How Smart Families Save for Home Repairs

Family members often bristle at the mere thought of costly home repairs. Home repair work, however, is often inevitable. Plumbing systems deteriorate and become a lot more unreliable. 

Flooring tends to wear down after years and years of extensive traffic as well. If you want to be able to accommodate all kinds of home repair costs, there are several strategies that can work.

Smart Families Budget

The smartest families in many cases are the ones that know how to budget their finances correctly. Setting up a family budget can help you supervise your funds and where they go at the end of the month. 

It can help you keep your eyes on the prize, too. If you’re aware of how much money you have to work with, it may discourage you from spending money carelessly.

Smart Families Eat at Home

Intelligent families know that nonstop eating out can take a toll on finances. That’s the reason they tend to eat meals at home together. They pack their own lunches to take to work and school daily as well. 



Buying fast food for lunch can cost a lot of money over time. Nonstop restaurant visits can lead to significant money squandering. Tipping servers alone can in many cases cost a substantial sum.

Smart Family Members Secure Part-Time Work

Part-time work can help families that need to pay for home repair projects of all kinds. Roofing replacement is without a doubt an example of a home repair project that can boost comfort. 

If you want a brand new and gorgeous roof, securing a part-time job that’s fulfilling and that makes you feel good can help you do so.

Smart Families Search High and Low for Discounts

Smart families are made up of savvy individuals who know how to search high and low for discounts and bargains. They cut coupons out of weekly newspapers. They print out online coupons. 

They find home improvement firms that offer deals for first-time customers as well. If you want to make paying for a home repair project feel like the easiest thing in the world, then you need to be able to find all kinds of discount opportunities.

Smart families do all sorts of things to pay for residential repair work. They make good use of coupons at grocery stores. They steer clear of purchases that don’t offer genuine value to them, too. Being intelligent about money can feel rewarding.

6 Brilliant Ways to Repay Your Personal Loan Sooner

The biggest benefit of repaying your personal loan faster is big savings on monthly interest. When you are regular with your payments, it has a positive impact on your credit score. If you want to repay less overall and enjoy early freedom from debt, follow these tips to speed things up and save yourself a good deal of money.

Start with the Most Expensive Personal Loan First

This strategy will not only help you become debt-free faster but also bring you lasting peace of mind and motivate you further. Also, you would be left with more cash to make other repayments. Repaying the bigger chunk first reduces the total amount of interest you pay and also decreases your personal loan tenure.

Increase You Repayments with Every Raise

If your personal loan comes with a variable interest rate, you should be able to change your repayment amounts. If you can, rework your budget to create some extra room to raise your monthly repayment because the lesser you owe, the more you save in personal loan interest.

Double the Frequency of Your Repayments

If your personal loan EMI allows you to keep some extra cash every month, you can not only increase your repayment amount but also the frequency of your repayments. 

If you repay every fortnight rather than repaying every month, you end up paying extra for two weeks as there are 26 fortnights in every year and this will make a massive difference down the line.

Budget and Cut Back Where Possible

Budgeting helps schedule your expenses and reallocate your funds to pay off your personal loan faster while enabling you to cut down on all unnecessary expenses. By keeping an accurate record of your earnings and expenses, you would be in a better position to knock over the outstanding balance sooner.

Round Up Your Personal Loan EMIs

Rounding up your EMI payments will help you repay more. For instance, if your personal loan payment is Rs. 1725.12 every month, you should round it up to Rs. 2000 as this small amount is easy to set aside but will make a big difference eventually by saving your interest money and shortening the loan tenure. So, if you cannot increase the repayment frequency, at least raise the amount.

Go the Extra Mile with One Extra Payment

Squeeze in one big additional payment if you ever get some extra cash through a tax refund or a festival bonus. Whenever you have more money in hand, repay in advance to enjoy EMI-free months later.

The Pros of Paying Off Early

Apart from not having to set money aside for monthly payments, the extra cash can be used to save for your retirement, make home improvements, enjoy a vacation, buy consumer durables online, or pay off other small debts. 

So whether you are repaying a personal loan or about to apply for a personal loan, you can follow these tips to become debt-free faster. 




If you are stuck with a personal loan that has a higher interest rate, you can consider switching to MoneyTap’s personal line of credit. It is an amazing personal loan with a credit limit that is available to you for a lifetime. 

With a MoneyTap personal loan, your outstanding balance is recharged every time you repay your borrowed amount, so you will never run out of cash. 

Also, unlike traditional personal loans that have prepayment penalties, MoneyTap’s personal line of credit allows you to prepay your loan without inviting any extra charges.

So switch to MoneyTap’s personal line of credit and enjoy the best of both worlds – where you will not only save on interest but also get instant access to funds whenever you need them. 

