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Debt Snowball

Budgeting

40 Side Hustles to Give Your Budget A Boost

Posted on August 30, 2021

What the current cost of living crisis, bringing in additional income can go a long way to helping you achieve your financial goals such as paying down your debt faster.

There are so many Side Hustle options available now that you can most likely turn your passion into some extra cash for your budget (and maybe even a new career!). Best of all, most Side Hustles can be done in just a few hours a week, some even from the comfort of your own home!

If you’ve got some talent or skills that you use for your day job, or a hobby you might be able to utilise those skills to bring in some extra cash which can go a long way in helping your budget.

**This post may contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase of a product from the links in this post I will receive a small commission, at no cost to you. This allows me to keep my blog advertisement free and support the running costs of my blog. I only recommend products I believe will add value to others and that I love myself.**

Check out these 40 Side Hustles to give your budget a boost!

40 Side Hustles to Give Your Budget a Boost

Tutoring – Math’s, English, language or music lessons just to name a few. With Skype, Zoom and other Virtual options you can even teach from your own home.
Dog walking – a great way to earn a few bucks an hour spending time exercising with your favourite animals.
Babysitting – if you love kids and are good with them advertise your babysitting services. Most Babysitters command $18-30 an hour depending on their qualifications and experience. Check out sites like Find A Babysitter and Babysitters Now to advertise your services.
Drive for Uber or Lyft – if you have a car consider driving on the side or when you have some spare time (although be sure to do the math and make sure it is worth your while after car expenses and wear and tear!).
Resume writing/career coaching – If you’ve gone for a lot of interviews in a particular field, or are skilled at putting together winning resumes and cover letters, put those amazing skills to use for job seekers who need that extra help to get over the line.
Gardening services – Do you love gardening? Why not advertise your services and get paid money to mow, weed or maintain gardens. You’ve probably got all the tools you need already too!
Cleaning – Grab yourself $35 an hour minimum as a cleaner. If you’re an efficient cleaner and don’t mind cleaning too much, this might be a great way to bring in some extra cash and shouldn’t be too costly to start.
Car washing & detailing – If you are talented in keeping your car looking shiny AF, consider putting your talents into looking after other people’s cars. Detailing is expensive and if you can offer a good rate and a great service you can bring in some serious cash and be able to earn money doing something you love.
Offer your services – Airtasker is a great way to bring in extra cash doing odd jobs for people, like delivering bulk goods, grocery shopping, yard work etc. The possibilities are endless. You can also search listed jobs and see if any take your interest.
Start a blog – if you’ve got something to say why not start your own blog. It’s a great passion project and way to bring some extra cash in from affiliate income and advertising revenue. Sign up for Bluehost hosting and get started! You’ll need website hosting, a domain name, and a theme. Don’t forget to utilise Youtube, there are thousands of videos dedicated to starting your own blog.
Youtuber – if you have a passion for sharing your skills or knowledge with the world and know how to wield a phone camera and basic video editing, you can start making some advertising revenue from Youtube videos. And the great thing is you can earn money from those videos for a long time to come!
Sell your clutter– if you have unwanted clutter collecting dust, now is the time to sell it. You can sell unwanted items on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Buy, Swap, Sell Groups, Gumtree, Poshmark etc. Check out how I made over $5000 selling our excess stuff for tips on how to start and what to sell.
Ebay Reseller – if you have an eye for fashion, or antiques or any collectibles you can put your knowledge to good use by buying sought after items at hugely discounted prices and selling them on Ebay for a higher price.
Upcycle furniture – if you have an eye for furniture and love being creative and practical, then consider upcycling furniture. You might just pick up a piece of furniture on the side of the road or on the cheap from your local Buy, Swap and Sell group and put some elbow grease and a little bit of cash and walk away with a tidy profit. The more unique your talents are the better!
Carpentry – if you are skilled at making things from scratch, you could start a side hustle making custom products for customers such as dining tables, outdoor settings, firepit seating etc. I’ve seen same amazing work from ladies and men online that people would pay over $1,000 for if they knew you were offering carpentry services.
Make your own jewellery or other crafts – if jewellery or crafts is your go to hobby, consider selling some of your creations. Etsy offers a marketplace to sell items like earrings, necklaces, hand made cushions, knitted kids toys and so on.
Hairdressing – If you are a hairdresser, utilise your skills and bring in some extra cash on the side. If you work full-time, a few clients on a Saturday or Sunday morning or the occasional wedding will bring in some great funds.
Makeup Artist – If you talent is make up, advertise your makeup services for formals, weddings, Christmas parties and other special events.
