Laura Duncan - Independent Financial Adviser

Coming at you on a Sunday with the tough money truths 🥊 You ready?

1. Celebrate the small wins….why? Because they add up to big wins 🙌🏻

2. Always pay yourself first, no matter how much you need to reduce your remaining money for the month to its bare bones. Your future self will thank you for being prepared.

3. Index funds have a purpose and are a good option to hold in a diversified portfolio but if your eggs are all in the index fund basket you aren’t going to realise your gains anytime soon I’m afraid

4. F.I.R.E tends to mean you want to retire well before your pension age, so it doesn’t make sense to lock your money up in pensions that aren’t accessible. Buy assets (businesses, properties, commodities) if you are looking to generate early wealth

5. Your aim should be to grow your time, not your money. Once time is gone, it’s gone….this is your freedom. Financial freedom helps

6. Only ever use debt sensibly, it easily spirals. Don’t forget debt is just someone’s else’s way of making their own money, whether it’s the bank, the credit card company, the loan shark, even government bonds - are debt.
They aren’t there to do you a favour.

What else would you add? Let me know below ⬇️ and follow for more financial education.

Remember for advice specific queries to contact me directly as anything on this page is for education only 👍🏻

✨ Small things you do daily make a big difference ✨

1️⃣Check your bank balance daily - errors occur, refunds comes back in, forgotten subscriptions go out etc etc etc - you can use that money

2️⃣Always record your spending it is then easier to consolidate at the end of the month and adjust budgets for the next

3️⃣Scan your receipts for any spending you have done on scanning apps for points/cashback

4️⃣You may already use automated roundups but some people prefer to only round up as and when it’s affordable, look at your spending and if you feel it is affordable round up and send the extra to your savings

5️⃣Make a small payment to your debt, it might be from your accumulated round ups or from somewhere else you have managed to save money recently, every little helps!

What are your daily budgeting habits? Let us know below ⬇️

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We all talk about how we need to increase our incomings to deal with any debts quicker and get us on our way to financial freedom 😁
But how do we do that❓

Here’s some tips on what you could do

1️⃣Identify what you are good at now and start building on those skills to utilise alongside your day job, whether it’s taking on additional certifications or increasing your knowledge in a particular field….keep building skills.

2️⃣Make sure your pay is inline with others doing a similar job in your sector….know your worth

3️⃣If it isn’t consider speaking with your boss about your current pay, maybe at a performance review or appraisal. Ask specifically what you would need to do in order to increase your pay by ‘x’ then go and do it!

4️⃣If there is no chance of increasing your pay with your existing employer start looking elsewhere, sometimes you have to jump ship to salary hop to a higher level of pay and that’s ok.

5️⃣Use the skills that you have been building to start side hustles and additional income streams. If you struggle to think of these ask those closest to you….”what am I could at?” “What do I do well?” “If I could spend my days doing something I enjoy what would it be?”

No one ever got anywhere by standing still, everyone starts somewhere ✨

If you have already started with some of these or maybe you are financially free? Let us know below what you did to achieve it, I’d love to hear your story 💕

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Just a couple of hints and tips from someone who’s been through this for many years with children. Posting early because the key is to buy early ❗️

Buy Early - School uniform shops tend to have their sales on the uniform in June/July - because it’s all gone come August! I always bought M&S uniform and always got 20% off it by buying it early 💰

Use a Discount Code - pretty standard for me, I don’t buy anything unless I can run a code through it or put it through a cashback site….or both. 💵

Check the local Facebook group - this is more common nowadays but some Mums offer uniform swap shops that they have set up, they gather all old uniform to distribute to those that need something quick. Sometimes it will be on the schools Facebook group, sometimes something they have set up separately but worth asking around about 👔

Buy bigger - Yes I am that Mum. Buy the bigger size it lasts longer. Kids do a whole lot of growing and you need to try and get a whole year out of these things. The only thing that didn’t need constantly buying I found was skirts for my daughter but everything else, bigger size all the way 🙌🏻

Hem trousers and let down through the year - some trousers nowadays come with a built in hem to give you an extra couple of inches of growing room, some don’t, use a bit of webbing to hem for the first half of the year and let down as you get into the second half. Works amazing for boys 👦

Sinking fund for school - Super important one, there will be something needed all the time whether it’s uniform, a trip, stationary, a charity day, shoes there is continually costs when it comes to school. The more prepared you are by having a sinking fund the less of a shock it will be when you have to buy 😳

I learnt some of these by the time my children were in high school but it would have really helped during the Primary years, so hopefully this catches some of you newer Mums or Mums to be in time and takes away some of the money worries school can bring 😊

What do you do to save money on uniform? ❓Let me know below

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One of the big things I really needed to do when trying to cut down my outgoings to put money towards bills and was “use what you already have”

I am sure I am not the only one who accumulates toiletry products, cleaning products, hygiene products, Christmas gifts of body washes and shampoos etc, and it was getting out of hand.

If someone was on sale I would buy a couple and forget I had them and buy more when the one I was using ran out. I was really strict with myself and went through my wardrobes, cupboards and drawers and made sure I knew what I had of everything.
Once I ran something down, I knew whether I needed to buy another or whether I already had an alternative I could use instead.

I’m no longer quick to try to new latest household cleaner or pick up a can of deodorant just incase I’m running low at home. I buy what I need when I need it. Nowadays with Amazon Prime I can get things quickly if I am ever caught out anyway.

✨ Don’t hoard, go through your belongings and use up everything you already have before you buy another one ✨

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10 things I no longer buy as a finance expert in my 30’s:

1. Fast Fashion - it’s cheap, it doesn’t last, it’s unethical and I have enough clothes already! Point made. 👚

2. Costume Jewellery - Wow! Did I used to buy a lot of this 🤣🤣 now I don’t even wear jewellery unless a special occasion, it only discoloured anyway!

3. Spray tans - Nope, can do it just as well out of a bottle myself 🫶🏻

4. Multiple household cleaning products - I used to be a sucker for the latest cleaning product (thank you Mrs hinch) nope not anymore, one cleaner for kitchen, one for bathrooms, job done 👍🏻

5. Bikinis - Ok I may have slightly too many bikinis and used to have a habit of taking far far too many on holidays. Not bought one for years now 🤷🏼‍♀️

6. Extravagant treats if it’s not a birthday - yeah pretty self explanatory really, they can be wait for special gifts 🎁

7. Car Washes/Valets - again can’t justify the cost when you can DIY 🚗

8. CD/DVD’s - everything is streamed nowadays, I could even include books in this really, tend to benefit more from the audio than the physical product 🎧

9. New shoes for every new outfit - girl you have enough shoes at home 👠

10. Kitchen gadgets - Hands up 🙌🏻 if you hate kitchen worktop clutter? And you can’t keep them in the cupboards because they are too big. We have a coffee machine and an air fryer and that’ll do us in that department 👍🏻

What are some things you no longer spend your money on?

Let me know below ⬇️

Following on from todays “Keeping up with the Joneses’ “ post.

✨Comparison is the thief of joy ✨

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