by savespendinvest -

5 Crucial Differences Between Saving VS Investing

Staying put is easy and safe, going into uncharted territory is risky.

At some point or the other, either we were told to, or we sort of figured it out on our own, or maybe even your friends told you – someway, somehow, you started saving.

It wasn’t too hard – you just take some money and put it somewhere that your everyday cash is not. It was really that simple.

Do this for a few weeks, months and years and you may think that’s all there is to succeed in your financial life. What you would soon come to know, is that, on it’s own saving is never enough.

Or as I say, you cannot save your way to financial freedom.

by savespendinvest -

Life Goals

In life, there will be many wins, and likewise many L’s. The journey to financial freedom, will cause you to laugh, cry, and be thankful about your many blessings. Most of all, you will watch yourself grow and blossom and start to see that, really money was never the goal. You made the sacrifices for your kids, for the health of your parents, so you could see your loved ones smile again.
You kept pushing to hit those goals, not because it was easy or because life dealt with you nicer, but because you saw life beyond the money.

If you had all the money you’ve ever wanted, what would you do differently? How would you live your life?

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Setting SMART Goals

It’s time to make SMART goals. Where do you want to be in 5 years? How about in 2? This year maybe?

We all have goals and dreams. We have things we want to do, places we want to visit and things we’d like to accomplish. However sweet our plans seem, they are nothing without actions. We all want to wake up in 5 years in our dream homes with our dream cars etc. That’s all well and good. Except from the part where we’re not changing our actions to reflect that lifestyle. We are acutely aware that our choices today determine our tomorrow. Why then do we stay doing wishful thinking instead of actively working on those goals? Nothing ever came to those who slept and dreamt sweet dreams.

 ‘Start doing and stop ‘dreaming’.
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2017 In Review & A Special Thank You

As my last post of the year 2017, I thought I’d use the opportunity to say a massive thank you to you.

For all your love and support, thank you

For the feedback and constructive criticisms, thank you

For the likes, comments, shares and subscriptions, thank you

For being patient and kind with your words, thank you

 

I appreciate every single email, comment, like and share and I do not take it for granted. So, to end the year, I thought I’d share some of the top 3 lessons I learnt during the year:

by savespendinvest -

Your SALARY vs Your INCOME

Do you know the difference between your salary and your income?

I didn’t.
Some people equate how much they ‘earn’  i.e their salary,  to how much they get ‘paid’. I used to think that too when I started university. You get income from your salary when you get a job. So the plan was work hard to get a good job so you get a good salary and therefore a good income. Right? Hm, maybe. But as I got to my second year and I started making ‘income’ even though it was not my ‘salary’, I started to think a little different.
You see, your salary and income aren’t the same thing. Your salary can be your primary source of income, and indeed is a good chunk of a lot of people’s income. But it is not necessarily your only income. So many people have made it to the their financial goals without being on a ‘salary’. The idea is that they created multiple streams of income.
Your job holds the keys to your salary. They give you a figure and tell you that’s what you get paid for working for them. That’s fair enough – they’re in control. YOUR job, is to be in control of your income. Note the difference. Your income is not limited to your salary.
by savespendinvest -

3 Money Tips for Christmas Shopping

Ah Christmas, everyone’s favourite time of the year. Lots of family around, watching Home Alone and singing all our favourite Bublé songs.

We all love Christmas and look forward to spending time with family, friends and loved ones. But whilst it’s one of the highlights of the year to look forward to, for some, it can really put a dent in our pockets.

We don’t really think about it, it just ‘happens’, and let’s not talk about how January then tends to drag on. We need to be mindful of the fact that ’tis the season to be jolly, also means ’tis the season for money to leave your wallets. Some people call it a financial hangover, yikes!

There are so many Christmas jumpers I have bought and received over the years, most of which are somewhere, somewhere, deep into my closet. Or a suitcase. Or in storage. This year, I’m making a conscious effort to say No to the things that only make me feel good in the moment. Instead I’m saying Yes to things that will leave me happy come this time next year.

by savespendinvest -

How I went from being broke to saving £2000+ in a year

Here’s a story about going from being broke to big time woke.

Contrary to popular assumption, I’ve not always had it all together financially. I haven’t gotten into debt or done anything too crazy but towards the end of 2014/ early 2015, I was at an all time low financially. I had finished my first year of uni and decided that instead of looking for an internship over summer, I was going to create a job for myself ? #Winning #YouGoGirl #Solopreneur
FAME 2014 was one of the various projects I started in uni. A creative event that allowed creatives in the music and fashion industry to come together for the coolest mashup. Or at least that’s what my intention was.
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Investing 101: Mutual Funds

So you’ve read my post on Investing For Beginners and decided you’ll like to invest in Mutual Funds? Great, so what exactly are you investing in …

What is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a professionally managed fund that pools money together from you and other investors and uses that money to buy securities. A security is a financial instrument/asset with monetary value. Because of the diversification (mutual funds invest in stocks/equity, bonds), it’s less volatile (which means it doesn’t go up and down as much as i.e. stocks). So if a mutual fund has 100 stocks and one does bad, then you lose 1%, as opposed to a stock where if you bought that particular stock that did bad with all your money, then you’d have lost all your money.
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How To: Increase Your Earning Potential

Leveraging your skill set to maximise your earning potential doesn’t always mean starting your own business. In Gen Y&Z, everyone is either an entrepreneur, about to become one or is friends with at least one. I can already see you nodding your head to one of those three. But some of us get discouraged when we are in that first section “about to be/looking for ways to become an entrepreneur” and start our own thing and launch our brand. For those ones, I encourage you to remember that the fact is that not everyone can become an entrepreneur. More importantly, instead of trying a thousand start up ideas, look to be more entrepreneurial in your thinking and find ways to add value wherever you are. Entrepreneurship is fortunately or not, a one size fits all approach. If it comes to you, great, do your thing hunny. But if it doesn’t, don’t force it- focus more on using your skills to make you the MVP employee. There are more than one ways to make more money. 
Increasing your earning potential is (unfortunately) not as easy as just merely asking for a raise. You could increase your earning potential by doing the following three things:

 

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An introduction

What is this whole Personal Finance thing about?

There are certain things in life you don’t learn at school, your parents might not necessarily teach you and your friends just don’t know enough to talk to you about it. Money management is one of them and for me, the biggest of them.
If you were fortunate enough to grow up in a comfortable or wealthy home then you may even be more shocked when you start to make your own money. You’re not sure where to put it, how to manage it or when to grow it. You are probably only sure of one thing – spending it. 
Over the last two years or so, I’ve realised there’s so much more to money than just spending, and through reading a lot of books, attending seminars and courses, I’ve picked up one or two things I think more people my age need to hear. But before we even get that far, a proper introduction.