OK, so the economy sucks, job loss fears are looming it seems around every corner, and the happy-go-lucky days in your personal financial world just don’t seem to be there anymore. If you ever had them at all.
Well, now is not the time to bury your head in the sand, now is the time to do something about it.
I came up with five different ways that you can reinvent or reinvigorate your personal financial world. The point being is that sometimes now is the perfect time to try something a little different and it could have a major financial impact for you down the road.
1) Consider investing more-when the stock market tanked, a lot of people got out. In my opinion, that was a bad move. I always remember the saying “You only lose if you sell now.” The best thing would have been to ride out the storm. Well, regardless, now may be the time to either get in or jump back in. A variety of major stocks that took huge hits are at or close to their all-time lows. Maybe it’s time to dip your feet in the water again; it could pay off big time down the road.
2) Start a new venture-now may also not be a bad time to start up some new income generating venture in your life. Regardless of the size, this could also pay off. I am not saying to go open a million dollar business venture, but what you should understand is that people have not necessarily stopped spending their money, they are just spending it on different things. I have dabbled in selling items on Amazon a little bit, and my sales for DVDs have increased tremendously. More than likely, because people don’t have the money they used to for going out to the movies.
3) Donate. Now, will this be a huge money maker for you? Probably not. But guess what? It can come in handy around tax time because you can write it all off, and also, with all of the job losses out there, there are probably more people now than ever that could benefit from the things you no longer have a need for. This is what I like to call a “dual use” tactic. Take the tax break and feel good about doing it.
4) Review Your Investment Portfolio– In the heyday of the economic boon that we just enjoyed, you probably didn’t even have to look at your investment portfolio because everything was probably doing great. Now, I am not quite so sure. After a recent review of my personal portfolio, some of these things were doing so bad that I simply pulled them out and re-invested the money in one of my other ventures. I tripled my gains (not much aggregate gain, but a gain nonetheless) just by taking the time to review how I was doing.
5) Keep your eyes open-so many businesses are struggling so mightily right now that they are offering huge discounts to gain new customers. In the past year, I have changed my satellite TV company, my gas company, and my internet provider. The savings easily net me an extra $100-$150 per month, and that doesn’t include all the sign up bonuses I took advantage of. Take a look around and I bet you could save yourself some money on your monthly bills.
To sum it all up, I think the phrase “Variety is the spice of life” is real close to being on-point. Better put, I would say that “Variety is the main ingredient of your personal financial life.”