Pet sitter – If you love pets, offer your pet sitting services. People are usually thrilled to save some cash on kennels and have someone who will be more attentive to their pets needs whilst they are away. Try Madpaws to advertise your services.
Delivery driver – Most locations have at least one pizza joint that you can deliver pizzas for. Or pick up some work from Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Menulog. Again be sure to weigh up the costs of car expenses vs income here to make sure you are getting bang for your buck.
Photographer – if you know your way around a camera and photo shoot offer your photography services. You can do photoshoots for businesses, kids, families or sell prints online, such as on Etsy Marketplace or get paid to take stock images for websites like Shutterstock.
Editor – If you are a grammar freak, offer your editing services to authors. Fiverr offers a platform to advertise your editing services.
Social Media Manager – if you know more than most about social media presence, advertising, branding and all things marketing offer your services to businesses. You could even locate small business with little to no online social media presence and offer to set up their online social media prescence. Great for anyone who loves social media!
Build websites – if you are gifted with tech skills, consider opening your own website building side gig. If you’ve done it enough times it’ll be some quick easy cash for you!
Personal stylist – if you have a passion for fashion, consider offering your services to those who are less fashion inclined. You could offer a fee for your personal shopping assistance and help others find a wardrobe they love.
Baker/Chef – if you are talented in the kitchen, you can have your own catering on the side. Maybe you make amazing cookies or macarons or cake pops. Whatever you love doing, there are always market stalls or events you can offer to work with.
Gift baskets/hampers – my cousin once earned money putting together gift hampers for her boss for staff. If you are good at organising gifts for large groups of people and know what people like (other than those really average hampers everywhere else seems to sell) consider making your own hampers and charging a premium for them.
Hire out unused space – if you’ve got a free room and bathroom in your home, or you travel a lot, a great way to earn some extra cash is on Airbnb by renting out your available space. It’s a great way to potentially meet new people and make some extra cash on unused space in your home, particularly if you travel a lot. There’s also websites that let you hire out unused storage space like your basement, garage or parking spaces!
Fivver – is a great platform for freelancers with a range of skills such as graphic design, music and audio, translation, website design etc . If you are talented at drawing, photoshop and the like it is a great way for people to find and hire you.
Get a Part time or casual job – have a look and see what jobs openings are available locally to bring in some extra cash. It might be filling shelves at your local supermarket, waiting tables, or data entry around tax season. Or do something you enjoy like DJing or MC’ing at events.
Create an online course – Sell an online course on Udemy or Teachable.
Write an eBook – if you’ve got knowledge on a particular topic, create an eBook in Word, export it to a PDF and sell it online. Amazon Direct Publishing offers great options to do this in a low cost way!
Online Surveys – these are a way to earn money from the comfort of your own home. Some only pay in gift vouchers, and they are not bang for your buck, but if you enjoy them and have the time they can make you some extra cash without too much effort.
Hire out party/wedding décor – A friend of mine used to work on weekends doing wedding ceremony set up as her side hustle. If you have some spare time on the weekends, have access to a trailer, space for 20 to 50 chairs, a rug and some decorations you can start you own wedding decor and set up business. When I was planning my wedding I realised the eye watering amounts these set ups costs so it is a fairly lucrative side hustle once you pay for your rental gear. Another popular option is hiring out picnic set ups.
Lolly bar – If you have some spare time on the weekends, grab some glass jars and a bunch of lollies and offer your lolly bar service. These charge around $1,000 a pop for a wedding so is some serious profit to be made, with not so much effort. Although it might be hard to resist eating all those sugary treats (or is it just my weakness ;))
Book Keeping – if you are an Accountant by day, you could pick up some extra clients after hours to add to your cash stash. You can also advertise your services to set up Accounting Software for new users.
Repairs – If you can repair things, why not make some cash from it. You might be great at repairing phones, PCs, guitars, fridges, DVD players, dishwashers, general home repairs etc.
Shirt printing – if you are artistic and can come up with some unique shirt designs, this can be a great side hustle. Red Bubble, Spreadshirt and Etsy, plus many more websites now let you sell on a per order basis, so skip the need for lots of stock to be stored in your home.
Performing – if you can play an instrument or sing look for gigs at weddings, parties and pubs or paid projects like recording on albums. These can be listed on Airtasker, or simply advertise your services locally.
Teach a class – if you’re talented and qualified to teach music, yoga, personal training, cooking or whatever your skills are, consider teaching in a class setting. It could be offering group PT for friends at the park, a virtual Italian cooking class or group music lessons for kids.

