There may be a time in your life that you find yourself in a real difficult financial situation. We have all been there, and while it can feel embarrassing at the time, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is going to be your fate for the future. Things can change, you can change, and you can do things to improve your situation massively. Often at the time, there may feel like no way out and you are heading to bankruptcy, but in most cases, this isn’t true. There may be a solution it is just a case of knowing where to look. Which is why I wanted to share with you some of the realistic options you could consider. I hope that it provides you with some hope in what can be a very difficult and emotional time.

Have you got an asset

One of the first places to look when you are going through a difficult time is your assets. Many assets have huge potential, and we can often be to blinkered to realise what you can and can’t do. First of all, you could consider your home. While it may not be nice to potentially sell your home it could be holding the key to improving your financial situation by releasing valuable equity. Selling may seem like a long drawn out process but actually, using companies like Wren Realty could be an ideal solution. Enabling you to change your situation fast. Releasing funds could then mean you pay off your debts, get yourself straight, and allows you valuable breathing space. Of course, selling your home might not be an option, so think of the other larger assets you have. Do you own a car that you can sell? Maybe you have land you could sell from your property or renting out your drive for commuters and people surrounding for their vehicles. Once you know where to look you can start to improve your situation.

Increase your disposable income

Maybe you need to look at your outgoings a little more closely. Too often people let their bills leave their account dutifully without giving it another thought, but this can be a big mistake. There are bills that you could perhaps get cheaper, things you may no longer need but are still paying for, or simply making some changes to your habits to brings some costs down. Analyse your bank statements and look at what is costing you the most. One big expense is the food bill each week, but this is one bill completely in your control. Why not try meal planning, buying only what you need, or changing the shop you go to? Even switching from brands to supermarket brands can make a big difference to your expense. Next up, consider changing providers for things like energy. Many companies save their best rates for new customers.

Could you spare time be a money making opportunity?

Finally, you could think about making money in your spare time. Filling out surveys online, performing mystery shops and even just selling unwanted things online on platforms like eBay or Facebook groups could help to improve your income and pay of debts that are costing the most each month.

I hope that these tips help you to consider other avenues you can take to get you out of a financial struggle.

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By now, you might be confused what a “tree change” means. Experts are advising that people need to start thinking about their retirement early because the current economic trends have brought about a hike in property prices. There are very few living options for retirees and even then, they have to rely on someone, after their savings run out.

When it comes to retirement, people have three options – tree change, sea change and inner city living. As you can understand from the terms, a tree change is where you move to a rural setting, a sea change is where you move to a beach side and inner city living is when you move into an apartment in an urban locale.

Tree Change

A country retreat is mostly preferred by people who have or aim to purchase a few acres of land, some space from the hustle bustle of the city, scenery, fresh air and a sense of peace. With retirees, the most pressing concern is their health. Living confined in a house and being dependent on others for making small trips to the market can get rather depressing. When they feel like a burden, they retreat into themselves and destroy their chances of living a quality life. Having freedom insurance can make them feel secure and independent in such times.

Living in a rural area offers many perks, which include:

• Growing your own vegetables and fruit (this can become a source of income)
• Owning animals
• Less security problems
• Less pollution
• Healthy environment
• Greater sense of belonging and community
• Peaceful living

How to Make the Decision

Savings run out easily and as a retiree, it’s hard to find a source of income. This means that you have to carefully plan and count your potential expenses before making the move. Make a checklist of all your “wants” and “essentials” and then crosscheck it with your partner’s list, if you have one.

Most people remain at a 200 km distance from where they used to live because this allows them to remain in contact with their service providers such as a mechanic, hairdresser, medical professionals, etc. This also gives you the benefit to visit your neighbors or friends in times of crisis or celebrations. A lot of money is spent on repairs and by hiring someone who has been working for you for quite some time can be a plus. You will be able to save more and can spend that money on other important things.

Before moving, the most important thing you need to make sure is whether or not medical aid will be available to you in the vicinity where you are moving. It can be quite difficult to get medical help for medical emergencies in rural areas. Before moving, visit the location and check the medical facilities on site. Find out how well equipped they are to handle your problems and then make your decision.

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When you are young and care-free, planning for a silver-haired future might feel weird. It’s difficult to image how next week is going to go, never mind figuring out how you are going to support yourself when you no longer want to work.

