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Six Smart Financial Moves for Future Millionaires

Whether your goal is to become a millionaire by a certain age or to save a set amount of money so that you can retire early, the way to get there is deceptively simple. Save more, spend less. It sounds easy, but if it were easy then everyone would do it. Here are a few tips on how to build your wealth.

6 Smart Financial Moves to Become a Millionaire

1. Clearly Define Your Goals

When you decide to start getting serious about saving money, it is a good idea to have a set of goals in mind as well as a plan for how to reach them. Think about writing down a business plan of sorts, with a timeline, goals, and small clearly defined actions that will allow you to reach those goals. It is very important to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish, whether it is retiring early with a set amount of money in the bank, saving money for your children’s future, or something else.

2. Pay Yourself First

With any income you receive, whether from your full-time job or a side hustle, pay yourself before spending money on anything else. This means to put money towards savings before you start spending your income. Some people put a set amount into savings every month, and those that have a more variable income will sometimes save a set percentage of their income towards retirement, other investments, emergency fund savings, or college savings funds.

3. Have a Side Hustle or Two

Frugal Millionaires know that while having a full-time job is a great source of income, you are not limited by your FT salary. You can always start working on the side to increase your income, and if you’ve already been living on your full-time salary alone then you can devote your side hustle income entirely to meeting your financial goals faster.

My side hustle is blogging (learn how to start your own profitable blog here!). This month, I’m on track to make close to $700, and I spent maybe 8 hours this month blogging! It took some time to build up an audience and create posts, but now my income is steady and dare I say…passive? Which leads to the next point…

4. Set Up Passive Income Streams

Passive income is money that you earn without having to do very much for it after an initial output of effort. Something like writing an eBook and self-publishing through Amazon, designing and selling a course on Udemy, or even simply selling t-shirts and stickers with a logo you designed are all ways to earn passive income.

5. Always Have Insurance

Frugal millionaires like to cut costs in order to put more money towards their financial goals, but having proper insurance will save you money if you are ever in the position of needing to use it, and is not a smart way to cut costs. Renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, good car insurance, life insurance, and health insurance are all important and well worth the cost. Visit this link to learn more.

6. Maximize Your Tax Breaks

Never pay more in taxes than you are legally required to. This means fully funding your IRA and any other pre-tax retirement accounts you have, investigating whether you should itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction, and following any other advice your accountant provides you.

Through setting clear goals, increasing your earning and saving while minimizing your effort, and protecting yourself from financial catastrophe, you should be able to meet your savings goals. With common sense and determination, you can be a millionaire.

/ Filed In: Investing, Rich, Saving Money
Tagged: financial goals, investments, making money, rich, saving money

How to Spend Your Tax Refund

Ready for some awesome ways on how to spend your tax refund?! Hopefully, you are getting some money back from Uncle Sam. I am happy to report that we are getting a nice chunk of change back. However, this coming year we will be in a different tax bracket and most likely will owe, so this is probably one of the last refunds we will see in a while.

According to the IRS, the average tax refund is $3,120. While it may sound fun to go on a tropical vacation or upgrade your furniture, it’s a better idea to invest that money back into yourself, save or pay off debt.

Here are four ideas on how to spend your tax refund.

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/ Filed In: Investing, Saving Money, Small Business, Taxes
Tagged: investing, saving money, taxes

8 Easy Ways to Save Money in 2016

Have you set your goals for the New Year yet? While I’m continually setting goals, there is something exciting about a New Year upon us. A fresh start, a new beginning, a change of pace. While my goals for this next year are a tad simpler than in years’ past, there’s one goal my husband and I both are going to enact into our daily lives, and that’s saving money.

My husband and I are naturally savers, but the last half of this year has really gotten the best of us. We’re back into our weekly Starbucks habit, I haven’t budgeted for a grocery store trip in months and I’ve impulse bought more times than I’d care to admit. Thankfully, none of these bad habits have resulted in debt. But they have resulted in us having significantly less in savings than we could have had.

You live and learn—so there’s no point in rehashing all that we did wrong. Instead, we’re focusing on the future and what we can change in order to save more money.

Here are 8 easy ways we plan to save money in 2016.

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/ Filed In: Budget, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, saving money

Why Do You Want More Money?

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone!

I’ve been thinking recently a lot about the “why” behind doing what I do. For any new readers, I am a wife and mom to two toddler girls, I work full-time, I freelance write and I blog. Not to mention cleaning the house, running errands and all that. To be honest, I don’t feel like it’s too much, but I do have very little downtime. When I’m home, I’m normally doing something productive (I count playing with my kids as productive, haha) except after 9:00 pm. Then, I watch a show with John and we go to sleep. I really love my life, but the busyness of it all recently got me asking “Why?