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Question: What side hustles have you picked up to earn more cash? Share yours in the comments below!

Join our facebook community for women who want to spend their money with intention

Budgeting

How to Create a Monthly Zero Based Budget

Posted on August 21, 2019

Are you sick of living week to week? Get on top of your finances now by creating a Zero Based Budget

A budget is a bridge between you and financial freedom. If you have no plans in place for where your money goes, it’s going to be gone just as fast as it came in. We all work hard for our money so why not take a little bit of effort to make sure all our hard work is not going to waste.

When you Create A Monthly Zero Based Budget you can spend guilt-free on what things matter to you. It doesn’t have to be this noose around your neck demanding you enjoy nothing and miss out on everything you want. If anything, a budget is the complete opposite of that. As Rachel Cruze says it ‘gives you permission to spend’, you don’t have to feel guilty about buying that coffee every morning when you know that your bills will be paid and that your savings have already been transferred across.

Bonus: I’ve included a link to grab your own Zero-Based Budget worksheet at the end of this post to help get you started on creating your own budget.

Rule of Thumbs

Budget Percentages Guidelines
A good rule of thumb for budgeting often shared is to Save 20%, Spend 50% and Enjoy 30%. If you have Consumer Debt you would replace the 20% Savings with 20% to Debt Repayment. However, guides and rules of thumb, are just that – a guide. Your budget should reflect your values and be completely unique to you. No two budgets will look the same!

Emergency Fund
It’s important to have an Emergency Fund which will help you create a buffer between your budget and unexpected expenses like a Dental Bill or a flat tyre. An Emergency Fund should be a minimum of $2,000, that is – enough to weather you through most storms! But of course, the sooner you can build your Emergency Fund up to 3 months of expenses, the better!

Before we start on the ‘How’ of budgeting, let’s get onto the ‘Why’ of budgeting.

Know Your Why

Before you even start your zero-based budget, you should know your ‘Why‘, that is why you want to change your finances. This is particularly important if you are trying to sell the idea to your partner. Demanding you cut all expenditure and sell everything not bolted down isn’t going to be the greatest proposal out of nowhere.

First, you must ask why do you want to work on your finances? Is it cos you work too hard to live week to week? Are you saving up for a huge goal like buying your first home or paying off your student debts? Maybe you are earning good money and spending even better money and you want to get a handle on where your money is going? Write it down somewhere and put it somewhere you can easily see it, such as your fridge.

Some of your why might be:

To pay for our children’s future education
To go on a trip to Disneyland
To be mortgage-free so you can afford to work less
To reduce stress and arguing around money with your partner
To live a more intentional life

Once you know your motivation it’s time to start on your budget.

How to Create a Monthly Zero Based Budget

1. Put all your money on the table

Grab all payslips or anything else you need to work out what you and your partner (if you have one), earn. If you have a partner but have separate finances, do a separate budget to them. It’s up to you how you want to allocate expenses whether it be a 50/50 split or expenses are based on a percentage of income.

It’s amazing how many people can’t answer the question: what is your monthly after-tax income. We are going to change that today.

List your expected income for the month as we are going to prepare 12 budgets a year, one for each month. The cut-off date is not important, you can start it from today, or the 1st of the month. Whatever you prefer.

Calculating your income

If you are paid monthly you will only need to enter one amount for each person. If you are paid weekly or fortnightly you can put the 2-5 pays you will receive for each person. Include any other pay from second jobs, side hustles etc in their own income line.

If you have differing income payment periods that is not a problem. If you get paid $800 every Wednesday and there are four Wednesdays this month your total income for that income stream for the month would be $800 x 4 = $3200. If you have a second household salary that is paid monthly of $5000 you would add that on a separate income line to make a total income for that month would be $8200.

