August 2023 - Fresh Life Advice

Embrace Affluence: Strategies to Rewire Your Money Mindset for a Life of Prosperity

April 1, 2024August 23, 2023 by Fresh Life Advice

To embrace affluence, you need some strategies to rewire your money mindset for a life of prosperity.

Welcome to the 11th FLA Guest Blog Post! Today, we provide some steps to financial independence for young adults. Thank you to Chelsea from Business POP for sharing this helpful article.
Chelsea is an experienced Marketing and Advertising professional with a demonstrated history of working in the media industry. Chelsea is especially skilled in Digital Media advertising, Events, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Microsoft Suite, Data Analytics, Adobe products, and Marketing Strategy.
The digital age has unquestionably arrived. Incorporating new technologies into business procedures will be critical for owners who want to grow their businesses.
Business POP will show you how to grow your business through innovation. It is aimed at small and medium-sized business owners and will offer advice on what digital enhancements to consider and how such changes can help them grow.

Most people do not have the money mindset needed to maintain a fruitful life of prosperity. This article, courtesy of the Fresh Life Advice blog, aims to equip you with the necessary tools and knowledge to embrace affluence.

From budgeting basics to smart education investments and emergency fund essentials, this comprehensive guide is your roadmap to financial security and independence.

You Need a Budget

Your attitude towards money can have a profound impact on your overall quality of life. A positive money mindset can pave the way for financial stability, enabling you to live a comfortable and rewarding life, and realize your aspirations.

Conversely, a negative money mindset often leads to unwise financial choices, stress, and a diminished quality of life. Developing a healthy money mindset is about more than just amassing wealth; it involves making intelligent decisions with the resources at your disposal.

In this article, shared by Fresh Life Advice, we will delve into seven vital strategies that can assist you in transforming your money mindset, ultimately leading to a more prosperous and fulfilling life. By embracing these practices, you will be well-positioned to attain financial stability, expand your wealth, and nurture a positive relationship with money.

Look Into About Investing

Shifting your perspective from saving to investing is one of the first steps towards transforming your money mindset. Instead of keeping all your money in a low-interest savings account, consider investing in assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate that offer potential growth.

Diversifying your investments is essential to minimize risk and maximize returns over time. Continuous evaluation of your investment portfolio and adjusting your strategy based on current market conditions will also help in achieving your financial goals faster.

Engaging a financial advisor can be beneficial in creating a customized investment plan that aligns with your risk tolerance and financial objectives. With a growth-focused mindset, you can put your money to work and generate passive income.

Find Ways to Leverage Your Home Equity

Home equity is the difference between the market value of your home and the amount you owe on it. Tapping into your home equity for strategic purposes, such as funding education, home improvements, or starting a business, can be a smart move.

However, it’s crucial to use this equity responsibly, as mismanagement can lead to financial difficulties or even the loss of your property. Consult with financial professionals to understand the implications of borrowing against your home equity and ensure that you’re making informed decisions that won’t jeopardize your property’s value.

Automate Your Finances

Automating your budgeting and investment processes is an indispensable strategy for maintaining financial discipline. By setting up automatic payments for your bills and investments, you not only streamline your finances but also prevent late fees and missed payments, which can have detrimental effects on your credit score.

Automatic contributions to your investment accounts also ensure that your money is working for you on a consistent basis, taking advantage of compound growth over time. With the plethora of online tools and apps available today, tracking your expenses, savings, and investments has never been easier. Automation also removes the element of guesswork and reduces the likelihood of errors that are often associated with manual money management.

Learn All You Can About Investing

Knowledge is indeed power, especially when it comes to investing. By educating yourself about various investment options, including stocks, bonds, real estate, and retirement accounts, you empower yourself to make informed decisions that are in line with your financial goals.

Engage in continuous learning by taking online courses, attending seminars, and reading financial blogs and books. This will not only enhance your investment knowledge but also help you stay updated on current market trends and opportunities.

Armed with the right information, you will find yourself more confident in making investment choices and better equipped to navigate the complex world of financial markets. Ultimately, this knowledge will serve as a valuable tool in your journey toward financial prosperity.

