#easysavings

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Spending Spurts And Saving Spurts

  We all go through financial ups and downs and it sometimes happens at certain times of the year. Our budget fluctuates with anticipated and unanticipated events triggering us to take a closer look and see what happened and where.   If you’re not yet budgeting, please start. A great place to begin is to download my free budget template. It’s simple, yet effective and has served me well for years.   Now back to spurts. How do we manage spending spurt and optimize saving spurts? It all comes down to planning ahead for spending and making sure you lock in and optimize your savings opportunities.    

Spending Spurt – Major Holidays

  The amount of spending on holidays varies on many different factors including the ones you celebrate, what types of gifts you buy and for whom. Just to add a statistic, American Research Group reported for 2016 an estimate of over $900 only for the holiday season.   For many $900 would require saving and budgeting throughout the year. The alternative is to rack up credit card debt. Unless your charging your card, have a card with a zero percent interest rate, pay off the balance each cycle in full, and rack up points for shopping, this is not recommended.   If you plan in advance, you can allow yourself more time to compare prices and what you are actually receiving for those price differences.   For my recent anniversary, I actually decided to overlook a hotel that offered free breakfast. Why would I do that? Well, normally I would not. However, in this case, we were just staying for one night and the breakfast offered was cereal croissants, bagels, and other basic items; a continental breakfast.   The hotel rooms were not spectacular either and I suppose that’s why they could afford to offer free breakfast. I thought, hey it’s my anniversary; I’d rather stay in a nicer hotel and splurge a bit with a hot or American breakfast in the morning.   So I found a room that was about $35 more per night at a nicer hotel that had a rooftop pool and terrace. The rooms also looked a lot nicer with updated furniture. Finally, it had many more reviews on Google and an overall higher rating.   I was able to plan in advance and compare multiple hotels and multiple room types to find the one that best suited my needs. And I booked from hotels.com, which was cheaper than the hotel’s own website.    

Spending Spurt – Big Expense Item Coming Up

    I like to earmark funds for big expenses that are coming up, again planning ahead. For example, I didn’t get my tires balanced and rotated in a long time and I knew that front brakes were needed soon. So I earmarked some funds for these expenses. It isn’t a hit in a budget because it’s anticipated.   Planning also allowed me to find deals on tires. I ended up spending around 85% of the funds I earmarked for this automobile maintenance expense.  It’s a nice psychological feeling when you save by play conservatively and over-budgeting a bit. :-)    

Saving Spurt – Bonuses

  If you’re expecting an upcoming bonus; congratulations. Now you can plan what you will do with the extra income. Hopefully that planning will include saving and investing a good portion of it.   If you aren’t expecting a bonus and receive one, that’s really good! You can save and invest even more because you didn’t have anything lined up for the incoming cash flow.   The key is to lock in the incoming cash flow by doing any one or more of the following:   Increase your IRA contribution up to the annual limit ($5,500 for 2018) if possible. Increase your 401k contribution to the annual limit ($18,500 for 2018) if possible. Deposit it into your brokerage account and invest. Secure a down payment for the purchase of a rental property. Invest in a high yield CD.    

Saving Spurt – Three Pay Days In One Month

  If you get paid every other week, a couple times a year, the stars will align and you’ll receive that extra paycheck!  This is an opportunity for a major savings spurt.   You should think to yourself, hey I didn’t receive an extra paycheck and time it just right so you can transfer the whole thing over to a savings account. Ok, maybe treat yourself to a drink or latte.   Some employers even have a couple of pay periods a year where the health insurance premium is waived! This again presents an opportunity for a bump up in savings!    

