You know how the saying goes, penny wise, pound foolish. Sometimes, for focusing too much on saving little amounts here and there, we forget about the big picture. For example, we would skip the latte on the way to work, and make coffee at home. Great! That is a terrific new habit for you to develop if you want to save money. However, we are only talking about a tiny bit of money every month.

On the other hand, there are little life changes or adjustments that do not require a lot of time to set up, and can result in big savings.

One of them is refinancing your mortgage. It can be as easy as sitting down with your banker for half an hour, or filling up your information on Loanable’s website, so you can be matched with potential lenders who could offer you a better deal on your house finance. Because of the huge amount you borrowed to buy a house, and the length of the loan, lowering your payments by even 5% every month will result in huge savings over the life of the loan.

Another great use of your time is negotiating your debt with your other creditors. Your credit card provider, for example, if you carry a balance. Credit cards usually have double digit interest rates, and if you keep on making minimum payment every month, your balance will take years to kill, or might even grow every month. If you have made your payments on time until now, you should have good credit, and be eligible for 0% balance transfer credit cards. Once your balance is carried over there, every payment you make will go entirely to pay off the balance, and not service the debt. Make sure you note the end date of the 0% deal and try to pay everything you owe by then. You can also look at competitors when it comes to student loans, car loans, personal loans, and so on, and call your creditor saying that other company offers such and such terms, and are they able to give you a better deal on your debt. Most of the time they will, saving you time and energy to fill up paperwork with other lenders. But if they don’t, don’t be afraid to shop around for something better.

Negotiating also works really well with utility providers. Every year, you can call your broadband provider, and ask to remain on the new customer discount. It works most of the time. Or just hang up and call back in hopes to find a more inclined customer service representative! Switching your electricity and gas provider is as easy as heading online, entering your postcode and address, and your monthly consumption. You can find information about your usage on your last bill. If you accept to pay via monthly direct debit, you can usually get a great deal, that will be applicable for at least 12 months. Again,  make a note in your agenda 11 months from now, and start shopping for bigger savings!

These little changes take barely hours and can save you thousands. By focusing on the big ticket items, you can save way more with less effort.

One way to become financially independent is to have multiple streams of income. Think about it. If you lost your job tomorrow, how long would you be able to survive on your savings alone? Whereas if you had another source of income bringing you, say, $200 a month on the side, well, you could pay for your groceries, and be less prone to hardship. Five $200 streams of income mean that if one dries up, you would only lose 20% of your income, not 100% like if you only depended on a job. Moreover, when you are trying to save money and build a great financial future for yourself and your family, there is only so much you can save. When you make $1,200 a month, saving $200 is much harder than when you make $1,500, or $2,000. Because you are already used to living on what you currently make, adding a new source of income will allow you to boost your saving, investments, and reach financial independence.

Today, let’s talk about building a website as a new source of income. You have probably seen articles about these Millenials who make six figures a month with their super popular blogs or drop shipping websites, but to be realistic, starting your own website will require a lot of time and effort, and probably just bring in a few hundreds a month. That said, when you consider an income of $300-500, that is the rent you could generate from a small studio, after you invest at least $30,000. With your own website, you can start with virtually nothing, and only spend money once you start making money.

First, you should head over to a site such as Wix, which has a free website builder to make your life easier. You don’t need to know anything about coding, HTML, PHP, using Wix is pretty much as easy as sending an email to someone when you add some text and pictures, make it pretty and click send. Once you have registered in a few click, Wix will take you through all the essential steps to make your website pretty, functional, and attractive to potential customers.

What should your website be about? Well you can go two routes. You can build your own website to attract more customers to an existing business, or you can start a blog and talk about something your are passionate about. With this blog, I talk about things I love, money and how it can buy freedom and choices, so people get empowered and have a great life. Because I am passionate about the topic, I don’t mind writing content regularly. If I had to talk about another topic, it would be a whole other story. So pick your topic carefully. The last thing you want is to shut down a blog after six months of hard work.

Building a website to either sell your products or sell your services seems more appealing, as they take way less time to set up. Wix offers free website templates that give you ample choice of home pages depending on your business, for example online store, restaurant, fashion, and more. You can then edit the pages, and make them truly yours.

Under the restaurant one for instance, Wix offers some great templates for a vegetarian restaurant, a bar, an ice cream parlor, a pizza place, a burger joint, and much more.
The details are on point with the burger corner template having an old diner feel, while the cupcake shop one is all girly and sweet. Once you have picked up the template that is most relevant to your own business, it is time to edit it. Wix makes the template thing straightforward by asking which kind of business you are looking into, as most businesses will have the same requirements. A restaurant will need a category for the menu, one to order online, one for opening hours, etc. But you can also use one of the many add-ons and drag and drop extra features as you please.

Then you click on the different text boxes to make them your own. It is just like editing a Word document, you choose the font, the color, and you update the text. Save, close, and Wix does the magic coding behind it.

Having your own website will allow your customers to find you easily, know all the services you offer, when they can reach you and where. It is paramount for any small business these days, and can add some welcome extra income to your wallet. Even better, at the beginning there is no need to pay a lot of money to get your website online. Wix is free for most of its features, and then you can add the premium ones as you start growing. One option that is worth paying for since the beginning is having your own domain, and probably also an ad free website. But for everything else, you can decide later. And with a site like Wix, no need to hire a web programmer every time you need small adjustments made to your site. Log back in, click on the visual and update it. Are you ready to boost your income streams?