Strategies to Rewire Your Money Mindset for a Life of Prosperity — **Image Source: Karolina Grabowska via Pexels**

Discover the Benefits of Financial Planning

Financial planning involves creating a comprehensive plan that outlines your financial goals and the steps needed to achieve them. This includes considering factors like retirement, emergency funds, and major expenses.

By creating a well-structured plan, you can guide your financial choices, stay on track, and avoid making impulsive decisions that can derail your financial progress. Seeking the guidance of a professional financial planner can be beneficial in creating a customized financial plan that aligns with your unique circumstances and goals.

Develop a Spending Plan

A realistic spending plan is an indispensable tool for effective financial management. By meticulously categorizing your expenses into essential and discretionary buckets, you can clearly delineate between your needs and wants, enabling you to prioritize necessities over luxuries.

As you go through your expenses, identify areas where you can cut back on spending and allocate those savings more productively, such as towards investments or building an emergency fund. A well-thought-out spending plan not only helps you live within your means but also prevents you from falling into the trap of overspending that can lead to financial stress.

Consistency is key when it comes to following this plan; regular adherence will ensure that you save steadily over time. By staying committed to your spending plan, you cultivate healthy financial habits that contribute to long-term financial stability. Ultimately, this disciplined approach to managing your finances lays the foundation for a secure and comfortable future.

Consider Starting a Business

If you aspire to start a business, venturing into B2B entrepreneurship can be a viable option. Before starting, understand the fundamentals of business creation, including marketing strategies, identifying target clients, nurturing leads, and measuring success.

Take time to research the market, analyze your competition, and create a strong business plan (give this a view for more info). Starting a business involves risks, so ensure you have adequate savings and a fallback plan in case your business venture doesn’t pan out as expected.

Transforming your money mindset is a journey that requires dedication, consistency, and a willingness to learn. By embracing and applying these seven key strategies, you can shift your perspective on money, gain greater control over your finances, and set the stage for a more prosperous future. This transformation is not just about accumulating wealth but fostering a positive relationship with money.

By consistently focusing on long-term financial goals and adopting a growth-oriented mindset, you can ultimately achieve a fulfilling and stress-free life. Remember, a healthy money mindset is an essential foundation for building a life of abundance and satisfaction.

Conclusion

Doing this stuff is tough. It takes practice, and you’ll slip back into your old habits more than once. But you have to keep trying and trying. And trying.

If you’re struggling with one of the ways to rewire your mind, then look a little deeper into why that might be. But, over time, you’ll develop a positive money mindset.

Disclosure: Fresh Life Advice is an opinion-based website. I am not a financial advisor, and the opinions on this site should not be considered financial advice.

Personal Capital: The Ultimate Tool to track your Net Worth, Budget and more.

What are your thoughts on prosperity? Let me know in the comments below.

July Side Income Report | 2023

April 1, 2024August 1, 2023 by Fresh Life Advice

Welcome to the 2023 July Side Income Report.

Let’s start this post with the obligatory caveat:

FLA’s side hustle income reports are not for the purpose of bragging. This side income amount of money is by no means impressive. The sole purpose of this series is to inspire you to create diversified income streams in order to help you achieve your financial goals faster.

I began this tumultuous F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence – Retire Early) journey almost immediately after graduating from college and shortly realizing it is never ideal to work for someone other than yourself.

After withdrawing from the corporate world, I plan to fully indulge in my mission of helping 10 million people with their own path to financial freedom. I’ve discovered a wonderful community of people with shared mindsets. So I’m currently on a journey to see if we can turn FLA into a little business that supports the mission.

The reason I’ve decided to publish these income reports is because I want you to be a part of the journey.

After aggressively saving 50%+ of my annual income year after year, I’m approximately 35% of the way to retirement with 9 years to go. I’m aware that side hustles may never fully support one’s expenses, but I’m willing to try.

At the very minimum of making $1/month (what one may consider failure), I am ecstatic as I realize this can be considered supplemental income that will be able to be reinvested into this blog to enhance your reading experience on FLA.

