in mindset and spending habit.

Are you like me in the following ways?

  • Buy something and don’t realise you already have it at home.
  • Rarely use or open the things you buy.
  • Shop online when you are bored.

Or you are in debt. You are on a low wage. You think you are useless with money.

If you’ve said yes to a lot of the above, fear not. As long as you are open to learning and think about why you are spending, you can still be financially successful.

In order to achieve financial success, you have to know what your financial goals are. Your goals should be based on your current financial situation and be realistic. Don’t dream. Be practical.

Here are 10 ways to be financially successful

1. Find out exactly how much your are earning and spending every day, week, month

It sounded so basic right? The truth is most people under estimate how much they’d spend. Record your daily spendings. Gather all your receipts, credit card and ban statements. Keep daily accounts of what goes out and what goes into your accounts. Guess work won’t do it. You must know how much you’ve got to spend and keep to start with.

2. Check your bills and statements

Check everything you’re asked to pay, from credit card statements to grocery bills. Look for over charing and general mistakes. Who know how much money you could be losing buy not keeping an eagle eye on your account. I’ve lost thousands by not checking my credit card statements.

3. Start saving now

Most of us can save money if we simply cut back on non – essential expenditures. Some simple ways of saving include: Cancel gym membership if you don’t go more than once a week. Go out only once a week to eat. Eat breakfast at home. Don’t shop when you are bored. Buy a water filter instead of keeping buy bottled water.

4. Think before you spend.

Think about what your are buying all the time. Made spending hard. Rat everything you want to buy and only buy what you need or something you really, really, really want. Ask yourself: how much do I really need/want this? Buy the absolute essentials. If it’s something you really want than really need, sleep on it and reassess your desire later. Very often, you’ll find that you actually don’t want it that much after a couple of days.

5. Shop smartly and delay gratification

Don’t be a sucker for brands. Instead shop around for bargains. The richer you want to be, the more you have to delay gratification. Of course you need to maintain certain standard of living to be happy. But you do have to cut back, save and do without luxuries in order to have money to invest and therefore, have money further down the track.

6. Invest wisely

As tempting it may be to dabble in the stock market., or give your money to someone who says they can triple it in two weeks, remember it’s impossible to get rich quick. Unless you can afford to lose money, only take sensible risks with your cash.

7. Don’t give up your day job

Don’t be so quick to put your job on hold for a career break. Move to a less stressful job for less money. Or quit your job to travel round the world thinking you can always slip back into the job market. While these are all options that can work, the reality is that what you earn today may not be what you earn tomorrow. I’ve learned this in a hard way. So if you have a great job with a good earning potential, think long and hard before changing careers or taking a career break, and ask yourself whether you will financially regret it in five – ten years’ time. If the answer is “maybe”, think again. Think really hard about what you’re doing.

8. Protect your money

Pay attention to what’s happening to the financial market. Do you need to move your money around to make it work better for you? Or take your money out of something that’s losing money? Or change jobs because your current company is not doing well? Always look ahead for potential financial hazards that might knock you sideways, so that you can sidestep them before they happen.

9. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Don’t put all your money into savings account, share market or properties. Diversify in different investment streams. Properties, for example, is a great investment, but what would you do if the market crashed? Have you made provisions for your own financial security? If not, it’s time to do so.

10. Make the most of your spare time

We all have unused skills that others could benefit from, whether they are a talent for painting, making things or writing. You would be amazed at how many people make money form the things you take for granted. Research and see how others make money. Consider offering yourself out for hire. Get a second job! The fastest way to get rich is to increase your income by utilising your spare time. Think you have no spare time? Well, think of all the time you spend browsing on your smart phone.

As the world becomes ever more digitized, people are increasingly turning to so-called “digital wallets” to make payments. Perhaps the most famous example of these is PayPal – the online-based digital bank account that allows you to collect payments through eCommerce sites, like eBay. Many others have come and gone since then, with some of the biggest companies in the world, like Apple and Google, now offering their own versions. 

Today, though, there’s a new kid on the block called Afterpay. It’s an Australian digital wallet that promises to transform how people make payments online. The service provides all the usual goodies, such as being able to pay for stuff online and use an app to buy items in-store. But it also offers a bunch of features that many customers will find helpful. 

The company says that it never charges interest on purchases. So if you receive a line of credit from the company, it’s free. The other benefit is that using the service doesn’t affect your credit score. The app won’t pass your information on to any third-parties, permanently depriving banks and other financial institutions of all your financial information. 

