10 Ways To Improve Your Finances Today

Developing the right financial mindset for success
Creating a budget which aligns with your financial goals (and sticking to it)
Creating a schedule which prioritizes wellness and income-generating activities

To help you get started in building a healthier relationship with your money, here are 10 ways you can improve your finances today.

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1. Change your mindset

Want to know the secret to financial success? Spend less than you earn.

It’s actually quite simple, yet so many of us find it difficult to live within our means. That’s because our brain is constantly trying to trick us into believing something that we know is not true and trying to sabotage our financial success.

When we think about money, it creates a very emotional response for many people. Some of these emotions include happiness, sadness, guilt, anxiety, and so on.

Warren Buffett once said, “If you can’t control your emotions, you can’t control your money”. This doesn’t mean that you should block out your emotions when making financial decisions. Instead, success comes from having the self-awareness to know which feelings are helpful and which ones are hurtful when making decisions.

When it comes to our money mindset, we usually fall into two ways of thinking.

Money Mindset #1: I didn’t hit my savings goal this month, which means I’m a financial failure.

Money Mindset #2: I didn’t hit my savings goal this month, which means I need to learn why this happened so I can make improvements next month and reach my financial goal.

What money mindset sounds most like you? Be honest with yourself.

If you said Money Mindset #1 sounds most like you, this means that you probably see failure as a reflection of oneself. You may also feel that your circumstances are fixed and holding you back from reaching financial success.

If you said Money Mindset #2 sounds most like you, this means that you probably see failure as independent from oneself. You may also feel that your talents and abilities can be developed through effort and setbacks can drive you to learn how to improve and do better.

Our money mindset plays a vital role in our financial success. If we have the mindset that we can learn from our mistakes and we are not bound by our circumstances, this will help tremendously in reaching our financial goals.

Another important part in financial success is planning. It’s important to create an action plan for ourselves on how we’re going to achieve our goals and follow through with the plan. A good place to start is by sitting down and creating a monthly budget. You can use my free Budget Binder worksheets here.

2. Refinance your student loans

Have 10 minutes to spare? That’s great! You could save thousands of dollars on your student loans.

It’s absolutely crucial to have a good repayment plan in place for your student loans. Letting your debt linger can hinder your financial success for years to come in the form of more interest payments and lower credit scores.

To get the best deal possible on your student loans, I recommend using LendKey. LendKey can help you save thousands of dollars by refinancing and consolidating your student loans into one manageable loan with a lower interest rate. Here are some of benefits of using LendKey:

A quick 2-minute rate check with NO impact on your credit score
You can reduce monthly payments up to 40% and save an average of $10,000
Over 275 not-for-profit and community lenders to choose from mean higher chances for approval and LOWER rates

How LendKey Works

There are 5-easy steps to get started with LendKey. Each step only takes a couple minutes to complete, then you’ll be on your way to saving a TON of money on your student loans.

Get Your Rate
LendKey will ask you to fill out a quick online form to see personal rates. This will only take a couple minutes to complete. Then LendKey will use a soft-pull of your credit to show you real rates. This WON’T impact your credit score.
Pick Your Loan
LendKey will show you the best rates from over 300+ community leaders. Then with just a simple click, you can select the right loan for you and your budget.
Upload Your Docs
You can easily upload files from your computer or photos from your phone for verification.
E-Sign & Click
You’ll receive an email from LendKey letting you know that your documents have been verified. Then you just need to e-sign your loan agreement with DocuSign.
Loans Paid Off
LendKey will get to work paying off your existing loans immediately so you don’t have to. 3. Get up to 20% cash back on your purchases

If you’re going to shop for things you need, you might as well get paid. Right? For online shopping, I like using Ebates to earn up to 20% cash back on all of my purchases.

They have over 2,000 stores to choose from, which makes shopping online easy. When you make a purchase, Ebates will track your purchase and deposit the cash you’ve earned into your Ebates account within a few days. Plus, you can earn $25 when you refer a friend.

4. Ditch cable TV

It’s no surprise that many people have chosen to replace their cable TV today and switched to more affordable services, such as Amazon Prime. My fiancé and I just recently became Prime members and love all the great benefits.

With Amazon Prime, you get instant access to watch thousands of movies and TV shows. You can also borrow Kindle books, get unlimited FREE two-day shipping, and get special savings exclusively for Prime members.

5. Make extra money in your spare time

There are many opportunities to make money from things you already do, such as shopping, surfing the internet, taking fun quizzes, playing games, and more. These are not huge money-makers, but it can be a great way to earn an extra $100-$300 per month.

Swagbucks (get a $5 bonus when you sign up)
American Consumer Opinion (this website has over 6 million members worldwide)
Ebates (earn up to 20% cashback on your online purchases)
Checkout51 (get cashback on your groceries)
Ibotta (get a $10 bonus when you sign up for this cashback app)
Panel Place (get rewards in cash, checks, or vouchers to all your favorite brands)
Quick Rewards (get rewards in cash or gift cards to a variety of places)

6. Set up a $5 jar

This is an easy way to save money without much effort. Every time you come into possession with a $5 bill, such as change from a purchase, save it and put it into a jar.

