Saving money can be difficult, especially for those with low-income. Here are some surprising hacks that can help you save money.
1. Open an interest checking account and high-yield savings account. Your bank may already offer these. You just need to apply for them. You should be able to find a high yield savings account at 0.5% or better with a quick online search. Make sure you choose a bank with ZERO fees and ZERO minimum balance. I like to use both Yotta Savings and Ally Bank.
2. Round Up Your Expenses. You may have heard of Acorns, a micro-investing app that rounds up your credit card purchased and transfers the money into an investment savings account. It is a very useful tool, but Acorns has high fees. Dobot, a micro-savings app by Fifth-Third Bank, can do the same thing as Acorns but for free. You will get $5 when you sign up with Dobot using my referral link https://financethrottle.com/Dobot. All you need to do is to link Dobot to your checking account and it will automatically start rounding up your expenses for you. As a third way to save by rounding up your expenses, you can sign up with Ally Bank. Ally Bank’s interest checking account rounds up your expenses and transfers the difference to your savings account.
3. Remove Online-Purchasing Conveniences. Have all of your online shopping accounts forget your usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers. Having to manually enter this information will discourage you from making that online purchase. Change your passwords to saving goal reminders such as “#Retireby50”. The next time to make an online purchase, you will be forced to type in the reminder that you need to save enough money to retire by 50.
4. Learn New Things. If you don’t know how to change your car’s oil or fix your leaky pipes, YouTube it. It is super easy and will save you money. I renovated an entire floor of my house by watching How-To’s on YouTube. I estimate that I saved just over $4000 in labor costs.
5. Use a Budgeting App. Use one of many free apps that can help you track your expenses and budget. Mint, NerdWallet, and Personal Capital are among the most popular budgeting apps out there.
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