There are limits, of course, to how much you can use on credit, but Afterpay deals with these as “loans” instead of regular credit. For this reason, the app is relatively consumer-friendly. 

The following infographic charts how Afterpay affects your credit rating, allows you to do things like split purchases and sets limits for your spending. Read on to find out more. 


See how Payday Deals explains Afterpay

I almost totally abandoned my blog last year. Instead of posting regularly, I had very few posts in the entire 2019. Not much thought and effort were directing to this space and it looked sad.

I had no energy for anything else. I was physically and emotionally drained day after day after my slavery, low paying contract job (got that half way through 2019). Why am I going for a job like that? It’s kind of complicated (more on that later), but one of the main reasons is that I want to teach myself a lesson, to teach myself the value of money.

It’s fair to say that my intelligence in money management is really low. I have a Master’s degree in Finance and looked after big company’s finance department but my personal finance has always been neglected. It’s with regret to admit, I never treated money with care.

In the light of a new year and new decade, I thought it’s time to lay out some of my biggest money mistakes in years and try to learn something from them.

Leaving a rental property vacant for months before selling it a the lowest point.

I used to have a house and rented it out. Without shopping around for a good real estate agent, I just used the first one available. Of course they charged the highest commission. But I was too sloppy to care about that. The tenant was very demanding and a little too nasty for my liking so I decided to sell the house. It was around 2011 when the Sydney housing market was slow and depressing. Nobody was buying at the time. And my tenant made sure the house was a mess whenever there was an open inspection. It took forever before the tenant finally moved out. Instead of finding a new tenant and change to a better real estate agent, I just let the property vacant for more than 6 months. The house was eventually sold at a very low price after being on the market for nearly a year.

Then magic happened. Sydney experienced the strongest housing boom in history. From 2012 onwards, you could hardly catch up with the rapid growing pace of Sydney housing price. Years later, I found out the person who bought my house sold it a few month after buying it from me and made nearly $300k profit straight away.

Lesson learned? Too many. The key one is never to be too emotional. A bad tenant certainly shouldn’t be the reason to sell your rental property.

Trading Foreign Currency with huge leverage without knowing how to trade properly.

I can be timid and have low self esteem but occasionally over confident. Take trading Forex currency for example.

I heard someone traded Forex for a living and never needed to go to the office everyday. At the time I hated my job in corporate (that was 10 years ago). It was a well paid job but being an emotional person I couldn’t handle the pressure that well.

So I quit my day job, wishing to carve out a career trading foreign currency and live happily ever after. My investment in Forex was $125k. My vision (day dreaming) was to double that money in a year. I did study Forex very hard, learning all the candle stick formation, support resistant level, different patterns and fibonacci etc etc. After all, I had a finance degree and did well, trading FX would be a piece of cake right? Wrong. I lost the entire $125k. Luckily I was too lazy to transfer money to my forex account on time so I didn’t end up loosing my entire savings account.

Thinking back, I was over leveraged and once again too emotional. I acted like a gambler, risking too much in hope of getting my money back.

One day I was walking past a food market, someone handed me some promotional material. It was a pack of chewing gum in a blue case. Turning it over, it reads: Gambling problem? Call this number: xxxxxx. It was totally spooky. How didn’t they know? Do I have “Gambler” written all over my face?

Withdrawing cash from ATM without taking the cash.

Did I say that I’m very careless with money? Yes. Did I also say that I day dream too much to a stupid degree? Let me tell you a personal story.

A few years ago, I was looking to buy a unit in Sydney. There was one that was almost reasonably priced but requires major renovation. After inspection, I walked away pondering the possibilities then the agent rang.

“Good news, the owner agreed to sell at this much xxx, but there’s another buyer that’s really interested. He’s coming to pay deposit this afternoon. If you come now and pay $1000 deposit and it’s yours.”

“But I want to think about it a little bit more.” I replied.

“No need, it’ll be gone if you don’t take it today. It’s a real bargain. I just want to let you to get it first because I really like you.” The agent assured me.

So I proceeded to the ATM to take $1000 out. While pushing the buttons to withdraw cash from the machine, my mind went wild, imagining ways to renovate, thinking over and over if it’s a really good fit. My daydream was cut off by the sound of ATM shutting down the withdrawing slot.

Wait! Did I take the cash or not? I looked frantically everywhere in my wallet, bag and pockets. No $1000. But I did withdraw the cash!!! I have the receipt from ATM. But where’s the money? Did someone else take it while I was day dreaming? Oh God.

So I went to the bank teller telling my story. Nobody believed me. ” Surely you took the money, our record shows you withdrew the cash.”

