5 Easiest Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2024

When it comes to improving your finances, the best tips usually sound quite extreme. Getting a new job, selling an asset, declaring bankruptcy, or consolidating your loan are all major steps that require a lot of courage and careful planning. However, not every positive financial decision has to be hard. Here are the top five easiest ways to improve your finances in 2024 without having to sacrifice too much.  

Always shop around

The first thing you need to do is develop a habit of always shopping around. There’s bound to be a better offer somewhere out there; you just have to look for it.

First of all, when shopping for something for the first time, you don’t even have a reference point. You have no idea how much some items and services cost, which means that you have to start with research in order to get, at least, an estimation. 

Next, even when you get an idea of how much something costs, the cost is really not a final thing. Chances are that there’s something lower, and if you go through five, ten, or 50 offers, you might find it. In the age of the internet, this research is really not that labor-intensive. 

The last thing you need to understand is that when buying stuff from abroad, you want to avoid price discrimination. The best way to do this is to start using VPN. On Technopedia, you have the ranking of the best VPN available, and you should consider going through this list. 

Gamify your savings

Saving money is sometimes hard because it feels like a massive sacrifice. Well, it doesn’t have to be so. The best way to avoid it is to gamify your savings. This means that you can turn setting money aside into a game.

A perfect example of how this works is an old family tradition of swear jar. Every time you swear, you put a fixed amount of money in a jar. This is not just a didactic method but a way to enforce the rules of behavior in your household. It’s also a way to trick yourself into making setting money aside easier. 

Another amazing idea is the 52-week money-saving plan. This game involves setting aside a set amount of money each week and increasing it by $1 every week. So, if you put $1 in the jar the first week, you put $2 in the next week. If you put $100 in the first week, you put $101 in the second one. 

Most importantly, it will all feel like a game.

Try to avoid unnecessary debt.

A lot of people talk about payday loans as if they’re the worst thing in the world and that they should be avoided at all costs. Sure, they are bad, and everyone knows they’re bad. They can have an APR of 300-500%, which means that you’ll return far more than you borrow. The problem is that people need some quick cash because they can’t handle it until the paycheck. These people often have no choice.

The thing is that there’s a lot of avoidable debt that you’ll amass either because you don’t understand the loan terms or because you’re not thinking about it, at all. 

The most obvious example of the type of loan that you should avoid is personal loans for non-essential purchases.

Lastly, it’s vital that you’re careful and smart with your loans. In other words, while things like loan consolidation are, generally speaking, a good thing, without proper planning, they can lead to more debt (even more interest) in the long run. 

We’re not suggesting that you avoid loans; we only suggest that you get better at loan management. 

A bit more austerity

There’s no saving money without austerity. No matter how you try to gamify your savings, you have to start spending less in order to have excess cash that you can later reinvest. So, you have to learn how to spend less in a sustainable manner.

What do we mean by this? 

Well, first of all, you need to walk a fine line between austerity and being a full-fledged hermit. The thing is that if you deny yourself too much, you’ll start feeling bad about yourself, and you may even lose the will to work. It’s like starting out too ambitiously with your training or diet and then quitting immediately because it’s too restrictive. 

For instance, you may learn that you’re spending too much money on takeaway coffee each month. A sensible thing would be to cut this down in half, but what some people would do is completely cut down on this luxury and start brewing coffee at home. This gives great results at first (for the first few weeks), but then you start questioning if this type of self-sacrifice is worth it.

The best form of austerity is the one you can stick to in the long run.

Consider finding a gig

The last thing you need to keep in mind is the importance of considering getting a gig. If you see that you’re spending more than you’re earning, perhaps you need to start earning more; however, finding an extra job is a huge commitment.

The best thing about these gigs is that you can find them over and over again whenever you need them. Each of these platforms has some sort of a reputation system where satisfied clients can rate and review your services. 

The longer you do it, the higher your rating (and your rate) goes. Eventually, you may even be able to turn this into a conventional career. 

Even without this, you should never underestimate how well-paid these gigs are, but you also have to acknowledge that it won’t necessarily be so right off the bat. You might have to start slow and work your way up a bit. 

5 Easiest Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2024 | Simple Money-Saving Tips

The most important thing you need to understand is that, when it comes to finances, there are no shortcuts. This is something you’ll have to worry about every day of your life, which is why you need sustainable and repeatable solutions. You need something that you can use no matter how high your income and expenses are. Most importantly, you need something simple and easy.