Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

What to Do When You Have More Bills Than Income

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It can happen to the best of us—we have more bills than income.  Every person’s situation is unique.  Maybe you lost your job, or you had a medical emergency, or you just went through a divorce.  The situation doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you find yourself in a desperate position.  Rather than panicking or ignoring the problem, know that there are strategies to implement to get yourself out of this position.

More Bills Than Income

Steps to Take When You Have More Bills Than Income

The process of getting out of this situation isn’t quick, but finding your financial footing again can be done.

Write Down Your Financials

The first step is to take an honest account of where you are.  How much money do you have coming in?  How much debt do you have?  What are your monthly payments and bills?

Cut Ruthlessly

Now that you have your financials on paper, you need to cut ruthlessly.  What do you pay for monthly that you can slash from your budget?  Start first with subscriptions like DisneyPlus, Netflix, Amazon, etc.  You can get those services back once you no longer have more bills than income.

Next, look at categories you can’t eliminate but can reduce.  We all have to eat, but we don’t have to go to a restaurant to do so.  If you’re not already cooking all of your meals at home, now is the time to start.  Also, make a plan to shift the type of food that you’re eating so you can lower your grocery bill.  Now might be the time to eat some beans and rice and vegetarian soups.

Learn how to lower your electric bill.  Turn off appliances and devices that you’re not using at night.

Consider switching cell phone providers so you don’t have a high monthly cell phone bill.  You might want to move to a lower cost provider like Ting or Tello Mobile.

In short, cut or reduce everything you can.  Then, you’re on to the next step.

Prioritize Payments

More Bills than Income
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

If there’s not enough money even after slashing your expenses, there’s not enough.  Once you write down your financials, list your bills in order of importance.  Think survival here.

Survival Expenses Should Always Be Paid First

Bills and expenses that you likely want to be sure you pay every month can include:

Food,

Clothing,

Utilities,

Housing,

Transportation

The most important goals right now are to feed and clothe yourself as well as keep the lights on (along with the heat or air conditioning) and maintain your house and car.  Without the latter two, keeping and getting yourself to work is very difficult.

Keep in mind, you’ll still want to be conservative in these categories.  You won’t be eating fancy meals and you won’t be buying designer clothes.  You’ll spend the minimum you need to get yourself fed and clothed.

Expenses to Pay with the Remaining Money

After you’ve done looking at your spending priorities, look at how much money you have left.  You may find that you have many more bills to go and only a little money left.  That’s okay.  You knew you were in this position, and now you’re writing it all out and making a plan.  This is empowering even if it feels terrifying.

Let’s say you have four debts remaining and you only have $250 leftover.  Spread that $250 between each of your remaining debts.  For instance, let’s say your four debts have these balances:

CC #1: $10,000

CC #2: $3,500

CC #3: $5,000

CC #4: $1,500

At this point, don’t pay attention to the minimum payment.  Instead, add up all the debt, in this case, $20,000, and figure out which percentage of debt each is.  For example, CC #1 represents 50% of the remaining debt, so you’ll give it 50% of your remaining money each month, $125.  CC #2 is 17.5% of your remaining debt, so it will get 17.5% of your remaining money–$43.75, and so on.

Negotiate Credit Card Rates

If you think your current financial situation is temporary, call your credit card company and ask them to reduce the amount of interest you’re paying.  By doing this, more of your monthly payment will go to principal, lowering the overall amount that you owe.  You’ll likely be successful with agents lowering your rate about 50% of the time.

Negotiate Monthly Payments

If you feel your financial situation may last longer than a few months, call your lenders and explain your situation.

Credit card companies have the power to reduce your monthly payment.  When you negotiate with them, they will ask you how much you can pay monthly.  Using the math that you did above, let them know exactly how much you can pay a month.  (You’ll tell credit card company #2 you can only pay $43.75 even if your monthly payment is $70.)  The credit card companies will likely lower your payment to what you can pay because you’re making a good faith effort to meet your obligations.

Remember to call your other lenders.  Your mortgage company may be able to work with you to reduce or temporarily suspend payments.  You can also apply for deferrals on your student loans.

The important advice is to call these companies early, before you fall significantly behind.  Call them while you still have good credit.

Find a Side Hustle

More Bills than Income
Photo by Garrhet Sampson on Unsplash

Reducing expenses is important when you have more bills than income, but the flip side is just as important.  Can you start a side hustle as a way to make extra money and boost your income?  I started freelance writing 10 years ago when our youngest was a baby.  Now, my freelance work contributes 25% of our monthly income.  Imagine adding an extra 10 or 20 percent to your current income?  How would that money help you improve your financial situation?

Final Thoughts

If you’re in the unfortunate position of having more bills than income, know that you’re not alone.  There are steps you can take to improve your financial situation and help you survive this current financial difficulty.  Most importantly, remember that this situation is temporary.  Things will get better.

