The easiest way to increase your monthly income (2024)

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If you are someone who constantly complains about not having money or you’re not able to save money and you have a job. Then that means you are spending too much money on crap and unnecessary expenses. Cutting out these kinds of expenses is the first step to getting on the road to financial freedom. This is the easiest way to increase your monthly income:

Clean up your bills people! I’ve had the privilege of digging deep into friends and family finances in the hopes of helping them improve their financial life. I’m constantly amazed of all the unnecessary bills people are paying each month. It’s like no one cares that they are in debt and are going to be flat broke when they get older. People need to someone to kick them in the butt to see what they are doing and how much they are spending. I am about to kick your butt in this topic with the info below. Read it, follow it, love it!!

Here are some examples of the expenses I’ve seen that are holding you back.

1) Gym Membership

People are paying anywhere from $15 to $60 a month on gym fees and most of them only end up going once a month. This needs to be resolved asap! Quit your membership folks. There is no need to waste gas, go to a gym and use nasty, sweaty equipment anymore. I personally go running outside and the days that the weather does not coincide, I do a home workout, specifically this one. I guarantee you that if you were to do this workout and follow the regimen, you would be in way better shape than the workout you’re doing at the gym. It’s literally a 25 minute workout that you can do in the comfort of your own home. You don’t even have to follow their regimen, just pick a CD and pop it in. That 25 minute work out will crush you. You can use these DVDs forever and save hundreds and hundreds of dollars. That is just one example, there are hundreds of home workout programs. You need to jump on this band wagon and stop wasting money.

2) Cable TV or Satellite

If you haven’t already noticed, internet streaming is taking over the world. There is no point in paying $100 per month anymore to watch television. There are multiple ways to get your fix people. I personally cut out my satellite dish years ago for Netflix. Its $10 per month and has more than enough TV shows and movies to make you happy. If you are concerned about certain channels you wont get there is another awesome service called SlingTV, Try SlingTV free for 7 days. Its a new service they offer where you can live stream tons of channels. Like really good channels, the ones you want to see. Espn, Espn2, AMC, Food network, A&E, History channel, TNT, HBO,HGTV, Disney, CNN, TBS, Travel channel, Adult Swim, Galavision, cartoon network, the list goes on. You do not need anything more than this and its $20 per month. Between that and netflix you no longer need cable or satellite. Cancel it right now. Seriously! Go!! Go now and come back after you’ve cancelled it. You will thank me later.

3) Donations and charities

This may sound mean but if you are in debt, you should not be giving money away people! Get rid of your debt, then consider donating money to a good cause. For example, I discovered a person I knew who is in debt, has a negative net worth and was paying a local radio station a $10 monthly donation because they liked the radio show. Really!! I know it was only $10 but when it comes down to being smart about money, you need to track every penny as every penny helps your cash flow situation. End this now!!

4) Monthly credit card bills

This topic really merits its own article in itself but the gistof it is that if you are paying a monthly credit card bill and you’re in debt, you need to figure out a way to paythis off and stop using your credit card ASAP. This is an emergency situation that needs to be addressed. If you have to use your credit card to purchase things then you can’t afford it so don’t buy it! If this is you then you need to read this bookasap and start taking care of your debt situation. If you are a financially savvy person that uses your credit card for rewards and pay it off in full every month then I applaud you. That is the only way you should ever be making monthly credit card expenses.

5) Home phone land line

Don’t even get me started on this one. If you are paying this then you are lost in the 90’s. Wake up and see we are living in 2015 now. I don’t even think they make new homes with existing phone line connections anymore. I actually met someone just this past weekend that had this. I yelled at them!

6) Monthly checking accounts fees

There are so many credit unions and banks out there now offering free checking. I know it’s a pain to transfer everything over but do it. Save the money! Checkingaccount fees are crap andno one should ever have to pay this.

Checking account fees are crap and no one should ever have to pay this.

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7) Monthly mortgage expense

Folks if you haven’t already noticed, interest rates are ridiculous cheap. If you can shave off even 1% on your rate you can save a ton of money on your mortgage bill. Your monthly mortgage amount will be significantly smaller. This can also be a daunting task and requires a lot of work but its worth it. It’s free to find out if you can even qualify. Run the numbers, see what can be done.

