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Tips to Utilise Your Work from Home Savings Effectively

On December 1, 2020

A large number of companies have permitted their employees to work from home ever since the pandemic broke out. As a result, many people have found a significant plummet in their monthly expenses. Undoubtedly, commuting expenses have turned to zero, but a lot of other costs like rent, daycare and much more have added to savings.

Since the whole year people were supposed to do work from home, many have gone to their hometowns to save money on rent. Parents are usually at home, so they do not need to spend daycare expenses. Undoubtedly, work from home has saved all of you a lot of money.

Now the question is what you can do with this money. Are there alternatives to put this money into fair use? How can you utilise that money more effectively? Here are some of the tips to use these savings in a better way.

Throw them at your debts

Whether you are unemployed or you are working on a pay cut, you cannot escape paying your debts. If you have taken on debts like mortgages, personal loans in Ireland for bad credit, or auto loans, you can leverage your work from home savings to settle all your dues. Since the economic situation is uncertain and now is not the right time to be under debt.

Your company is allowing you to work as long as they can manage to pay you. What if the business goes down and your boss says they need to move the furniture around? You cannot flinch from paying off your debt just because you are facing redundancy. This is why it is always advisable that you settle all of your outstanding dues. The sooner you pay off, the better it is.

Whether it a cash loan or credit card bills, it makes sense to pay off your debt in full. If you are near the end of your repayment term, you should not hesitate to make early repayments although it will cost you additional charges. If you are already juggling with multiple debts and your savings are not enough to pay off all of them, seek for consolidating loans and utilise your savings to pay off that loan.

Invest money

For most of you, this might not be a good time to invest money because the market is not healthy at all. However, if you smartly move your money, you can build your wealth. Stocks are undoubtedly volatile, and you may not be able to earn money. Instead, you should invest in mutual funds. They are not as riskier as equities.

Bonds can also be a great option. Although they will not let you earn as much as equities, they are less risky, and you will surely get a certain amount of money as interest. The investment world is full of uncertainties. If you are not familiar to it, you should try to take help from an investment expert.

Top up your emergency corpus

If you are debt-free and you do not want to invest your work from home savings in stocks and bonds, you should add it to your emergency funds. A good rule of thumb says that you should have at least six-month worth of living expenses in your emergency funds.

Even if you have no dependents in your family, you should have an emergency fund. This will help you tide over during financial emergencies, for instance, when you lose your job. Whether you have little or much money in your emergency cushion, you should top it up with your work from home savings.

Note that the size of emergency funds depends on your needs and living style. For example, if you are a single person in your family, you should have at least nine months worth of living cost. If you are a family of two, it should be six month worth of living cost provided both of you are working.

You are lucky to have saved some money due to work from home permit, but it will pay you off when you make the most of it. Do not let this cash be idle or spend on your discretionary expenses. Try to utilise this money in ways mentioned above.

Can Buying a Car during the Holiday Season Help You Save Money?

By admin

On December 1, 2020

In Loan

Christmas is around the corner, which means the shopping season. However, most of the people find it the worst time to shop goods due to the stress they are to bear being in the unmanageable crowd. However, for some people, this is the best time to buy a car.

Buying a new vehicle is one of the most expensive purchases whether you want to pay for it outright or you want to fund your expenses with a loan. If you are planning to buy a car, you must be thinking Christmas is the best time to do so because car dealers usually sell cars on hefty discounts.

What if you are planning to buy a new car?

If you are looking to buy a new car, you will definitely plan to buy it during the end quarter of the year, especially in November and December. The end months of years are very popular in purchasing a new car. This is because car dealers offer exclusive deals during the holiday season to let as many old models as possible.

Studies have found that auto dealers have a list of new models to be launched in every year beforehand. Since it is the end of 2020 and the next year 2021 models will be out, so people will be more interested in buying new models. It means a new car as of 31.12.20 will turn out to be one-year-old on 1.1.21.

Of course, this will put a hold on the sale of those models. This is one of the significant reasons why car dealers sell all models of new cars available in stock at hefty discounts. December is just around the corner. Even though the 2020 car models are new, they will be outdated at the beginning of 2021. There is no better way to release cars from stock than offering them at awesome discount deals.

What if you are planning a used car?