However odd it might be, planning for the future while you are young will give you the best chance of a happy retirement. It may be unpleasant to imagine a day when you will need full time care or perhaps can’t make decisions for yourself, but thinking about it now will certainly help.

Start Young

As soon as you start earning, you should be thinking about how you are going to save up and build your retirement nest egg. By starting young, you are giving yourself plenty of time to build up your financial portfolio and save without really feeling the loss. The older you are when you start, the more aggressive your saving plan will have to be.

Set out your financial goals early on and work steadily toward achieving them over a long period of time. This method will help you to budget properly without sacrificing all the good things you enjoy like meals out with friends or holidays.

Invest Smart

In order to accumulate, you must speculate. This means making smart investments in things such as stocks and shares or alternative opportunities like antiques or gold. In fact, a gold-backed IRA is an excellent supplement to your portfolio as it reacts slightly differently to the rest of the market. This is an advantage because it will help to smooth out any risks as the market naturally fluctuates.

If you aren’t too confident about what you should and shouldn’t be investing in, or how to balance risks, you must see an independent financial advisor before you part with any cash. They will be able to create a personalized financial plan for you and offer good advice to ensure you can save enough for your future.

Save, Save, Save!

If you have a budget, and stick to it as best you can, then saving a portion of your income each month should be fairly easy. In fact, if you get the balance right, you probably won’t even notice it’s happening.

Some of the best advice for building your nest egg is to put any windfalls into savings rather than splurge on things you don’t need. Find other ways to treat yourself without completely blowing your budget out of the water. This isn’t to say that you can’t treat yourself every now and again, but just to make sure that you adjust your budget accordingly.

With a sensible portfolio, your retirement plan should be easy to manage and your nest egg will gradually build up over the years. Try to keep this fund separate from your other savings to prevent you from being tempted to dip in for some extra cash. Keep a rainy day fund as well as a contingency fund and your nest egg will be safe for the future.

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Finances are a tough thing to manage. Even if you’re earning a high-figure salary, poor money-management can lead to a very sparse bank account. It’s not so much about the level of your income but what you do with that income. Even on a minimum wage salary, you can make those earnings go a very long way if you screw on your financial head and start to spend or save your money in sensible ways. It’s all about taking a look at all the necessary costs you face in life and then making smart decisions as to what you do with the rest of your money.

Of course, whilst you might be sailing on by smoothly at the moment, you have to think about the future. Earning a lot of money and spending it all is fine today because you’ll get another paycheck in a week. However, you need to start planning ahead for the day on which you retire because very few people want to work for the entirety of their lives. We’ll get onto that in more detail later, as we will with all the other points touched upon briefly in this introduction. If you want to avoid sorrow and start to plan for tomorrow then these sound nuggets of financial wisdom should help you on your way.

Organize your finances.

First of all, you need to get your house in order. “That’s why I clicked on this article,” you say. Fair enough. If you need a little guidance then you should start by making a budget for the month; you can do one weekly but planning for the month is always a nice place to start ( bills such as rent are often faced on a month-by-month basis). Write down how much you earn in a month. If you’re self-employed then write down an average and alter the budget on a monthly basis depending on whether your situation changes. Either way, you’ll end up returning to your budget frequently to make changes when things change in your life; whether you change energy providers, move house, reduce your petrol costs, and so on.

The most important thing is that you estimate how much your necessities cost; rent, food, utilities, everything else we’ve mentioned and anything else you can think of. Once you’ve added up the sum of these things, you’ll know how much money you have to set aside for necessities and how much disposable income you have left over. Don’t exceed this figure and you’ll never end up in debt. It’s that simple. Just don’t spend beyond your means. Cut down on expenses by using less energy around the house or cycling to work instead of wasting money on petrol.

Avoid debt.

Of course, continuing from the point above, if you’ve overspent in the past and had to borrow money to make ends meet then you should dedicate all available earnings to debt repayments; it’s important to pay off your debts in life as soon as possible in order to improve your credit score. Even if you don’t overspend, we all have to borrow money at some point (perhaps it’ll be for a car or a house). The point is that you shouldn’t borrow money to fund bad habits such as poor money-management, excessive shopping, or gambling. Track your expenditures so that you live within your means and your bank account will grow each month, even if only marginally. In terms of the future, you’ll thank yourself tomorrow for doing more to manage your money today. We’ll get onto smart ways to use your “excess income” throughout this article.

