5 Things To Do To Improve Your Finances in 2020

today we're talking about our finances and yes it can be a scary topic but I'm going to make it a little bit more manageable for you guys if you're new welcome my name is kelly ann smith with freedom in a budget calm I am so excited to talk about this topic of things that you can do to help improve your finances and a lot of times we think that money is just so overwhelming we can't talk about it's a taboo topic it's so we're so deep in debt we're so paycheck to paycheck that there's nothing that we can do no that is not the case there are many things that you can do so today I'm going to give you five tips five actual things that you can do today that you can do in the next hour after you watch this video and put them into work I also have a blog post that I'll have it linked it down below in the description box so go check that out as well okay so the first one is to challenge yourself now challenge is a really really great way to get yourself motivated to just kind of break out of your comfort zone and mix things up I know that when I have to lose some weight or I'm not feeling motivated on exercising or whatever it is I'll make those goals and I'll make those challenges for myself or I'll team up with a friend and be like okay who's the first person that can run them or walk because I don't run who can walk 20 miles in the first in the week or whatever it is or 20 miles first person to get to 20 miles they're the winner of this challenge and then we may come up with a reward we may come up with it just a friendly competition whatever it may be but those challenges they're really good for your mental state and just keeping you on your edge and keeping you on your your game I remember when fitbit's came out they were so big of those walking challenges and I think they're still pretty popular now I don't do them anymore but they really are great so I have some printables for you guys I have a carp a printable that comes in four different options they're so fun I have a 52-week challenge printable those are both free for you guys I have them linked down below in the description box either I have ones of save $1,000 and 30 days which is crazy big big challenge but it's something that you may be able to do and you may be able to manage it so I have these challenges for you guys check in the description box check them out on my blog there are great great challenges that in resources that we have for you guys to make it attainable and something that you look for too and me like alright let's do this I got this I'm excited I'm pumped versus I don't wanna save money and that's hard work I can't do it I can't a knit that's it's just not for me no no it is for you you got this number two is to shop around for insurance and bills this task it sucks let's be honest it is not something that is fun it to have to go and shop around for insurances and lowering your bill like who wants to call Comcast let's be honest that is not a fun task but guys honestly it's something that's important and something that we should be doing every six months to make sure that we're getting the best deal I know that there's been times where I've shopped around for insurance and different things and I'm like holy crap I just saved a boatload of money and yes it's exciting but that means that I was missing out on a lot of money for the past X amount of years which really sucks so shop rad for insurance shop around for your bills I have some great resources for you guys this is packed with resources but a couple great ones is Bill shark bill shark they are awesome I'll have a link down for you guys for everything that I talked about in this video and in the blog post and all that stuff it'll be all there but bill shark will go and negotiate your bills for you they'll get in there with Comcast they'll get in there with AT&T they'll get in there with all these different types of bills that they can go and negotiate for you the next one is blue mat which are so cool I love blooms so what they do is they analyze your investments they'll look at your 401k they'll look at your IRA and see if you are paying too much in fees you'll put in how you want your investments to go when you want to retire if you want to be more conservative with your investments if you want to be more aggressive with your investments and they'll analyze it and say hey you're too heavy and bonds you're too heavy in stocks we're gonna analyze this for you and let you know what you can do to improve what improvements you can make I actually do my personal form okay live on my channel so go check that video out as well super fun and then the last one is Gabby Gabby will go and negotiate your car insurance for you which that personally is my least favorite one to negotiate because of all the liabilities and making sure that everything matches correctly it's just a hassle so Gaby will do that all for you they're awesome like I said it links them below but looking at your bills looking at your insurances all of that that can save you so much money if you go do the work or use these companies that do no for you but honestly guys you can do it in so little time now with these analyzers and everything it's so easy and it can you save you boatloads of money that you can then put towards saving towards investments put towards death next is to take a look at your employee benefits I know that we get bombarded with information when you sign up for your job when you do all your paperwork and you may hear about some benefits like for 1k match and different things like that but honestly guys there's usually so many other benefits that you have no