Tag Archives: finances

Boosting Your Finances As A Stay At Home Parent

05/14/2018 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

stay at home, parent, dad, mom, finances, make money — Photo by Steven Van Loy on Unsplash

If you want to boost your income, you’re not alone; a recent study found that 76 million Americans are struggling financially – and it can be even harder for single parents who have to pay child maintenance costs, especially if they are taking time off work. Thankfully there are a few ways to boost your income – and you don’t have to sacrifice the time that you spend at home looking after your children. Based on many blackout bingo reviews, you can even have fun playing games for real money. After all, there is very little point getting a job outside of the home if it only covers child care costs, as you won’t actually be earning any extra money for your family. Here are three ways that you can earn money as a stay at home parent.

Look For A Work From Home Job

There are lots of great jobs that you can do from home, including freelance writing and web design. While both of these jobs require some level of skill, there are other jobs that are easier to walk into, such as working as a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is someone who helps an individual or a business with basic admin tasks, from booking trips to responding to emails. If you want to have a little fun at the same time, you can even play games for real money. All of these jobs allow you to work from home and set your own schedule, which is ideal for a busy parent who needs to spend most of the day with their child.

Become A Seller

You can sell unwanted items from your home on eBay for a little extra cash, or if you are feeling creative you could try making things to sell (such as accessories, handmade ornaments or jewelry). Lots of people prefer to buy things online now because it is more convenient, so if you are selling a quality product someone is sure to buy it! This is an easy way to start a new income stream, but be aware if you are selling second-hand items you probably won’t get as much as you originally paid for the item.

Access Money Tied Up In Your Home

Most Americans have a lot of money tied up in their home, even if they have a mortgage; a recent study found that the average American has around $150,506 built up in their home. If you are a homeowner and you want to access the money tied up in your home, you can consider taking out an equity loan or a reverse mortgage. Both of these options can really help if you are struggling financially, but they are only available to homeowners. If you want to try and improve your financial state even more, you could try and learn more about the many investment options by visiting sites similar to https://www.sofi.com/investing-101-center/ where you’ll find guidance on many investing topics and goal setting strategies to see what’s right for you.

No-one likes worrying about money, especially if they have children to provide for. Thankfully these options make it a little easier for stay at home parents to get by.

Earn Income, Guest Post

What You Should Do After Receiving a Raise

07/13/2016 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Getting a raise is always a reason to celebrate, and seeing a larger paycheck as a direct result of your hard work is one of the best feelings. However, raises can lead to some unwise financial habits. It can be tempting to run out and buy that new big screen you’ve been eyeing, or funnel the money into a ticket for a family trip to Disneyworld, but take a moment to pause and think about how to use your new income in a way that will most benefit you and your family in the long run.

Reassess Your Budget

Any time you experience a change in income, whether for the worse or better, it’s important to look at your budget and adjust where necessary. When looking at your new income, it’s important to assess just how much the government will be taking out of that larger paycheck. Check out your credit history and take note of the places that you seem to spend the most, whether that be travel, entertainment, or dining. After looking at your budget, take a look at accounts that could use a little bolstering, then funnel your raise income difference into these areas. Another option is to invest your extra income in the stock market, this can be a good way to grow your asset pool and learn the financial system better. Through doing research into how companies are performing, as well as the general consensus on the amazon stock forecast (or other companies you’re interested in) you can predict trends and better invest your money where it will grow. The good thing about investing your money is you won’t be tempted to be wasteful with it, in the same way you might be if it was left sitting in your checking account.

Retirement Accounts

No matter where you are in your career, it’s important to have a retirement plan, whether you are in your mid-twenties or late forties. Thinking about the future is always essential when it comes to finances, and siphoning more money into your retirement plan will leave you with a larger retirement income and may mean you get to sign out of the professional world at a younger age than you ever imagined possible. Whether you’re putting more into your 401(k) at work or making deposits into an IRA, your future self will thank you for the forethought.

Charitable Donations

Sometimes, raises can affect our taxes, effectively seeing us owing more to the government when tax season rolls around. Charitable donations are a good way to spread the wealth while also being strategically sound with your finances. Donations to qualified charities can make you eligible for lucrative tax deductions when you file taxes online, and you’ll feel great about paying it forward.

Long Term Purchases

If you do have some need to buy items on your list, make sure your raise money goes towards those things which will benefit your family and finances in the long run. It might be an energy efficient washer and dryer, an update to your backyard living space that improves the value of your home, or investing in safe stocks that can make you a bit of interest each year. Speak with a financial advisor about what might be best for your family, and make sure you keep those impulse buys to a minimum, especially in the weeks directly following your raise.