You do not need to rush to buy used cars in the end months of the year. This is because the end quarter of the year people are generally interested in buying new cars. Even if you are not looking to buy a new car, you should not need to rush to stores to buy used cars. Old car deals are available throughout the year, so you can buy them at any time when you want. The holiday season is better to buy new cars while you can buy old cars at any time.

Here are some of the tips to buy a car during the holiday season

Discount
is just one aspect of the whole deal

One of the significant mistakes that you will likely commit while financing a car is you are too occupied with the price. Do not forget to consider fees and applicable rebates. If you are looking for an old car, make sure that you have researched the vehicle history and analysed its condition carefully.

Before you arrive at a decision, check what you are paying is worth the cost of your car. If you are funding it with car finance with bad credit in Ireland, make sure that the deal will not set you back much more than the showroom price of the car.

Try
to buy on Christmas Eve

There is no denying that you will get a car at cheaper prices, but you will be luckier if you specifically plan to buy it on Christmas Eve.

Research has shown that auto dealers can allow for 8 to 10% off the market price of the car on Christmas Eve or New Year Eve, which is 1 to 2% higher than usual days.

Research

It makes sense to throw a barrage of questions at car dealers to make a decision, but you should always trust your research than what they tell you. They are to clinch the deal and thereby can hide some facts if not inquired. It is advisable to research appropriately before calling on the store and then compare it with what the dealer says.

Well, buying a car during the festive season is definitely a good idea. You will be able to get a new model at hefty discount deals. Whether you are paying for it outright or financing it with a loan, you can save a ton of money.

Reasons Why You are Not Able to Get Rid of Debt

By admin

On November 28, 2020

In Loan

For some people, debt is a tool to create assets. However, if you are doing so, you are asking for trouble. Debt can be a solution to your money problems provided you handle it smartly. If you fail to pay off, you will naturally end up with a debt trap.

Although you can find it pleasing to fund your needs with debt, it actually robs your future and prevents you from building wealth. Time passes by, and you keep rolling over and over. First, you fall in the category of subprime borrowers and then end up with a CCJ.

Well, debt becomes a problem when you borrow more than your repaying capacity. Whether you are taking out a secured loan or bad credit loans in Ireland, you will naturally have a problem if you do not take into account your affordability. However, there are some other reasons too, why it isn’t very easy for some people to live a debt-free life.

It is hard for you to sacrifice

If you have sunk in debt up to your nose, you should immediately change your lifestyle. Can you resist not eating out for a full month? Can you cut subscriptions of your cable or magazine? You will have to make such sacrifices if you want to get out of debt. If you are serious about debt settlement, you can easily do that. If you fall to the temptation, remind yourself why you are doing so.

You want to keep up with the Joneses

Another reason why you are stuck in debt is you are keeping up with the Joneses. One of your friends has bought a car, so you will also buy to keep up with their class or status. You should not bother what your neighbours, friends and colleagues are doing in their lives.

Everyone has different financial circumstances, so you should spend money only if your pocket allows. The people who are buying luxurious items are likely in debt. Therefore, it is always advisable not to fritter away money to keep up with your friends.

A rule of thumb says that you should spend on things that are necessary to buy, and the spending limit does not need to be more than your pocket allows. For instance, you should not buy branded clothes to show off your friends when you cannot afford them. It is your life, and it is your money. Spend it to please yourself not to please others.

You have a lot of excuses

One of the significant reasons for not getting rid of debt is you do not set it as a priority. Once you have got multiple debts to handle, you start making excuses like interest rates are high, you do not have enough income, and so on, but you do not realise that you are falling into debt more profound and deeper because you are not cutting back on your spending.

Paying off debt is no joke. You will have to create a budget to track your outgoings. Take stock of your spending and see if your budget allows you to have some wiggle room. The more you cut back on your expenses, the sooner you will be able to repay your debt. It may seem hard in the beginning, but it will ease off the debt burden.

Your income is not enough

It does not make sense to blame your income because it clearly indicates that you borrowed more than your affordability. Although lenders evaluate your income while signing off on loan, you cannot wiggle from your responsibility.

Credit card swipes quickly add up the debt. First off, you should not have borrowed money more than your repaying capacity, and if you have done so, you should figure out the ways to increase your income.

Debt should not be criticised for financial problems. It can help solve your money problems provided you are not borrowing more than your repaying capacity. However, sometimes you borrow money to keep up with your neighbours and friends that do not make sense. If you actually want to live a debt-free life, you will have to stop doing all things that pull you back from doing so.