MONEYSMARTLIFE.ORG EMPOWERING SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL WELL-BEING IN WORKING CLASS FAMILIES

the MoneySmartLife.org Lifestyle blog

Empowering sustainable financial well-being for working class families
Picture
  • Home
  • Take Control Tuesday
  • Blog Money Smart Lifestyle Moments Blog
  • About us
  • Money can be Funny Gallery
  • Trusted Advisor Sign-up
  • Discover Your Money Personality Game
  • Other Blogs and Voices
    • How Much Does It Cost You To Work
    • Detroit Praise Network Blog
    • Better Money Habits

11/18/2019

Have a Better Holiday Family Gathering

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
Holidays are times of gathering for families. As such it provides opportunities to help the extended family strengthen its economic foundation. These are the perfect times to discuss estate plans, elder care, custodial expectations and more. Now that sounds pretty heavy and it may be depending upon how your family views these subjects. But not talking about it isn’t wise. 

Normally estate matters are resolved as part of a process that takes time to complete. But they must be started. Start with the easy stuff. Are wills in place for all adults 18 years and older? What happens to the kids? Are there durable power of attorneys and health care directives in place for all adults 18 years and older?  It is better to have these discussions before a crisis requires them. Not having proper estate plans in place has put significant stress on family relationships regardless of assets forever. Yours will be no different. 

Take the next steps depending on what is learned. Help those that have no plan get one written and recorded. Encourage those that have a partial plan to upgrade. Lead by example.

Family gatherings can also provide opportunities to save money through the elimination of redundant streaming services expenses. Most streaming services allow for multiple profiles or device logins. Maximizing profiles used for each service and spreading the cost of the subscriptions can expand extended family access while lowering individual unit costs. This is also a time to review subscription services already shared to see if they are still used and eliminate those that aren’t.  

Some services can be eliminated seasonally depending upon demand. The family can adopt a “binge and go” strategy. This is where a service is subscribed to for a period of time to allow episodes to be binged. The effect is to make the service disposable, use it then lose it. This eliminates autopilot spending that subscriptions require.

Here is a list of some popular subscription streaming services and links to their multiple user policies:
  • Hulu allows 6 profiles
  • Prime Video not allowed
  • Prime Music not allowed
  • Netflix allows 5 profiles
  • HBONow It's complicated
  • HBOGo It's complicated
  • Starz allows 4 devices
  • Showtime & Showtime Anytime 5 devices
  • Disney+ 7 profiles
  • DirecTV Now 2 devices
  • ​Xfinity Stream 3 devices via the internet ​

Share

0 Comments

11/10/2019

2 steps to better household cash flow management

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
Living paycheck to paycheck is hard because there never seems to be enough money, ever. Being “broke” all the time ain’t no fun, that’s for sure. Especially if you make a “decent” income and know you should be doing better. This also encourages the unsustainable use of debt for lifestyle support.

It's not just how much money comes in and how much money goes out. It's also when does money come in, and when does it have to go out? That's called cash flow. If you manage your cash flow properly, you can reduce your stress and survive short term minor financial shocks.
 
The steps to proper cash flow management:
  1. Get a calendar and note the dates when money comes in. And write down the dates when money goes out. This will give you a graphic look. Be sure to capture all sources of income including freelance and side hustles. I mark the income in green and outgo in red. Cliched but effective.
  2. Contact your creditors, ask for a more convenient due date based on your calendar. This could be anybody from your landlord to credit cards, car payments, student loans, utilities, or insurance payments. Many may accommodate your requests particularly if it increases your capacity for on-time payments.

A lot of times you'll have more dates with money going out than you do money coming in. It’s not just the date when money has to go out, also its relative size to the money coming in has an impact as well. For example when a rent payment requires most of a pay period check.

My first confrontation with cash flow was during my first job. Newly married at 22, totally inexperienced at handling money. While also suffering from early-onset testosterone poisoning better known as “stupid looking for somewhere to happen” that silently infects so many American males. My beautiful young 20-year-old bride did not have much experience with money either. We were properly raised in Black middle class families where money was a closely held secret revealed only on a need to know basis under the penalty of death if revealed to anyone.

I got a job working for 3M Co as a territory sales rep. In 1973, my starting salary out of graduate school was $800 per month, paid once a month at the end of the month. That was all the income we had. Besides the salary, the job came with a company car. And they also reimbursed expenses bi-weekly, such as gas for the company car and meals with clients.

Being paid once a month will force you to learn how to manage money. Unfortunately, we made a ton of errors on the way to that knowledge. There was always seemed to be “a lot of month left at the end of the money.” It was a stressful way to live and led to an unmanageable debt load that would accompany us for years. I remember one particularly painful month when my wife made a simple arithmetic mistake in the check register. (These were the days before digital calculators, nevertheless ATMs, computers, or apps.) The account was overdrawn and there was nothing that could be done about it until next payday. Of course, the bank had no problem racking up overdraft fees throughout the month and immediately subtracting them from the next deposit. This made a bad situation worse and prolonged the pain for additional months.

I left that job for another job that paid more money more often, from once per month to every two weeks. The biggest change besides the slightly larger income was going from 12 to 26 paydays per year. That change lowered our stress and increased our capacity to save aggressively and spend wisely.

You can also use your credit card to control due dates. This is a strategy that is especially effective with multiple cards and delivers rewards as well. Remember cash flow is impacted by how much goes out and also when it goes. Using a credit card to pay an obligation can effectively extend its due date and allow you to retain your funds longer. Using a series of credit cards with rotating closing dates to pay routine obligations such as utilities, insurance premiums, etc can improve your cash flow and buffer unexpected increases. To use this strategy you must pay your credit card statement balance in full each month by the due date.

The 3 fundamentals of good cash flow management are simple and evergreen:
  1. Get more in
  2. Send less out
  3. Keep as much as you can for as long as you can
Doing so depends on yourfinancial capabilities.

​

Share

0 Comments
Details

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Notify me of new blog posts

    Categories

    All
    Borrowing
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Credit
    Debt
    Financial Capability
    Financial Well Being
    First Time Home Buyer
    Max Income
    Protecting
    Savings
    Spending
    Taxes

    join money smart lifers

    RSS Feed

    Mansa Musa Trusted Advisor First time home buyer

    Author

    Mansa Musa is a homeownership counselor and homebuyer educator. He is currently the Principal at MoneySmartLife.org. He blogs and speaks on subjects of financial well-being and financial capability. Helping working class families live a sustainable MoneySmartLife through pragmatic solutions and behavior changes.

Picture
MoneySmartLife.org YouTube Channel
Money Smart Lifestyle Moments Blogs

    Subscribe Today!

Submit

Contact Us

Necessary Disclaimers 

  • MoneySmartLife.org and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. 
  • The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual; either in the past or future. 
  • This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.” MoneySmartLife.org states that they’re using this material as part of their “efforts to advance understanding of issues of “financial well-being” and that they believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the material in accordance with title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. ​
  • Home
  • Take Control Tuesday
  • Blog Money Smart Lifestyle Moments Blog
  • About us
  • Money can be Funny Gallery
  • Trusted Advisor Sign-up
  • Discover Your Money Personality Game
  • Other Blogs and Voices
    • How Much Does It Cost You To Work
    • Detroit Praise Network Blog
    • Better Money Habits