How To Be A Financial Rock Star in 2018

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I’d like to take a moment to say Happy New Year to all of my readers! We finally made it to 2018 and I am super excited! If you’re new around here, you’ll soon find out that Mr. Mad Money Monster and I love living a selectively frugal lifestyle in order to reach our financial goals. I say selectively frugal because we’re not at all averse to spending bookoo bucks on things that we value. Two things we value most are our home and experiences. We absolutely love making memories, so spending a few bucks to do so doesn’t phase us one bit. That’s not to say we’re not going to be financial rock stars in 2018. Oh, we are. And if you want to be too, read on!

Budget Your Way To Rock Star Status

Way back in the day, my husband and I were pretty normal (read: terrible) with money. Before meeting and starting down the path to financial independence, we were chugging along racking up credit card debt, car loans, and not making wealth accumulation a priority. Why? Because we had PLENTY of time ahead of us. But let me tell you something, plenty of time goes by really fast. Before we knew it, our age was catching up to us and our wealth accumulation wasn’t anything to brag about.

So, after almost buying a house we couldn’t comfortably afford, we pulled our heads out of our butts and made a plan to make our money a major priority in our lives. We sat down and made a budget. But we didn’t just make a budget, we stuck to it. Little by little our debts started to disappear and our wealth started to pile up.

We don’t do super strict budgets anymore. Instead, we just don’t spend money on anything unless it’s a necessity or we truly value it. This way of operating suits us just fine.

Fortunately, both Mr. MMM and I have careers that pay well (but not crazy well – we’re not investment bankers over here), so by dialing down our normal lifestyle to a super frugal one, we were able to free up gobs of cash. And once we did that, we re-directed that cash towards debt elimination and investments.

You’d be surprised just how quickly you’re able to make financial progress by tweaking a few areas of your lifestyle. And with that, let’s look at how you can give yourself a raise in 15 short minutes – without haggling with your boss!

Give Yourself A Raise By Eliminating Little Expenses

When we started embracing a frugal lifestyle we also started to evaluate little expenses that were eating into our bottom line. One of our easiest and biggest wins was canceling our cable TV subscription. With one quick phone call, we gave ourselves a $150/mo raise.

And that’s not all we cut back on. We stopped eating out like we were high-rolling ballers. Haha! We cut our mobile data package down to the bare minimum. And we stopped buying STUFF we didn’t need.

If you’re ready to do the same, check out these quick financial wins that’ll put money back in your pocket, literally, overnight.

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Evaluate Your Current Employment Status

There are no two ways about it, your job is likely your single largest source of income you have at your disposal. But just because your job pays the bills doesn’t mean it’s the right job for you. If you’re unhappy with your current employer, start the new year out on the right foot by looking for a new job.

You might not be able to quit your job until you have another one lined up, but you’ll get a huge boost in confidence and self-esteem just knowing your options aren’t limited and that change is on your horizon.

Changing jobs is also an excellent way to make more money. You will definitely get a better pay increase by switching jobs than you will if you stay in your current role and wait for the annual pay bump.

However, if you actually enjoy your current job and just want to make more money, you can either ask for a promotion, pick up a side hustle, or do both.

Side Hustle Your Way To Extra Income

Side hustles are a great way to earn extra money if you don’t want to leave your current employer and are just looking to pad your bottom line. They’re also a great way to try out an entirely new career path without committing to it full-time at the outset.

I was able to do this with this blog. When I started Mad Money Monster back in 2015 I had no idea it was going to make as much money as it currently does. Not only do I absolutely love writing content that is helpful and, hopefully, entertaining, but I am earning some extra money to boot.

I chose to blog because my side hustle needed to be something I could do from the comfort of my own home. As my long-term readers know, I also work a high-stress, full-time, out-of-the-home W2 job. So for me, working outside of the home wasn’t an option – not if I wanted to keep my marriage together and be a loving mother to our daughter.

But if you don’t have such constraints, side hustles can range from blogging to pet sitting to selling stuff online. Not sure what you might like to do? Check out these ideas…

Popular Side Hustles:

• Start your own blog – Use my quick How-To guide to get you up and running in just minutes!
• Take online surveys – Use Pinecone Research to earn extra money in your spare time.
• Bake cakes – There is a huge market for specialty cakes, cupcakes, and the like. If you’ve got some talent, use it to earn some extra dough.
• Pet Sitting – Love animals? Why not get paid to watch your neighbor’s cat when they go on vacation? People are willing to spend an enormous amount of cash on pet care. Take advantage of it.
• Offer music lessons – If you have some musical talent, use it to earn extra cash at home.
• Pinterest virtual assistant – If you have an artistic eye, try your hand at being a Pinterest virtual assistant.

And there you have it, a few awesome ways you can get your money on track and start to build massive wealth in 2018. What are you waiting for? Get started now!

Do you have any suggestions for making more money and building wealth? What did I miss? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.