Good money management practices are often a result of hard work, dedication, and an ongoing commitment to the long-term. But what it boils down to is simply taking initial action. In fact, you’d be surprised by how much money you can save by taking a few small steps. The below tips are easy, effective, and proven ways to save you well over thousands of dollars in any season. And the best part is that each of these tips only takes anywhere from a few minutes to around half an hour to either start or complete.
1. Review and Compare Auto Insurance Quotes
Comparing and shopping around for new automobile insurance every 6-12 months is a sure way to either save a few hundred dollars or at least to ensure that your policy doesn’t increase gradually. Insurance providers regularly adjust their prices, and policy rates fluctuate dramatically, even over a 12 month period. Also, the industry is highly competitive, which means that companies are always fighting to get new business.
2. Build a Free Financial Plan
A financial plan is one of the best tools you can have available to you. Your plan is like the north star of your current and future financial picture, guiding you through your decision-making and showing you the exact next steps you need to be taking. The real value of any true financial plan is that it’s holistic. It considers every major area of your financial life, rather than focusing on just one area.
By being able to look at your income, savings, investments, insurance, and estate plans, you’ll uncover your financial strengths and weaknesses that will help pave the way for your road to success. To make the most of your financial plan and to continue improving your chances of success, it’s critical to make sure that you’re reviewing your plan and the progress you’re making at least every three to six months.
Follow Invested Wallet For More
If you’ve enjoyed reading our content and are passionate about learning wealth, managing your finances, and achieving financial freedom, we’d love for you to join our community! Click here to follow Invested Wallet for more.
3. Review Your Subscriptions and Memberships
With the abundance of online subscriptions and memberships available, it’s easy to assume that there are a few online subscriptions and memberships of your own that you are not using nearly as much as you should be. How many channels from your 200+ cable package are you actually watching? If you’re subscribed to services like Netflix, Prime, and/or Disney+, are you using them enough to justify their monthly rate? On their own, they’re relatively cheap, but when you add them up, these costs can start to stack up quite considerably.
4. Eliminate Your High-Interest Debts and Loans
High-interest, revolving debts like credit cards are a sure way of killing your financial plan and getting in the way of your ability to save. Instead of saving, your hard-earned money is directly being used to pay for interest payments. By paying down your debt, you’ll be saving yourself hundreds or even thousands of dollars in interest payments over time.
When you’re working on paying off your debts, focus on the accounts with the highest interest rates, and start paying those down first. Once you’ve finished paying one-off, work on the account with the second-highest interest. Continue in that order.
5. Get an Accountability Partner
An accountability partner also referred to as a success partner, is exactly what it sounds like. A person who’s there to hold you accountable for the decisions and actions in your financial life. For most people, an accountability partner is usually a spouse, partner, or even someone they live with. However, it can be anyone you trust and can rely on.
Early on, you and your accountability partner need to have a conversation about expectations and how you both foresee the relationship going. Like any relationship, you need to share information (and likely details) of what you are working on and be comfortable asking for their help to get you there.
6. Challenge a Friend to a No-Spend Challenge for 30 days
The best way to save your money is not to spend it in the first place. Believe me, as someone who can be impulsive with my money at times; I know just how hard not spending it can be. This is exactly where a no-spend challenge or money savings challenge can help out.
Pick one week, or even month if you can, in your calendar and challenge a friend (it can even be your accountability partner) not to spend a single dime within that time period.
7. Freeze Your Credit Card(s) for One Month
Freezing your credit cards might seem like an odd thing to do, but it works. When you have credit cards at your disposal every time you make a purchase, there’s a good chance that you’ll be inclined to use this card more than you ever need to. It reinforces bad habits. Not to mention, you might even find yourself using this card when you have cash available, which can potentially lead to more unnecessary spending by way of interest payments.
8. Automate Your Savings
This is one that you’ve definitely heard before, and you are maybe already doing, but the number of people still not taking advantage of this continues to surprise me. By automating your monthly savings, you’ll feel instant relief knowing that your money is being put to good use immediately. The real trick here is just getting started—even if you can only save $10 from every paycheck, that’s still $10 more than you were previously saved.
9. Automate Your Bills and Expenses
Like automating your savings, you’ll also want to automate any expenses or bills that you’ll have to pay regularly. Whether it’s your monthly cable or internet bill, cell phone bill, hydro, and other utilities, there’s a good amount of peace of mind knowing that your bills are automatically being paid when they need to be.
10. Use Separate Bank Accounts
Finally, one of the best things you can do is use separate bank accounts for specific reasons. You should have a distinct bank account for your emergency fund, any sinking funds (also known as vacation funds or misc. expense funds), and other types of funds where you need to keep money separate.
By doing this, you’ll make sure that you are not spending your money on impulse or miscellaneous purchases and that money in these accounts is being used only for their intended purpose.
Follow Invested Wallet For More
If you’ve enjoyed reading our content and are passionate about learning wealth, managing your finances, and achieving financial freedom, we’d love for you to join our community! Click here to follow Invested Wallet for more.