Last updated Jan. 29, 2023 by Chim Gracia
Do you know 10 simple money moves that you can make today? We all know that money comes to those who work for it. But sometimes, even when we work our bones out, we still don’t have enough to cater to all our needs. As a result, we still find it hard to save, challenging to stick to a budget, and almost impossible to achieve our financial goals.
Notwithstanding, there are smart money moves that you can make to live in financial freedom. These simple money moves are extraordinary but the secret of most financially successful people.
Likewise, there are exceptional directions and routines rich people follow to achieve their financial goals, which most people have either failed to recognize or completely ignored.
Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of 10 easy money moves you can make today.
1. Plan your Short-term, Midterm, and Long-term Goals
Knowing where you want to go is the first step toward achieving success. Likewise, this should be your first money move if you plan to attain financial freedom.
Having your financial goals written down makes it easier to create and implement smart decisions in life.
Your goals are personal; they can include anything you feel is healthy for living with financial freedom. Short-term goals relatively take less than three years to accomplish. However, topics you could contemplate for your short-term financial goals include
- We are establishing a budget.
- Create an emergency fund
- I am paying off credit cards.
Your midterm goals are a bridge between your short-term and long-term goals. Therefore, setting your mid-term goals will help you achieve your short and long-term goals. It usually takes 3 to 20 years to accomplish this goal. Consider the following as your midterm goals:
- Register for life insurance and disability income insurance
- Pay off student loans
- Working on achieving your dreams.
As the term implies, long-term goals are meant to serve your future. They’re the goals to secure your future and make you financially stable. Long-term goals usually take more than ten years to accomplish and are more of preparing for retirement. You could consider adding the following to your long-term goals:
- Set retirement plans
- Increase retirement savings
- Paying off a mortgage.
2. Invest in your Health
The actualization of your dream of becoming wealthy and successful depends on many factors, including your health and well-being. You must’ve heard of the saying that Health is wealth – which is entirely accurate. Your health is one of the ten Simple Money Moves You Can Make Today.
Unfortunately, most people tend to focus on making money and ignoring their health; the repercussion is poor mental health, constant illness, and stress. With all these, there’s no way you can enjoy the fruit of your labor.
So while making your money moves today, try to consider your health. Take good care of yourself at every level, maintain a healthy diet, and exercise regularly.
In addition, be mindful of your mental health; do not worry too much about your future, try to meditate more, and always seek happiness. When you feel emotional about your finances, investment, or stock in the stock market, look for ways to sort things out without getting stressed out, or better still, hire licensed experts or professionals to help you.
Furthermore, take regular checkups seriously and never ignore ill-health signs from your body. If possible, set schedules or periods to monitor and evaluate changes in your body to ensure that you’re in perfect condition.
Finally, rest for at least eight hours daily and hydrate regularly. Do not allow your chase for success to sabotage your Health.
3. Make Budgeting a Priority
Budgeting is also an essential aspect of planning and one simple money move you can make today. Budgeting helps monitor your earnings and spending, so you don’t make regrettable or irreversible poor financial decisions.
One of the many advantages of creating a personal spending plan (or budgeting) is that you’ll have absolute control over your finances and be able to track money going in and coming out.
In formulating a budget, it is essential to be accurate and never let your spending surpass your earnings. In addition, you must strive to stick to your budget regardless of the circumstances, which is about self-discipline.
Once you begin making and sticking to a realistic budget, you’ll notice the massive turnaround in your financial life.
You’ll realize how the cost of eating out regularly costs your financial freedom and then begin to focus more on home-cooked meals. Remember that you’re fully in control of your spending; as such, you have the power to save extra by budgeting and spending less.
If you’re not conversant or knowledgeable about creating an effective budget or financial plan, read articles on the topic or seek professional help.
4. Start Investing Now
A bear market (or bad stock market) makes most people burn the idea of investing, but historically there’s no better way of growing your money. Besides, the idea of becoming rich involves taking risks, and investment, as you may know, is risky.