The following month there might be 5 Wednesdays so that month you would enter into your budget 5 x $800 = $4000 for the weekly pay plus the monthly salary of $5000 so your total income would be $9000.

Don’t forget to add in any other income that month such as bonuses, pay raises, tax refunds etc.

Budgeting for Irregular Income

If you have irregular income, so your income fluctuates, start off with the minimum you expect to earn. Base this on an average from your last three months’ pay. You might need to do some digging to get these figures.

Simply add up your total pay of the last three months and divide it by 3 and use this as your budgeting income figure. For an even more accurate minimum estimate go back six months and again, add up all income from that job and divide by 6. Total the income for the month, this is what you have to work with. This income estimate of course, will need to be reviewed regularly.

You’ll then need to base your Zero-based budget off this minimum income figure with anything extra being a bonus that you can choose to add to your Emergency Fund, add to your debt snowball to pay down debt, save it or spend it.

2. Identify your essential expenses.

It is important to prioritise your most important expenses in your zero-based budget. This ensures that you don’t go on a clothes shopping spree and leave yourself short to cover your electricity bill or groceries. You can live without a new outfit, you can’t live without food or electricity and it’s not fun not having the basics for a quality living standard. Estimate your monthly essential expenses, these might be:

Groceries
Electricity and gas
Water
Health insurance
Mortgage or rent
Medical prescriptions
Child care
House insurance
Petrol
Car Expenses
Mobile
Internet

These expenses need to come before all discretionary or debt repayments. If you can’t put fuel in the car or pay the child care bill so you can go to work you’re not going to be able to earn your income to pay any debts which is why these need to come first.

3. Set up your Sinking funds

Sinking Funds allow us to prepare ahead for things we know we need to save for in advance. Rather than waiting for November to start thinking about budgeting for Christmas, we can start allowing an amount in our budget to split the cost over 12 months. ‘The same goes for car expenses, your insurance and registration bills come every year so you need to plan ahead for them rather than stressing when the bill comes and you only have 6 weeks to find $1200!

List any items that you need to plan ahead for in your budget here. For example, if you take an annual holiday estimate your budget and put 1/12th each month away.

Some sinking fund examples are:

Christmas
Gifts
Medical/Dental
Holidays
Home Repairs & Maintenance
Car Maintenance
Home Renos
Clothing
Beauty
Miscellaneous expenses

Estimate the monthly cost of each Sinking Fund and list these in your budget. You might need to do a bit of math in order to make an accurate estimation. E.g. add up how many gifts you need to buy at Christmas and how much you will spend on each. Check out my Christmas Gift List Printable to get you started. And go through your car expense receipts from the prior year to estimate how much your insurance and registration will be and add in a buffer services and any unexpected repairs that are required.

A great way to track your Sinking Funds is to set them up in a separate bank account and track them with the Sinking Funds Printable or Worksheet where you can update each month how much you have put away and spent on each Sinking Fund Category and know if you are under or over budget in that category.

4. Debt and repayments

The next thing you need for your zero-based budget is to add in your debt repayments.

It is important not to think of debt as just the minimum repayment. Just because your credit card lets you pay only 2% on your debt balance doesn’t mean that you should. With that outlook, you can view debts as smaller than they are and disregard the impact the true debt has on your budget. Often people spend themselves into more debt, justified by them being able to afford the minimum repayments only to realise thousands of dollars later the financial hole you’ve dug yourself into.

The Debt Snowball Method
List all your debts excluding your mortgage from smallest to largest in a worksheet like the Debt Snowball Calculator and note the interest rate and minimum repayments. Use a debt repayment strategy such as the Debt Snowball Method to pay them down as quickly as you can. This is where you pay the minimums on all debt but the little one which you throw any spare dollars at.

Go back to your budget and mark in the total minimum monthly repayments for all debts. Then add in an additional amount for extra debt repayment. You should aim for 15-20% of your total income going to debt repayments (for all consumer debt excluding the mortgage).

Of course, if you find that your Sinking Funds and Essential Expenses are consuming all your income and you have nothing extra to throw into your Debt Snowball, this will mean you need to either cut back on expenditure or increase your income.