It sounds almost childish to put money in a jar, but it works. To make it more fun, write your goal on the jar, such as “Vacation Fund” or “Rainy Day Fund”. Write down any financial goal you wish, it’s really up to you!

Seeing money grow in the jar (or envelope if you don’t have a jar) is a good motivator to stick to your financial goal. By creating a personal heuristic, it makes it easy to save every $5 bill without really trying. If you spend a $5 bill, you’ll feel like you betrayed your own set of internal rules.

Saving a $5 bill every day makes me $1,825 richer each year!

7. Try the No Eating Out Challenge

Every day I receive emails from my readers saying that they really want to save money, but eating out takes up a huge portion of their budget.

When I started working at my first job, I used to eat out all the time too. Whether I was grabbing lunch by the office or trying new restaurants with my fiancé on the weekend, I rarely cooked food at home. It wasn’t until I took a look at my budget that I realized how much money I was spending on food.

This encouraged me to try the No Eating Out Challenge. I taught myself how to cook (which wasn’t easy in the beginning) and managed to complete the challenge for a full month. By cooking more at home, I started to prefer the taste of my own food. I was able to control the ingredients and portion sizes, which helped me to lose weight too.

One of my top tips to save time and money in the kitchen is to meal plan. If you prefer someone else to do the meal planning for you, then I highly recommend trying the $5 Meal Plan. This is a weekly meal plan service that can make your meal planning super simple.

For just $5 per month, you will receive a delicious meal plan, where every meal will cost about $2 per person (or less). It’s a great way to save time and money, plus they offer specialty plans, including gluten-free and vegetarian meals. Click here to try it free for 14 days.

If you’re short on time and prefer someone else to meal plan AND do your grocery shopping, then I recommend trying Hello Fresh. I just recently tried Hello Fresh for the first time and loved them.

I was having a hectic week, so it was nice to get fresh groceries and meal plans delivered straight to my doorstep. Each meal was delicious and took less than 30 minutes to prepare. Try Hello Fresh today and get $30 off your first box.

8. Increase your income

Yes, at the end of the day, there are only so many ways you can slice and dice your monthly budget without wanting to pull your hair out.

Instead, challenge yourself to increase your income. Here on Mint Notion, I love sharing ways to increase your earning power so you can get on track to reaching your financial goals.

For those currently in debt, determine how much extra money is needed each month in order to pay down debt faster. Ideally, you’ll want to set a realistic income goal for yourself and find a way to make extra money. Whether it’s an extra $100 or an extra $1,000 each month, there are lots of different ways to increase your income.

Some of my favorite ideas include blogging, freelance writing, selling items online, starting a drop shipping store, renting out your extra space for cash, and so on. I wrote a whole post sharing over 70 great ways to make extra money which you can read here.

9. Declutter your space

Just a few years ago, I used to be a bit of a hoarder. This was especially true for clothing. I was constantly buying new clothes because I was addicted to shopping. Many of the items in my closet still had the price tag attached or had only been worn once.

In order to break this bad habit, I made a promise to myself that I was not going to buy any new clothing for an entire month.

Well… that month turned into a full year of successfully doing the no new clothing challenge. It was not easy, but it taught me how to develop better spending habits going forward.

I also discovered that decluttering my space felt good. It felt amazing actually! Being able to donate or sell my old stuff was a great way to make extra cash while I was in college. Some of my favorite places to sell items include:

Swap.com (the largest online consignment and thrift store)
Gazelle (trade in your old cell phone and electronics for cash)
Amazon Trade-In (trade in your items for an Amazon gift card)
Facebook Marketplace (my neighbor makes great money with this)
eBay
Craigslist

10. Take care of your health

Did you know that studies have shown that regular exercise can fatten your paycheck by 7% to 12%? I’m not making this stuff up!

While some of the connections are obvious, like smoking is an expensive habit, there are other connections that are more surprising. For example, getting a full night’s sleep has been shown to boost pay by 5%.

I truly believe that when we choose to make our health a priority, it will naturally motivate us to develop better financial habits too. Stress levels will improve making it less likely you’ll need to take a sick day. Keeping your heart and weight healthy can also help reduce the risk of needing medication for chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Plus, regular exercise can make us more productive.

I am a big fan of exercising to workout videos. It’s like being in a fitness class and having your own personal trainer at the same time. Here are a few inexpensive workout DVDs I recommend buying:

Tracy Anderson: Cardio Dance Express
Element: Beginner Level Yoga
Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred

If you prefer to practice yoga, I recommend joining My Yoga Works. With My Yoga Works, you can get an all-access pass to 1,000+ premium online yoga classes which are all led by top teachers. It’s a great way to practice yoga and it’s A LOT more affordable than attending a traditional yoga class.

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