However, taking the risk of investing is entirely healthy, and regardless of the claims suggesting that the stock is bad, the business shouldn’t discourage you from delving into the idea.
It’s good that you start small by opening an online brokerage account instead of attempting the mistake of going for bigger fish like the kind of stock picking done by famous billionaires like Warren Buffett.
Instead, learn how to invest, start with a decent portfolio, and make weekly or monthly contributions. And as your funds grow rapidly, continue expanding and joining other renowned investment platforms to increase your income.
Aside from improving your finances, investment also secures your future. With investment, you’d have enough for college, buying a new house, or living a more comfortable life.
Moreover, investment can also be used as a retirement plan, especially when you can no longer work actively or want to spend time with family.
5. Earn Extra Income from your Hobby
One of the secrets of most financially successful people is that they have additional sources of income. Therefore, you shouldn’t depend solely on your job as your only source of income. However, trying to get multiple streams of income can be difficult.
Notwithstanding, you can make earning extra money easy by doing additional jobs in line with your hobby. Your hobby is one of the 10 Simple Money Moves You Can Make Today. Finding a part-time job you enjoy will make it easier to combine with your main hustle. You’ll not find it boring or hard to accomplish when you can finish it in no time like a piece of cake.
Examples of jobs like doing a hobby include writing, tailoring, tutoring, cooking, etc. Earning from your hobby is a win-win situation because you’ll enjoy it and save extra money.
6. Eliminate Bad Debt
Debt can be a brick tied around your waist, slowing you down from getting your financial breakthrough, especially when it’s a “bad debt.” Bad debt includes car loans, personal loans, credit cards, or any loan you have to pay an interest of over 6.5 percent.
This kind of debt can cause you to pay off more than you earn which is terrible for savings and sticking to a budget. Eliminating bad debt is one of the 10 Simple Money Moves That You Can Make Today.
Therefore, as soon as you save up a buffer in your checking account, your next move should be to reduce bad debt. Firstly, pay off debt with the highest interest rate, or you could start with the smallest balance; this way, you’ll accomplish the aim of paying off sooner.
There’s no need to rush to pay for student loans since the rate is below 6 percent. Besides, student loans can be forgiven in most cases.
Similarly, your mortgage, if there’s any, is not in the bad debt category. When you’ve decided and determined to pay off all your debt, remember your lifestyle has to change too. Focus on changing behaviors that led you into debt in the first place.
And finally, create a realistic budget and reduce your expenses – it’ll help you stop spending more than you earn.
7. Start Living on Less than you Earn
Financial freedom requires great sacrifices, which include cutting out unnecessary or lavish spending. So whether you’re looking for money to pay down debt, invest in your future, or build up an emergency fund, your paycheck is an excellent way to start.
The downsides of instant gratification outweigh the pros by far. Therefore, instead of purchasing unnecessary things to ‘catch up with the trends, try to be contented with what you have and save more. Learn to live on something that will sustain your income, and practice the habit of keeping more.
No more living paycheck to paycheck, no more overdraft fees, and no more spending on things to impress people when it is above your pay grade.
Always remember to stick to your goal – gain financial freedom. And do not let peer pressure or indiscipline get the better of your dream.
8. Create a Working Financial Plan
Unlike the budget, financial plans are a roadmap for a longer period. In budgeting, you only plan for a short time, but financial planning aims to secure your finances for the present and the future. More so, a financial plan guides you in making bold and excellent financial decisions.
Therefore, creating a working financial plan is one of the simple money moves you can make today. Without it, you’ll find it hard to track your spending or even stick to your budget.
Also, by not planning, you’ll put your family, business, and life at risk because you don’t know the impact on these areas.
A financial plan is a roadmap that helps you to lay out financial goals, execute them, and help to accomplish financial stability. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated but should include your income, expenses, savings, debt, insurance, spending trends, estate planning, and wills.
9. Learn the Habit of Saving
The list of smart money moves wouldn’t be complete without mentioning saving. Savings is one of the best ways to grow funds; it is significant in securing your finances and preventing you from going entirely broke.
