By Stephanie Chabot
You look at your bank balance at the end of the month and there isn’t anything left. You’re hearing that you need to save and put money into an investment account for the future, but how can you even do that if there’s nothing left to invest?
Dear Finance Diary,
It’s quite common in my experience to hear that someone can’t possibly find the money to start investing. There are a few different ways that we can address this easily enough:
Option 1: Automatic Investing
Automatic investing is quite simple to set up. What you would do is with whatever your investing account of choice is (a Roth IRA, TFSA, 401K, RRSP, personal investing account, etc.) and set up automatic contributions to this account straight off of your paycheque.
You might think it’s harder than that to invest, but it really is not that hard. Let’s say for example if there was a tax increase tomorrow of 10%. You would be really annoyed and upset by it, but you would figure out how to continue living.
You can set up your investing in the same way, so that right off the top, you are automatically investing 10% of your income. Alternatively, you can also choose another percentage that you feel more comfortable with.
Option 2: Increasing Your Income
Another popular way to have the income to invest is to increase your income and income stream variety. There are many different ways this can be achieved, from picking up extra shifts at work to starting a side business. Options here can really be just about anything and can be especially fun if you monetise a hobby. Let’s say for example you love creating art: you can sell it online or at a local market. Do you love dogs? Dog walk! Do you love the theatre? Get a job one night a week working at a theatre.
No time do longer hours of work? You can get creative: what about buying a vending machine and setting it up at a local business (law permitting of course)?
By creating a new income stream, you can choose to have this money dedicated entirely to different investing initiatives like the stock market, saving up for an income property downpayment, buying collectables, etc. That way, you don’t need to worry about accidentally spending it on something else, or taking away from your other expenses.
Option 3: Reducing Your Expenses
Let’s say that your lease is about to end on your apartment, or on your car, cell phone or just about anything else that costs you money every month. Should you choose to reduce your expenses and invest the difference, you can really make a big difference.
Your lease is up and you decide to find a more affordable rent price in another part of town. Now, you can put the difference that you’re saving towards your investing account! Easy, right?
Try to find different places that you can save money or reduce expenses. Maybe you can negotiate getting a lower monthly cell phone bill or internet contract. Or perhaps shopping at a less expensive grocery store.
Whatever you choose, invest the rest!
Option 4: Do It All
There’s a saying that “when you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing” or something like that. I don’t believe that that is true! If you are able to automatically invest, increase your income AND reduce your expenses: WOW!
You will be reaching your financial goals in no time.
Love,
Stephanie
Are you interested in more information on how to Fix Your Finances? This July, I will be launching a fully comprehensive online course on how to get out of debt, increase income and reach financial freedom. Sign-up here:
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