Have you taken the time to sit down and look at your finances for the year of 2018? Are you a little more than disappointed? Maybe you made it your New Year’s resolution to manage your money better in 2019. Whatever the situation is, if you haven’t started yet now is the time. The New Year is already here, but there really is never a bad time to reassess spending, income, and savings potential. In fact, just taking the time to sit down and look at your family budget will probably reveal a number of ways where you can improve your financial status while saving a little money in the process. That should be more than enough motivation to take the time to review your finances. However, if you really want to get ahead in 2019, you should stick with the following financial tips.
Go Back Over Your Tax Withholding
This one should go without saying, but you would be surprised how many employees overlook their tax withholdings. If you have added to the number of dependents in the home, you’ll want to make sure that you are including these updates through your employer. You do not want to head into the tax season without having the proper amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck. This could cause you to end up owing money at the end of the year. It certainly wouldn’t do your finances any good if you have to pay back more taxes on top of the taxes that you pay every day. Speak with your employer and make sure that your W-4 forms are accurate and up-to-date.
Know How Tax Legislation Affects You and Your Family
Do you remember the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts that President Donald J. Trump signed in 2017? Well, even though you might remember the Act, you might not truly know how it rewrites the federal tax code. There are still seven tax brackets available for individual and married filers, but the average person should expect to see a reduced tax rate that will be effective for the year 2018. In addition to this, there have been changes made in the common filing and deduction options.
These are completely different from the previous years. For example, the standard deduction will be increased, whereas charitable giving and investment fees were decreased. Needless to say, all of this is probably somewhat shocking and confusing so you will want to make sure that you take the time to speak with your accountant and go over your best filing options.
Supplement Your Income
To safeguard and grow your finance, you need multiple streams of income to supplement your main earning. Your main salary won’t be enough to take care of all every day increasing expenses like children school fees, transportation, and all the other necessary bills. You need to supplement your income.
With several ways to earn extra money online, it’s very easy to supplement your income without affecting your main job. You can start an online survey, blogging or any part-time freelance job at your own convenient time. Forex is another viable way to earn side income. Forex or currency trading is a decentralized market where all the nation’s currencies are traded. It is “The largest” liquid market in the world with an average trade volume of more than $5 trillion every day. To become an affiliate for a broker firm, you can learn about online IB account opening here.
Trim the Fat
If you want to increase your savings or start throwing a few more dollars in your vacation account, you are going to have to bring in more money than what you are spending. Without taking up a second job this might seem almost impossible. Well, that is not entirely true at all. Sit down and look at every expense that you are making every day, including your bills. Know exactly everywhere your money is going. There is a good chance that you will probably discover that you are eating out more than you should. Maybe you have an expensive cell phone or TV subscription that you aren’t using to the fullest.
Well, cut back in these areas and you will have more money that you can contribute to your savings account or vacation fund. Even dedicate yourself to shopping generic and you will be surprised at how much you save.