Saving Spurt – Possible Tax Refund

  If you usually receive a pretty big tax refund, this is an opportunity to save. In the past, I used to get large refunds and most if not all of it went into savings. There used to be an excitement and anticipation when tax time came as it forced me to file as quickly as possible to get that fat refund.   Now the refund is not as big. This is attributed to optimizing my tax situation such as exemptions so there is more money for me at each pay period.  Getting a refund is exciting, but remember it is just that: a refund of your own money.   If you are like the past me and receive a large refund each year, consider speaking with a tax professional to see how you can get more from each paycheck now rather than a big chunk of your own money later.   Your finances are a reflection of your life. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s important to manage both accordingly.   The best way to manage is to plan and expect. Expecting things in life forces you to plan and when you plan you are in a better position to assess your financial situation and goals.   The key here is budgeting. Even budget for miscellaneous things because those expenses can creep up over time and surprise, no scare you.       Join The Discussion: How do you plan for spending spurts throughout the year? Do you optimize spending spurts by capitalizing on credit card points, rewards systems, and discounts? What did you do when you last came across unexpected cash inflow or an outflow?     ______________________________________________________________________________   I use  because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice!   Read the full article

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Spending Spurts And Saving Spurts

  We all go through financial ups and downs and it sometimes happens at certain times of the year. Our budget fluctuates with anticipated and unanticipated events triggering us to take a closer look and see what happened and where.   If you’re not yet budgeting, please start. A great place to begin is to download my free budget template. It’s simple, yet effective and has served me well for years.   Now back to spurts. How do we manage spending spurt and optimize saving spurts? It all comes down to planning ahead for spending and making sure you lock in and optimize your savings opportunities.    

Spending Spurt – Major Holidays

  The amount of spending on holidays varies on many different factors including the ones you celebrate, what types of gifts you buy and for whom. Just to add a statistic, American Research Group reported for 2016 an estimate of over $900 only for the holiday season.   For many $900 would require saving and budgeting throughout the year. The alternative is to rack up credit card debt. Unless your charging your card, have a card with a zero percent interest rate, pay off the balance each cycle in full, and rack up points for shopping, this is not recommended.   If you plan in advance, you can allow yourself more time to compare prices and what you are actually receiving for those price differences.   For my recent anniversary, I actually decided to overlook a hotel that offered free breakfast. Why would I do that? Well, normally I would not. However, in this case, we were just staying for one night and the breakfast offered was cereal croissants, bagels, and other basic items; a continental breakfast.   The hotel rooms were not spectacular either and I suppose that’s why they could afford to offer free breakfast. I thought, hey it’s my anniversary; I’d rather stay in a nicer hotel and splurge a bit with a hot or American breakfast in the morning.   So I found a room that was about $35 more per night at a nicer hotel that had a rooftop pool and terrace. The rooms also looked a lot nicer with updated furniture. Finally, it had many more reviews on Google and an overall higher rating.   I was able to plan in advance and compare multiple hotels and multiple room types to find the one that best suited my needs. And I booked from hotels.com, which was cheaper than the hotel’s own website.    

Spending Spurt – Big Expense Item Coming Up

    I like to earmark funds for big expenses that are coming up, again planning ahead. For example, I didn’t get my tires balanced and rotated in a long time and I knew that front brakes were needed soon. So I earmarked some funds for these expenses. It isn’t a hit in a budget because it’s anticipated.   Planning also allowed me to find deals on tires. I ended up spending around 85% of the funds I earmarked for this automobile maintenance expense.  It’s a nice psychological feeling when you save by play conservatively and over-budgeting a bit. :-)    

Saving Spurt – Bonuses

  If you’re expecting an upcoming bonus; congratulations. Now you can plan what you will do with the extra income. Hopefully that planning will include saving and investing a good portion of it.   If you aren’t expecting a bonus and receive one, that’s really good! You can save and invest even more because you didn’t have anything lined up for the incoming cash flow.   The key is to lock in the incoming cash flow by doing any one or more of the following:   Increase your IRA contribution up to the annual limit ($5,500 for 2018) if possible. Increase your 401k contribution to the annual limit ($18,500 for 2018) if possible. Deposit it into your brokerage account and invest. Secure a down payment for the purchase of a rental property. Invest in a high yield CD.    

