Monthly Archives: October 2020

What To Think About When Starting A Business

The idea of starting a business is something that appeals to people of all ages, all backgrounds, and all financial situations. There is certainly something interesting – maybe even exciting – about being the owner of a business and therefore being the one who is in ultimate control. After years of working for someone else, this has its merits. 

Or perhaps you want to run your own business because you know you have an excellent idea that is going to make plenty of money and make you a success. It could be you’re bored of what you’re doing now and what to see what it’s like to be the boss. There are so many reasons someone might decide to set up their own business that we just can’t go into them all now.  Yet whatever the reason, there are some important points you’ll need to consider before you get started. Take the time to go through everything at the start, and you’ll stand a much better chance of success. 

 

The Cost 

One crucial element of starting a business that you’re going to need to think carefully about is the cost. This can be surprising since it is often suggested that you can start a business with little to no investment at all. This idea is accurate, although it will depend on the business and the level of professionalism you want to show. You will only have one chance to launch your business, whatever it may be. You’re going to want to look professional and slick, and have everything in place such as a good website, a logo, your marketing plan, a bank account, products, qualifications, and much more. These things will cost money. You can set up a cheap or free website, and you can design it yourself, but would it be better to wow potential customers from the start and have everything ready in advance? Wouldn’t it be better to have had an expert design your logo ready for the launch, rather than add it later when the moment has passed? Understanding how much you want to spend on your business and knowing that, to make a splash right up front you can’t go cheap, might help you to budget more effectively, and if you need to wait until you have the funds, that is a good idea. 

 

What Line Of Work?

If you know you want to start a business but you don’t know what you want to do in that business, you’ve got a lot of thinking to do. The idea of being a business owner is a great one and something to be encouraged, but you also need to have a business to run. Start by thinking about what you’re good at. Is there anything you can already do or that you already have experience and qualifications in that you could do for yourself? If you want to try something new, you might consider buying a franchise through Franchise Direct. Searching here can open up a wealth of possibilities, and many of the franchises can even offer training. Of course, you will have to spend money, potentially more money than if you set up your own business, but having an entire business ready to go with plenty of backup is definitely tempting and could be the perfect solution.

 

The Most Expensive Things You’ll Ever Pay For

There are certain costs throughout our lifetime that can add up and become very expensive in the long run. Below are just some of the most expensive things that the average person pays for and how you can reduce the price of each of these costs.

Your home

Owning/renting a home is the biggest expense that many of us pay throughout our lifetime. On top of the mortgage/rent, there are all the other costs that can go into managing our home. For many people, this can come up to over 1 million dollars over the course of a lifetime. Home ownership costs have risen dramatically over the last twenty years. In fact, depending on which state you live in, home ownership can actually be 33 to 93% more expensive than renting. However, home ownership still has more freedoms (such as being able to renovate your home) and gives you access to funds that could be released during retirement (while rent is money you can never get back). 

There are many ways to save costs on your home whether you’re renting or buying. The first is to always do your research before renting or buying – look into mortgage information online and consider prices in your area. Your location can have a big impact on your cost of living – the average property listing in West Virginia is $166,488, while the average property listing in Hawaii is $635,000.

Healthcare

When it comes to healthcare, the total amount the average American spends over a lifetime is sickening – overall men spend $268,700 and women spend an average of $361,200. A large amount of this money is on health insurance. Health insurance is something you should be continuously shopping around for. If you rarely ever need to see a doctor, it could be worth upping deductible to save money on your rates. Taking up a healthy lifestyle will also lower your rates and reduce your admissions to hospital later in life. It’s also worth shopping around for treatment to save costs.

Your car

The average American spends $240,000 on car expenses over the course of their lifetime. This includes purchase costs, repairs, maintenance, fuel and insurance. The type of vehicle you buy can have a big impact on the overall costs. Gently used vehicles are both less expensive to buy than new cars and more reliable than heavily used cars (i.e. less money spent in repairs). Fuel economy is also an important factor to consider.

Your kids

Become a parent and you could spend an average of $233,610 per child. This is the total cost of raising a kid between birth and the age of 18 (and often the costs don’t stop after this). This is a cost that is often justified for many parents. Of course, you can spend less money by not being a spoiling parent – raise your kids to expect a lot of gifts and handouts when they are young and they’ll continue expecting more well into adulthood. 

Taxes 

Ever wondered how much you pay in tax over a lifetime. The average American spends around $188,000 in tax. Tax is a cost that we can’t do much about – you might pay less by moving to certain states or by going self-employed (being able to claim you own expenses gives you certain privileges), but otherwise it’s something you have to live with. 

A college education 

A college education today costs an average of $30k per year. If you’re taking a three year course, that’s $90,000 you’ll be spending on higher education. This doesn’t factor in student loan interest. Some colleges are much cheaper. In fact, if you’re willing to study abroad, you could find that there are some places such as Germany where studying is completely free. An education can be a gateway to a higher paid job, so the money spent may be worth the money gained.

 

3 Ways to Help You Save Money

Saving money is easier for some people than it is for others. For some of us, saving up money can be really tough. However, if you want to buy a new home, invest in a new car, or go on an exciting trip, you need to save up. When saving up money, it is easy to find other things you may want to spend it on or things can come up that require you to dip into your savings, such as your boiler breaking down, for instance. Having to spend money on other things can make meeting your financial goals a little tricky – it can be rather tough saving up. Saving up can seem like hard work, but it doesn’t have to be. There are things that you can do to make it easier and more manageable to save up and achieve your financial goals. Below is a guide to three ways you can see results when it comes to your saving endeavours.

  1. Use technology to track your savings

No matter what you are saving for there is technology out there that you can use to help track and calculate what you need to save. One thing you need to know when saving is how much you need to put aside and for how long to get to your target amount. This can now be easily done with websites such as Pigly.com, for instance. These kinds of sites will take the info for what you are saving up for and how much you can afford to save each month and calculate it for you, and will then breakdown how long it will take and what payments to make to get there. 

 

  1. Reduce your bills

When saving money you need to have the money to put aside, don’t you? The more you can save each month the quicker you will get to your goal amount. When it comes to speeding the process up, reducing the amount that you pay to bills could help you cut costs and put more into your savings. This can be done but switching energy suppliers to get the best tariff for a cheaper price, for instance, or you can also save money by going through your subscriptions and seeing if there is anything that you don’t use or could live without. Reducing certain bills will help to speed up the saving process. Other things to think about reducing is the number of times you go shopping to allow you to save up more quickly. 

 

  1. Use fixed-rate savings accounts

Fixed-rating accounts are great to help you save without touching the money you have put away. Instead of opening a savings account and moving the money around however you want, you can deposit the money into a savings account that you are unable to access for an agreed amount of time. This could be one year or longer and will allow you to make saving up to reach your goal a little easier, as there’s no temptation to withdraw it. Pick a fixed-rate savings account and you will be accumulating interest as well for however long the money is left in there for. You could also mix this with an instant access savings account so you have some funds readily available should anything arise and you need a quick influx of cash.

Hopefully, with these three tips, you may have a bit more success in saving up for that thing you want and keep the money saved, so you are not tempted to spend it.