5. Non-essential expenses

Next, we will list the lifestyle, non-essential expenses. The things that we could live without temporarily when faced with a crisis like a job loss.

In this area we include:

Personal Spending
Subscriptions
Sports/Lessons
Entertainment
Beauty
Hobbies

Estimate the monthly cost of each and list in your budget.

6. Saving and investing

If you are not paying off consumer debt with the Debt Snowball (just one debt repayment method) you should be aiming to save or invest at least 10% of your pay cheque. If you can shoot for 20% even better! Pay yourself first!

If you can’t that’s something you can aim for and work towards in time, but at least mark in something for savings even if it is only $20 a week. A big part of savings is making the habit, set up your savings as an automatic transfer to come out of your pay before you even have a chance to spend it.

Balancing Your Budget

The goal with a Zero Based Budget is to ensure that every dollar is allocated to an expense or saving amount with the balance of total income less total expenses being $0. If your budget balance has gone into negative you will need to consider what you can cut from the above categories starting with the Non-Essential Expenditure. And if it is positive you can add more to Debt Repayments or Savings & Investing!

If you are short here is the time to think outside the box in order to balance the budget. Of course, it is always a good idea to find ways to save money and make more income!

Some ideas to help you balance your budget could be:

– Sell your car and pay out the loan and buy a cheaper car with cash freeing up one debt repayment

– Start Meal Planning to save in your grocery budget

– Cut your electricity bill by being more mindful of turning off power points and only using the heater and air-con on extra cold/hot days

– Pick up a side hustle to increase your income temporarily to kick start your Debt Repayment

– Bring your lunch to work and save going out with colleagues for once a week

– Ask your kids to pick one extra-curricular activity at a time until things are financially a bit less tight

– Renegotiate your interest rate on your mortgage and other debt to get interest savings

Tracking your Budget Vs Actuals

Of course, there is no point budgeting if you are going to not track it at all to make sure you stayed under budget. Make sure that you keep track of your Actual vs Budgeted expenditure each month. A great way to do this is with a PDF Printable Expense Tracker or Expense Tracker Worksheet.

Simply take note of where your money is being spent as you go and add it into your Expense Tracker. Note the Date, Store, Description of what was purchased, enter a Category and the Amount.

Add up how much you spent in each category and note it in your Zero-Based Budget worksheet ‘Actual’ column and your budget will calculate if you were under or over budget in each category and by how much.

To help you get started, click the link below to grab your free Zero-Based Budget Worksheet, so you can get started spending your money with more intention today!

grab your free zero-based budget worksheet

This weeks comment Question: What did you cut from your budget that didn’t seem so bad once you’d made the cut? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

Budgeting

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines To Live By

Posted on April 22, 2019

Have you heard Dave Ramsey's Financial Guidelines?

**This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase of a product from the links in this post I will receive a small commission, at no cost to you. This allows me to keep my blog advertisement free and support the running costs of my blog. I only recommend products I believe will add value to others and that I love myself.**

For the past couple of years I have read, listened and devoured everything of Dave Ramsey’s that I could find. I have read the Total Money Make Over, Retire Inspired and The Everyday Millionaire**, which have all helped arm me with extremely valuable financial knowledge that has given me guidelines in order to make intentional financial decisions. I’ve also spent countless hours listening to the Dave Ramsey Show to pick up on those nuggets of wisdom that weren’t in The Total Money Makeover.

If you are keen to know some of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines to Live By on making intentional money decisions and building wealth read on 🙂

Here are 13 of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines to live by!

SAVINGS

1. Sell everything you own to save up your $1000 Emergency Fund

To start your path to create wealth, the first of Dave Ramsey’s financial guidelines to live by is to sell everything you own: Some great tongue-in-cheek advice from Dave, but worthy nonetheless. You need to get your Baby Step 1 Emergency fund of $1000 saved up quick smart. In order to do this, Dave suggests you sell everything not bolted down in your home ‘:).

