Recently,I became a first-time parent and I am exhausted.
I don’t say that for you to feel sorry for me. In fact, don’t. I have it easy by parenting standards. My daughter doesn’t cry very often, she sleeps pretty well and she is very happy. Not only that, even though I try to do the best I can, my wife does most of the hard work…and with all of that, I am still exhausted.
The reason it’s important to note that I am exhausted is because I was recently thinking about single parents and quite frankly wondering how you do it? I do the least amount of work, have a great baby, an amazing wife and I am beat at the end of each day. To do it all seems unthinkable and overwhelming.
Yet, as unthinkable as it seems, great parents are doing it every day, and somehow, some of you make it look easy.
As I thought more about it, I began to draw some parallels to single parents and how the view retirement. You are so inundated with your children that you may wonder how you will ever do what you need to do to retire and wonder how other people do it.
For some of you that made sound unthinkable and overwhelming, but single parents are finding a way to prepare for their future as well as take care of their children every day and you can too. Today, I want to show you the steps you can take to go down the path to retirement and make the future bright for both you and your kids.
1. Prepare or Review Your Budget
You may already have a budget and if you do that is awesome. You are already ahead of the game. Now is a great time to review your budget and see if you can find ways to save additional money. The USDA says the average cost of raising a kid is around $230,000 over 17 years! That is a lot of money. It’s critical you know where every dollar you spend goes and make sure you have it accounted for.
If you don’t have a budget, no problem, but you need to create one today. You can create your own or use our outstanding free budgeting tool, but it absolutely critical for every family to have a rock solid budget. Its even more important when working on a single income.
2. Create Your Game Plan
“I thought our budget was our game plan.”
It isn’t.
Your budget is your blueprint to free up as much money as possible, your game plan is how you make that extra money work for you.
If you feel you are too stressed or overwhelmed with your kids to think about retirement don’t worry. It can be done. The key here is to break your game plan down into tangible and achievable short-term goals.
Step 1: Create an emergency fund of about $1-2,000 in a separate bank account. This will allow you to have cash when life hits you in the face. Unexpected medical bills, car expenses and other things happen and if we aren’t ready for them, they derail our journey to retirement. By having this fund you can stay out of credit card debt when surprises happen and continue to save for the future.
Step 2: Pay off your existing (non-mortgage) debt using the snowball method. I detail how to use the snowball method to pay off debt the fastest and most effective way in this free comprehensive budgeting tool. (Side note: If you have credit issues, you will want to fix them before paying off existing debt. You can see how to do that here.)
Step 3: Start building your emergency fund up to 3-6 months worth of expenses. This will allow you to survive a lost job, a serious injury or any number of other things that can happen to you. It gives you piece of mind everyday to know things are going to be OK and allows you to invest worry free.
Step 4: Put 15% of your income into a retirement account. After your debt is paid and you have your emergency fund built
up, you can work with your employer or financial consultant to find out where and how to do this.
3. Find Ways to Earn Extra Money
I know what you are thinking. You already work too much and can’t afford anymore childcare or favors from family or friends. Not to mention the fact you miss your kids. I get it. I want you to be able to make money AND spend time with your kids. Below I have nine legitimate ways to make extra money while staying at home with the kids. I have done most of these myself.
- Start a Blog – Yes, you can actually do quite well with a blog (You found this article on my blog right?). You get to write about your passion and make money doing it. You can create your own blog here with my easy to use tutorial for less than $4 a month. It has BY FAR been my top side hustle. (I also recommend my other FREE eBook BLOG BEAST that gives you amazing resources to jump-start the process.)
- Pet Sitting – You can earn $20 or more per night at Rover.com. If you love dogs and are willing to watch them a few nights each month it’s a nice easy way to earn an extra income each month and I bet your kids would LOVE it. It gives them the friendship of a dog without actually owning one.
- Baby Sitting – Over at Care.com you can earn anywhere from $15 – $30 an hour babysitting for people in your city. It’s easy to sign up, there are tons of people in need and you can book a few days a month to earn a couple hundred bucks.
- Answer Surveys – I know, I was skeptical too, but if you’ve got spare time and a computer, these companies are legit. You won’t get rich, but every little bit adds up. Here is a list of companies I have used. They are all free. I suggest signing up for as many as you can so you get the most opportunities and can make the most money:
- Sell things on FIVERR – Do you have the ability to write great content or design graphics? Are you an artist? Sign up for FIVERR and you can sell your work.
- Be a Virtual Assistant – There are so many people who need Virtual Assistants. I have been one and used one and they are really great gigs. You can work a few hours a week. You can setup a website for cheap to keep track of your clients and to pick up new ones.
- Test Websites – At usertesting.com they will pay you to test out and review other people’s websites. $10 for every 20-minute review you do. That works out to $30 an hour!
- Try Skillshare – Do you have a special skill or something you can teach? Skillshare is looking for teachers to create classes for students to take. Average teachers are earning an extra $3,000 per year!
- Freelance on Upwork – If you can write, program, do admin work, answer phones etc. You can find work on Upwork. Build your profile, apply to jobs and boom, extra money!
