Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How to Practice Self-Care When Paying Down Debt

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Dave Ramsey says that paying off debt is more of a sprint (especially when you’re gazelle intense), but if you have a lot of debt, the payoff journey may feel more like a marathon. If you keep your nose to the grindstone without a break, your physical and emotional health may suffer. Practicing self-care will help you not only remain in good health but also have the stamina to see your debt-free journey to the end. Here are some tips you may want to utilize to care for yourself while working hard on paying down debt:

Make Sure You Have a Fun Money Fund

I know, you may feel like all of your money should go on debt repayment, and, yes, almost all of it should. However, set aside a small amount for fun money for the month. When my husband and I were paying down debt, we each got $20 for the month. I used mine to buy treats at the grocery store that weren’t in my budget or we sometimes used the money to get a dessert at a restaurant together. This money should be yours to spend any way you see fit and to give you a little wiggle room in your budget so you don’t feel deprived.

Do Something Just for You Every Day

What do you enjoy doing? Some people enjoy spending time in their gardens, running, doing yoga–the choice is yours. When I was working three jobs in my 20s, I enjoyed nothing more than coming home after a 12 or 14-hour day and slipping into a bubble bath. That was the perfect way to destress and relax.

Start a Pinterest Dream Board

Do you have a major goal when your debt is paid off? Maybe you’ve always wanted to visit France, and that’s how you plan to celebrate being debt-free (after you’ve saved cash for the trip, of course). Why not start a Pinterest board of all the places you want to go and things you want to see? You can create this board for any dream you plan to realize when your money is no longer going toward debt. The best part about Pinterest is that you can make the board secret so only you see it.

Make Your Meals at Home

Let’s face it, paying off debt and working hard to make extra money can be stressful and exhausting. While you may be tempted to grab quick food, know that doing that regularly can have negative effects on your health. Take the time to make homemade food. You’ll feel better, be healthier, and have more energy.

Listen to an Audio Book

You may not have the free time to sit down and read a book, but when you’re driving to and from work, why not listen to an audiobook? It can be a fiction book you listen to just for fun, or it can be a non-fiction book that will help you in your career. Gazelle intensity is exhausting and stressful, so make sure you make time to relax and take care of yourself.

Don’t Take On Any New Debt

Lastly, whatever you do, avoid taking on any additional high-interest debt. Amanda, over at Our Debt Free Family has a very nice review of Click Cash Go, which is an exemplary high-interest debt marketplace to avoid. So, avoid any additional borrowing – that’s a huge part of self care.

 

What are some of your favorite ways to practice self-care?

4 Ways to Make Sure Your Bills Get Paid On Time

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You’re busy.  I get it.  I’m busy, too, and sometimes I forget to sit down and pay my bills in a timely manner.  However, I don’t want a ding to my credit score.  Because I’m so busy with my kids and their many activities, and L.I.F.E., I use several strategies to make sure my bills get paid on time.

Here are some of my favorite strategies:

Set e-mail reminders.

For each of my credit cards, I have set up e-mail reminders.  Depending on the company, I’m sent an e-mail reminder six to 10 days before my payment is due.  I can’t tell you how many times these e-mail reminders have meant the difference between a late and on-time payment.  Everyone should set e-mail reminders for their bills, in my opinion, especially if you have a very busy schedule.

Set up recurring payments to your credit card.

While I generally avoid setting up recurring payments to my checking account, I do advocate setting up recurring payments to credit cards.  Why?  If a charge is fraudulently applied to your credit card, the credit card company protects you.  If the same thing happens to your checking account, your entire account could be emptied, and then you would miss other payments to other creditors and have to pay for bounced checks.

In addition, if you have a credit card with a rewards program, you could gain rewards simply for paying your monthly bills that you used to pay via check and snail mail.  Those points can add up quickly when you’re paying your monthly recurring bills with credit cards.  Just make sure to pay off your credit card each month.

Set up a special account for automatic payments from your savings or checking.

If you still prefer to set up automatic payments to your bank account, I’d suggest setting up a separate account just for automatic payments.  Then, if there is an error on the vendor’s part, you don’t risk paying overdraft fees on your regular checking account.

I have one account that is devoted solely to automatic payments for my husband’s student loans and our life insurance (the only two payments I have set to auto pay from our bank account).  These are both fixed expenses, so at the beginning of every month, I just schedule a transfer to that account so the payments can be deducted.  Since I don’t use this account for any other purpose, there is no worry about not being able to make other payments or bouncing checks.

Keep all of your bills in one place.

If you’re still receiving bills in the mail rather than electronically, keep all of your bills in one place.  If you use snail mail, also keep stamps there.  Then, when you’re ready to sit down to pay your bills, you have everything you need right in one place.

What are your strategies to make sure your bills get paid on time?  What suggestions would you add to this list?

4 Side Hustles for Teachers

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If you’re currently a teacher, you likely know that while this occupation can be rewarding, it doesn’t pay very well.  You may be looking to supplement your income in the evenings or the weekend.

If you’re a former teacher who is now staying home with your kids, you may be looking for a way to bring in money utilizing your teaching skills.  However, you’ll need flexibility so that you can do your work when your children are sleeping at night or napping.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to earn a side gig with your skills as a teacher.

Private Tutor

Teacher Hustles
Make Money as a Teacher

One of my friends worked at Nielsen, became a high school math teacher, and then stayed home when she had children.  For the last 10 years, she has been a private math tutor.  She gets her clients from referrals from her former colleagues and through word of mouth thanks to satisfied customers.  She makes several hundred dollars a month and enjoys being able to still teach even though she is no longer working full-time.

VIPKID Tutor

If you have a bachelor’s degree, you can get apply for a job at VIPKID teaching children in China how to speak English.  Most of the available tutoring hours are very early in the morning or late in the evening when your kids are likely already in bed.  You can set your own schedule and decide how many hours you want to work each week.

Depending on your experience, VIPKID may pay up to $22 per hour.

Curriculum Developer

Many former teachers make a nice income developing curriculum and selling it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Other teachers are always looking for quality curriculum material and homeschoolers also take advantage of the site.

Online Teacher for Gifted Students

A number of prestigious colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Northwestern offer online classes for gifted children.  You can teach here, and the schedule offers flexibility as you can decide what semesters to teach and what classes to teach.  You’ll be able to challenge gifted students, and you’ll have students who will likely challenge you, too.

If you don’t want to work with gifted students, you can also look at the many online schools available for K-12 students.  You can teach from home, and you may have to have a live course or tutoring once a week.  My kids were enrolled in an online school this year, and every time they had a tutoring session or interacted with their teachers, the teachers always worked from home, which provides a great deal of flexibility.

If you’re a teacher looking for extra income, you can see that there are a variety of ways to do that, and this list isn’t exhaustive. Here’s another list of ways to make extra money that’s not focused on teachers, but could certainly apply to teachers.  If you’re a teacher who opted to stay home with kids, there are many ways you can work from home using your skills and keeping current so you’ll be able to reenter the teaching workforce should you decide to in the future.

If you’re a teacher or were a teacher, have you found ways to turn your skills into a side gig or part-time income stream?  If so, what do you do?