Through my arduous journey, I’ve learned to focus on the future value of money. One dollar to you may look like a standard George Washington-faced bill, but to me, I see its potential. Accounting for 3% inflation, investing that dollar could return 5 times its original value in 25 years. Yes, that’s like putting $1 into an ATM and having it return a $5 bill back to you. How amazing is compound interest?! Hypothetically, you can increase that principal amount, and you’ve got yourself some unbelievable returns.

My hope with these income reports is ultimately to present some transparency for you. By showing it doesn’t take much effort to earn and save, I may motivate you to chase one of your biggest dreams. Dreams may originally sound outlandish, but they all need to start somewhere, right? Without further ado, here is FLA’s July 2023 Side Income Report.

JULY SIDE INCOME REPORT

The best way to make money is to have various streams of revenue. The best way to protect yourself in the course of ill-fated events stripping you of some of your main sources of income is to diversify.

We have all heard the pragmatic advice of “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” Well, put this theory into practice. The following is my best attempt to develop additional sources of income. Below are the six ways I attempted to make money from my side hustles in the month of July.

Stocks are my absolute favorite money-making assets. Your money can make money for you with the click of a ‘buy’ button! Sure, there are ups and downs in the stock market, but if you look historically at the S&P 500 Index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average, your investment generally grows over the long term. Remember, investing and gambling are not the same thing.

“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”
-Warren Buffett, American Investor/Business Tycoon/Philanthropist/Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Investors and analysts contend that conducting research on which stock to buy may be active work, but it is a generally held credence that dividends are passive income.

What are dividends?

Simply, they are distribution of some of a company’s earnings to a class of its shareholders. In this case, you are the shareholder. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but the company you invest in will reward you with bonus money!

Let’s take a look at the aftermath of the stocks that paid out dividends this month:

Which stocks have I invested in? I have a few individual stock picks, but the finance community knows this is a loser’s game. I mainly hold VTI, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, which allows you to be diversified and capture 3,525 different stocks with a minimal expense ratio, or annual fee, of 0.03%. Index funds will often take you to the promised land in the long run.

Typically, you have 2 choices with dividends. You can either accept the dividend as cold hard cash or you can choose to reinvest the money back into the same stock automatically. It’s as simple as clicking the ‘yes’ button when prompted with the question on whether or not to re-invest dividends.

I strongly recommend you to reinvest your dividends and capital gains. Why? Well, look at this way: you didn’t have the earned dividend money to begin with. Do you really need it at this moment? Why not let your additional money grow even more? Open up an investment account and enjoy the magic of compounding interest by increasing your principal investment.

July Side Income – Stock Dividends / Interest Total: $1.82

In my free time, I participate in paid surveys. It’s one of my other sources of income. The surveys are mindless and allow you to temporarily escape from life’s struggles and reality. Oftentimes, you have a chance to play your part in society and provide meaningful feedback on hot topics that may be decided by top companies and government officials.

The 3 survey programs I use daily are:

I strongly recommend any of these three survey websites because of the higher payouts. Our time on this planet is valuable. Always consider how much time you are trading for money.

Prolific

Prolific seems to have the highest quantity of surveys available. Each survey also previews an hourly rate to the user. This significantly helps in determining if the survey is worth your time. I’ve seen them range from $3/hour all the way up to $30/hour, but on average are $8/hour.

Pinecone Research

Pinecone Research surveys always reward you with $3 for every survey. Since each survey is typically around 10 minutes long, the site has a pretty standard hourly rate of $12/hour. However, the frequency of surveys is much less than Prolific.

YouGov

Finally, YouGov’s typical survey lasts for 10 minutes and will pay out $1.50, translating to an hourly rate of $6/hr. Even though it is the lowest payout, it still helps to have supplemental income. Again, always consider the balance between time and money.

YouGov is an eclectic group of the media, nonprofits and companies that congregate to find out what the world thinks. YouGov happens to be one of the most-quoted data sources in the US and across the world.

Prolific, Pinecone Research, and YouGov offer all kinds of rewards, but I normally recommend cash payout via PayPal. The transfer is usually instantaneous. Prolific does pay out in GBP, but the money is translated to USD when conducting a bank transfer in PayPal.

In fact, Prolific does not have a minimum payout, Pinecone’s minimum payout is $5, and YouGov’s minimum cash payout is $50, albeit YouGov offers the option of a $15 Amazon gift card.