Think about your retirement.

It’s so important to plan ahead for your retirement. If you ended up on this article then this was probably already on your mind. You might be worried that you’re not earning enough from your job to provide for you and your family once you stop working. Perhaps your pension plan isn’t looking very good. It’s good to think about these things today because there’s always time to improve your situation before you retire. You might want to look into power of attorney solicitors who can act on your behalf if you’re thinking about a future in which you might not have the mental or physical capacity to manage your personal, business, or financial affairs.

Your retired years shouldn’t be filled with doom and gloom by any means but it’s smart to start thinking about tomorrow. You can make rational decisions regarding your finances today but you have to think about your later years. Will your family be well looked after? Do you want to authorize those close to you to make decisions for you if you no longer can for yourself? Sort out these things today and you won’t have to spend your retirement worrying about money or other things when you should be relaxing and enjoying life.

Get an advisor or an accountant.

Of course, you could go one step further than the suggestion in the point above. Even if you’re nowhere near retirement age yet, why wait until you’re older to start getting good financial advice? As explained throughout this article, you need to start taking action today to protect your finances for tomorrow, so it makes sense to get somebody to start helping you today as well. A financial advisor could help you out if you’re struggling to get your head around proper financial management, even with the advice given so far in this article.

It’s all very well to understand the concept of managing your money but life can get hectic and overwhelming very quickly. An advisor could take a load off your shoulders by teaching you how to better look after your money (and an accountant could help you file tax returns if you need other forms of financial aid). Better yet, there’s great return on your investment here; pay an advisor to help you and they’ll show you smart ways to invest your savings to make more money. Remember, this is in their interests because they’re getting paid to help you; they want you to do well financially. You’ll end up more than making back the money you’ve spent.

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No matter how big or small your retirement fund is, it is always going to be in your interest to make it stretch further and last as long as possible. Retirement, when you’re finally free from responsibilities, can be great fun, but only if you have enough money to actually enjoy yourself, even if that just means enjoying the simple things in life without having to worry about how you’re going to pay the power bill.

To ensure that your retirement is the best it can be, here are some tips to help you save cash and make your fund go further:

Create a Retirement Plan

Obviously (or at least it should be obvious), sitting down with a financial planner and actually looking at your finances so that you can come up with a realistic retirement plan, is the most essential thing you can do to make your retirement fund last.

A good financial planner will always tell you the brutal truth about your finances and help you to maximize the money available to you through wise investments and a realistic budget, As long as you stick to the plan you create, you should not, barring any serious financial calamities, have to worry unduly about your retirement fund.

Liquidate Your Assets

When you finally get to retirement age, chances are that you will have accumulated a lot of stuff and although many of the things you have you will use regularly or get a lot of enjoyment out of, chances are there’s a lot of stuff you no longer get anything out of too. It’s foolish to hold onto this stuff when you could sell it and liquidate that cash, add to your retirement fund and keep yourself going for longer.

Downsize

In a similar vein, if you own your own property, you might want to think about downsizing and releasing some of the equity in your home. Moving to a smaller place or even an independent living community could three up several thousands which you can then use to pay the bills, have fun during your retirement, or even invest in stocks and shares that will actually give you a return, rather than sit doing next to nothing like the equity in your home does.

Look After Your Health

If you want to avoid expensive medical bills in the future as you age, then the best thing you can do now that will prolong you5r retirement fund in the future, is to take good care of your health. Eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and take any preventative measures you can to cut your chances of getting seriously ill and you won’t have to worry half as much about your retirement fund and how fast it’s dwindling!

Review Your Bills

No matter whether you’re retired or not, one of the best ways to make your money go further is by using price comparison sites to ensure that you are always getting the best deals on everything from electricity to your cell phone bill. You might not think it would, but reviewing how much you’re paying and whether you’re paying over the odds every six months or so will really make a huge difference to your financial situation and how far your retirement fund will stretch.

Living on a retirement fund isn’t always easy, but if you’re sensible and you do all of the above, it shouldn’t be too difficult either!

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