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/ Filed In: Budget, Goals, Life, Retirement, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, financial goals, life, making money

How to Avoid Getting Into Debt this Holiday Season

Christmas Can Be Merry and Bright, Even if Your Wallet is Light

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and the high street merchants and online retailers couldn’t be happier. For people who are financially strapped, though, the coming Yule season isn’t necessarily such a cheering prospect. At this time of year more than any other, the pressure to spend on gifts and festivities is sometimes overwhelming. But you can have a joyful Christmas even if you’re short on cash.

What you can do to make the season brighter?

Meanwhile here you are, trying to make merry with a light wallet. A festive Christmas on a limited budget requires a combination of practicality and creativity to be sure. There are of course the obvious practical strategies such as cutting costs wherever feasible. You can save money on gas, for instance, simply by doing most of your shopping online. But if you just love the experience of shopping at a brick-and-mortar store, keep in mind that many retailers offer fuel promotions. Monitor the Web and your local media for the latest deals. There are many other ways to save as well, which include choosing and using credit cards wisely.

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/ Filed In: Budget, Saving Money
Tagged: budget

How to Save Money on Auto Insurance

I love it when I can save money on my monthly bills. We cut cable over a year ago, which is saving us over $50 per month, we use our utilities sparingly to save on electricity and gas, we have bare minimum cell phone plans, and just recently we started saving money on our auto insurance.

If you’re looking to cut some of your monthly expenses, I highly recommend starting with your auto insurance. Your life won’t change at all (such as if you cut cable, for example), and all it takes is just one phone call.

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/ Filed In: Saving Money
Tagged: budget, saving money

Free Winter Activities for Kids

Free winter activities to do with kids! Check out all of my ideas to keep your kids busy this winter so no one (including you!) goes stir crazy.

Cold weather is upon us! Are you looking for some free activities to keep your kids busy during the winter? As a mother of three little girls, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that bored kids = crazy kids and a frustrated mom! This year, I’m making it a point to keep them busy for the sake of ALL of our sanity!

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/ Filed In: Budget, Holidays, Parenting, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, life, saving money

Our New House: What We Want to Remodel

We just moved in three weeks ago, but there is already a long list of items that John and I want to update on our home. For any new readers, John is a general contractor/handyman. He owned his own handyman company here in Charlotte and he worked for himself when we lived in Phoenix as a sort of jack-of-all-trades. While I’m lucky that John can do a decent amount of updates himself, he can’t do everything and there are some areas where we’ll need to hire out (coughelecticalworkcough).

So, here’s what we’re planning on doing to our home over the next few years.

New House Remodel Checklist

Paint the entryway. This is something John will, thankfully, do on his own. The walls were a yellowy color (which you can see in the photo) and I wanted them to be a blue/grey like we had in our rental house. Yeah, the color I chose was a LOT darker and more blue than it looked in the store. Unfortunately, we purchased 5 gallons of this color and most likely won’t use any of it. We bought samples of two other colors this past weekend (both natural tans) that I hope will look good. John’s deadline for this project is the end of October (when my parent’s are visiting!). I’ll make sure to post an update once this is done.

Blue entryway…not what I had in mind

Update: We chose a color and John painted over the blue!! Yay! The entryway looks good now, but we still have a long way to go. The ceilings are super high by the front door (which you can’t see), plus we’ll need to paint the upstairs foyer because all those walls are connected.

Fresh, new entryway!

Fix the gas stove. We have a gas stove that I actually really like even though I thought I’d hate it. Unfortunately, about a week ago the electrical part blew out. John tried fixing it but just can’t get to the bottom of the problem. If you turn the stove on, gas comes out but it doesn’t light. So for now we’re using a lighter to light it when we need to cook. My dad might be able to fix this problem, but if not we will rely on Contractor Connection to hook us up with someone who can get the job done. Contractor Connection connects consumers to quality professionals for any of your home remodeling needs. Estimates are free and quality is guaranteed. You can’t beat that, especially for people like us who are new to the area.

Remodel the kitchen. This is a project that will be done within the next 2-3 years. Kitchen remodels are expensive and we need to save money before diving into this project. Luckily, I do like the layout of the kitchen, so all of the changes will be strictly cosmetic. We want to change the back splash, add granite countertops, remove the wallpaper, repaint the kitchen, and get new appliances (everything except the fridge). John can do some of the work (wallpaper, painting, and installing new appliances), but the rest we’ll have to hire out. While John technically could do it by himself, he really does not have the time with working FT and having the kids. I do not want to live in a construction zone (especially in the kitchen!) for any longer than I have to.