Saving Spurt – Three Pay Days In One Month

  If you get paid every other week, a couple times a year, the stars will align and you’ll receive that extra paycheck!  This is an opportunity for a major savings spurt.   You should think to yourself, hey I didn’t receive an extra paycheck and time it just right so you can transfer the whole thing over to a savings account. Ok, maybe treat yourself to a drink or latte.   Some employers even have a couple of pay periods a year where the health insurance premium is waived! This again presents an opportunity for a bump up in savings!    

Saving Spurt – Possible Tax Refund

  If you usually receive a pretty big tax refund, this is an opportunity to save. In the past, I used to get large refunds and most if not all of it went into savings. There used to be an excitement and anticipation when tax time came as it forced me to file as quickly as possible to get that fat refund.   Now the refund is not as big. This is attributed to optimizing my tax situation such as exemptions so there is more money for me at each pay period.  Getting a refund is exciting, but remember it is just that: a refund of your own money.   If you are like the past me and receive a large refund each year, consider speaking with a tax professional to see how you can get more from each paycheck now rather than a big chunk of your own money later.   Your finances are a reflection of your life. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s important to manage both accordingly.   The best way to manage is to plan and expect. Expecting things in life forces you to plan and when you plan you are in a better position to assess your financial situation and goals.   The key here is budgeting. Even budget for miscellaneous things because those expenses can creep up over time and surprise, no scare you.       Join The Discussion: How do you plan for spending spurts throughout the year? Do you optimize spending spurts by capitalizing on credit card points, rewards systems, and discounts? What did you do when you last came across unexpected cash inflow or an outflow?     ______________________________________________________________________________   I use because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice! Read the full article

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Save Over $5,000 Per Year Easily

  We’ve all heard it: there are little things you can do to easily save money. I’m here to say that it’s true and it works. And if you do these easy little things on a consistent basis; thus establishing them as good habits, then you can save a lot of money.   Right off the bat, here are some quick and easy ways to save.     Item  Cost Occurrence  Annualized Coffee - weekdays $2.00 260 $520.00 Lunch - weekdays $7.00 260 $1,820.00 Gym - monthly $30.00 12 $360.00 Cable - monthly $100.00 12 $1,200.00 Alcohol - weekly $30.00 52 $1,560.00 Total $5,460.00   The occurrence column below which has 260 is simply 52 weeks to a year times 5 days a week. All the other occurrences are basically self-explanatory.   Don’t feel overwhelmed. If you’re doing two of them, maybe you can start working on three more. If you’re already doing all five of them, maybe you can think of more ways. If you’re not doing any of them and think that it can be overwhelming to implement, start off slowly and build on the momentum.   For example, buy coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of all five days. And go out for lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays and bring lunch from home the other days.    

Savings Solution Breakdown

  Coffee Solution – invest in a Keurig machine. At home, I’m the only one that drinks coffee. So I make a cup every day. I usually buy the k-cup breakfast blend because I don’t like my coffee really strong. On average, each k-cup cost less than 35 cents, so annualized; I’m saving over $400. You can pick the size of the cup you want and even the machine pays for itself in less than a year since it costs about $120.   Lunch Solution – packing your own lunch – usually leftovers or a sandwich. We always have leftovers or about 95% of the time. A sandwich is a back-up. So it probably costs me around 60 cents to make a peanut butter sandwich accounting for bread and peanut butter.   Leftovers of chicken and some vegetable is around $2. If I take leftovers 2-3 days and a sandwich for 1-2 days for lunch, that would amount to about $780 annualized. And to be conservative, I’ll add $100 just in case I feel like eating out once in a while or am just too lazy to make anything. I’d still be saving $940 per year by packing lunch overall.   Gym Solution – let’s say you don’t have a gym at work. You can buy a total body gym from Walmart for $260. And you can supplement with bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and push-ups, squats, etc. You can do cardio by running outdoors too and breathe in fresh air for free. In the end, you’d save about $100 in year 1 and $360 every year thereafter.   Finally, you can do cardio and other exercises using YouTube videos in your living room. Here is a 45-minute workout that requires no equipment. It was uploaded a couple of months ago and already has almost 20,000 views:   Cable Solution – cut cable. If you get a service like Netflix, you only have to pay $10.99 per month to get it streaming on two devices. I’m not promoting Netflix; just stating the facts. Netflix has more than 50 million subscribers in the US.   Other streaming companies like Amazon Prime and Hulu are continuously adding more subscribers too as people are switching over from cable. At least for Netflix, I know that you’re able to save content on your device and watch it later in places where you don’t have an internet connection.   Hulu is another streaming service which has over 3,000 TV series and comes at a starting price of only $7.99 per month.   Alcohol Solution – if you like to have a drink every now and then, consider buying in bulk. Consider having some drinks with friends at home before you go out and maybe order only 1 or 2 drinks at a bar or restaurant. Or even better, quit altogether. There are many programs out there to help and your liver will thank you.    

