Increase Your Income

So, how can you increase your income? Well, you can either look at more ways to make money or you can look at ways to reduce spending.

You should already have examined your spending , and taken steps to reduce unnecessary spend.

You will also have worked out your budget , further trimming outgoings so as to create a balance available for repaying debt.

From this you will probably have already increased your disposable income a little already.

But perhaps you are still struggling to find enough to pay all your creditors because you still have a shortfall on your budget and need to fill that gap? Maybe your budget is so tight that you worry you will find it difficult to maintain.

Or it could be that you have a little to pay all your debts but you would like to pay more in order to reduce the overall amount of time it will take you to repay them.

Maybe you just want to increase your income a little more in order to ease the pressure or to save.

Whatever your situation let’s take a look at some more options to help raise money or increase your income.

Welfare Benefits

You should begin by finding out if you are entitled to any welfare benefits that you are not currently receiving.

In the UK, for example, If your income is low you may be entitled to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit that would help with your housing costs.

If you do not live in the UK you might contact your local government, welfare or benefit office, or search the web to see what benefits are available in your area.

You might be entitled to help with your child care costs if you are working. Once again if you in the UK and are working on a low income you may be entitled to Tax credits.

It is worthwhile applying for any benefits that you might be entitled to even of you think that you will not receive very much. When you are working to get out of a debt situation, every little bit helps, believe me.

Employment

Do you have some spare time in the evenings, weekends, or during school hours? If so, an obvious way to increase your income on a regular basis is to consider finding a part-time job.

Or does your current job offer the possibility of overtime, if so, could you do a few more hours?

If you are not earning enough from your current employer, you could consider looking for another position that would pay better. Keep your eyes open for higher paid opportunities and actively search by using the internet, buying newspapers and reading the jobs section, and registering with local job and employment agencies.

Sometimes working as a temporary employee through an agency pays a better hourly rate than a permanent position. Of course, there are downsides to this such as no sick pay, maternity, or holiday entitlements; no company pension (although many of those are not by any means guaranteed these days anyway); and you are not guaranteed to be working every week.

However, I have a couple of friends who work through employment agencies on supposedly 'temporary' contracts who do very well, they work almost every week of the year and remain with the same employer for very long terms, so it might be worth considering, especially if you are currently out of work, building a part-time business or not concerned with long-term security.

Would re-training help?

Look for night classes, college courses, or free training days that might give you the qualifications or experience needed to improve your job or promotion prospects.

If you are looking to further your career, change jobs or simply find a job, you could increase your chances of success by visiting the e-Resumes website to learn how best to create a good CV or resume, present yourself for jobs and other tips.

Your Home

If you own your own home and have a spare room, perhaps you could increase your income every month by considering letting it out to help with costs.

If this sounds interesting but you are unsure about taking permanent or long-term lodgers then you could look into the possibility of student exchange programs or short term lets.

Self-Employment

Do you have any skills that you could employ to create a small part-time business (home typing; gardening; babysitting; crafts; coaching or tutoring, etc? Or you could try joining a reputable and established network marketing programme.

Perhaps you spend a lot of time at home and use a computer. How about building a website to help create a passive income source? You could sell your own goods and services or you could make use of affiliation programs related to your passion or hobby to increase your income.

This website was created using SBI which I highly recommend as it not only offers all the tools you require, but it also provides education on all aspects of your website from providing content and building pages to optimization and much more. It also provides a wealth of tools to help you get your website listed, to get the best from keywords and templates. If you are new or inexperienced this is an ideal way to build a professional website and even experienced webmasters use the SBI system.

For more information on SBI click here.

There is more advice and tips on working from home at "Work From Home Advice for You" . Take a look.

Sell Your Unwanted Items

You could raise some cash by clearing out your home and collecting up your unused or unwanted items such as CD’s, books, electrical goods, clothing, extra furniture and furnishings, etc, to sell off.

You could hold a garage sale, advertise in a local shop, sell at a car boot sale, or advertise on a reputable auction site such as eBay.

Of course, unless you are a massive magpie, this will not increase your income on a regular basis, but it could raise a lump sum or two that you could use to towards your debts or savings.

And whenever you have a clear out in the future don't blindly throw away unwanted items, always think about whether you could raise some cash by putting it up for auction or collect towards your nest car boot sale. I've even seen many broken items advertised on eBay for spares and repairs, so you never know - one person's junk is often another's treasure.

Other Creative Ideas

If you are really stuck and don’t have many other options here is a slightly more creative way to increase your income, even if it's only by a small amount - it's relatively painless and free.

If you have a savings account, preferably with a reasonable interest rate some online accounts give good rates), you could put aside the money for your bills each month then arrange to have your bill payments go out at a set date and make some interest on those bills before you pay them.

For example, the majority of my income comes in early in the month usually, so I deposit my expenses into my savings account and arrange for my bills to be paid at the end of the month.

This means that I am getting interest on that money for almost a month before I pay it out. It may not seem a fortune, but it adds up, so if you leave the interest in there and only withdraw back out the amount you need to cover those bills (or have them paid directly from your savings account if you have that facility) then the interest will also attract interest and over time you could build up a small sum that you would not otherwise have had.

And the beauty of it is that you built this little pot from money that you would normally be putting straight into your creditors’ pocket. Sweet!

And finally...

I hope these ideas to increase your income have whetted your appetite. You may have found something here that is just what you were looking for or perhaps these suggestions have helped inspire some thoughts of your own.

Whatever your own situation I sincerely hope that this series has been useful to you and that you will be able to make use of some of the suggestions to help get your finances back on track and get yourself debt-free.

It may take some discipline and some time but it will be well worth it for your pocket and your peace of mind.