Author bio

Shiv Nanda is a financial analyst who currently lives in Bangalore (refusing to acknowledge the name change) and works with MoneyTap, India's first app-based credit-line. Shiv is a true finance geek, and his friends love that. They always rely on him for advice on their investment choices, budgeting skills, personal financial matters and when they want to get a loan. He has made it his life's mission to help and educate people on various financial topics, so email him your questions at shiv@moneytap.com.

How to Turn a Hobby into a Legitimate Source of Income

If you really want to take control of your own financial future, you’ve got to figure out how to work for yourself. While having a great business idea is nice, for some it’s better to find a way to turn a passion into an income-generating career. If you have a hobby, you’ll want to follow the steps below to determine how to turn it into your new job.

Look at the Market

Before you can turn a hobby into a job, you have to figure out how to monetize your hobby. There are dozens of different ways to do so, but the most successful tend to involve selling a product or a service. If you like to do a specific craft, for example, you can sell those crafts to collectors or enthusiasts. 

If you produce a particular type of art, you can sell to fans and those who collect that particular style. It’s rare that you’ll be paid simply for being talented, so take a look at the market and figure out the niche that works for you.

Invest in Yourself

Your next step in turning your hobby into a source of income will be making the necessary investments in your business. If you are selling directly to customers in a face to face market, for example, you’ll want one of the point-of-sale systems that allow you to personally process payments and track inventory. 




If you are selling online, on the other hand, you will need to invest the money in an eCommerce-friendly website. It can be scary to invest the money necessary to start a business, but you can’t move forward without doing so.

Maintaining Your Passion

Your final step will be figuring out how to maintain your passion when you move from doing something for fun to doing it for money. You’ll need to figure out how to treat your hobby like a job, including charging fair prices for your work and learning how to adhere to a schedule. 

The early days of turning a hobby into a job usually mean having to balance a second day job with your hobby, so you’ll also have to learn how to maintain your ability to perform in your new career with your ability to get paid at your other job.

Not every hobby can make you money. If you’ve got the drive, the talent, and the determination, you may be able to turn that at which you are talented into a lucrative business. If you set yourself up with the right tools and in the right place, you may even be able to make a living doing the things you love the most.

Being a Clever Trader Can Benefit Your Trades

What does being clever in a profession means? It is making money and creating a treasure chest for yourself? Or is it being a good performer and efficient thinker in your job? If you go for the first one, there is a possibility of you to make some money. 

But you would not make much and it would not be consistent for any profession. Whereas, if you go for the first one, there should be no problem with making money and holding a good position in your job sector. With good performance, you can get to a great position and stay in that place. 

But, with thoughts of making money, your career would not see good improvement in position. Instead, it can be ruined if you greed too much about money making. In the business of trading, it is the same. 

Here being clever also means having the target of performing properly. In the following, we are going to show you some ways to run your business with this motto.

Conserving energy for the next mission

Trading is not about how much you have made in a single trade. It is about the consistent performance of an individual. If any person saying that he or she have made a good profit at a particular trade, you must think, that trader is not doing good overall. 

Now he or she is being excited with a singular win. This excitement can even cause that individual to make wrong decisions for the next trader to be opened. So, you must learn to preserve energy for yourself. If any emotional dilemma comes in the way, you should not fall for that. 

And work should also be done to reduce a headache and pressure on money management. Thus your trading approach will be solid. Whether you make money or not, the statistics of your trading performance will be good overall. And soon, you will be able to make a lot of money.

Learn to cut your losing trades

Many people in the United Kingdom often says dealing with the exchange traded funds industry is extremely risky. To be honest, they are saying the perfect thing about this Forex market. 

Though the number of active traders in the online trading industry is rising at an exponential rate the success rate is still around 5%. Most people don’t know the proper way to cut their losing trades. As a Forex trader, you have to cut your losing trades early and stick to your winning trades.

Being highly adaptable to the markets

In this business, the markets are always changing with time. It is due to the economic changes in different regions. So, there is no chance for any trader to know the future and place a trade accordingly. 

You can just be strategic and place run your own business with proper planning. Don’t try to make skeptical decisions, as they are not good for helping traders. There are a lot of tools for helping traders to understand when to place a trade. 

Such things as supporting levels, pickup, and resistance point techniques, the Fibonacci charts and time frames etc. these are common to many people. With the help of these tools, you must be adapting to the markets like a price action trader.

This business should be a part of you

If any profession can be a part of someone, it can bring him or her a lot of joys. Whether it is money or having a good career, it is possible by having a good bonding with your profession. When you make your job a habit, it becomes a part of your life. 

And your thoughts also adapt to the profession. Money tension and greed does not stand a chance in this bonding. As a result, your career and performance can experience a good result in any profession you like as well as the trading business.

Insurance Guide for a Person Aged 50 Years – What Should You Include and Exclude?