And Then Invest the $5,000

  Since we have a plan to save the $5,000, what will happen if we invest it? Well, let’s say after a couple of years you accumulate $10,000 or more and put it into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX). Assuming you continue to put $5,000 each year thereafter, in 10 years your investment and additional contributions can grow to over $70,000 assuming it earns 8.65% as it has in the past 10 years in this fund.   Please note that I’m not an investment professional and am not advising you to invest in this fund. I encourage you to please do your own research and due diligence before making any investment decisions.  This is simply one example of many index funds or ETFs to choose from. But doesn’t it make you want to start saving than investing?   Simply stated, all I’m saying is to invest the money you save so that it can grow more than it would if it were just sitting in a savings account. Saving is step 1 as outlined by the 5 easy ways to save above. And investing is step 2 with the Vanguard example.     Is there anything you’re spending on that you can’t wait to stop? Is a contract holding you back? Are you tricking yourself to somehow justify the expense(s)?     _______________________________________________________________________________

I use  because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice!   Read the full article

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Spending Spurts And Saving Spurts

  We all go through financial ups and downs and it sometimes happens at certain times of the year. Our budget fluctuates with anticipated and unanticipated events triggering us to take a closer look and see what happened and where.   If you’re not yet budgeting, please start. A great place to begin is to download my free budget template. It’s simple, yet effective and has served me well for years.   Now back to spurts. How do we manage spending spurt and optimize saving spurts? It all comes down to planning ahead for spending and making sure you lock in and optimize your savings opportunities.    

Spending Spurt – Major Holidays

  The amount of spending on holidays varies on many different factors including the ones you celebrate, what types of gifts you buy and for whom. Just to add a statistic, American Research Group reported for 2016 an estimate of over $900 only for the holiday season.   For many $900 would require saving and budgeting throughout the year. The alternative is to rack up credit card debt. Unless your charging your card, have a card with a zero percent interest rate, pay off the balance each cycle in full, and rack up points for shopping, this is not recommended.   If you plan in advance, you can allow yourself more time to compare prices and what you are actually receiving for those price differences.   For my recent anniversary, I actually decided to overlook a hotel that offered free breakfast. Why would I do that? Well, normally I would not. However, in this case, we were just staying for one night and the breakfast offered was cereal croissants, bagels, and other basic items; a continental breakfast.   The hotel rooms were not spectacular either and I suppose that’s why they could afford to offer free breakfast. I thought, hey it’s my anniversary; I’d rather stay in a nicer hotel and splurge a bit with a hot or American breakfast in the morning.   So I found a room that was about $35 more per night at a nicer hotel that had a rooftop pool and terrace. The rooms also looked a lot nicer with updated furniture. Finally, it had many more reviews on Google and an overall higher rating.   I was able to plan in advance and compare multiple hotels and multiple room types to find the one that best suited my needs. And I booked from hotels.com, which was cheaper than the hotel’s own website.    