If you are also in need of a kitchen remodel, call Contractor Connection to get a free quote. Preferred contractors come with a 3-year workmanship warranty.

Paint every other area of the house. The paint colors in here aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not our taste. Eventually, this whole house will be painted. The entryway is first on the list because the yellowy color was just something that I couldn’t get on board with. Everything else will be completed within two years, hopefully. Again, John will do all of the painting but it’s just a matter of finding the time.

Furnish the house. Does this count as remodeling? I’m saying “yes” simply because it could probably cost us as much as a kitchen remodel (just kidding, sort of). Our house is furnished for the most part, with the exception of three rooms: the formal living area, the bedroom attached to the master, and the screened in porch. The screened in porch is our first priority and the only reason we don’t have it furnished now is because it’s really hard to find patio furniture this time of year in Charlotte. We will probably order something online from Home Depot within the next few weeks, though. Next up will be the formal living room. I want a simple couch, a rug and a coffee table. Finally, we’re turning the room attached to the master into a media room. The homeowner before us used this room as an office, but it has a tiny tiny window, is far from the rest of the house and there’s already a room I can use as an office downstairs (plus let’s be real, I work on the couch). So, after much debacle on what to do with that room, we finally agreed on a media room. Realistically, we probably won’t furnish this for 3-5 years as it’s definitely not a priority.

Redo the flooring. The carpet is brand new – yay! And I’m a weirdo who actually likes carpet in the bedrooms. It’s cozier to me and I kind of like vacuuming. The rest of the house is light hardwoods. While I don’t mind them, I prefer dark hardwood floors. This is something John can hopefully refinish instead of replace, which would save us a ton of money.

How to Save Money on Home Improvements

Insource whatever you can. Small projects and things like painting can normally be done by yourself. There’s no need to hire someone to do something you can do on your own, especially if you’re on a budget.

Outsource when needed and do so strategically. John worked in the construction business for more than 15 years and we can both tell you that it is HARD to find good, quality work. There are many contractors out there who will take significantly longer on a project than they originally told you, or they just won’t show up one day, or they’ll end up charging you a lot more than you originally thought. It can be a mess. If you have to outsource, interview a good amount of potential candidates before deciding. Ask friends and neighbors for referrals and use trusted sites like Contractor Connection to find the right contractor for the job.

Save up money and pay in cash. Unless the project is absolutely necessary (such as flood damage, mold, a foundation issue, etc), save up for it and pay in cash. John and I are currently rebuilding our emergency fund. Once that’s complete, we will save up for our remodeling projects. Going into debt for granite counters or new furniture is never a good idea. And if you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know I’m all about enjoying life! However, that doesn’t mean financing non-necessities that really won’t add that much happiness to your life.

In your current home, what is it that you want to update?!

This post was sponsored by Contractor Connection. However, all opinions expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the frugal millionaire blog through posts like these!

/ Filed In: Budget, Home, Life, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, home, life, new house

Starbucks Hacks from a Starbucks Fanatic

Fall is in the air! You guys, I’m excited. I decorated for fall right after we moved into our new house last weekend. I plan on doing a post on our house soon, but for now, just know that we love love love it and it was a great decision!

The holiday season tends to be when I stray from my normal tendency of saving every dollar we make. I don’t know what it is about fall that gets me, but I always go overboard year after year. I love to cook and bake during this time, I want my house to be decked out in all the latest holiday decor, I burn pumpkin candles like they’re going out of style, and I even resort back to my almost-daily Starbucks habit.

(Did I just lose all of my personal finance readers who actually do follow a budget?)

A little backstory on my relationship with Starbucks…

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/ Filed In: Budget, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, coffee, fall, life, splurge

How to prepare for retirement in your 20s

retirement newWith my 30th birthday approaching next month, I thought I’d reflect back on my 20s and share what I did to prepare for retirement and what I wish I did.

A quick recap: I graduated college with a degree in finance at age 21. My first job was working for a mortgage company, but I was unfortunately laid off after only just a few months there (the company went under). My next job was working for Careerbuilder.com for 8 months followed by a 3-year stint in waitressing (can I just say that this what my favorite job ever, other than freelancing). I then went on to work for a university as a financial counselor before becoming a mom and breaking into freelancing.

As you can see, my employment was pretty random during my 20s. During this next decade of life, I fully intend on sticking with freelancing and growing my blog. My husband and I are also getting our real estate licenses this year and will both work on that as a side business together.

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/ Filed In: Investing, Retirement, Saving Money
Tagged: investing, retirement

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