Three ways you can break the payday to payday cycle
Is your money gone already even though you just got paid? If so, you’re not alone. According to ABC, one out of every two people who work in Australia are living from payday to payday. While these numbers are shocking, it’s a cycle that you don’t have to be stuck in forever.
While it does take work to break the cycle, it can be done if you take a little bit of time and map out a plan of action. To help with this, here are three ways you can break the payday to payday cycle:
- Realise that you are living from paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t realise this until something goes wrong. For example, all of your bills might be paid, but then you need an expensive home repair and you have no money in your savings to cover it. So therefore, the first action to take is to look at your budget (or create one if you don’t have one), and determine how much money you have left over after all of your bills are paid. If your answer is “not much”, than you’re living from one payday to another.
- Don’t count all of your income. One of the most common ways to break the cycle is to live below your means. For example, if your salary is $50,000 for the year, decide that you’re going to live on $40,000 and save the other $10,000. While you may not be able to put that much money into savings due to your current bill obligations, you can opt to give up a few things to help you get there, such as not traveling as much, using coupons, eating out less, or walking more places instead of using your car.
- Earn more money by doing side jobs or freelancing. One of the easiest ways to break the cycle is to earn more money and put any extra income you earn into savings.
There are several ways to break the cycle of living from payday to payday, but these three ideas can help get you heading in the right direction.
If you already have unplanned expenses that you need to take care of, click here to check out our article on how to pay off unexpected bills.