Spending Spurt – Big Expense Item Coming Up

    I like to earmark funds for big expenses that are coming up, again planning ahead. For example, I didn’t get my tires balanced and rotated in a long time and I knew that front brakes were needed soon. So I earmarked some funds for these expenses. It isn’t a hit in a budget because it’s anticipated.   Planning also allowed me to find deals on tires. I ended up spending around 85% of the funds I earmarked for this automobile maintenance expense.  It’s a nice psychological feeling when you save by play conservatively and over-budgeting a bit. :-)    

Saving Spurt – Bonuses

  If you’re expecting an upcoming bonus; congratulations. Now you can plan what you will do with the extra income. Hopefully that planning will include saving and investing a good portion of it.   If you aren’t expecting a bonus and receive one, that’s really good! You can save and invest even more because you didn’t have anything lined up for the incoming cash flow.   The key is to lock in the incoming cash flow by doing any one or more of the following:   Increase your IRA contribution up to the annual limit ($5,500 for 2018) if possible. Increase your 401k contribution to the annual limit ($18,500 for 2018) if possible. Deposit it into your brokerage account and invest. Secure a down payment for the purchase of a rental property. Invest in a high yield CD.    

Saving Spurt – Three Pay Days In One Month

  If you get paid every other week, a couple times a year, the stars will align and you’ll receive that extra paycheck!  This is an opportunity for a major savings spurt.   You should think to yourself, hey I didn’t receive an extra paycheck and time it just right so you can transfer the whole thing over to a savings account. Ok, maybe treat yourself to a drink or latte.   Some employers even have a couple of pay periods a year where the health insurance premium is waived! This again presents an opportunity for a bump up in savings!    

Saving Spurt – Possible Tax Refund

  If you usually receive a pretty big tax refund, this is an opportunity to save. In the past, I used to get large refunds and most if not all of it went into savings. There used to be an excitement and anticipation when tax time came as it forced me to file as quickly as possible to get that fat refund.   Now the refund is not as big. This is attributed to optimizing my tax situation such as exemptions so there is more money for me at each pay period.  Getting a refund is exciting, but remember it is just that: a refund of your own money.   If you are like the past me and receive a large refund each year, consider speaking with a tax professional to see how you can get more from each paycheck now rather than a big chunk of your own money later.   Your finances are a reflection of your life. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s important to manage both accordingly.   The best way to manage is to plan and expect. Expecting things in life forces you to plan and when you plan you are in a better position to assess your financial situation and goals.   The key here is budgeting. Even budget for miscellaneous things because those expenses can creep up over time and surprise, no scare you.       Join The Discussion: How do you plan for spending spurts throughout the year? Do you optimize spending spurts by capitalizing on credit card points, rewards systems, and discounts? What did you do when you last came across unexpected cash inflow or an outflow?     ______________________________________________________________________________   I use because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice! Read the full article

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Spending Spurts And Saving Spurts

  We all go through financial ups and downs and it sometimes happens at certain times of the year. Our budget fluctuates with anticipated and unanticipated events triggering us to take a closer look and see what happened and where.   If you’re not yet budgeting, please start. A great place to begin is to download my free budget template. It’s simple, yet effective and has served me well for years.   Now back to spurts. How do we manage spending spurt and optimize saving spurts? It all comes down to planning ahead for spending and making sure you lock in and optimize your savings opportunities.    

Spending Spurt – Major Holidays

  The amount of spending on holidays varies on many different factors including the ones you celebrate, what types of gifts you buy and for whom. Just to add a statistic, American Research Group reported for 2016 an estimate of over $900 only for the holiday season.   For many $900 would require saving and budgeting throughout the year. The alternative is to rack up credit card debt. Unless your charging your card, have a card with a zero percent interest rate, pay off the balance each cycle in full, and rack up points for shopping, this is not recommended.   If you plan in advance, you can allow yourself more time to compare prices and what you are actually receiving for those price differences.   For my recent anniversary, I actually decided to overlook a hotel that offered free breakfast. Why would I do that? Well, normally I would not. However, in this case, we were just staying for one night and the breakfast offered was cereal croissants, bagels, and other basic items; a continental breakfast.   The hotel rooms were not spectacular either and I suppose that’s why they could afford to offer free breakfast. I thought, hey it’s my anniversary; I’d rather stay in a nicer hotel and splurge a bit with a hot or American breakfast in the morning.   So I found a room that was about $35 more per night at a nicer hotel that had a rooftop pool and terrace. The rooms also looked a lot nicer with updated furniture. Finally, it had many more reviews on Google and an overall higher rating.   I was able to plan in advance and compare multiple hotels and multiple room types to find the one that best suited my needs. And I booked from hotels.com, which was cheaper than the hotel’s own website.    