July Side Income – Surveys Total: $173.14

An additional passive income stream is selling your old goods or unused consumer products. Simply list your items with competitive pricing on Amazon and/or eBay, sit back, and let the buyers make you offers.

I often notice friends, family, and even co-workers constantly looking to throw out items that are still in perfectly good condition; it drives me nuts! Why not let someone bid on the product? Worst case will be that it doesn’t sell, and then you can throw out the item. No harm, no foul.

At the very least, donate your stuff. I typically enjoy donating old apparel to the Salvation Army and other charities. It always feels good to know your treasured clothing is not going to waste.

This month, there were a couple of strangers that bought an item of my personal inventory I was looking to discard. After fees and small shipping costs, I usually still walk away with a hefty profit.

July Side Income – Selling Total: $57.40

As a blogger, I would like to keep the user experience as clean as possible. Therefore, I have chosen to keep all Google AdSense ads from my website. I am an avid reader of many other blogs, and I can truthfully admit it retracts from the reading experience. I am very proud of this decision and will continue with this route.

July Side Income – Google AdSense Revenue: $0.00

I published my first eBook titled How I Launched, Marketed, and Promoted a High-Traffic Blog in Under 15 Days last year. I only promoted the book as part of the launch, but several people found their way to the sales page. Again, this is a learning process to convert the views into actual sales. As Robert Kiyosaki alludes to in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, it’s all about being a best-selling author, not a best-writing author. There is a subtle yet significant difference.

July Side Income – eBook Blog Startup Manual Sales: $0.00

Who would’ve ever thought that spending money would actually earn you money? Well, with cash-back credit cards, now it’s certainly possible. With my Capital One Venture Card, I can now make this dream a reality.

Depending on the card you have, you’ll score 1-2 miles with every dollar you spend. Capital One Miles can be used in a variety of ways and are generally worth between half a cent and one cent apiece.

Earn 50,000 bonus miles (equivalent to $500) once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

Although I’m still trying my best to limit opportunities to throw away those hard-earned paychecks, the positive result is that I earn more in cash back from the credit card rewards.

After looking at my monthly expense report, I saw that I earned 3,899 miles, which is equivalent to $38.99.

I now have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card.

Earn 80,000 bonus miles (equivalent to $1,000) once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

When you use points to redeem for cash, each point is worth $.01 (one cent), which means that 100 points equals $1 in redemption value. Each point you redeem for travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards is worth $.0125 (one and a quarter cents), which means that 100 points equals $1.25 in redemption value, and points are worth 25% more than if redeemed for cash. For example, 20,000 points are worth $250 when redeemed for travel purchases, or $200 when redeemed for cash. The cost of travel is based on the rates and fares available through the Ultimate Rewards website and travel center, and may not reflect all rates and fares that are available through other sales channels.

If you choose to use points and your Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to pay for your purchase, each point will be worth $.0125, but your credit card will be charged the full remaining dollar amount.

After this month, I was able to earn $101.15 this month from the Chase card.

July Side Income – Capital One & Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Cash-Back Rewards – $140.14

Well, that’s it for this month’s side income report! Hope your 2023 is going well.

In 2022, I was able to max out my Roth IRA and 401k – I highly recommend you do the same in 2023 if you have the option! In January, I immediately transferred the maximum $6,500 limit from my taxable brokerage account to the tax-deferred Roth IRA for the 2023 year, with most of it invested in January. The sooner, the better since time in the market often beats timing the market.

Investing in 2023 is a great time because we were just in a bear market (down over 20% from the highs) in 2022 so stocks are on sale!

Thank you for taking the time to read through my latest July income report and thank you for contributing if you have previously purchased something through one of my affiliate links!

If you wish to support this site, but don’t have a need for any of FLA’s affiliate products, you could simply do your regular Amazon shopping through any of the links on this site that lead to Amazon.com. You won’t pay any extra and FLA will receive a small commission. Thanks so much if you do so!

That’s a wrap for this income report! I am looking forward to earning more money on the side in the future. Stay hustlin’, my friends!

Total July Side Income: $372.50

How was your July 2023 side hustling? Let me know in the comments below.

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