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MARRIAGE AND FINANCES: REDUCING COSTS
If you are really trying to conserve funds to make a major purchase (or if you are intent on paying off the house as soon as you can), there are many ways of cutting down on costs.
Although owning a car is great, it is one of the most expensive items you can possess next to a house. The running costs are huge. Early in marriage, unless a car is absolutely necessary for business needs, it is worth considering waiting for a while. When you do buy, perhaps consider a good second-hand model instead of the latest model. Lots say, “you buy the other fellow’s problems if you buy a second-hand car”. Probably so, but you are paying proportionately less for it than for a new one. What’s more, the day you step into a brand-new car, it becomes second-hand at that moment.
Having the phone connected is great and very convenient. But is it essential right from the start? Phones are notorious for chewing up money, and gone are the days when they were a simple, inexpensive item.
Travelling to and from work is often much cheaper if you use public transport. In fact, working in town can present a major problem in parking a vehicle, and that is not cheap, either. Unless it is a definite requirement to actually earning your income, it is often far better left at home—which, of course, means that it is probably unnecessary, particularly in the early years of marriage. These ideas are simply inserted as “thinking points.” Some will think they are out of date, but they are not. Money is money, in everybody’s language, and the more you can save for the essentials, the better. In fact, once the habit of saving is established, and after the major cost factors have been taken care of you will be in a far better position to pay off a less expensive car. Then, in due course, you will more easily be able to afford nearly everything you desire.
In today’s world, with high prices, it is often a good idea if you can work out some way of augmenting the family income by outside activities. There are innumerable methods available. It is a case of sitting down and working out what you are capable of doing, then trying to find something that meets your capabilities.
These may be simple or more complex. However, to start with, do not aim too high. The idea of starting your own business might appeal. Let me inject a warning note. About 80 per cent of small businesses run by husband-and-wife teams go to the wall within one to two years. In short, they go broke. Often they absorb the total bank account as well. In the end, you are infinitely worse off than before you started. Better still, keep at your basic income-producing activity, and get some side-line going. Pick something that will reap as high rewards for the time spent as possible. Often doing jobs that produce so much per hour is fairly restrictive in the potential income they may produce. I feel it is better to select something where you get paid $x for “the job.”
Over the past twenty to thirty years, real estate has been an amazing source of added income for many. Lots of young couples have bought a block of ground, probably worked on it, clearing it, fencing it, levelling it out, and then reselling it at a handsome profit. Then the experience may be repeated, and repeated, each time a substantial profit being made.
Many might claim that today such opportunities no longer exist. But for those who seek, the opportunities are always present. Often in difficult times, the greater are the number of chances, for it means that more and more people have to unload their property, or whatever.
Some young couples will buy a run-down house (on terms, or through a bank or building society), and spend all their spare time doing it up. They will work nights and week-ends and holidays, painting, patching, fixing. They will call in trades people to do essential jobs they are unable to do themselves. Finally they will have a house that is ready for resale. Then the kill comes when they receive a price which is ever so much more than the original price plus the costs involved in repairing it. Also, it often works out that they have enjoyed rent-free accommodation as well.
The combinations are endless. I cite this form of enterprise because over the past several years many young (and not so young) couples have done really well out of it.
In fact, I have watched with considerable interest several progresses from virtually nothing, into a home that was finally the envy of all their friends.
“How did they do it?” “Where could a couple of kids their age have amassed the money to get a lovely place like this?” were the comments. Of course, it was not easy-come-easy-go. It was hard work for several years. Bui instead of making a few dollars per hour, they made a really good profit on a “per house” basis. Of course, tax cut into the picture, and took its share, but this is part of life too. There is always something left, and when the profits are in the names of two people, it levels out the tax to a certain degree. These matters may offer food for thought for couples interested in securing their own home, and as well making some extra money on the side.
*21/76/5*
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