BY KEISHA BAILEY

Many people are very diligent at their work, especially salaried workers, professionals and small business owners. You are busy as a bee in your daily activities and creating a huge WORK AND CAREER success for yourself, but in your personal life, things are the complete opposite. You don’t approach your money to the same extent that you manage your corporate role or your small business. The result is that you feel demotivated as if wealth is an obscure dream that is unattainable. How ever will you get out of the rat race of living paycheck to paycheck?

Being the boss of your finances means taking control of your money and making decisions that are best for you. Repeat after me, “I control money, money doesn’t control me.” It’s time to take charge and make your money work for you.

I know for a lot of people it can be tough to make this transition, so I wanted to share a few simple steps so you can master your finances and finally be able to achieve the financial freedom that you deserve.

Know your money in order to grow your money

In my experienced opinion, the most critical step in taking control of your finances is getting organized. This means creating a budget and tracking your spending, so you know where your money is going. There are many helpful budgeting tools available online, or you can use a simple spreadsheet to track your income and expenses.

When you know where your money is going, it becomes much easier to make informed decisions about how to best spend and save it. If you find that you are spending more than you can afford, cut back on unnecessary expenses and put the extra money towards debt repayment or savings. Or if it’s a major struggle to make ends meet, then you may want to look into a side hustle to generate additional income streams.

Invest like a boss

If you’re new to personal finance then investing can be quite scary. The thought of losing all your money in the stock market sounds way worse than earning a few percentage points, but really, the chances of you losing all your money are slim (if you know what you are doing, but more on that later on), and there are strategies you can use to manage the risks.

Seek professional help

If you’re having trouble getting started or staying on track, seek out professional help from a financial planner or an investing coach. A financial planner can give you personalized advice and help you create a plan that fits your unique situation. Working with a professional can be a great way to get the guidance and support you need to make intelligent financial decisions.

Not only do you need to educate yourself about the broader concepts of personal finance, but you also need to educate yourself about your situation. Having a grasp of the concepts is great, but knowing where you can make improvements is even better.

BY KEISHA BAILEY

Life happens.

I get it.

It’s hard enough to make the bill payments each month, much less to think about the future and trying to make things financially better. Frustration easily sets in because you want to feel more secure about your finances, but at the same time you simply don’t have enough money to invest. I believe that money is possible for everyone and with a few simple steps you can start freeing up cash to be able to invest in your future wealthy self.

If you feel like you never have enough money to invest, realize that the change starts within you. The change begins when you change how you look at money. Once you understand that money is a tool, much like a hammer is used to drive in nails, money is used to achieve the financial goals that you have for yourself.

So how exactly do you unlock the true potential of your money? When you decide to take control of your finances and direct money to its rightful purpose then you unlock the true potential of money.

Have you ever heard of the term pay yourself first? It is important that you find money from your salary to invest in yourself, just as you would pay any other expense, such as your utilities, groceries etc. Once you have cash, you will find a reason to spend, as expenses will always surface, especially now with the spike in prices resulting from inflation.

Here’s my golden rule:

50% of your income is the maximum for NEEDS (bills & utilities)

30% of your income is the maximum for WANTS (splurges and fantasy items)

20% of your income is the minimum to Savings + Investments

Here are some additional tips to support paying yourself first:

1. Set up an automatic salary deduction to transfer money to an investment account monthly.
2. Create a monthly budget to ensure you always have some money to invest. If you see where your expenses exceed your income, then that is a red flag and needs urgent attention. To correct this problem, see where expenses can be cut, so that you can find money in your budget for investing. Remember, we do not work to live just for today. There will come a day when you no longer receive a monthly salary, and that is when the investments that you made become even more important, by allowing you to live a quality life.
3. Just start! These are two very powerful words, even if $100 is all you have to start; it is still a step in the right direction. As the saying goes, something is always better than nothing at all. Additionally, you will be quite surprised at what $100 can become when it is being invested consistently into the right type of investment over time.

I believe in your future wealthy self. I see you accomplishing all your financial goals and being secure in your personal finances.

BY KEISHA BAILEY

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the global economy has been rebounding with inflation hovering around all-time lows in many parts of the world before the onset of the pandemic. It’s a situation consumers were getting accustomed to, and perhaps comfortable with. You literally could borrow money very cheaply and lots of people were using that money to buy assets, mainly real estate and stocks. This created huge price surges for these assets to the point where questions about “asset bubbles” were emerging.

Now the ‘honeymoon period appears to be over, induced by yet another crisis with no apparent end in sight. We may be coming out of the pandemic, but we need to be mindful of whether we may be headed into another.

Prices are again on the rise and just about everyone is starting to feel the economic pinch as wages aren’t increasing enough. Inflation, which once was thought to be a passing problem by governments and central banks, is now viewed as a persistent and an increasing threat to what our money can do each month. In essence, income is shrinking while living expenses are rising – could this be a recipe for disaster?

At the heart of the problem is the increasing cost for shipping because of the continued lockdowns in China. In short, companies and merchants are paying significantly more to move the goods we consume. Also the Russia/Ukraine war continues to cause oil prices to go even higher. Have you seen gas prices lately? Commodities such as wheat and grains also have higher prices, which filters into higher grocery bills for all of us.

But amid the crisis there are beneficial opportunities. For example, certain investment areas like real estate, stocks, bonds and commodities may be wise financial moves now. Inflation will likely increase the resale value of a property. It could also benefit the investor by way of rent income, which will also increase as inflation soars.

With regards to stocks and bonds it may not be easy to see how investors can benefit since inflation is not good for fixed-income instruments and stocks generally keep pace with inflation. However, strategic moves like purchasing inflation-indexed bonds can help. In these instances, interest payments rise because the interest paid is based on the base value. Similarly, investors should focus on buying stocks in companies where the rising cost of the product can be easily passed on to consumers. In the same vein, tangible assets are a good bet during inflationary periods. For example, investing in agricultural produce or oil will likely deliver significant dividends.

As inflation forces consumers to revisit how they can get the most value for their buck, banks are also looking to cash in. Notably, banks are uniquely positioned to benefit from an environment where inflation is on the rise. That’s because inflation is usually followed by an interest rate increase. In the interim, consumers around the world continue to buckle under inflationary pressures after decades of relatively low consumer prices.

I really hope that with my views and the information shared that you are able to make some shifts in your investing. I want you to be a successful investor and knowledge is critical to do so. I would love to keep connected so reach out to me on IG or Facebook @profitjumpstarter or I am one click away at keisha@profitjumpstarter.com.