8) Monthly auto insurance

Most people get an insurance company to work with and they stick with it for ever. This is the wrong tactic. Every 3 or 4 years you should get new quotes from different companies and see about lowering your insurance bill while maintaining the same coverage. You will be surprised when you find out you have been over paying this whole time. This is also something you can do for free to find out if you can save money. Start looking around now for an insurance broker. They can pull quotes from multiple companies and offer you the best deal. This also applies to your home insurance if you have a house. Get a cheaper quote for this too. Same exact process. Package your home and auto insurance with your new cheaper insurance company and they both get even cheaper. WINNER!

9) Hack your internet bill

If you have an internet service provider (you know, where you pay your monthly internet bill to). Check and find out if your contract is up. If it is, tell them you are going to switch to a cheaper provider. They will at least match the offer if not beat it to retain you and they don’t renew your contract. I go through this same process every year with time warner. Trust me. it works! And its full blown awsomeness!

If you do all of this, you probably just increased your monthly cash flow by hundreds of dollars. That is an extra cash flow inyour pocket people. Now if want to be super smart then you will use all that money you’re saving and pump it into some sort of investment vehicle. Like my favorite, Turnkey Rental Properties!! If you are interested in investing in real estate with the least amount of effort, a turnkey rental property is what you want. I will eventually retire early from these. If you would like to read more articles on this type of investing just check out all my posts on Investing with Turnkey Properties.

Grow your net worth today with your FREE Personal Capital account.

Do as much as of this as you can now!!

As a side note, If you are looking to make a little side hustle cash online, the easiest way that I can find is with Inbox Dollars. The good folks over at Penny Hoarder wrote a review and talk about it here: How To Make $30 quick dollars with Inbox.

Check out these other posts:

5 Great Debt Destroying Tips
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How To Get More Than 4 Mortgages
Is Buying a Turnkey Property More Expensive Then Doing It…
June 2015 Net Worth Update (+ $8,216)
Top Reasons Why You Are Scared To Invest In Real Estate

