If you learn to handle cash and save money enough to sustain life and make some assets in your life as the single parent, then the journey in this adventurous role can be quite enjoyable. The first thing that however comes into the mind as the role of the single parent is a challenge. People think and parents know this very well, that how difficult life can be as the single parent when things are unplanned and sudden. You may get into this role as a well-thought decision, or as a compulsion.
Single parent by choice or compulsion
Divorces with mutual consent, or delivering the child as the single parent are situations which are self-driven and personal choice. All other situations like contested divorces, the death of a spouse, accidents or health conditions disabling one spouse, a missing spouse, etc., are some such problems of life, which brings the whole burden on one parent. And this is where the tough journey begins.
Whether you are into the role as a choice or by compulsion, when you are into it, you have to live it. And that is why there are some things to be understood well on time before it’s too late.
How to build wealth
Wealth building is necessary for your own good and also for the benefit of the child. By building wealth, you assure a better secure future for the child. The wealth may be in liquid, fixed, or property form. It may be directly used, or secured further as wealth only, or may be rented, leased, or sold too by your next generation. Whatever is done with it, it will bring some money in return to your child in the future.
That is why building assets and wealth will always help. Investing in property, land, gold, and jewelry that have great resale value will also help. And you can do all that with proper planning. It’s not a mandate that as because you are a single parent you will always have to struggle for money, and worry about how you are going to bring the groceries home next month. Life can be better, and you may organize things even better with some early on planning.
Simple steps to wealth building
As the single parent, with a single source of income, you can gradually take small steps to build wealth. Some of the steps any single parent can take, however meager your earnings are, are as follows:
- Save an amount of the earnings. Whatever you bring home each month, save a percentage of it mandatorily without fail, however smaller the amount is.
- Create a fund for emergency always and maintain it for the crisis situations.
- Avoid getting into debts. If you already have any dent due to the divorce or old debts of your deceased spouse, or parents’ inherited debts, etc., then you must settle them fast through methods of debt settlement or consolidation, etc. whichever suits them.
- Invest gradually and slowly in building property and assets with good resale value.
- You may take loans to buy new property or make assets, but they should be well planned and such calculated that you pay them off within due time without taking the financial stress, and on finally closing the loan, you own the asset or property.
If you can take these steps carefully, with good calculation and timely planning, then you can cross the hurdles as the single parent, and build your assets, buy properties, and settle your children stably for the future.
The hurdles you will face on the way of wealth building
One main problem almost every person, and especially the single parents face in the way of wealth building and stabilizing life financially is debt. Debt sucks out the lifeblood from a happy life if you cannot manage it on time through proper budgeting. And you can get into debt with some serious condition, or without any serious reason. Sometimes it has been seen that a crisis made you go for a loan to arrange for cash immediately, and this turned out later to be a problematic loan.
And sometimes it’s observed that petty behavioral problems like unwanted shopping and shopaholic habit made one swipe the credit card too much and in unplanned ways to get into debt, and then take payday loans and borrow from others to settle the card dues, and get into complex debt situation in this way. Hence debt can creep up in your peaceful life in any way-crises, or slow, sly steps. You may learn more about how people get into debt and get out of it from resources like nationaldebtreliefprograms.com.
Combat debt
The best way to combat multiple debts is to get into debt consolidation programs. A debt consolidation loan is a beautiful arrangement to ensure that your loans are all settled, and you get free from high-interest rate problematic debts. To get this, you will have to calculate how much money you need in total to settle all your debts with their penalties, etc. and this full and final amount you may then apply for as a debt consolidation loan.
If you have all documents okay, and a sound credit score, then you will get a loan approval quite fast. And then you may get the loan to settle all dues at once. This helps you pay a much lower amount each month towards paying back of the loan. That’s because the consolidated loan is approved at a much longer tenure and a lower interest rate. And this directly impacts the EMI amount and lowers it considerably than the amount you have been paying so far against all existing loans.
Finally
You can lead a good life as a single parent, and raise the kid with all the necessary resources. You just need to plan it carefully and avoid taking hasty decisions that may ruin the financial stability later. It’s all about the timely mature decision which makes or breaks you. And you must, therefore, get a good idea of finance handling and read and study this for more careful steps.