Sell whatever you can: your clothes, electronics, furniture, old collections, appliances, decor – whatever you’ve got to boost your Emergency Fund! You’d be surprised about how much money your clutter can make you. Let’s get it done quick! 🙂

Related reading: How I made $5000 from selling my clutter

2. Save up a 3 – 6 month of expenses Emergency Fund before buying a house

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines on buying a home always suggests you save up a 3-6 month Emergency Fund before buying a home. As Dave says, if you don’t – Murphy will move right on in. When you have a fully funded emergency fund before buying a home you are well placed to deal with emergencies as they come up. If your car breaks down, you need to replace the water heater or pay your insurance excess after a storm – there is no need to panic, you’ve already got a good buffer between you and Murphy.

By all means it will delay your dreams of home ownership by a few months but when you have that piece of mind, that if anything goes wrong you can ride it out, you’ll be glad you did!

You can read more about the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps Here 🙂

3. Don’t invest your Emergency Fund

Every time I hear about anyone talking about trying to invest their Emergency Fund I cringe! As Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines say, this fund is not to be considered an investment and not there for the purpose of making you cash. It is there purely to give you liquid funds in the event of an emergency, a time when you might need cash immediately. You don’t want to go to use your emergency cash that you invested, only to find that half of it has disappeared.

The best you can do is find a good bank with a decent interest rate on savings. Keep your investing funds completely separate. One day you’ll be glad you did!

CARS/VEHICLES

4. Things with motors should add up to less than half your annual salary

Another amazing piece of advice from Dave Ramsey on vehicles. Dave’s rule is that you should never own more than half your household annual income in things with motors in them – that go down in value. This being cars, motor homes, motor cycles, boats and so on!

If you earn $80k and own a $55k truck you have too much money tied up in depreciating assets. You want your money invested in ways to grow it – not eat it up!

Combined Vehicles

Household income > 50% = TIME TO SELL!

Take an assessment of your current vehicle values and add them together. If the total of your vehicles values over your household income is more than 50% of your income it’s time to sell them!

5. Don’t spend more than your car is worth to repair it

One of the best pieces of advice Dave has given on The Dave Ramsey Show is how to know when to repair or replace a car. Dave says to research the market value of the vehicle and not to spend more on the vehicle in order to get it repaired than it’s market value is. For example; if your car is worth $2000 but needs $3000 of repairs you would just sell it.

This is just a guideline to know where to draw the line in the sand on whether to repair a vehicle or not. If you really love the car and it won’t cost much more than the market value to repair it you might be able to still fix the car and keep it but just be ready to let the car go if it is significantly more.

Of course don’t forget to shop around for repairs and get a second opinion which might save you some serious cash and allow you to keep the car after all!

Related post: How Much is Your Car Really Costing You?

HOME BUYING

6. Only buy a house at 25% of your salary or less

Dave Ramsey constantly refers to how people who win with money are debt free including their home. When you don’t have any payments in the world you can make huge steps to build wealth. This is why Dave recommends only getting a mortgage at a max of 25% of your salary.

When you spend more than 25% of your salary on your housing you are minimising what is left to cover other bills, insurances, spending money to enjoy yourself and your savings ability.

Keep your financial stress low by limiting your housing costs to below 25% of your household income.

7. Buy investment properties in cash

There are always people spruiking get rich quick ideas around real estate and borrowing yourself into oblivion.

Dave’s Real Estate approach takes patience and more time to carry out but it covers you for all market conditions. Dave’s advice on Real Estate is to save up for real estate investments in cash! As Dave says, if the market drops or you can’t find a tenant for 6 months you can weather out the storm. Unlike the investor who decided to buy multiple properties with large mortgages who won’t be smiling so much if the market drops.

DEBT

8. Avoiding Student Loans

Dave often reports these words on the Dave Ramsey Show ‘I’ve never told anyone to go into student debt’. But how do you pay for university without student loans?

Here are some wise suggestions from Dave Ramsey to help you avoid going into student debt:

Start your study at Community College (or TAFE in Australia). These education institutions are a lot more affordable and can give you credits for university study. I saved myself thousands of dollars in student debt by doing my Advanced Diploma in Accounting at TAFE for two years before heading to uni. By the time I got to university I had only 13 of 24 units left to complete of my BA (Accounting) thanks to my advanced standing credits. TAFE at the time I studied was $4000 for the Advanced Diploma vs $800 a subject at university which saved me approximately $6000!
Study locally so you can live at home or save on interstate fees.
Go to a less prestigious university. The bigger the name of your uni, the more you are going to have to pay to attend. Unless your parents have offered you a blank check book (and they can truly afford it) attend more affordable universities.
Save up ahead of time for your student loans. If you have kids you should be saving ahead of time to help them study at university debt free. Investing $10k when your child is born and adding just $100 a month until their 18th birthday could grow to $78,000 thanks to the magic of compound interest (with an average 7% return rate), ready to cover their education costs debt free.
Apply for scholarships to help you pay for some of the cost of university. The more you apply for, the more change you have of qualifying.

