Worried about money? Always short on cash? Living on credit? Here are some tips on how you can take action to earn extra income.

If you like the idea of working from home, there are some freelance jobs that allow you to do that. You can choose jobs that work with your current schedule and talents. For example, you can do part-time work writing, typing or proofreading. One good resource you can visit to search for freelance work is at this website www.elance.com.

Use Your Creativity to Earn Money

Think about how you can use your unique skills to create an opportunity to earn extra income. For example, if you love animals, try offering to do pet-sitting for someone else for a fee plus mileage to pay for your gas. Use your talents and what you love to do. The possibilities are endless.

Use a Consignment Shop to Sell Things

Chances are there are several consignment shops in your area. Visit each one or ask friends or neighbors for a recommendation. The quality of stores can vary greatly, and you want to be sure you’re using a reputable shop. Find out if you need to schedule an appointment. Ask what percentage you will earn on each sale how you get paid. Ask what their standards are in regards to the quality and condition of items.

Become a Mystery Shopper

Mystery shoppers call or visit businesses posing as ordinary customers and provide written reports that evaluate their experience. A wide variety of businesses use mystery shopping; department stores, restaurants, hotels, entertainment and travel providers and many more. Assignments can be as basic as sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant for 20 minutes to document drive-thru service times to taking an all-expense-paid trip to a resort for 2 weeks to document your daily service experiences.

Legitimate mystery shopping companies never charge you a fee to be a shopper. Training and shopping opportunities are provided free to registered shoppers. Payment varies, and many shoppers use this as a second income source or as a way to obtain fully reimbursed meals, products, and services.

Do an internet search for “Mystery Shopping Jobs” or “mystery shopping message boards.” Most companies provide a simple online form that takes only a few minutes to complete. Most shopping opportunities are first-come, first-served, so provide the company with an email address that you check regularly, and a phone number where you can be easily reached.

Mystery shopping may not become your next career, but it will provide you with some extra income, free goods, and maybe even a few adventures along the way! Other part-time jobs can be found on the internet at http://jobsearch.about.com

Save Money On Groceries

There is a new web site that allows consumers to find local grocery deals – www.mygrocerydeals.com – where you can search by food category, by store or by product. Saving money on something we all buy on a regular basis can really help make the budget stretch a lot further.

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, Inc. specializes in helping people manage their money to achieve their money management goals, so be sure to claim your FREE Debt Reduction Solutions Guide

Ever gotten that feeling of anger and despair when you thought of working out a budget? Then the odds are good you’ve never looked up the word in a good dictionary to find out what this word really means, and thought about how you can use that to your business’s financial advantage.

Want some really good News? Running your business on a budget does not entail cutting back on the quality of the things you buy or denying your company anything it needs to operate. What it does mean, is that you have to figure out how to make enough money to afford the items your company has to have and to keep your spending within the limits of your income.

There’s more good news! The most valuable asset you have is you and your staff, and your income earning potential. If you want more money to spend, then figure out ways you and your staff can be more productive to bring in more money.

Another definition you need know is this: a BUDGET is the amount of money required for the business to operate, and to attain its financial goals.

Let’s consider the first part of the definition; how much is needed for you and your company to run. Add up all the money you spent in the past year to see how much money went out the door including what you put on credit cards plus interest. Divide the total by 52 weeks, and multiply it by 1.136. The result is what your weekly budget is. That is the amount of income your business has to bring in just to function plus barely keep up with increases in the cost of doing business. That doesn’t include paying compund interest on credit card debt.

More than likely, you have financial goals you also want your company to attain; That’s the second part of the definition. Reaching those goals must get added to your budget as well.

Here is an example: a company owner wants to purchase new office furniture 6 months from now that costs $2,000. They divide the cost of the furniture by the 26 weeks they have before the target purchase date and learn they have to set aside $76.92 every week to have the cash for the furniture. This gets added to the budget, meaning the additional amount of income they have to put into the bank every week.

Most importantly, if you, the company owner, want to attain the goal of financial freedom – working because you WANT TO instead of because you HAVE TO — then the most important part of the budget needs to be the wealth building cash you set aside in a savings plan and never touch.

Figure out how much money you would have to have in savings to live without working. Divide that dollar amount by the number of weeks until the time you would like to be financially free. Figure out how to make that much more income each week, and your budget is on the correct path to achieving financial freedom.

How badly do you want to be a millionaire in 20 years? Figure out a way to increase the company’s income enough to stash away $961.54 a week in savings for the next 1,040 weeks and you have made it to being a millionaire! The additional interest earnings on top of that will be a a nice add on perk that more than keeps up with the rise in the cost of living every year.

Today, with computers in every organization proper budgeting is accomplished much more efficiently than ever before by using Money Management Software, such as shown in this video. This software can work as a companion to your accounting software for really easy day-to-day operation.

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, Inc. specializes in helping business owners and individuals manage their money to achieve financial freedom. Claim your FREE Debt Reduction Solutions Guide

© 2008 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.

Your resources to fund your financial freedom are disappearing minute by minute. FACT: You spend a portion of our income every minute of every day. Even when you are at home sleeping, you are spending on the office  and the utilities to make that office comfortable. If we have debt, then we are spending on one more minute of interest to carry that debt. The question then becomes “How much income do you REALLY need”?

Finding the EXACT answer to that question is the missing ingredient to achieving your financial freedom. UNDER-estimating the amount of cash flow you need can be fatal to achieving your financial freedom goals. It’s easy to forget the small bits of money that constantly leave your hands and is never added up. A mis-estimation of how much you need to make is the amount that usually ends up on credit cards or lines of credit as debt.

The way to discover the exact level of income you need is best done by figuring out what you are actually spending on a weekly basis, and exactly where that money is going. Take out your Profit & Loss and credit card statements and start reviewing the list, by type of expense, how you spent each dollar during the past 12 months. The more detailed the information, the better. I’ll talk about why in part 3 of this series. (more…)