“But I didn’t take the cash!” Everyone just looked at me like it was impossible.

“Trust me! You have the video camera there! Can you rewind it and see what happened just now? Because I can’t remember what happened to the $1000.”

“No, we can’t do that.”

Tears started to rolling from my face. How couldn’t I be that stupid? In the end, a bank employee took sympathy towards me. ” If you didn’t take the money and nobody else did, the money could be taken back to the machine. It’ll be added back to your bank account if that’s the case. Just wait for 2 weeks for it to work out.” With that in mind, I left the bank.

You might have gathered by now, I didn’t end up buying that unit. Truth is, nobody else did either. There wasn’t another buying going to pay deposit that day. So my stupid mistake at ATM actually prevented me falling for a common trick of a real estate agent.

And for your information, the $1000 was deposited back to my bank account after 2 weeks.

Paying for groceries in shops but always leave things behind after paying.

Do you need to remember to take your shopping bags with you after paying the bills? Isn’t it common sense you pick out things in the shops, pay for them and take the goods with you?

Obviously I’m not normal. I just pay for things leave shops without taking the paid shopping with me. My mind is always somewhere else and I’m hardly ever present.

How many times I have to go back to the shops and collect things afterwards and how many times I left the goods behind forever? I don’t remember. 

Do I still leave my shopping behind after paying? Yes.

Paying for yearly membership then never ever use it.

I guess this could be a common one to a lot people but I bet it happens to me more often than others. I used to buy yearly gym membership but only went twice then forgot about it. The worst thing is that, I was too lazy to cancel the membership and let that automatically renewed for 3+ years. After eventually cancelling my gym membership, I got the $1500 yearly yoga pass. This time, it was slightly better. I attended about 10 yoga classes before giving up going for the rest of the year. That happened 3 years in a row. In the mean time I bought aquatic centre pass intending to go swimming regularly but never ended up using it even once.

There were a number of other club memberships that I paid for but never ever used them. Looking back, it’s easy to understand why I didn’t accumulate any wealth.

Still paying rent to my old rental apartment months after moving out.

Setting up an automatic monthly payment to pay rent is normal, but forgot to cancel the monthly rental payments after you move out is not. It was only after a few month when the rental property manager mentioned to me, “Btw, we noticed you are still paying rent to our account.” did I realise there was something very important to be done.

Paying for a car deposit without buying the car (then losing the $500 deposit of course).

I’ve had a lot of impulse purchases. There were many things bought that belonged to that “bought and forgot” category. But at least I get the pleasure of owning them. But that car purchase was not the case.

Impulse purchase is always a bad idea. It made it so hard to declutter. I wanted to learn to play piano so a piano was bought. I wanted to learn to play tennis so I bought the whole set of gear, special shoes and lots of cute outfit to go with it. The same happened to golf, badminton etc etc. Of course I didn’t have any patience to learn any of those.

Sold my old wallet but forgot to take money out.

So I sold one of my used Louis Vuitton wallet but there was still a $50 note in it. Lucy the buyer is honest and told me about it and transferred the money back to me.

There are many bad examples and there’s no need to list more. Will I ever change my bad money habit? I think so, because there’s no other choice. Who wants to grow into the old age, being stupid and destitute? Is it too late for me to learn the value of money? Well.

It’s better late than never.

 

 

 

As much as we would all like for this to not be the case, sometimes we suffer financially. Sometimes things happen in our lives that mean that we end up in a bad financial situation. Maybe it’s something that you didn’t see coming. And could not have! Or maybe it was something that happened as a result of your own actions. Whether you are in debt or you have gone through an experience that has affected your financial situation, you may need help. You may need to know what options you have in order to deal with the financial crisis and get out of it. So let’s take a look at some of the options you have here.

Reduce What You Spend

The first course of action is always going to be to reduce your outgoings. No matter what has happened or how you got there, you need to cut this down. So go through your bills and be ruthless. Cut out anything that you do not need and look to lower the cost of just about anything that you can.

Work On Your Savings

From here, if you can, you then need to work on your savings. If you’re in the position to do so, you need to try and put some money away, so that you are protected should you ever need that money to fall back on. It could also help you through this period too.

Maximize Your Income

Now, one thing that will always work out for you, is to go on the offence. Do not let this current situation define you. Instead, fight back and dig yourself out of it instead. One of the best ways to do that is to supercharge your income and look to earn more. Do not just suffer in silence. Because in this day and age, there are a ton of ways that you can earn more if you want. So go out there and look to really push the amount you earn.