Spending Spurt – Big Expense Item Coming Up

    I like to earmark funds for big expenses that are coming up, again planning ahead. For example, I didn’t get my tires balanced and rotated in a long time and I knew that front brakes were needed soon. So I earmarked some funds for these expenses. It isn’t a hit in a budget because it’s anticipated.   Planning also allowed me to find deals on tires. I ended up spending around 85% of the funds I earmarked for this automobile maintenance expense.  It’s a nice psychological feeling when you save by play conservatively and over-budgeting a bit. :-)    

Saving Spurt – Bonuses

  If you’re expecting an upcoming bonus; congratulations. Now you can plan what you will do with the extra income. Hopefully that planning will include saving and investing a good portion of it.   If you aren’t expecting a bonus and receive one, that’s really good! You can save and invest even more because you didn’t have anything lined up for the incoming cash flow.   The key is to lock in the incoming cash flow by doing any one or more of the following:   Increase your IRA contribution up to the annual limit ($5,500 for 2018) if possible. Increase your 401k contribution to the annual limit ($18,500 for 2018) if possible. Deposit it into your brokerage account and invest. Secure a down payment for the purchase of a rental property. Invest in a high yield CD.    

Saving Spurt – Three Pay Days In One Month

  If you get paid every other week, a couple times a year, the stars will align and you’ll receive that extra paycheck!  This is an opportunity for a major savings spurt.   You should think to yourself, hey I didn’t receive an extra paycheck and time it just right so you can transfer the whole thing over to a savings account. Ok, maybe treat yourself to a drink or latte.   Some employers even have a couple of pay periods a year where the health insurance premium is waived! This again presents an opportunity for a bump up in savings!    

Saving Spurt – Possible Tax Refund

  If you usually receive a pretty big tax refund, this is an opportunity to save. In the past, I used to get large refunds and most if not all of it went into savings. There used to be an excitement and anticipation when tax time came as it forced me to file as quickly as possible to get that fat refund.   Now the refund is not as big. This is attributed to optimizing my tax situation such as exemptions so there is more money for me at each pay period.  Getting a refund is exciting, but remember it is just that: a refund of your own money.   If you are like the past me and receive a large refund each year, consider speaking with a tax professional to see how you can get more from each paycheck now rather than a big chunk of your own money later.   Your finances are a reflection of your life. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s important to manage both accordingly.   The best way to manage is to plan and expect. Expecting things in life forces you to plan and when you plan you are in a better position to assess your financial situation and goals.   The key here is budgeting. Even budget for miscellaneous things because those expenses can creep up over time and surprise, no scare you.       Join The Discussion: How do you plan for spending spurts throughout the year? Do you optimize spending spurts by capitalizing on credit card points, rewards systems, and discounts? What did you do when you last came across unexpected cash inflow or an outflow?     ______________________________________________________________________________   I use because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice! Read the full article

[corporette]

Saving money on lunch at work doesn't have to be complicated, with tons of meal planning and packing and so forth -- there are some simple, easy ways that every working woman can save money on lunch even if you're regularly getting takeout or fast food for lunch. Here are our best tips! http://corporette.com/the-busy-womans-guide-to-saving-money-on-lunch/ (from the archives) . . . #lunchmoney #savingmoney #mealprep #personalfinance #easymoney #easysavings

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Save Over $5,000 Per Year Easily

