Easy financial boosters

When trying to get back on track financially, people always hear they have to both control their spending and/or increase their income.

When talking about increasing income, most think they have to take a second job or do freelance work. These are good ideas, but sometimes a few easy financial boosters are available, provided you pay attention to them:

• Tax refund
• work bonus or profit
• bi-weekly paycheque: on a bi-weekly schedule, you are paid 26 times a year, compared to a semi-monthly schedule, where you have 24 paycheques. You receive 3 paycheques on a couple of months during the year.

These are the most common financial boosters. They can definitely help you achieve your financial goals, and you don’t necessarily have to work hard for them.

The same goes for an inheritance or lottery winnings, regardless of the amount.

Don’t include these items in your monthly budget, as they are not guaranteed, except the 26 paycheques. You could choose to exclude them from your budget though.

In order to be successful with any booster you may have, you need to pay attention to them, as written above, but also make a conscious choice on their use and stick to it.

This year, I was fortunate to have all the 3 common boosters.

My tax refund went to my emergency fund. One extra paycheque paid for a plane ticket to France and a new laptop. The other one went to debt repayment. My work bonus was split between my emergency fund and RRSP.