Give yourself a 25% pay rise
There's nowt more powerful than sorting out your own
finances. By shifting to the best deal on every product, you can give
yourself a 25% pay rise, without cutting back. Before anything else,
this is the most important starting point.How much? The average UK family could gain £2,500 to £5,000 a year doing this.
How do I do it? Use the step-by-step Money Makeover guide.
Get paid every time you spend
Cashback credit cards pay you back a proportion of what you spend each time you use them.Set up a direct debit to pay the card off in full each month, so there's no interest cost, and you can earn £100s/year. Just use the card for all your normal spending.
How much? The top cards pay 5% cashback
for the first three months. It's also possible to get 3% for
petrol/transport and 1% for supermarkets. How do I do it? For updated best buys, see the Top Cashback Cards guide.
Don't accept pitiful savings rates
Make sure you're getting the most out of your savings.
Too many people leave their savings in pitiful high street bank accounts
where former best buy rates have dropped massively.Even worse, you may have it in a current account earning just 0.1%. Stop! Five minutes' work will let you increase the interest massively.
How much? For every £5,000 you have in a top easy access savings account, as a basic rate taxpayer you'd earn at least £41 a year more than in a poor account - potentially much more if you're able to tuck it away for a couple of years.
How do I do it? See the Top Savings Accounts, Starting Saving and Best Bank Accounts.
Pay off debts with savings
Most people who try to save while they're in debt are simply throwing their money away. The amount you pay in interest to borrow is much more than you earn on your savings, so pay the debt off with savings and you're quids in.
How much? Someone with £5,000 on a
credit card and £5,000 saved is likely to be around £800 a year better
off by paying off the debt with the savings.Find out more: See the full Should I Pay Off My Debts?, Should I Pay Off My Student Loan? and Should I Overpay My Mortgage? guides.
Get the benefits/state pension you're entitled to
There's a plethora of benefits available - the key is working out whether you're entitled to them. The rather nifty tool from benefits specialists Entitledto in our Benefits Checkup guide does the work for you. Its regularly-updated calculator works out everything you can get.Plus it may be possible to get more in your retirement by purchasing extra National Insurance Contributions (NICs), though there are drawbacks. Read the full State Pension Boosting guide.
How much? If you've a family income under £42,000 it's worth checking. But in rare cases families with £72,000 can qualify, as you could get any of these: working tax credit; housing benefit; council tax support; pension credit; child benefit and child tax credit. By boosting your state pension, you could end up £1,000s better off.
Find out more: Read the Benefits Check-up, Pension Boosting and Childcare Costs guides.
Use your credit rating to stooze
Many credit card companies are willing to lend you money at 0% interest, so why not use this cash for everyday spending, replacing all other credit & debit card spending?This means you'll now have debts on your 0% card (make sure you make the min repayment each month) and a similar amount in your current account, which you can save in an ISA or high interest savings account.
Pay off the full balance before the 0% ends, having earned interest on the money saved. This is known as stoozing. It's legal and can be profitable, yet it's only for the really financially-savvy.
How much? This depends on what you'd normally spend. It's this amount that will be gaining interest in a top savings account, but if you stoozed £5,000 in a top rate ISA, you'd earn around £77 over the year.
How do I do it? Use the step-by-step Stoozing: Make Free Cash guide.
No comments:
Post a Comment