If you don’t have any financial help from your parents you can do the following to avoid student loan debt:

Save up as much as you can before you start university.
Considering getting an Internship/Cadetship that will cover your study expenses whilst also training you up in your chosen field.
Whilst you study, get a job or a side hustle to pay your fees as you go or work like a crazy person during your study breaks. Work out how much you need for the next semester and divide that by how many weeks you have to save up to give you an idea of how many hours or shifts you’ll need to take up.
Buy second hand text books and sell the prior semester to help you cover any new ones. At $100 plus a pop this can make for some huge savings!

9. Save up and make a cash settlement offer on old debt.

If you have an old debt sitting around that you haven’t make a payment on since who knows when, save up some cash and make them a cash offer on the remaining balance. Dave Ramsey suggests some you might be able to make a cash offer of 5c on the dollar. But even if they will only take 25% of the balance, you are still making a lot of headway!

Don’t forget as Dave recommends to get the offer in writing stating that this will settle the balance in full and close the account and do not give electronic access to your account to the credit company. Write them a cheque. Some very wise words from, Dave!

10. When it takes longer than 2 years to be consumer debt free

Dave Ramsey suggests that if you will take more than 2 years to pay off your remaining consumer debt that it is time to get selling. You can either hustle like a crazy person or bail yourself out by selling the car/s, boat, investment properties or your home. Do the rough math as Dave does on his show and work out a rough time line for your debt repayment. If it’s much longer than 24 months, for you sanity it’s probably time to get selling!

RAISING KIDS

11. Pay your children for chores as they are completed

Dave recommends paying your children as they compete tasks in order to show them the direct link between work and being compensated rather then waiting for the end of the week.

Make some chores family duties. Don’t pay your kids for every finger they lift. Make some chores mandatory and uncompensated, to be done for the good of the family such as, setting the table, feeding pets, washing up or making their bed.

12. Support your teenagers in making decisions about their education

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines include preparing your kids for the future. Don’t leave your teenager on their own to make huge life decisions about their future. Help them to work out what they are good at and passionate about and identify potential career paths.

Research salary averages with them based on level of education and time spent in the industry so you can see a direct link between career path and future income. Weigh up what level of education is needed to achieve that chosen career path and map out a plan with them, where they can afford to study, what course they need to get into their chosen field and how the fees will be paid.

Ensure you consider whether it is worth the investment into a uni degree. Don’t allow your teenager to go into $300k to get a Chiropractor degree if they can only earn $60k-70k. Be sure to shop around for reasonable return on your investment.

13. Teach your kids to Give, Save and Spend

As Dave always says: Live like no one so in the future you can live and give like no one. Starting to teach your kids this well before they leave the nest will help you raise “financially well rounded” kids.

You will hear these three scenarios repeat themselves on The Dave Ramsey Show with callers.

Some people are extremely generous with their money, and lend money they don’t even have and find themselves in their own financial pickle.
Others callers are avid savers and feel extreme guilt over spending anything on themselves even once they achieve financial freedom or Millionaire status.
Then there are the spenders who leave not one dollar to be saved and go beyond and find themselves in ballooning consumer debt.

None of these are ideal financial habits and all can lead you into being taken advantage of, not leading a full and happy life and being miserable and swamped with debt. You can teach your children to have a healthy relationship with money and giving, spending and savings and help them learn valuable skills for when they hit adulthood and save them the troubles that come from not having a good balance.

A great way to do this is to encourage them to split their chore money or anything else they earn into 3 jars: Give, Save and Spend.

It’s a great way to teach them to be kind and compassionate for those who are less fortunate, to teach them that not every dollar should be squirreled away – they need to enjoy some and to not whittle away every last penny either.

[Photo: Michael Longmire @ Unsplash.com]

This weeks comment question: Which of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Guidelines have help you be more intentional with your money?

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