There are plenty of side hustles out there that allow you to make some extra income at home. Pick a few to try to use them to accelerate your path to retirement.
4. Talk to the Kids About Retirement
Keep your kids in the loop about the family’s financial situation. Let them know how important retirement is for you and why. Let them know you aren’t being a cheap or mean parent by not buying them everything they ask for. Children learn from their parents. When they see a hard-working successful parent they will want to be that way later in life.
Teach them about opportunity cost. The idea that saving for a big purchase might mean giving up on that other thing that ultimately isn’t as important. Teach them about budgets and prepare them to be financial superstars. We all want our kids to have great lives so give them the tools now to become financial rock stars in the future.
When they are old enough, have them look for part-time work. Working at a young age builds responsibility, work ethic and drive. Have them save some or all of their money for college or whatever training they may need for their future.
If you can teach your kids that setting and hitting long-term goals are the keys to success in almost everything we do in life, they will be leaps and bounds ahead of many of their peers.
5. Find Ways to Cut Spending
Budgeting isn’t only about finding a place for every dollar. It’s about making sure that every dollar spent needs to be spent. I know there are things you can cut from your life right now, but you don’t “want” to. Remember we only need food, housing, transportation, clothes and utilities. Everything else is a want. Don’t let yourself spend emotionally because your kids are guilting you.
Here are 10 examples of ways to cut costs:
- Cut the cord – I know it’s scary, but there are plenty of good TV options to get you by for cheap like Netflix, Sling and others. You don’t need TV. You want TV. This is a good opportunity to exercise, play with your kids, walk the dogs etc.
- Master the 30 day rule – Impulse buying is a bad habit. If you implement and master the 30 day rule which is to wait 30 days for any purchase over $100 that isn’t an emergency, your impulses will die down and you will likely not really want that item anymore.
- Create meal plans and shopping lists – Far too often we shop hungry and impulses get the best of us. If you create a list and stick too it you will start saving on groceries without even trying
- Invite friends over – No one says you can’t still have fun while budgeting. Instead of paying $5 for a beer, you can pay about $1 and hang out with people you love. Game nights are still some of my favorite nights.
- Don’t overspend on your kids – We want your kids to have everything, but that really isn’t realistic. Start teaching them the responsibility that comes with money early and do things that aren’t $100’s of dollars. Ride a bike, plant a garden (and save on groceries) etc.
- Turn your thermostat up or down a couple degrees – This small change can have a large impact on your budget over the course of a year. It’s really not that big of a temp difference from 72-75 but it is on the electric bill!
- Get rid of the gym membership – That was a tough one to type. I believe in exercise but if you can cut between $30-100 a month in fees, then there are plenty of exercises you can do at home.
- Start trying generic brands of things – You will be surprised at how many things have very little or no difference between generic and name brand. Especially food. Try some out and see if you like them, if you do, great savings locked in, if not, it’s ok.
- Eat at home – Too many times we have kid’s plays, or games or practice or we are busy and we stop and eat at the golden arches. Not only is it bad for you, it’s expensive. Plan ahead. If you know you have a busy week, try making meals ahead of time on Sunday so you can heat and eat. Or my favorite become a crock pot aficionado. Cutting out just a few of those trips a month makes a big difference.
- Couponing! – I’ll be honest. I hate coupons, but they can be sooo valuable. When our local store does triple coupons, it becomes a real savings on the grocery bill. Start looking at the crap they stuff in your mailbox, there are actually some decent values in there.
You may have many other ways to cut spending in your budget. Remember to look at the wants and find out what is really important.
6. Win at Work
It’s important that you protect and try to increase your number one wealth building tool: your income. The easiest way to increase your total income each month is to increase your current job income. Find out what you can do at work to get a raise or promotion. (If you are unsure how to do that, you can read about it here.)
Getting a raise doesn’t have to be impossible, you just need to know the right things to do in the right order. If you do these things and your company still doesn’t value you as an employee, it could be time to switch jobs.
I know that sounds scary but you must do what’s best for your family and if someone else is willing to value your skill as an employee more than your current employer then it’s definitely an avenue worth exploring. I am definitely not advocating you demand a raise and quit if you don’t get it. Follow our steps, be sure you are providing value to the company and give them time. If they don’t show any signs of increasing your position or pay then it’s reasonable to look elsewhere.
I do want to emphasize a couple of points on this. If you are going to change jobs, make sure you have a new job secured before you quit you old job and make sure you quit your current job in a professional way offering 2 weeks notice. It is never a good idea to burn professional bridges, you never know when you will need them.
Surround yourself with positive people and role models. Try to find people with similar goals so you can work together and as always you can reach out to me at jacob@justfinancialfreedom.com I am always here to help.
When you think you can’t do it, know that people like me are looking at you and are inspired and amazed at how you are raising your kids alone. It shows me that no matter how hard I think raising my daughter is, people out there are doing more with less. I want you to and feel that way when you look at building towards a retirement. It may tough but it can be done and it’s not nearly as hard as what you are doing now.
How are you setting up your retirement? Answer in the comments below and as always, if you found this useful please share on social media!
6 Step Inviting Formula Network Marketers Need To Master
https://bit.ly/2UvT9lp
