If you are not earning much and you want to look for a side hustle or a second job, the best way to do it is to understand your hobbies and passion. What would you enjoy doing for the rest of your life? Is it art or dancing or zumba or yoga? Or do you like interior designing? Based on your likes, become an expert in it. Either take up some courses or offer your services for free in the beginning. It is easy to become rich if you can offer the right value to the public. If the public finds your art interesting or they get rejuvenated by your Zumba session, they will definitely come for more. Find your niche, buckle up and socialize and start selling your services. Offer free services for the first one month or at a discounted price and slowly increase the cost as you become more confident and build credibility with the public. Be persistent even if you have lost couple of customers. Learn from your mistakes and keep improving. Your persistence and your determination to reach great heights is in your hands. Nothing can stop you from achieving it except for you.
Effective Money Management: Reducing Expenses and Budget Allocation
If I have to invest, I need to save money. But, given the luxuries and plethora of shopping options, I indulge myself from time to time into this stress relieving shopping. Although I had bought a house on loan, I had no intention to prepay it earlier as I didn’t not have any savings to rely on. Maintenance, property tax, home loan EMI and my kid’s schooling fees was enough to eat away all my one source of income. Not to mention the Zomato expenses and shopping that heaped my credit expenses. After coming back to India, my salary was not meeting my expenses. I needed more money and this time I wanted to start my second innings with more wisdom. To start with I want be on top of my expenses. So, I went to a chai shop, relaxed and pulled up an excel. I was ready to face my bills and my worst nightmare. I started adding my salary, all my expenses including credit card, loan, food expenses, shopping expenses and travel expenses and created a chart to see where is my money going. Besides my home loan, it was my bad food habits. Zomato has made everyone a Jughead who can just wait at the doorstep and voila the food has arrived. It was high time that I need to rely on my home food. Moreover, my doctor’s voice kept on echoing make some home made food to lose weight! Well, this is indeed the most healthy option not only for your body but also for your finance. I even looked at the grocery items and looked for places where it is cheaper to buy in bulk in the beginning of the week. Best plan to reduce your expenses. Try it out for a month and see if it works. Next, I decided to allocate a budget within a month for my shopping, food and other expenses that I have control on so that I don’t go beyond the limit.
So, create an excel with the top header highlighting your salary and add the structure below including all your expenses and see what you are left with. See, which expenses can you control or completely do away with. Perhaps, you forgot about a subscription that you had availed long ago. Analyze the data for atleast past 2-3 months and look at your expenses pattern. Also, see how much budget do you need for each area. Let me know your views once you do this task. It could be enlightening for you:) Stop splurging and start living:)
Income vs Expenses
- Loan
- Debt
- Food Expenses
- Shopping Expenses
- Travel Expenses
Diversifying Income: Overcoming Job Loss and Embracing Financial Independence
I was having a wonderful life with an established consulting career, a loving family and a son. All areas of my life was booming. I decided to make my move for career growth to Dubai and I was showered with an amazing salary and a high standard of living. Everything was going so well. Then Covid wave descended on earth devastating millions of people’s lives physically, emotionally, and financially. I never thought I will be a target too. A day arrived when i received an abrupt video call from the HR of my company and she said “Sorry, we will have to let you go”. I was totally shattered to hear these words after 18 years of a stable career. Shoot, so it happens in everyone’s lives. It is just like a stock that rises, becomes overpriced and then has to do a correction. Well, although I was devastated, it brought me down to earth and I started thinking, How can I rely one single source of income for my entire life? I only knew and was trained to grow up, study and spend time in the office and work as much as you can. There was definitely something missing. I learned it the hard way. I came back to Mumbai and started looking for a job and thankfully was able to work in my old company. However, this incident shook me from the root and my goal changed from working hard for one source of income to finding multiple ways of earning money! In this blog, I will write the different ways I explored and keep exploring to make money and help you live a life of financial freedom and not a life of debts and loans:)
Money in Abundanz 