One of the best ways to free up working capital so you can do more with your money is by looking at where you can trim your budget and how you can improve the performance of the money you are putting to work. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a business, a nonprofit, or even a private household, the principles are the same, and so are many of the tactics you’ll wind up relying on. Here are five big changes you can make that really only take a little effort and the will to follow through, but they can free up a lot of money for your home. If you’re self-employed, they can also help you get more out of your business capital so you can afford to put more income into your personal budget.
1. Automate Your Savings
The most important part of growing wealth is having a regular pattern of saving behavior you follow through with, regardless of whether you have needed to draw funds out of your savings accounts lately. It can be hard to keep the pattern up when you need money to come out, though, because it seems simpler to just stop depositing. The problem with that is the way it tends to become a habit, leading you further and further away from the savings pattern you need to successfully grow your principal cash reserves. If you can automate your savings with regular withdrawals or even a stock investment account that regularly draws from your main bank account, you can take the work out of staying in that habit. This makes it a lot easier to hold the pattern even when times are tough.
2. Look for Ways To Save When You Send Money
International cash transfers are becoming more and more common as professionals move around the world for career opportunities that allow them to keep sending support and presents back home. Whether you are looking to send money to Colombia to start a new investment or to put cash in the hands of people who depend on you, the transaction costs inflate the amount of money you’re sending out without adding to what the recipient gets. That means you need a cost-efficient transfer provider whose speed is still up to your expectations. It’s worth shopping around for.
3. Revisit Your Tax Withholding
The key to getting the most efficiency out of your tax planning is knowing how much to take out. It’s true whether you work for yourself or someone else. If you work independently, withholding is actually just your setting aside savings for tax payments, and you can easily reconcile your numbers quarterly to make sure your payments are on-target without going over. It takes some planning to make sure you have the time to prepare the right reports, but why give the government a free loan when you can keep the money and put it to work? For those who are employed, it’s as simple as looking at your tax commitments from prior years and adjusting your withholding to spread any additional amounts you’ve had to pay in across your yearly income, preventing you from a big first-quarter bill the next year.
4. Increase Retirement Savings
Setting aside more pre-tax money through an IRA or 401k plan is a great way to grow wealth while saving money. An increase of just one percent of your annual income can mean tens of thousands over the years you work before retirement, so it’s a good adjustment to make if your budget has the space for it. Consider using part of this year’s raise to fund the increase.
5. Invest Abroad
Not everyone has the opportunity to invest outside the United States, but if you already have a solid savings plan and a good nest egg set aside, you can grow it with the right investments abroad, especially in countries with tax incentives for investors. Using a professional, efficient cash transfer service like the one at https://www.sharemoney.com can help you make those funds go even further, so you can invest on a global scale.
