Let’s be honest, there are plenty of blogs around that will tell you how to save money by sacrificing things that you love or enjoy. Going to restaurants less frequently, staying close to home for vacation, buying less new clothes and even turning the heat down in winter and wearing more clothing are all great ideas but aren’t exactly a whole lot of fun. Sure, we’re all looking for ways to save more money but it would be nice if it didn’t mean that we had to brown-bag our lunch every single day. With that in mind with put together a blog about some money-saving tips that don’t involve sacrificing on the things you love and enjoy. We hope you enjoy it.
One of the very best ways to save money in the long run is to get healthy and stay healthy. That means staying in shape, eating the right foods, getting enough rest and taking care of yourself regularly. Not only will this save you money due to lower doctor bills and lower life insurance policy payments you’ll also feel better, have more energy and look great.
Most people just blindly pay their automobile insurance without ever giving any thought to shopping around or re-examining their policy to look for opportunities to save more money. One easy thing to do is raise your deductible, especially if your car is older and paid off, as it’s something that will immediately lower your premiums. Take a look at your policy and figure out how much the extra collision coverage is costing you. If it’s older, dinged up and being used as a spare car you can probably drop this coverage without any worries. Also get into the habit of comparing your insurance carrier and your price to other carriers on an annual basis. You can usually do this online in under half an hour.
For many of us this may be like closing the barn door after the horses have already escaped but keeping your credit score high may be one of the most important things you can do financially in the long run. Paying your home, car and credit card bills on time and keeping your credit utilization ratio low will, over a lifetime, save you thousands of dollars.
There are a number of ways to save as an investor. For example, if you invest in mutual funds you should definitely stick with funds that have low expense ratios. One expert recommends to keep the weighted average expense ratio for mutual funds under .50%, something that will save you a substantial amount of money when compared to funds that charge well over 1% in fees annually. If you are an active trader the same expert recommends that you stick with discount brokerage firms that will charge you $10 or less per trade.
On the home front, one of the easiest ways to save is by combining your Internet, television cable and phone services together. Most of the major providers today will offer a substantial discount when you order all three of these services from them at once. It can be called a ‘triple play’ or ‘bundling’ and what it does is save you a bundle of money and also makes paying much more convenient as you only will receive one bill instead of three.
This might not work for everyone but it can save some people quite a bit of money. We’re talking about prepaid cell phones, some that charge just $.10 a minute. The best thing about prepaid cell phone plans is that there’s no need to commit to any long-term contracts whatsoever and, depending on your usage, you could literally save hundreds of dollars a year. Two of the best prepaid cell phone carriers on the market today are Net10 and Cricket but there are several others so do your research before you make your final decision.
This next tip will not only save you money but will also save you quite a bit of time as well. Shopping online is quick, easy and doesn’t include having to use your car (and expensive gasoline) to get many of the products and services that you purchase every day. Many companies have free shipping policies over a certain purchase amount and there are promo codes, discounts and coupons aplenty as well. Searching online to find the best price on larger items like large electronics and automobiles is also a great idea even if you don’t purchase those items online.
One last tip that we have is to find a cash back credit card. This is only a good idea if you already have excellent credit and also are very diligent about paying off your credit card bills every month. One of the keys with this type of card is to use it for your monthly bills and your everyday expenses, not for things that you really don’t need. If you’re keen on doing it, you can put your monthly bills on automatic payment with the card and then also use it for everyday purchases like groceries and gas. Again, it’s really only a good idea to have a card like this if you’re definitely going to be able to pay it off completely every month. There’s no sense using a card that will pay you $10 back a month if the interest charge per month is $20.
So there you have it. Eight different ways that you can start saving money right away and not have to give up your $12 Starbucks coffee. (Actually, you should give up that $12 Starbucks coffee.) (Sorry, we just can’t help it.) Anyway, we hope that you enjoyed our newest blog and that you got a little bit of advice out of it. Make sure to come back and see us again soon as we are always giving out great advice like this about all things financial. See you then.