Get Help

So the next thing that you might want to do here, is to bring in some help. Maybe you have no idea how to change things or put things right after an issue has happened? Maybe you’re dealing with health problems and you need help with the finances? Then looking for a company to help you to get through this could be the best possible route.

Slow Down

But above all else, it might be time for you to slow down. If you’re doing too much, spending too much, and really starting to spend your money in more ways than you really know you should be, you will really want to make sure that you slow down, step back, and take a look at your life. Because if you are amidst a crisis, a lesson could be learnt here. So make sure that you think differently and that you come out of this in a better position than you went into it.

Growing old is probably not something you want to focus on right now. It’s probably something that you actually dread thinking about due to how much stress it could cause. Retirement planning is, after all, thinking quite far into the future (at least for most of us) and the majority of the population struggles enough living in the present–they don’t want to think too far ahead.

We also need to keep in mind that all good plans are doomed to fail. It doesn’t matter how much you plan, how many contingencies you describe and how much time you put into the plan, it’s eventually going to fall apart and you’ll feel like you’ve wasted a huge amount of time.

This feeling can vary from person to person, but one area that you should never neglect to plan is your retirement. No matter how stressful it sounds or how dull it might seem, you’ll come to realize that planning for your retirement at an earlier age comes with many benefits, and we’re going to describe them in this article.

Investments are powerful

Keep in mind that money you invest now is going to grow in the future. Be it property that you’ve invested in, a retirement plan or even some savings in an account, the more money you save now, the more comfortable your life is going to be in 10, 20 or even 30 years time. That’s one of the reasons why many of us strive for a more successful career–so that our finances can take better care of us in the future.

If you want to live a comfortable life, then remember that your financial situation is very important and you need to keep it in consideration when you’re planning your future. The money you save now is going to be spent when you’re older and no longer fit for work.

Planning can help you out

Whether you’re planning on a retirement living location, where to invest your finances or who to pass your money on to, there are certain responsibilities that you absolutely should keep in mind when retirement planning. Your wealth, for instance, could be lost if you don’t write up a will and choose who to give it to. While this might seem like a very distant thing, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Planning also helps you set goals in life. For instance, if you plan to move to a different country in the future, then it’s going to help if you focus on planning and stop being absent minded. Without goals, it can be difficult to navigate through life and find the motivation to do something. Everyone has their own goals, so sit down and decide what your personal goals are so that you can plan ahead for the future.

Hopefully, this article has given you a bit of info on why it’s never too early to plan for your retirement. Whether it’s securing your financial situation or giving yourself a source of motivation, there are plenty of reasons to start thinking about your retirement at an early age.

Should you save for your future or spend on enjoying life now? While money cannot buy you happiness, a recent survey by insurer Aviva reveals that being in control of your finances does. In fact, 57% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their current savings. However, financial awareness has led to a 47% increase in millennials with $15,000 or more in savings since 2015, according to a GoBankingRates survey.

Living without a budget can be compared to traveling across the planet without a roadmap – or a plan for that matter. While it is still possible to achieve, the result can end up wasteful and expensive. So, can people improve their finances as a means to boost overall happiness? Experts say yes.

3 Ways Improving Your Finances Will Boost Overall Happiness

Buy Experiences, Not New TVs

Retail therapy might seem like a great option if you’re spending to boost your mood. However, spending on experiences is more likely to boost mental happiness overall. Even if you want that new smartphone that everybody seems to have, experts suggest the thrill of making the purchase will pass sooner than you expect.

Staying In Control Of Your Debt 

For many people, having some sort of debt is normal and allows them to enjoy a fantastic quality of life. But the key is to be in control of your outgoing payments, to avoid any stress. From time to time, it makes sense to re-evaluate your financial commitments and look at refinancing or consolidating your payments. By finding a more favourable APR or changing the length of your repayment plan, you can stay on top of your finances. Taking control in such a way allows you to relax, safe in the knowledge that you can afford your current lifestyle.

Making Smarter Decisions

The key to financial happiness is to give yourself permission in what you choose to spend along with where to put your savings. These conditions can help you decide on the necessities before the essentials, including:

    • Basic financial needs are covered
    • Savings of at least six months’ worth of expenses for an emergency fund
    • Savings for retirement
  • Funds for experiences, not materials

Instead of buying “things” that will provide temporary happiness, buy memories that will last a lifetime. After all, studies have shown that paying for experiences like travel and hobbies tend to make people happier than buying material things.

Focus on spending your valuable time with friends and family and deepen those relationships. Money can’t buy happiness, but it can sure help you spend more time with loved ones who make you happy.