Traveling as a certified nurse assistant offers many rewards, among them can be above average pay. In fact, many traveling CNAs earn more than their perm counterparts—particularly when stipends are factored into the compensation equation.
With that in mind, here are some tips regarding traveling CNA jobs and your personal finances.
Begin at The End
What’s your idea of financial freedom? That’s something that means different things to different people. It’s all a matter of priority really. Some people want to retire to the South Pacific. Others want to live out their golden years on a cruise ship. Maybe you want to buy a farm. Whatever your thing might be, you’ll need to set goals to get there.
Once you’ve decided what you want, commit to it in writing and do some research to learn what you’ll need to do to get there. Once that’s done, you can break it down into the baby steps you’ll need to take to get the end result you want.
This will also help you keep track of your progress as you go along.
Make The Most of Your Income Opportunities
To begin, you’ll need to figure out how much you make each month, how much you spend each month to meet your responsibilities and how much you’ll have left after all of those necessities are met.
When seeking assignments, look for the best opportunities to help you reach your financial goal. For example, will it be financially advantageous to search “CNA jobs near me” or CNA jobs that take you farther out?
Generally, housing and travel stipends tend to be more generous when you’re farther away from your home base.
Either way though, do all you can to make sure the positions you take offer travel, housing and—Ideally—meal stipends. This will enable you to save more of the money you earn, which will leave you more cash to put toward your financial goals.
Craft a Spending Plan
Noticed we used the term “spending plan” there, rather than budget? That’s because spending plans are expensive where budgets tend to be restrictive. It’s more fun to think of how you’ll spend your money to reach your goals than it is to think in terms of the restrictions a budget will impose on your spending.
One of the ways to approach this is to think, “I’ll spend this amount on going out, shopping and entertainment this month, which will leave me this amount to save and invest.” It’s important to include fun items in your spending plan, regardless of how much money you make. Your spending plan will get abandoned faster than a plane going down in a flames if you don’t leave yourself some room to enjoy yourself.
Ultimately, having a spending plan you can live with will help you save a set amount each pay period so you can reach your monthly and yearly savings goals.
Hold on to Some Contingency Cash
Also known as an emergency fund, financial advisors strongly recommend setting aside a separate stash of cash to cover unforeseen circumstances. The basic rule of thumb is building up a cache of three to six months of your living expenses. This will help you deal with unexpected expenses without taking on debt.
While we’re talking savings, a good play is to enroll in an automatic savings plan. This will slice your stash of cash out of each paycheck before you see it. A huge plus here, everything else in your account becomes fair game—once your expenses are covered—even as you’re getting closer to achieving your goals.
Avoid Saying, “Charge It”
Do everything possible to avoid buying things on credit. If you must use a credit card to fund a purchase, make every effort to pay it off in full before the finance charges kick in. Credit card interest can add as much as 20% or more to any balance you carry into the following month. That’s money that should be going toward funding your dreams—rather than those of some credit card company’s CEO.
Seek Professional Help
We know we’ve dropped a lot on you with this, so it’s okay if it all seems a bit overwhelming. Rather than toughing it out and muddling through, seek the services of a certified financial planner. These people can help you make the moves you need to make to ensure your personal finances are working for you, rather than the other way around.
In Summary
These tips will help you maintain control of your personal finances as you work traveling CNA jobs. Setting clear goals, making the most of your income opportunities, establishing an emergency fund and staying away from credit cards will see you building a sizable nest egg in pretty short order. And remember, there’s no shame in the game if you call in a professional brain.
About Wanderly
Wanderly is creating a transparent marketplace for the healthcare staffing industry using blockchain, big data, and machine learning. We employ these technologies to bring travel healthcare professionals and agencies together faster, in an ecosystem predicated upon enabling meaningful connections for everyone involved.