So if you want to take charge of your finances right now, open and send money into an interest-bearing savings account regularly (weekly, monthly, or at a specific time of the year, for instance).
Your savings can come from money for your monthly grocery budget, a tax refund, income set aside from your paycheck, or an amount allocated from your budget, which you’ve dedicated to saving.
Regardless of your choice, irrespective of how much you save, always continually look for ways to increase your savings over time. Remember that small gains will lead to significant returns in times to come.
It’s essential to start saving now, irrespective of how much you earn or your current amount. Don’t allow the thoughts of conditional saving to prevent you from the habit.
However, if you don’t have space in your budget to spend on savings, try increasing your income generation, lowering your expenses, or both.
10. Get Insurance
One of the mistakes most people are aspiring to be rich is focusing solely on making money and failing to protect their assets. One of the famous and renowned ways to protect your finances is by getting insurance.
First, you’d want to maintain minimum insurance coverage to keep your insurance spending low. But as your wealth increase, your insurance coverage has to follow suit.
Though we don’t usually see it this way, the primary aim of insurance is to secure our assets. Therefore, the more support you attain, the greater your insurance coverage needs to get. Also, it is advisable to review your coverages annually.
That includes auto, Health, disability, homeowners, and affordable life insurance. As your wealth increases, high deductibles and low coverage levels can work against you. That defeats the whole aim of having insurance in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Can I do to Get Money Right Now?
You can make quick cash by doing online jobs such as surveys, creating how-to videos, copywriting, online tutoring, blogging, or podcasting. Know that these online jobs will not get you rich but will serve as an extra source of income for your main hustle.
Other offline ways to make money now include life coaching, photography, teaching, driving, and pet care.
What to do if I have $1000?
Investing your $1000 in a renowned investment platform or trading for cryptocurrencies is a great idea. You could also pay down your credit debt or Open a 529 account.
Saving it for your college tuition is also another great idea. Whatever you decide to do with your $1000, make sure it is productive and will help improve your financial life.
How Can I Make cash in One day?
There are different sources to make quick cash, but online is the best place to make fast cash. Online jobs like tutoring students, filling out surveys, clicking ads, posting reviews, and testing websites can fetch you a considerable sum in one day.
However, if you’re interested in working offline, you could try selling your clothes, unused electronics, books, furniture, or appliances.
Similarly, you could perform a day job and get paid immediately, such as washing or detailing cars, babysitting, helping people to move, delivering takeout food, taking care of pets, or running errands.
Where Should I Invest 1k Right Now?
Investing your 1k in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) is best. There are two types of IRAs which include Traditional and Roth. A personal investment to the Traditional IRA is often tax-deductible, and earnings increase tax-deferred until they’re withdrawn.
However, a Roth IRA is primarily an after-tax investment, so it gets no deduction. Investors can deposit up to $5,000 into an IRA; if you’re older than 50, you can deposit an additional $1,000.
How Can I Make Money in One Hour?
You can make quick cash even as fast as one hour by completing online tasks like surveys, product reviews, ad clicking, or testing websites. However, your payment depends on how fast you complete the job and how quickly the payment platform will process your payment.
How Can I Turn my Little Money into a Lot?
The best way to grow your income is by investing in it. You can invest in legit platforms like Nutmeg, Investor, or Vanguard. These platforms are primarily for beginners and allow small investments, which could rise over time.
How Can I Make Money Right Now on my Phone?
You can make quick cash on your phone by completing online tasks such as surveys, product reviews, ad clicking, or testing websites. The only requirements for most of these paying sites are a stable internet connection, a mobile phone, and a registered payment platform.
But, of course, you’d also need to register, complete given tasks, and fill out other necessary information on their website or app to earn.
What Are the 10 Best Stocks to Buy Right Now?
By recommendations and recognition, the ten best stocks to buy right now include;
- Apple Inc.
- Shopify Inc.
- Alphabet Inc.
- Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
- QUALCOMM Incorporated
- SoFi Technologies, Inc.
- The Boeing Company
- The Walt Disney Company
- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
- MercadoLibre, Inc.
