If your gainfully employed and still have insufficient funds what should you do?

Published April 27, 2021 | By Admin

Let’s go over the phrases first. Gainfully employed means you have a steady job where you are making money from either the hours you booked or being an salaried employee. This is another way of saying you have a job. Psychology adds gainfully as a motivational booster to just being employed. Its something you should be proud of, there was an employer out there who liked your skill set and will give you money for you to use that skill.

Insufficient funds. This is another way of the bank saying there is not enough money in your account to cover the purchased or cover the amount of money you want to take from your bank account. Be very careful with this one phrase coming up in your life since the bank will usually charge you a fee for presenting this message to you. These are called overdrafts and if you do not have overdraft protection on your bank account the fees will start rolling in.

If you ever have insufficient funds in your account you need to take a step back and see what led up to this occurrence. Was there a sudden emergency that required your attention or was it lack of planning on your part. Taking responsibility for this has to land on your shoulders so you can learn from this experience making sure it never happens again. Being employed means you have an amount of money paid to you either weekly or bi-weekly. After taxes this is called net income. If you deposit your income into your bank account this money is accessible through either an atm, teller, or debit card. Having your money work for you relies on the budget you created.

That means there is a direct tie from your budget to your bank account. Improperly budgeted money will leave you more days than money. This is where you fall into the insufficient funds messages. So to avoid all of these extra fees you need to set up a budget.

Where do you start. First take into account how much money you will be paid net over a month. After you have your net income written down deduct (subtract) your living expenses. Those living expenses are as follows.

Rent or mortgage
Utilities
Food
Car payments
Insurance

Those are the 5 things the average American pays for. About 90% of the population all have the same monthly expenses just not the same amount. After you deduct your expense from you income you have money left over. This money is a surplus. Surpluses are GOOD! If you don’t have a surplus you have to either figure out how to make more money or cut down your expenses. Wondering how to save money on a tight budget take a look at: https://mindyourcents.medium.com/secrets-to-saving-money-on-a-tight-budget-78dfb4060045.

That surplus of money should be saved into 3 different buckets. If you want to learn more: https://mindyourcents.com/where-to-save-your-money/

Short-term savings.
Medium-term saving.
Long-term savings.

Of course you want to keep a little in your bank account fo you want to treat yourself to some take out or a gift. The goal of this whole strategy is to avoid getting the insufficnet funds message if you are gainfully employed so it is crucial to follow your budget to the decimal and make conciuos money decisions.

Having a steady income is important but not as important as mapping out where that income goes daily. If you can budget out your month and still have a surplus it gives you the chance to have money start working for you. There is a strategy out there called compounding interest. This interest can start doubling your money if you can invest it. Over time these investment account can grow to huge numbers with you just saving a few dollars a week. Youi have to take control of your money, have your money work for you not the other way around. This all starts with taking responsibility for your money. Budgeting does just that.

If you pay attention to your spending and save $5 a week that ads up really quickly. Want an example without any interest added $5 a week saved for a year is $260. Doesn’t seem like a lot at the money but what if you did this over 10 years. The same $5 a week turns into $2600. That’s without any compounding interest. That’s just the savings you made on a weekly basis. Here is where it gets interesting. What if you up that to $10 a week. All the numbers double. $10 does not seem like a lot but It makes a huge difference to you bank account. If you have an extra $200 in you bank account at any time do you think you will ever over draft or have insufficient funds. Monitoring your account and you budget with your employment this can be totally avoided.

So if your gainfully employed and have insufficient funds what should you do? You should start a budget, make conscious money decisions and stick to your plan. This is your money take control of it.

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