Americans don’t always do a great job of saving money. According to information from a Bankrate study, around one in five adults across the US don’t put any cash towards their retirement at all. The problem isn’t a lack of willingness. Many of us want to save more cash towards our future. The trouble is that we don’t’ know where to find the extra money we need for savings when we’re finished paying bills and dealing with other expenses.
The good news is that if you’re ready to make a change for 2020, we’ve got some useful tips that might help you to move in the right direction.
1. Make the Most of Technology
Tech has a lot of benefits to offer the savvy spender in the current financial landscape. Not only can you check your bank account and manage your expenses online, but you can also search for better deals using online comparison websites too. At the same time, if you love using your smartphone, you can also download apps that make managing your cash a lot simpler.
Budgeting apps allow you to track your incoming and outgoing expenses constantly, so you know exactly where your money is going each month. When you can track your spending, you can also recognise the areas where you’re more likely to over-spend in life. For instance, you might have a problem with spending too much on takeaway. Once you know what your problem is, you can start working on it.
2. Cut the Cords
Do you still have a home phone line at your property or a cable subscription that you use to keep your family entertained? Neither of those things are particularly necessary in the current landscape. You can easily save a lot of cash just by switching to using your mobile phone as your main point of contact. While you’re at it, you can consider getting rid of your cable subscription too.
Usually, it’s much cheaper to simply pay for a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu instead. You’ll get all the entertainment you need, for a much lower price tag.
3. Grow Your Own Food
Speaking of entertainment, why not keep your family happy and busy on a weekend by growing your own garden. Not only will this give you an excellent hobby to bond with your children over, but it will also make it easier for you to save some cash because you won’t be spending extra money on things like herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
You can start with foods that are easier to grow, like potatoes and tomatoes, and work your way up to some more complicated gardening when you begin to become more confident in your skills.
4. Make Some Money on the Side
If you’re feeling as though you’re never going to have enough money to make ends meet, then maybe you should be looking into another way to add to your income. Rather than just relying on your conventional job, consider taking on a side hustle too. For instance, you could create online graphics for companies that want to build their presence in the digital world, or you could think about using your voice for videos and podcasts.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to create anything in your spare time, there’s always the option to join companies like Uber or Lyft and spend some of your free time making sure that people get wherever they need to be without paying for a cab.
5. Get Rid of Credit Card Fees
Ideally, we’d never have to use a credit card to make a purchase – however, life is rarely that simple. The good news is that if your credit card fees and huge interest rates are getting you down, you could always get rid of them by switching to a different lending strategy. Consider borrowing an amount that will consolidate some of your more expensive debts into something with a lower interest rate.
You might even be able to switch your debts over to a different credit card that gives you some time to pay back whatever you owe interest-free.
6. Use the 30-day Rule
Finally, whenever you’re making an important investment in some big-ticket item like a new computer or television, stick by the 30-day rule. In other words, give yourself a month to think about whether you need the item, do your research and find the best deal for the product that you need. It might be hard to do this in a world where we all want to be able to get things instantly – but you’ll thank yourself for taking the time later.
