So, you’ve just graduated from college and have moved into your very first apartment. Now what?

Well, now it’s time you wised up to your financial situation and got into an adult mindset when you start thinking about your money situation. This can help you put in place some good financial foundations that can help you set up a secure future for yourself. So, ready to grow up and get adult about your financial situation? Here are some things you need to start to do.

Start Saving

Now that you are out of college and into full-time work, it is important that you try and save as much as you possibly can from your monthly paycheck. It doesn’t matter if you are only able to save a small amount; after all, every little will help and it will certainly add up after a few years! It is important that you have some savings behind you as they can provide you with a security blanket should you ever run into any financial difficulties. If you take a look at https://thesimpledollar.com/best-savings-account/, you can see which accounts are the best ones for your money.

Ditch The Debt

As well as saving up some cash, you also need to try and pay off all of your student loans. If you are struggling to manage all your debt right now, you might want to take a look at the tips on https://studentloansconsolidation.co to see how you can consolidate your debt to make one easier monthly payment. It’s also worth setting up a direct payment from your monthly paycheck. That way, you can never forget about paying back your loan.

Budget Well

Now that you are an adult in the big wide world, you will have a lot more responsibilities than what you did at college. Make sure you don’t forget about looking after your finances, though, or else they won’t look after you! The best way to do this is to budget. You just need to enter all of your monthly incomings and outgoings into an Excel spreadsheet to see how much money you have left over at the end of each month. This can help your finances stay extremely organized, and you are a lot less likely to be overdrawn one month!

Plan For Retirement

Have you figured out how you will be financially stable during retirement yet? If not, why not?! You don’t have any excuse of not thinking about retirement, even if you are still only very young. In fact, there is more reason for you to think about saving for retirement now as you will have longer to save and make a bigger nest egg. Firstly, you should take out a pension so you have some savings that are specifically for retirement. If possible, set up a separate savings account as well.

Once you adapt to this adult mindset, you will find that your finances get a much needed boost. Good luck with your financial future!

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When looking at investment opportunities, real estate is always going to look like a tempting possibility. The market is starting to look up in some areas but down in some. When you invest in real estate, there are a few different ways to do just that and make your investment back. Which should you aim for and which will work best in today’s market?

Buy ‘em to flip ‘em

When thinking of investing in property, buying homes to sell them at a profit is one of the first options worth considering. It’s all about identifying properties with real potential and making use of that. For instance, you might spot a home that you can improve to sell at a much larger profit. But the best way to find properties worth selling is by building a portfolio of properties in developing areas. Look at places where new businesses and other community buildings are set to be built. Features like new commercial centers, new cafes, newly renovated homes are good signs of a growth area. However, buying, improving, and selling homes is slow. If you do it one at a time, your profits are likely to be slow coming, too.

Becoming the landlord

The number of people buying homes is on the decrease, so finding those growth spots is more important than ever. On the other hand, rentals are on the increase, so this can be the most reliable way to start making money sooner. However, as you might expect, rentals payback on investment a bit at a time. They can make a good retirement fund or income source if you have one or two and act directly as a landlord. If you start renting out more, then you have to consider the costs of letting agencies and how they impact your profits, too.

Hit the holiday crowd

When we talk about renting, we’re usually talking about long-term tenants but short-term holiday rentals are a different market entirely. If you spot a buy-to-rent opportunity in a popular location, like a winter vacation home near the Catskills, you could stand to make a lot from holiday goers. However, annual returns can go in the negative sometimes, so you have to be ready to stick with a vacation home for the long-run. In general, over a long period of time, they can always be sold for a profit. You just have to wait out the road bumps in this occasionally volatile market.

Make a business out of it

Commercial real estate is, again, an entirely different market. If you know primarily about residential properties, it can be a lot to learn. However, they tend to see annual return off the purchase price at a rate that can be 2-3 times higher than family home properties. Business owners tend to take pride in their location, as well. They’re a lot more likely to become long-term tenants, guaranteeing income through the years. They also tend to take much better care of the property on average, which means lower risk of having to make repairs.

It’s all down the environment you want to invest in and your ability to spot the right opportunity. Even in a bad market, a fantastic home, rental, or business property can stand to new you a lot of cash.