Cash Flow Diaries

It’s surprising that you didn’t get some comments on this post given all the traffic to it!
- You know I was stumped on that too. As of today it says I have had over 10k views on this article and you are the first to comment. Kind of crazy!
You have some great tips in here. I can’t agree with you more on many of them. We cut our cable a year ago and haven’t looked back. We use Amazon Prime for shows, have a Roku (got it free with points) for more shows, and bought digital antennas for local channels (we get about 15 channels). We might get Netflix eventually, but we still have a ton of debt to tackle first. We pay $100-120 per year for tv now. Huge savings.
Only drawback is sports. I miss games that are on cable stations (ESPN, CBS Sports, etc). We might eventually buy access to those sports channels, but we need to be financially okay first.
- Thanks Brian! Cutting cable was one of the greatest things I have done. I use Roku also and love it! You should check out the roku app “crackle”. Its pretty good and its free!
  For ESPN I use Sling TV which is great but it does cost $20 per month. I like it because it has HGTV, Food Network, ESPN, ESPN2,TBS, TNT and a bunch of other good channels.
  - We like Crackle, too. We really only got that channel for the Seinfeld show, Comedians in Cars, but I’ll have to check out the rest. We had some freebie access to other cable channels like FX, ESPN, etc because we still had internet service with the same cable company, but I guess they wised up and cut our access to those cable channels through Roku.
    I’ll have to consider Sling TV. My wife loves HGTV and I love sports, so it could be a reward for paying down debt. Thanks for the suggestions.
Great tips. I think most people are AFRAID of change! They are comfortable with what they have or who they are registered with and they just don’t want to “rock the boat”. What they don’t realize is that whether you are new with a company or have been with them for 30 years, you my friend are still a number to them. They don’t know you personally and they don’t care.
That means the phone company, the insurance, your mortgage etc etc, you are a paying client and likely your fees each year go up and up.
Take the time to look at your bills and your options, we did. We got rid of satellite probably 5 years ago now and never looked back. I love sitting to a movie, no commercials tempting me to buy crap I don’t need, wasting my time and surfing for twenty minutes before I sit down to enjoy what I actually want to watch.
Our land line from Bell Canada for telephone…gone! We do still have a phone at home due to one person who still needs it but we went with MagicJack. Why? Hmm the phone bill went from over $50 per month to $30 per year!! Huge savings.
Car insurance, same thing, we were clients over 30 years when they came up with some new rule about having more than two tickets and then wanted to discontinue our service cause they didn’t have a plan for us. I called around, you know what? I found a company with tickets that charged us only $4 more per month and later in probably three months from now, that’s when they drop off, our rate reduces by 40%
See Also
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Motorcycle insurance, here’s a biggie. Hubby paid $500 per year when he first started and the bike then a 650CC. When he got his V-max it jumped, then Jevco got bought out by Impact and it doubled again. We were now paying about $1500 per year. The bike had gotten older and hubby an even more experienced rider. So wtf?? I shopped around and found an insurance, same coverage at $400 per year. Wow that was cheaper than when he first started riding as a new rider.
I could probably go on and on here but let me just say this, don’t settle, don’t be afraid. Change is good. This year we intend to change our house insurance (renewal is in July 2016) and looking at another 40% savings on it. It doesn’t hurt to ask questions and shop around. After all isn’t this YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY !!
Cheers Irene
- Hi Irene,
  Wow that is one of the best comments I have ever had. Real world examples in action of doing exactly what everyone should be doing with their bills. You are a rockstar! Its crazy how those insurance companies try and rip you off like that im glad you got all that worked out.
  2016 will be my biggest year in terms of finances. I have big plans to save money and buy more rental properties. Lucky for me I have already cut the fat on all my crap expenses and bills so I am ready to rock and roll. Or course I will and do re-evaluate all my bills once a year just to make sure.
  Thanks for the awesome comment!
  - You are welcome. I’d actually like to thank you cause it’s your post that inspired me to write this (even as a blog post on my site). I find it strange that we take things for granted like this and all the while it affects us in the most direct manner, OUR FUNDS!! Our hard earned money !
    Yes we are evaluating things further too, as mentioned we will certainly look into house insurance this year and I’m chopping $8000 credit card debt that’s left. Here’s to debt free (except a mortgage) !!
    There is always something else that one can tackle making life easier and little stress free and open up those funds for something else.
    Many thanks for today’s inspiration. Irene
Some good tips. Not sure I agree about the landline one though. Landline has a far better quality reception in my experience and for someone that needs to do often long interviews my preference is always for a landline. But that is a very specific situation. I think I would be more inclined to suggest that the latest, greatest mobile phone is not a necessity and choosing a cheaper phone can save much money.
- Hi Sam! I agree if you are in a unique situation like yourself it would not be advisable to drop the land line. I really like your tip for cell phones, not necessary to purchase the latest and greatest one. Most of the people I know always want the latest and greatest and end up spending a fortune!
  Thanks for the awesome advice!
my husband and i have never had cable tv, gym memebership, phone land line, checking acount fees. we pay our home and car insurence in full as well as our credit card. we do donate to our church and a few other charites, and have a small car payment. but we are 29 yrs old with 2 kids. we now just moved into our 3rd house that we have all owned and we have no morgage. we also put our 1 school age child in a privet school. we arent rich at all!!!!!! he drives truck and brings home 65k a year, we have 1 income and i stay at home to raise the kids and run the farm. my point is not to brag but to show that if you work hard at a young age, like we did, and spend your $ wisely than you can slow down and enjoy your family when you have one.
- Wow! Sandra you are my hero and a great inspiration for everyone. Really love your story and I hope all the readers see it. It truly is possible and you are living proof. And at such a young age. You are a role model for finances and getting rid of debt.