clue about like tuition reimbursement commuter benefits I actually use this one before quarantine when I was taking the train I was able to get tax benefits I was able to save money get a discount on the train all of that through my employer a lot of times they'll have discounts on other things like guest counts and Triple A discounts on movie tickets discounts on all these just random random things to go through your employee benefits we have an intranet page so go through that and see what benefits your employer offers you those are really really great easy ways that you can save a lot of money and it's a benefit of the company which is awesome because their their benefits he was putting in the background back in work tella Doc's hella Doc's another awesome one that we get for free and Piper is being a rascal paper though we get tell doc for free which saves us so much money on office visits that we don't have to go to the doctor to the urgent care we just called a Lata tele doc and get a virtual FaceTime video with our doc everyone when Jimmy had the flu a couple years ago and it was a nightmare he had 103 degree fever and was so sick and there's no way we could have taken him to the urgent care and they just prescribed the stuff for us right there and we just a call with them I wouldn't pick the it was awesome save just so much money so look into those employee benefits they're really gonna benefit you if this is something that you enjoy I would love for you to hit the like button if we can get this video to a hundred likes I will do a part two and hopefully piper will stop he's gonna knock that alright yep that just happened what do you have to say for yourself well my best financed block of South Florida is now on the floor Thank You Piper apparently you don't think of a good blogger but anyways next up is analyze your bank your bank is one that you can really get some awesome benefits from and you should not be paying fees if you are paying fees before your savings account for your checking account because they have minimums that you have to hit no trash them that is not good I personally use CIT Bank I love CIT Bank they're awesome and they have awesome savings rates on tile savings accounts CDs all of that they do fluctuate depending on the federal they're the Fed is the one that sets the savings rates so typically if one bank is changing then most of them are but an online high-yield savings account is gonna be way better than the typical ones like Bank of America Wells Fargo all of that you're gonna make a lot more money in in your dollar and you should be having your money in a savings account for your sinking funds for your emergency fund all of that if you're saving for a big look you're saving for a down payment or saving for a car keep that in the hiatus clown and build some money on it but reevaluate your bank look into the fees look into what they're charging you obviously you we don't want to be over drafting so make sure that you're keeping your balances in check as well put a buffer in there maybe transfer some money into your checking account I remember when I was going through my debt free journey I kept a thousand dollars in my checking account so if I saw that my account had one thousand one hundred dollars in it I didn't look and see it as $1,100 I looked and saw that as one hundred dollars so I just made that mental note I automatically have to subtract a thousand dollars and then that helped me when bills would clear too times and different things like that I didn't have to worry about over drafting next is to start budgeting so obviously I wanted you to start budgeting I am freedom in a budget and I am all about the budget but honestly guys it is not as hard as you think it is it is not as constricting as you think it is that is my whole mission with this channel is to show you that budgets are not constricting but really they give you freedom and they give you freedom to spend they give you freedom to save and invest and do all the things that you want because what a budget does it puts you in control of your money versus your money and control of you and you don't want to have that tight NIT hold on your money that you feel like you can't do anything that when you ever you bring money in it just goes right out with your bills no you want to get in control of your money so you can start spending it the way that you want so budget is really simple it's just tracking your income coming in at your expenses your variable expenses and how much money you have left over and it's also a wake up call sometimes in some easy ways that you can cut when you're tracking your expenses you can easily see ok we're spending too much money here we're spending too much money on Amazon whatever it is we're gonna cut and we're gonna we're gonna save this money right here and put that towards debt if you want to know how I say 50% of my income check out this video here and if you're new to investing a little nervous about investing check out my investing for beginners playlist here [Music]

Channel: Kelly Anne Smith

Views: 4,452

Rating: 4.9312716 out of 5

Keywords: freedom in a budget, fire movement, fire community, financial independence, investing for beginners, investing for women, kelly anne smith, kellyanne smith, kelly-anne smith, Improve your finances quickly, ways to improve your finances, improve your finances in 1 hour, simple ways to improve your finances, money hacks, easy money hacks, money tips, money tips and tricks, money saving strategies, money saving life hacks, money saving motivation, how to manage your money

Id: VTzYA7wUXr0

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020