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The standard way that we’re all meant to want to live is in a house. A house that preferably has a garden, nice friendly neighbors, and even a white picket fence. That’s meant to be the ideal.

However, the need for space to be utilized as well as possible has meant that apartments are a common feature throughout the country. While they might not be the house that you always dreamed of, they do have a few upsides — despite general opinion running to the contrary.

So if you’re in the process of deciding you want to learn more about an apartment you’re considering, then you’ll definitely want to factor in the potential for money-saving. You need to consider areas such as…

Fewer Security Measures To Be Concerned With

While living in an apartment doesn’t necessarily mean you can leave your front door unlocked like they did in the old days, there’s no doubt you will have fewer security issues to contend with. There is inherent security in the entrance points to your home being at height, while collective security measures for the front entrance and lobby give a shared responsibility for ensuring the building is as safe as possible.

The fewer security measures you have to put in place, the more your saving — but this aspect is particularly beneficial if you’re renting. All the existing security equipment and measures will be maintained by the landlord, meaning your security spend could conceivably be zero.

No Garden To Drain Money From Your Finances

Gardening is an expensive hobby. From the cost of plants to the sheer amount of time you have to give over to maintaining it, if you’re looking for cost-cutting measures, then ridding yourself of a garden is hugely beneficial. As well as gardening itself, you don’t have to worry about the security of the garden or the upkeep of buildings and furniture you use in the garden itself. Combine all of those savings together and they begin to look very substantial.

While you might fret over the lack of outdoor space, you still have the option of public parks if you want to spend time outside. Parks give you the opportunity to enjoy being outdoors and — most importantly — they’re free! Enjoy your time outdoors and leave the expensive maintenance to someone else.

Lower Heating Bills

It’s a little known fact but definitely a reality: apartments are cheaper to heat than houses (though you’ll want to avoid the top floor to maximize this benefit). When you live in an apartment block, the other apartments effectively operate as extra insulation. During the winter, you will immediately feel a difference; apartments are warmer, and you need to use less fuel to keep yourself feeling snug and cosy. If you’re tired of paying a fortune just to keep warm through the colder months, then this could be a real money-saver for you.

So, do you think you could be tempted to move from a house into an apartment — potentially saving yourself a bundle of cash along the way?

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Those who have bought their own home and feed their savings account regularly seem to have it all figured out. It’s very difficult to save money when there’s nothing left at the end of the month, though, and it tastes especially sour when you have to pay down on someone else’s mortgage.

But with so many benefits to renting an apartment, it should be possible to continue this flexible way of living while still getting the piggy bank nice and fat. Here are a few of the thriftiest money saving tips from tenants out there who actually manage to save, making the world a bit less unfair.

Ditch the gym

Gym memberships should be a thing of the past already. You need exercise, of course, but you don’t need to pay up every month to get moving; with apartments often being so incredibly central, it should be easy enough to find a local park for your morning jog.

Buy yourself a yoga mat and take care of your muscles at home, either with weights or your very own body weight. Paying for a gym membership is kind of like paying someone to cook for you; sure, it’s convenient, and everything is taken care of for you, but doing it yourself just makes a lot more sense. At least when you’re trying to save money.

Buy multitaskers

You already know that you should cook every meal at home, right, so we’re not going to waste time on explaining why. Apartments are often rather small, so it’s a good idea to find functional kitchen appliances you can use for multiple things. It makes it a lot more likely that you’ll get cooking even on a grumpy Tuesday evening, and you won’t hate the look of your cramped-up kitchen afterward.

Find green apartments

While you should always try to find someone to live together with as it will save you a ton of money, it’s also a good idea to look for greener apartments. Many apartments here have gas projects that allow you to save money on energy, while the best ones also offer GE appliances in the kitchen.

It’s the kind of stuff that makes rental life a bit more manageable – and if you discover a better offer somewhere else, you can always pack up and move without having to sell first.

Get a second job

The last one may not be the one you’d like to hear, but here it goes; when you rent an apartment, you’re often a bit closer to the action than the house owners are. It means that flexible jobs are within reach and you have a variety of options to supplement your income with and live within your means.

Boost your income, find an energy-efficient and reasonably priced apartment to rent with someone, and continue to cook at home. Here’s a handy article in case you need a bit of extra money quickly, by the way.