  Congrats!!
oh and to throw this out there, we also dont have the latest and greatest of anything. it was more inportent for us to not have a morgae so we dont have to worry about loosing our home if something happens. and to focuse on our childrens education.
I have done all of these things except the landline one bc the cell is not connected to 911 and the landline is. So I keep it for emergencies. I even have a cell tower nearby but I checked with the police that they can only get an approximate location. Our area is not that great so I am keeping it.
However, I go through and check each bill every few months or so to see if I am getting the best deal still. I pay my cc bills in full each month and reap the reward points to pay for my Christmas gifts- have 5 children to buy for! I also paid off my mortgage and completely debt free. I also was able to retire early.
One thing I tell people is to live off of one income if you have two incomes. Bank the second. So your bills should be aligned with that and if you have only one income then try to live as close to half of that as your goal.
Up your deductions like I have liability insurance on my older cars( no car debt and drive it til it stops running usually over 300k miles) and the highest deductible I can afford for house n car. Because you have savings from all the money you saved- I have 5000. in deductibles. My home insurance is like 900./ year for a house in the SF area. Just go over your complete coverage to ensure it is adequate.
Also I try to get as much free as I can( legally and ethically of course). I have cell phones, cars, all my baby cribs,computers and so forth received free when others waste and no longer want them and get the newest versions.
I like to watch my money grow so any little amount even I can put in, I deposit it. I hate to spend so I rather keep adding. So little by little you find it will add up quicker than you thought. I kept plugging away at the principal and paid off my house early which is a feat in itself in the SF area!
But the best thing is the freedom being debt free gives you!
- Hi Ellen,
  I agree if you do not have access to 911 from a cell phone then a landline is a must for sure. You are really doing an unbelievable job with your finances. I really like your idea of banking the 2nd income if you have one. That would really help! Thanks for the awesome comment!
Good ideas! We already do most of these – DH and I have never had satellite (we can’t get cable where we live), we have always just used Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime. Tried Sling TV for a while, but didn’t use it enough and found the user interface to be difficult to navigate. It might be better now, though. I might try it again once the hospital bills are paid off.
Another poster commented about keeping their landline for 911 – we keep ours, too, for additional reasons: 1) they will work with power outages (as long as you have at least one corded phone) and other situations where your cell phone might not, 2) it’s cheaper for us to get our internet with the landline than it is without. 3) We turn our cell phones off at night, so if our families need to get a hold of us during the night, they can.
Sadly, in our area, we don’t have the option to barter with the internet company – only one company services our neighborhood. I’m (not so) patiently waiting until another company gets out there and we can have some competitive pricing. 🙂
- Hey Kelsey!
  You are a few steps above most people I would say for sure. Too bad Sling didnt work out for you. The only reason I got it anyways was because my Fiance has to have the food channel and that is the only way to get it without paying for cable/satellite. LOL
  Keep doing what youre doing!! 🙂
Awesome tips! I just started streaming last month, loving it! I’m not a big TV watcher except when the mood hits. The only thing I cannot get away from is the landline. Yes, I know it’s 2016, but due to a member of my household (not me) we have to have a landline for another reason. In time that will go also. The car insurance and internet service tips were the best! Those will definitely help me in the future. No credit cards here, never had one. I dread what my debt would be like if I did!!
- Thanks Leah! Sounds like you are well on your way to increasing that cash flow!! Love that you dont have credit card debt too!! 🙂
I am actually really glad I switched to a big bank! I previously banked at PC Financial, a free Canadian “bank” (wit no branches.) My checkings account now isn’t free and is $20/month. BUT I get so much value from it, including a premium credit card (with lots of benefits, insurances, etc., previously paid $170/yr), free checks, certified and bank drafts, e-transfers, etc. I also have a dedicated financial advisor, who we can go in to see or who I can call/email/text if I need something. No need to go through long customer service call centre wait times ever! He also has broader access to investments and I’ve been so pleased with the last one he set us up with.
Lol I can’t wait to hack my internet bill when I start paying for my own internet.
And the car one is a great tip too once I get a car. I’m so glad to have found this article beforehand.
I’ve gotta admit, the donation one was funny. Does that mean I pass over the offering bowl at church now 😛
- Hi Blossom, I hope you can get rid of some debt and increase that cash flow by utilizing some of those for sure! Yeah as for the donations, I definitely would not recommend someone withhold tithings but the point I was trying to make is really just if you are going to be giving away money, it makes a lot more financial sense to do it AFTER you pay off your debt. 🙂
I still use a land line…. We live in the middle of nowhere and our reception on our cel phone is questionable. Our daughter has epilepsy so being able to get ahold of an ambulance during a seizure is a huge concern. Also-since we live I. The middle of nowhere- we still have cable. We have Internet, but it’s 10 gigs for an absorbent amount of money so steaming Netflix or any other service isn’t feasible. Suggestions?….. Besides moving?
- Oh wow! Yeah in your situation you are definitely limited on your options. I would move 😉
A good number of people I know, people who are not well off financially (even people with lots of debt) don’t realize just how much it costs to eat out. So perhaps as an exercise, go over your average spending on eating out and see how much it adds up over the course of the year (and try not to faint in the process!). My husband and I both discovered, especially through buying a house and furnishing it, that a lot of people spend a lot of money on stuff when they really don’t have to. We also continually hear that you need to make 100K to run a balanced household, but I believe that it is because people overpay for 75% of the stuff they buy.
Best of luck to you and your readers.