Do you think your retirement is approaching? If answered yes, it’s high time you should review your health insurance policy to make sure you stay covered during your golden years. It is not that health insurance is something that that you need during your retired life as it is important during several stages of life. 

Health insurance fills the health insurance gaps which are often not covered by Medicare. Nevertheless, health insurance actually gets more and more important when people get older as after 50 years of age, there are several chronic illnesses which start developing and which also need immediate medical help.

While there are several health insurance companies like iSelect which are there to offer you the best health insurance policies in the market, it is still imperative that you compare and contrast the rates before choosing the final one. Here are few things to consider.

What should you ask yourself on health insurance since you’ve crossed 50?

Here are few questions on health insurance that you should ask yourself whenever you cross 50 years of age.

Is it necessary to alter the type of policy?

In case you own a private health policy already, you may have a family or couple policy which gives higher priorities to few treatments which were more vital for you previously. Nevertheless, if you’re still considering moving towards health insurance during your 50s, you will again require setting new priorities all over again.

Do I require any other kind of medical services?

Previously you had insurance for teeth issues but now it seems more important to have coverage on hip replacement, cataract removal, cardiac surgery and other things. You should ensure giving a close look to your health policy.

How should I make sure I get full coverage?

You might be eligible for Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card after crossing 65, this can help slash off the costs of prescription medicines and services. This insurance will make sure you stay protected in later years.

What are the services to watch out for in a policy?

Hospital coverage: When we say hospital coverage, we mean all the basics like shared or private room, public or private hospital, fees for intensive care unit, ambulance expense coverage pathology, x-rays and pharmaceuticals as well. It shouldn’t include those treatments which you will most likely never need like reproductive or obstetrics services or non-cosmetic eye surgery or transplanting of organs. 



Extra coverage: This extra coverage includes ancillary services which you will need, like for example dental, optical, physiotherapy, podiatry and other services. Similarly, here too, they shouldn’t include any services which you will never need like vaccinations during travel or gym membership fees. The benefit limits should remain individual.

Therefore, once you reach 50 years of age, you have to make sure you take the best insurance decisions so that you don’t have to suffer later on due to lack of funds during an emergency leading to medical debt.

Making Your Retirement Affordable with Vaping

vaping360.com

While vaping has primarily been adopted by younger generations, it’s actually older, long-time smokers who stand to benefit most by switching to vaping. The costs of smoking tend to grow as smokers age, and as the adverse health effects manifest more strongly. 

More importantly, older smokers are often those who have tried and failed to quit multiple times in the past, and who are unlikely to quit in order to reduce health risks and healthcare costs.

Reducing healthcare costs

Since vaping is still relatively new, and involves the consumption of nicotine, it’s still classified as tobacco usage as far as health insurers are concerned. Some insurers, however, have indicated that vaping may be reclassified in the coming years. 

Despite this, older smokers stand to save thousands of dollars per year simply by limiting their risks of developing expensive health problems, and potentially reversing existing ones. This is because vaping effectively eliminates most of the ongoing health risks associated with smoking. 

While the exact health effects can’t be fully understood in the decade that vaping has been studied, it has been established to result in health outcomes that are 90% better than those of active smokers within that time frame.

Cutting down on expensive medications

Cigarette smoke weakens the immune system, reduces blood oxygen levels, causes erectile dysfunction, and raises the risk of diabetes. All of these require expensive medications to manage that people planning for retirement often don’t anticipate or budget for. 

For an unprepared retiree, this medical bill alone can turn what should have been a comfortable retirement into a difficult experience. Fortunately, all of these are issues that are not associated with vaping, and that quitting smoking can alleviate in a matter of months.

Preventing expensive treatment costs

Beyond the chronic and relatively minor costs of smoking lurk truly major medical expenses. Heart attack, stroke, and cancer result in expensive treatments, rehabilitation costs, and potentially a drastically reduced quality of life. Fortunately, it’s not a future that smokers need to resign themselves to. 

Within 1 year of switching, a former smoker’s risk of developing coronary heart disease drops by 59%. After 10 years, the risk of developing lung cancer is cut in half compared to continuing smokers, and the risk of stroke is reduced to that of a non-smoker.

Direct savings

While the most significant savings are to be found in preventing and reversing smoking-related health problems, vaping also offers significant direct savings. Compared to a typical pack-a-day smoker in the United States, a typical vaper with the same level of nicotine usage will save approximately $1000 dollars per year. That’s because vaping devices are reusable, and e liquids are comparatively affordable.

Simply by switching to vaping, a current smoker can improve their health and directly reduce their healthcare costs by several thousand dollars per year. When the long term preventive benefits are factored in as well, those savings often jump to over $10,000 per year. For many retirees, that comes to nearly as much as their social security check.

Ashley Wilson is a former smoker and vaper who writes about the topic on a daily basis for the vape shop at which she now works. Check out the website to learn more, and to start your journey after cigarettes.