Pay Off Debt

Have you been stuck in debt for a while? It’s time to get yourself out from under this financial strain. With your new income, it’s likely possible for you to become debt-free sooner than you originally thought possible. Take a look at your accounts and put them in order of interest rates, highest to lowest. Work on paying off the accounts with the highest interest first to avoid paying more over the long run than necessary. As your debt lessens, your credit score will improve, and the mental strain that’s alleviated will be more than welcome. If you owe the government, it’s essential to put all of your efforts into paying any back taxes owed under your name. The longer it takes you to pay back the IRS, the more dire the consequences. If it’s a serious amount of money owed, always be sure to use companies like www.communitytax.com to figure out what is going to help your case quickly and efficiently.

If you’ve received a raise for a job well done, it’s important to use that money in a smart, financially sound way that will best benefit your family. Keep these tips in mind and enjoy your new income to the fullest.

Life, Parenting

Our Monthly Subscription to Background Noise

05/07/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Hi there and Happy Hump Day!

Does Wednesday make you happy or just mad it’s still not Friday? I will feel mad sometimes, but then optimism kicks in and I’m like “Hey, at least it’s not Monday!” So try to think of that. 🙂

The other day Going Mom and I were discussing finances and planning for Avery’s future by opening a 529 plan. We were going over our options and trying to decide what a good amount would be to make monthly contributions to ensure Avery has enough for college if and when she attends.

I say “if” just incase she becomes a superstar. She’s already our superstar, but we can’t pay her for it; sorry, Avery.

Going Mom has looked into the 529 plan more than I have and she calculated how much we’d need to start contributing now just so Avery had enough for just her first year! That’s going off the current cost of college, and something tells me it won’t go down in 18 years….

Then, discussing how much we could comfortably contribute, Kelley brought up a good point; we are paying monthly for something we only use as background noise at night! What is it? Satellite.

To begin with, we only have it for 2 channels; Food Network and HGTV. But on top of that, we don’t even watch the TV when it’s on! I guess this is better than what we were doing.

For the first few weeks after we brought Avery home, we’d sit in silence in our dark living room as Avery slept in her swinging chair. We would actually fall asleep in the living room too and really didn’t see our bed that often. We finally has success with getting Avery to sleep in her crib and the TV came back on.

But, the TV serves us better as a glowing light and background noise source. Watch the TV? Nah!

Kelley and I will have a short discussion every now and then, but we mostly just fall into a trance perusing the internet. Sadly, we might talk more to each other via Facebook than when we are sitting in the same room at night!

It’s not because we’re arguing (usually) or anything, we just both urn for some quiet time by the end of the day. I actually hate it if she goes off to bed because I always enjoy her company, even if we don’t say a word. Anyone else like that?

Hey, at least we’re “smart” and have the cheapest package you can get with DISH®, so give us a little credit. Plus, we do sometimes use the TV when G-ma is visiting since she likes to watch certain shows.

While we’re on the subject, another “pricey” thing we do is use Kelley’s iPad2 as a white noise machine. Yep, it just sits on a stand in the nursery and we turn on the white noise app at night and nap time. Why pay twenty dollars for a sound machine when you can use a $500 iPad? Don’t answer that.

Nobody’s perfect, right? For the most part we are pretty conservative and actually do really well with saving where we can. A huge savings is cooking your own food and not going out to eat. Since we don’t go out (ever), we are reaping the benefits of good health and saving cash.

Before I check out for the day, I wanted to make an update to our current nightly routine. I still prepare Going Mom’s meal so she can spend some time with Avery, and bath time goes on as usual, but Kelley is able to get Avery to sleep faster afterward. This means she is back out and sitting with me (as we don’t talk) in the living room while our ~~light and sound box~~ TV is on.

The part I’m starting to enjoy now that Avery is more active, is playing with her while Kelley has dinner. I’ll sit on the floor next to Kelley and do whatever keeps Avery happy. I do push my limits and Kelley has to call me out, but for the most part, it’s fun.

We found that Avery is ticklish just about everywhere..

…and really enjoys being hung upside-down.

And obviously, she enjoys eating her hand 24/7. But I actually get excited to play a little with her before bedtime, and it helps to get her to sleep faster too!

Do you have things you pay for on a monthly basis but don’t use?

Do you have a certain routine each night or do you just “wing it” every day?