Money Monday: Ways To Spend Money To Save Money During Low Or No Holiday Budget Time (Sponsored Post)
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Today is Cyber Monday, and your inbox is lighting up with email after email of cyber deals you could score with your favorite brands now. If you have the budget to spend, YAY! If you have the budget to buy products or supplies for your favorite non-profit, YAY! If you don’t have the budget to spend, and you do have some money somewhere, you may be able to pay that money in a long-term beneficial way, and that is a double-YAY. This article takes a different approach to Cyber Monday, to focus on what you can do during your normal day to make your money work for you, if you do spend it.
Over at Tin Shingle, Mondays usually mean Money Monday. Tin Shingle is an empowerment and education platform for business owners who are learning how to get the word out about their businesses and innitiatives. A good amount of Tin Shingle’s programming is dedicated to money issues, because people usually go into business for financial and creative freedom. Money issues exist both in the personal and business side of things for business owners. This money tip focuses on the personal side.
Here are suggestions you can do on a Money Monday to feel good about money progress. Being in a pandemic is a great way to remind yourself and others around you to be financially responsible. It’s so easy not to be. Most of us are not. Even celebrities! Most people spend all of their money. Here’s how we can take a check on that, and apply what money we do have to forward progress with money health.
Money Monday is a good day to address things like medical bills, car payments, paying invoices, sending invoices, etc. During the pandemic, your holiday gift list and donation list may be stretched or non-existent. Thankfully, some of you still have jobs or other income, and are spending on Main Street and non-profits. YAY.
Here are some tips on what to do to increase your money health overall, which can make you feel great for more days of the year:
Pay Credit Cards. This is an annoying one, because it always feels like there is no money to pay the credit cards. Vow to not add to them, and pay money toward them. Once you pay money to them, and not add to them, this will feel like money well “spent” (even though you already spent it via the loan that the credit card gave you).
Don’t Add To The Credit Cards. This is a hard answer to give to a life partner or children who want things for the holidays. If this is your habit each year - adding to the credit cards - break this cycle. Adding to them will not end the cycle of debt. Talking to your kids directly will help their understanding, and may decrease the intensity with which they ask you for things.
Say “No” To The Credit Card Bonus Point Cash: Credit cards get you to spend on them by dangling 5% discounts on your total. But this only works if you pay that balance in full in a couple days after your purchase. If you wait for months or years, you are paying 29% interest rate additional on your balance (maybe you have a 16% interest rate if you have a great credit). If, after years and years, you are not paying that balance in full in a couple of days, then stop using the card and use your cash, because you are not saving any money and that 5% is just a mirrage.
Cycle The Credit Cards By Tiny Amounts: If you stopped using a card because of the above reasons, you may get a threatening letter a year later saying: “Hey, you need to use your credit card really soon or we are going to close your account.” This is all part of the game. The game that banks don’t want us to win. But we will win! You want that credit history for a good credit score. Don’t let your account close, do use it a tiny amount (Maybe $5? Or $20?). But be careful. Once you use the card that you have successfully stopped using for a year, it is easy to get sucked back in, by thinking “Oh, I can use this card just a little bit…” Pay that card exactly 100% in a couple of days.
Look At Your Dividends: If you have dividends from stocks (free money sent to you every now and then from your stocks if your stock issues it) or Whole Life Insurance policies, look at if you want to keep that cash, rather than reinvest it in your Whole Life Policy or stock. Tin Shingle published an article on this today. The article focuses on the benefit of buying Whole Life Insurance for your kids while they are healthy, as it locks in their low rate. This is important for times during pandemics (like right NOW) where if they test positive for COVID-19 and have long-term problems in the recovery, they could be denied coverage, or have a higher rate. Or for yourself, if you don’t have life insurance. This is a time to consider having it. This article explains more.
The best thing you can do during a pandemic is to reclaim your financial health. Even with the lowest budget, and no additional income coming in, choices can be made. At Tin Shingle, business owners try to hustle it up to earn more money and raise their incomes. Always a challenge, but usually a challenge that fuels a small business owner to wake up every day.
Editorial Note For Sponsorship: Tin Shingle is a sponsor of A Little Beacon Blog, and a sister company of A Little Beacon Blog. Tin Shingle teaches how to pitch the media and work your social media in order to get the word out about your business. This article was developed in partnership with A Little Beacon Blog. To learn about how to develop a paid partnership for an article with A Little Beacon Blog, please see here.
