Let’s start with the banks and how they try to undo your best efforts at saving a little extra. The banks are in a bad way from having dealt with home loan and credit card defaults over the last few years. They are also suffering from all the new consumer protection rules that have made it difficult for them to quickly and easily make billions of dollars from unsuspecting customers through unfair fees and charges. Take Bank of America for instance – one out of two American households has an account of some kind with Bank of America. They actually make about 10% of all their operating income through nickel and dime surcharges, fees and charges. There is a lot more that they have planned for the year 2011 too. One of the most controversial fees you’ll hear about this year is the monthly fee on checking accounts. There are also going to be fees when you actually walk into your local branch instead of transacting on the Internet and there will be fees if you want to interact with a bank employee. How to save money on these charges then? You’ve heard of credit unions haven’t you? Not only do they have fewer rules and fees, they offer you a better, less complicated experience overall. Not to mention, they give you cheaper loans and more interest on deposits.
It isn’t uncommon to hear of everyday folks these days who have entirely given up their credit cards because they find them to be too costly. This is the time when taking a loan out is cheaper than ever; why, they want know, are the credit card fees going up higher than ever before? Why is it so complicated to figure out how much exactly you are going to be paying? Not to mention, credit card companies are making it more difficult for people to hang on to the credit cards they have – if you don’t use your credit card for too long, you’ll find they just close it; and then, there are all kinds of fees for anything and everything from balance transfers, cash advances, annual fees, and even to be able to talk to customer care. These fees actually make up half of all of their revenue at the credit card companies. How to save money when the card companies seem so profligate their ways? Look at your credit card statement. You will find that they tell you how much exactly your credit card balance is costing you these days. Try very hard to pay back everything you owe them as early as possible. Doing this will also help you improve your score. The better your score, the better your terms are.
Do you have a child at college. Of course, the fees are higher than ever – tens of thousands of dollars every year for the best private colleges. But even if you do manage to scrape together enough to send your child there, that’s just the beginning. They have lab costs, library fees, orientation fees. Whenever the colleges feel that they are running short of cash, they just dream up new fees to charge you. There’s nothing really that can do about this other than prepare for it. A good figure to keep in mind for how much these fees are likely to end up costing you would be 15% of the tuition fees.
Choose Only the Easy Ways to Save Money
Most people who aren’t big on saving money, like to think that it’s so because it’s too difficult. Well, that may be true. But there are easy ways to save money too. You could get used to these first, and graduate to the tougher ways by and by.
Most places in the world, food service businesses are the most popular business idea for startups. Step out anywhere, and whatever businesses there are, half of them are bound to be restaurants or other eating places. Even in poor countries. There may be many reasons why this is so, but one definite one is that it’s a profitable business. And the profit comes from you, the customer.
There are all kinds of ways they think up to part you from your money in return for food. There are restaurants to eat at, coffee shops to get your coffee from, lunch restaurants near work, bars to go to after work – eating and drinking is big business. To simply stop subsidizing those businesses is one of the easy ways to save money.
Yes, that’s a mean thing to say. There are lots of people who survive running those businesses or working for them. But you have to do what’s sensible to you. It’s staggering how much money you save this way. While you might halfheartedly agree that this can be a great way to save money, you’re probably thinking that it isn’t exactly what you want.
But it only feels that way. Because you’re not really denying yourself anything. If you deny yourself a movie, watching a movie at home on your TV doesn’t feel the same. If you take public transportation sensitive a car, it doesn’t feel the same. Eat food at home instead of outside, and not only do you save money, it actually tastes better and it’s better for your health.
You mustn’t think that I don’t understand what the appeal is eating outside. But I almost always regret it. Food outside never tastes as good as my mother used to make when I was little, and she’s taught me to make now. And it’s a feeling I always come away with after a meal outside. I always come away thinking – that costs $25? That’s not even half as good as mom made.
No doubt, outside food can be smell and taste great. But often, they don’t use the best ingredients. According to investigative reports, nearly half of what they give you in a bucket of KFC chicken is inedible. It’s chemicals. There’s something about everything that they give you at any restaurant. Many of those ingredients are not food. They don’t belong in any kitchen. That’s the reason why restaurant food doesn’t fill you the same way that real food does. Even a simple sandwich that you buy from outside fills you far more quickly than a home sandwich would. But you right away feel hungry, 10 minutes later.
Remember – you aren’t giving up a thing when you try to save money cooking at home. Your life only gets better.
The Easiest Ways to Save Money
Have you ever taken America Saves Week seriously? If you haven’t even heard of it, don’t feel too bad – it’s on;y been around for five years. But it’s getting more popular by the year. Most people will tell you that saving money feels good. But that isn’t true. when you save money dollar by painstaking dollar denying yourself little things over time, you bet it doesn’t feel good. It just doesn’t. When you see money piling up that you got that way by denying yourself a new mouse to replace the one that seems weird, and not having ordered pizza in months – it feels awful. However, it does feel good in the end. When you realize that you’ve saved $3000 this way, and it could really help someone’s college fund or something really important, that’s when it feels good. Well, let’s look at the easiest ways to save money that there are so that it doesn’t pinch as much as it can.
One of the easiest ways to save money is to not even see the money that you’re supposed to save. That way, it doesn’t hurt. Know what the hardest part of saving money is? It’s to know that the money is there and it’s just your conscience that won’t let you spend it.
If you don’t see your money at all, if you’re trained to not even think about it, that’s when it becomes easy. So, instruct your bank to take certain amount of money out of your paycheck every month and put it away in another account. After a while, you will look at your account, and you will only see what’s left. You get used to it.
What’s more important than money? It’s caring to avoid looking like a fool. One way to train yourself to save money is to promise someone something that you buy the. Make it something really nice to someone really important, and it won’t even be money wasted. For instance, when was the last time you got your dad a great gift?
Promise your dad that recliner with the fridge in the armrest that you know he’s been yearning for for years. You won’t be able to deny it to him once you’ve promised him. And you’ll really, really work hard to not spend anything unnecessary, because you’re saving up for this. It’s a great way to train yourself in the art of saving. It’s one of the easiest ways to save money – promise someone something really nice.
You know what – knowing what the easiest ways to save money isn’t enough. You need also to know about the easiest ways to not spend the money you’ve saved. Sometimes, it can seem like you’re spending money to save. There’s this great deal on a flat screen that one month ago, you saw them selling for $300 more. What if it were foolish to not spend on it? Wouldn’t you actually save to spend on it?
At least that’s what you tell yourself. So the other part of saving money has to be punishing yourself. Know what the most natural way to punish yourself is? Put the money that you save into something like a 401(k) account. That’s where you should put your money. Because if you try to access it, there are going to be serious penalties. That way, it won’t seem like such a great idea to buy a new gadget.