  We’ve all heard it: there are little things you can do to easily save money. I’m here to say that it’s true and it works. And if you do these easy little things on a consistent basis; thus establishing them as good habits, then you can save a lot of money.   Right off the bat, here are some quick and easy ways to save.     Item  Cost Occurrence  Annualized Coffee - weekdays $2.00 260 $520.00 Lunch - weekdays $7.00 260 $1,820.00 Gym - monthly $30.00 12 $360.00 Cable - monthly $100.00 12 $1,200.00 Alcohol - weekly $30.00 52 $1,560.00 Total $5,460.00   The occurrence column below which has 260 is simply 52 weeks to a year times 5 days a week. All the other occurrences are basically self-explanatory.   Don’t feel overwhelmed. If you’re doing two of them, maybe you can start working on three more. If you’re already doing all five of them, maybe you can think of more ways. If you’re not doing any of them and think that it can be overwhelming to implement, start off slowly and build on the momentum.   For example, buy coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of all five days. And go out for lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays and bring lunch from home the other days.    

Savings Solution Breakdown

  Coffee Solution – invest in a Keurig machine. At home, I’m the only one that drinks coffee. So I make a cup every day. I usually buy the k-cup breakfast blend because I don’t like my coffee really strong. On average, each k-cup cost less than 35 cents, so annualized; I’m saving over $400. You can pick the size of the cup you want and even the machine pays for itself in less than a year since it costs about $120.   Lunch Solution – packing your own lunch – usually leftovers or a sandwich. We always have leftovers or about 95% of the time. A sandwich is a back-up. So it probably costs me around 60 cents to make a peanut butter sandwich accounting for bread and peanut butter.   Leftovers of chicken and some vegetable is around $2. If I take leftovers 2-3 days and a sandwich for 1-2 days for lunch, that would amount to about $780 annualized. And to be conservative, I’ll add $100 just in case I feel like eating out once in a while or am just too lazy to make anything. I’d still be saving $940 per year by packing lunch overall.   Gym Solution – let’s say you don’t have a gym at work. You can buy a total body gym from Walmart for $260. And you can supplement with bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and push-ups, squats, etc. You can do cardio by running outdoors too and breathe in fresh air for free. In the end, you’d save about $100 in year 1 and $360 every year thereafter.   Finally, you can do cardio and other exercises using YouTube videos in your living room. Here is a 45-minute workout that requires no equipment. It was uploaded a couple of months ago and already has almost 20,000 views:   Cable Solution – cut cable. If you get a service like Netflix, you only have to pay $10.99 per month to get it streaming on two devices. I’m not promoting Netflix; just stating the facts. Netflix has more than 50 million subscribers in the US.   Other streaming companies like Amazon Prime and Hulu are continuously adding more subscribers too as people are switching over from cable. At least for Netflix, I know that you’re able to save content on your device and watch it later in places where you don’t have an internet connection.   Hulu is another streaming service which has over 3,000 TV series and comes at a starting price of only $7.99 per month.   Alcohol Solution – if you like to have a drink every now and then, consider buying in bulk. Consider having some drinks with friends at home before you go out and maybe order only 1 or 2 drinks at a bar or restaurant. Or even better, quit altogether. There are many programs out there to help and your liver will thank you.    

And Then Invest the $5,000

  Since we have a plan to save the $5,000, what will happen if we invest it? Well, let’s say after a couple of years you accumulate $10,000 or more and put it into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX). Assuming you continue to put $5,000 each year thereafter, in 10 years your investment and additional contributions can grow to over $70,000 assuming it earns 8.65% as it has in the past 10 years in this fund.   Please note that I’m not an investment professional and am not advising you to invest in this fund. I encourage you to please do your own research and due diligence before making any investment decisions.  This is simply one example of many index funds or ETFs to choose from. But doesn’t it make you want to start saving than investing?   Simply stated, all I’m saying is to invest the money you save so that it can grow more than it would if it were just sitting in a savings account. Saving is step 1 as outlined by the 5 easy ways to save above. And investing is step 2 with the Vanguard example.     Is there anything you’re spending on that you can’t wait to stop? Is a contract holding you back? Are you tricking yourself to somehow justify the expense(s)?     _______________________________________________________________________________

I use  because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice!   Read the full article

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