YES! YOU CAN GIVE YOURSELF A RAISE

Are you wasting $300 or more per month?

Probable. 
Now were going to find out exactly how much. 
Relax I'm here to help you.
In this section were going to do the following. 

1. Stop overpaying your taxes. 
2. Eliminate monthly expenses (that you might not even be aware of).
3. Ridding yourself of those “ankle biter” debts once and for all.

We'll examine each in some depth. 
It's not a complicated process at all.

1. ADJUSTING YOUR TAXABLE WITHHOLDINGS:
In the taxes section, we mention the need to ensure that our yearly taxes end in a big fat zero.  
In other words, you don't want to owe anything but you don't want a refund either. 
O.K. you might WANT a refund but that refund is nothing more than a monthly tax in disguise.
The fastest way is to ask your accountant how much extra you can expect per month when you get it down to zero.
Now you're going to put that money to work, for you.
The fastest way is to ask your accountant or your HR Dept how to best go about withholding the proper amount.
Also remember how we went over the importance of a good accountant in the TAXES section.

2. Eliminate monthly expenses (that you might not even be aware of).
The point of this specific section is to identify every single monthly expense and in some cases eliminate them.
It's NOT the point to look for ways to save money, not now at least that comes later. 
The purpose here is to track every single expense and to account for it DOWN TO THE PENNY.
This might seem like a massive undertaking but most everything you need to do can be accomplished in about 2 hours.

In most cases this all comes down to three things.

A. Go online and print out the last two years activity on both your checking and savings accounts.
Also include any other accounts that are being used for paying bills. 
Whether monthly or irregularly bills.

B. Now you'll have to go online and again print out the last two years of all credit card transactions.

 C. Now you need to track ALL purchases made in cash. 
This might take a little longer so be sure you write down when and where you withdraw cash and save every receipt until you withdraw more cash.
Don't forget about any other bills that might not fall into any other traditional categories.
Make absolutely certain you don't miss anything by lining up all expenses and subtracting this amount from your monthly income.

Now the fun part. 
This is the part where you go over every single expense line by line.
 Keep a close eye for things you might not even be aware of.
This includes subscription renewals, music or other streaming services, gym memberships, banking fees, unnecessary insurance, (I.E. pet insurance, old insurance policies that were never cancelled), donations no longer relevant to you, and any other under the radar bills you missed.

While these bills alone might not come to $300 but I'll bet theres more there than you first thought.

Important!
 If there's a big difference between income and out-go you must identify where at and by how much.

3. Ridding yourself of smaller "ankle-biter" debts once and for all.
First, Don't confuse debts with bills.
We all have monthly bills we can't completely eliminate. 
Things like groceries, utilities, gas, insurance etc can't be minimized to nothing.
With that, we can in most cases lower them significantly.

Debts are a different matter.  
Debts, as described here, are monthly bills we put upon ourselves. 
Student loans, debt on credit cards, car notes, mortgages, medical bills, money owed to family/friends or the worst of them all, Payday type loans.

Again. If you do owe Payday or similar loans PAY THEM OFF NOW AND NEVER USE THEM AGAIN.

Now your going to pay off any of those lingering debts (those under $1000) you have THIS YEAR.
Why? 
Because now you can.
And you won't replace any of these small debts with any other debts (large or small).
It's true you have to pay these small debts before you see the additional disposable income that comes with them. 
But since you have to pay them off anyway, do it as fast as possible.

THERE IS NO BETTER FEELING OF PAYING ON A DEBT FOR THE LAST TIME!

Don't forget the overall points being made. 
To adjust your tax withholding, eliminate monthly bills you might not even be aware of and clean up any of the numerous minor debts you likely have.
 In all likelihood you will see at least some level of savings, and very possibly much more than you thought.

Please note:
 This section essentially serves as a precursor to the budgeting section. 
So be sure you fully understand everything we've discussed.