Awa Sow
If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck and struggling to make ends meet, you might have one of two problems: you are either spending too much money or you are not making enough to cover your basic expenses. In order to figure out which one applies to your case, you need to have a budget.
I won’t stress this enough. Having a budget helps you figure out how you are spending your hard-earned money. If you have a budget that’s great. It means are doing something right about your finances and that you have basic knowledge about managing your money.
If you don’t have a budget, your first step would be to create a budget plan. To do this, you will need to do some basic calculations. Don’t worry it won’t be too complicated. First, you will need to figure out how much you are earning. Using an Excel sheet, write down your income at the top. Then, figure out what all of your expenses are and write them down in the Excel sheet as well. If you’re not exactly sure what you’re spending your money on, you can refer to your bank statements.
Finally, deduct your income from all of your expenses. I have a post that goes into more details about budgeting, you can check it out here. If you have a positive balance after deducting your expenses from your income, it means that you are not spending more than you are earning.
On the other hand if you have a negative balance, it means you are spending more than your paycheck. This is the worst situation you can be in and you will need to do something about it. Spending more than you are earning means that you are supplementing your income with debt. By taking one more debt to survive, you are creating a situation where at some point you will max out all of the debt that financial institutions can allow you to have and you risk of potentially losing everything and living on the streets. And we don’t want that. This is something to avoid at all costs.
After you have created your budget, you will know if you have an income problem or an expense problem. An income problem means that your earnings don’t cover your living expenses and you’ve done everything in your power to reduce any extra and non-necessary spending.
To figure this out, start going through every item in your budget to see if everything you are spending your money on is something that is necessary for you to survive. If not, start cutting out all the things that are not necessary in order to reduce your expenses (this goes for magazine subscriptions, gym memberships that you no longer use, etc). I also have a post on how you can reduce your monthly expenses.
After you have eliminated all unnecessary expenses, and you see that your monthly income still doesn’t cover your basic expenses, this means that you have an income problem. And the only way to fix an income problem is to make more money.
Negotiate your salary
There are plenty of ways to earn extra cash and supplement your income. If you’ve tried every reasonable resource there is to squeeze your budget to the maximum and you are still struggling financially, then you are not making enough money to support your needs and you need to start making more money. Here are some tips to help you make more money as soon as possible for a better Financial stability.
One of the quickest ways of earning more is to find a way to tap into your current job’s resources. Talk to your employer to see if there is a way for you to earn more at your current job. First try asking for a raise. If you know that you’ve been working very hard and efficiently, try asking for a raise. An employer usually knows how hard an employee is working and if this is true, they will consider this and give you a raise. Even a $1 an hour raise can be beneficial to your situation.
The second option would be to find out if you can work more hours. If there is overtime available and you are able to work more hours, then do so and you’ll start earning more money within a few days.
You can also ask your employer if there is something else that you can do to earn more at your current job, for example another type of work that you can do on top of your current one. If you need to learn more skills or be better at what you are currently doing, find a way to shadow with someone in your department who is doing better than you and learn tricks to be more efficient.
Being more efficient can help you earn more money. This is especially true if you have a sales job and you get extra bonuses depending on the amount of sales you make. So in this situation, figuring out how you can make more sales will be very beneficial to you.
One conversation with your boss can potentially help you earn a few hundred dollars more than you did before.
Switch jobs to make more money
If you can’t find a way to move up at your current job or earn more money with your current employer, try searching for another job. There might be a company out there willing to pay more money for the same job you’re currently doing. It doesn’t hurt to look elsewhere. Start tapping into your contacts to see if you can find a better paying job in your field.
If you know that you are not qualified enough to earn more money, or that you have reached the maximum amount of money people are willing to pay for your expertise, you might need to learn a new skill or get another diploma. Do your research to figure out the types of jobs you can usually find work in and if you can easily get a license or diploma to do the job and earn more money.
You might only need to do a 1-year or 2-years of studying at the college to get a diploma and skills that will help you earn more money for years to come. So, sacrificing one or two years of going back to school either part-time or full-time, can be great a investment in your future earnings.
Start a side hustle
Do you have an area of expertise different than what you are currently being paid for? If so, do your research and figure out a way to turn it into a business. This can be anything, really, as long as you think people will be willing to pay for it. Create something that will help you earn some extra cash on weekends or in the afternoons after you are done working your current job.
For example, if you are handy around the house, start a handyman business. There is a lot of money to be made helping other people fix minor things in their home. Just to give you an idea, I recently hired someone to change the ceiling fan in my bathroom I paid $80 for it.
And this doesn’t even include the material that was used for the job. When I asked how they priced their work, I was surprised to hear that they work for $80 an hour. And I don’t even live in one of the big cities in Canada. So, as you can see there’s a lot of money to be made as a handyman. Just post your ads on Kijiji and start earning extra cash on your days off or on evenings.
If you know how to cook, it can be a good idea to start cooking and selling the food you make. As before, you can also advertise this on Kijiji. However before starting a cooking business, make sure you check your provinces regulations on what you need to do to be able to sell food to the public. I know that some provinces in Canada will require you to have a food license and a permit before you can sell prepared food to the public. So, make sure you do your due diligence and meet all the requirements before you start a food business.
There are a lot of different businesses you can start to earn extra cash. You just need to be creative and find that business idea you love that will thrive and potentially be your full-time job.
Bottom line
If you are in serious money deficit, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes, as long as it’s legal and doesn’t infringe on your morals of course, to earn extra cash. Because not making enough money will only cause you to take out debt to survive. And we all know that this is not a healhy financial decision. Remember your goals and keep motivating yourself to reach them.