Increasing your income is the only way to drip a bit of cash into your savings account each month, and the best way to stay debt free for as long as possible.

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As a startup owner, chances are that you don’t exactly have a huge and unlimited pool of money at your disposal and it’s only natural, and sensible, that you should try to make savings wherever possible if you want to be in the best possible financial situation 12 months from now, but there are some things that startups just should not even think about skimping on.

Here are some examples of the kinds of things you MUST invest in if you want your business to be a success commercially and financially:

Reliable IT Services

So much of what we all do now is done at a computer, tablet or smartphone, and online is the space that modern businesses really need to conquer. What this means for you as a startup owner, is that you really cannot afford to skimp on reliable IT services. If you cut corners in this department, not only could you lose money when your network goes down, but you could actually risk losing sensitive data, and that could get you into a whole lot of trouble, not to mention cost you a whole lot of cash. It really isn’t worth the risk, especially when you can find great IT services which are moderately priced.

Data Backup

It’s also sensible to invest in a good data backup system, preferably in the cloud, so that should your website be hacked and your data lost, you will be able to instantly recover it. You can backup your data securely for as little as $10 per year, so it really would be foolish not to do so, especially when a loss of data really can cripple a small business.

Great Design

A lot of what determines whether or not a business will be successful, rightly or wrongly, is how attractive its brand is. Think of all the massively successful companies out there; your Google’s, Coca-Cola’s and Nikes and you’ll notice they all; have one thing in common – an instantly recognizable brand. If you want to be in their league someday, you need to invest in great design for your website, logo, business cards and, where applicable. Your products.

High-Quality Web Hosting

A lot of small business owners opt for the cheapest web hosting package they can find available to them. This is understandable, after all, hosting is hosting, right? Wrong! Very wrong! You see, a lot of the cheaper hosts go offline a lot, and when your website is down, that means you are losing money. Not only that, but a poor host could mean a slow website which will put customers off and prevent your media from effectively loading. Factor in the time you spend sorting it out, and the losses to your company could be huge.

Web Design

As well as putting a great web hosting package in place, you should also invest some of your startup capital in creating a website that looks beautiful and performs flawlessly. In the 21st Century, your website is often the first thing about you that the consumer will see and if it looks awful, well, they’re hardly going to have much confidence in your products and services are they? Don’t make the mistake of using a basic template when even just a little investment in a custom solution can be all that it takes to make that sale!

Creative Content

Naturally, you’ll want to put some content on your website so that people can actually find your company. If you want that to happen, it pays to invest in high-quality content written by professional copywriters, either on staff or freelance. If you do this, you can bet that you’ll make your money back and then some in the fullness of time.

Customer Service Training

Most startup owners are so focused on the future and how they want their business to be a year, two years or even ten years down the line, that they often lose sight of the things that need to be done now to get them there. One such thing is high-quality customer service training.

You see, although customer service might not seem like your most pressing issue right now, or even something you can justify using the business credit card on, it is actually one of the most vital tools in your arsenal. After all, your customers are the people who will make or break your business, and without them, you won’t even have a business at all. Once you realize this, it’s well-worth taking the time to invest in the right training so that your employees always treat your customers right.

Legal Counsel

We all know that legal fees are expensive, lawyers aren’t exactly known for being poor, after all. However, there is absolutely no way of getting around the fact that, if you want to start a successful business and avoid future financial difficulties and even bankruptcy, you need to invest in good legal counsel when you set up your business. If you don’t do this, you could end up making a mistake somewhere down the line and getting sued and, as I’m sure you will know, the cost of litigation, not to mention the cost of compensation should you lose a case, can be astronomical.

Great People

You can try, but I would bet against you starting a successful new company without a few good people by your side to help you along the way. Every company’s biggest cost is its payroll and hiring more employees than the minimum or those who don’t exactly come cheap might seem like a good way to cut business costs, but if you want your company to grow, you need to invest in the most creative, hardworking qualified people and you need to invest in enough people so that none of you are spread too thin.

As the old cliche says “Sometimes, you have to speculate to accumulate.” This is something that is certainly true in the startup world, and especially when it comes to these particular things.

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