An income can be considered irregular if you’re not being paid on a regular schedule. An example of an irregular income is the pay you get from tutoring, craft sales, spousal support, and the like. However, having a sporadic income is harder to monitor compared to a regular income. In fact, financial planning can be twice as hard if your income is irregular.
Many freelancers can relate to the difficulty of financial planning as they don’t have a fixed salary every month. Even if freelancing is a booming industry, it’d be best to plan your finances successfully, despite your irregular income.
So, without further ado, here are a few tips that could help you create a viable financial plan with a periodic income.
Create a Budget Using Your Average Income
Even if you have a periodic income, it’s still possible to create an average monthly income within two to three years. Once you get your monthly average income, you can use it to create a budget. And when creating a budget, you must plan your savings and expenses accordingly.
If you can’t achieve the sufficient amount that you should save for long or short-term goals, you might want to consider looking for another source of income to help support your needs.
Individuals who have an irregular income are advised to create two budget plans. One is for the good times, and the other is for the cold times. It’s a technique known to help individuals with a sporadic income ease spending when the income is good and vice versa.
Write Down Your Monthly Expenses
Now that you’ve already your average monthly income, you should next write down your monthly expenses.
You must ensure that you have included everything from your electric bills to your monthly groceries and other necessary expenditures. It’d be best if you were as accurate as possible. And to do this, you might want to refer to your credit card bills or bank statement in the last few months.
Establish an Emergency Fund
Even if you have a sporadic income, you shouldn’t forget to create an emergency fund. An emergency fund will help you survive during a time when your income is low. It’ll also be your source of funds in between employer changes, allowing you to stay afloat until you find your next gig.
In addition, you can also use your emergency fund when unexpected things happen, like your car breaking down or your house needing repair, and most importantly, when you need medical attention.
As a rule of thumb, you should have an average of 6 to 12 months worth of your salary in your emergency fund. Therefore, if you need to take money from this fund, you must ensure that you refill it as soon as you get extra income. You’ll find having an emergency fund helpful, especially during rainy days.
Stay on the Right Path
Straying away from your financial plan is the most tempting thing to do. If you aren’t careful, you can easily forget and step off the right path. All of your hard work and time will be all for nothing, thus leading to an unsuccessful financial plan.
If temptation comes knocking on your door, take a pause and think of all the time, effort, and sacrifices you put into creating your financial plan despite having a sporadic income.
Remember when you still haven’t created a plan and think about how hard it was to manage your finances. Naturally, you don’t want to return to that situation and face all the stress and worries that come with it. Therefore, ensure that you stay on the right track and follow your established plan. It might be hard, but it is worth it.
Prioritize Getting an Insurance
The recent pandemic taught us that we couldn’t predict when our loved ones or ourselves would get sick. So, having life and health insurance will secure your family’s health and future no matter what happens.
One drawback of having an irregular income is that you can’t predict how much you will earn each month. So, if someone in your family gets hospitalized, you won’t be sure if your monthly salary will cover the medical expenses.
If you still don’t have life and health insurance, now is the best time to acquire one. Do your research and shop for the best insurance coverage your money could buy and protect yourself and your family from the unexpected.
Final Words
Now that you’ve read the tips above, even if you don’t earn a steady income a month, you can start planning. If you follow the tips provided, you can increase your chance of success in creating a workable financial plan according to your income and needs. As a result, you’ll be living a financially worry-free and stress-free life despite having an irregular income.
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