Read More

How to Pay Down Your Credit Card Faster Even If You Don’t Have Extra Money

How to Feed Your Family on a Low Budget

How to Create a Zero-Based Budget in Excel

4 Side Hustles for Teachers

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If you’re currently a teacher, you likely know that while this occupation can be rewarding, it doesn’t pay very well.  You may be looking to supplement your income in the evenings or the weekend.

If you’re a former teacher who is now staying home with your kids, you may be looking for a way to bring in money utilizing your teaching skills.  However, you’ll need flexibility so that you can do your work when your children are sleeping at night or napping.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to earn a side gig with your skills as a teacher.

Private Tutor

Teacher Hustles
Make Money as a Teacher

One of my friends worked at Nielsen, became a high school math teacher, and then stayed home when she had children.  For the last 10 years, she has been a private math tutor.  She gets her clients from referrals from her former colleagues and through word of mouth thanks to satisfied customers.  She makes several hundred dollars a month and enjoys being able to still teach even though she is no longer working full-time.

VIPKID Tutor

If you have a bachelor’s degree, you can get apply for a job at VIPKID teaching children in China how to speak English.  Most of the available tutoring hours are very early in the morning or late in the evening when your kids are likely already in bed.  You can set your own schedule and decide how many hours you want to work each week.

Depending on your experience, VIPKID may pay up to $22 per hour.

Curriculum Developer

Many former teachers make a nice income developing curriculum and selling it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Other teachers are always looking for quality curriculum material and homeschoolers also take advantage of the site.

Online Teacher for Gifted Students

A number of prestigious colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Northwestern offer online classes for gifted children.  You can teach here, and the schedule offers flexibility as you can decide what semesters to teach and what classes to teach.  You’ll be able to challenge gifted students, and you’ll have students who will likely challenge you, too.

If you don’t want to work with gifted students, you can also look at the many online schools available for K-12 students.  You can teach from home, and you may have to have a live course or tutoring once a week.  My kids were enrolled in an online school this year, and every time they had a tutoring session or interacted with their teachers, the teachers always worked from home, which provides a great deal of flexibility.

If you’re a teacher looking for extra income, you can see that there are a variety of ways to do that, and this list isn’t exhaustive. Here’s another list of ways to make extra money that’s not focused on teachers, but could certainly apply to teachers.  If you’re a teacher who opted to stay home with kids, there are many ways you can work from home using your skills and keeping current so you’ll be able to reenter the teaching workforce should you decide to in the future.

If you’re a teacher or were a teacher, have you found ways to turn your skills into a side gig or part-time income stream?  If so, what do you do?

Your Children Will Grow and So Will Your Income

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Is your budget tight?  Have you slashed, and slashed, and slashed expenses but still find that there is no money left at the end of the month?    Do you find that your kids are eating more and more while grocery prices are increasing?  Do you despair at the news of rising egg costs?  Do you find that your grocery dollars don’t buy as much as they used to even a year ago?

Me, too.  I’m right there with you, but I’m here to tell you, don’t lose hope.  Things will improve. Your children will grow, but so will your income.

You May Not Have Thought You Could Survive the Baby Years

After I had my third child, I was overwhelmed, to say the least.  I was sleep deprived and exhausted trying to work from home to make money to pay down our debt, while helping my 7 year old with his homework and projects and caring for two kids under two.

Children will grow, so will your income
Original Image by Ray Dumas on Flickr

I thought I would never get a full night’s sleep again.  I couldn’t imagine a day without endless diaper changes.  I was in the thick of things.

But little by little, my kids gained independence.  First, one potty trained and then the next.  Hello diaper free days!

Then, one stopped using the stroller so I could move to a single stroller instead of a double one.  Then both grew up enough to not need the stroller.  Suddenly we could leave the house without a stroller or diaper bag.  Hello sweet freedom!

Gaining a bit of my life back was a gradual thing.  Each day now, my kids grow more and more independent and rely on me less for immediate needs.

Improving Your Finances Is a Gradual Process

I’m realizing, that even though my husband and I are in the thick of things financially, this time, too, shall pass.  Right now between braces, increased appetites, extracurricular activities, etc., we’re spending a lot of money.  Our budget is T-I-G-H-T.  But, in 13 years or so, all of our kids will be out of the house and on their own.

Not only will our life be our own, but our money will, too.  Just like I couldn’t imagine a full night’s sleep when my kids were little, I can’t imagine a month when our budget is not straining.  But I know it’s coming.

Once the kids move out, there are so many ways expenses go down.  You can move into a smaller house, if you’d like.  A minivan won’t be necessary anymore; a sedan will do just fine.  Two people eat much less than five, so groceries will be lower, too.

But it’s not just the increased expenses that will improve your bottom line.  There are the financial increases.  You and your spouse will continue to get raises.  If one parent stays home with the kids now, that parent can go back to work.  Having two incomes when you’re used to one can help you catch up financially, and quickly.

So, parents, don’t despair.  Finances will get better, especially if you remain disciplined and don’t upsize your life as your income increases and your expenses decrease.

Are you a parent of older or grown children?  If so, how have your finances changed over the years?  Are you a parent of young children?  Is your budget stretched, and stretched, and stretched?  Share your experiences!