All of us would like to save money but the truth is most of
us save very little of our income. The stats in the US show Americans are
saving under 5% of disposal income. 64% of Americans don’t have $1000 set aside
for emergencies and 43% have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. This
equates to we are horrible savers or are we all just to broke to save?
According to Suze Orman (this woman kills me) we should all be able to save, if
it were that easy we’d ALL be doing it! But I bet Suze’s never had her electric
turned off or had to choose between eating PB&J or Top Ramin… Any way Suze
has good information and I think she has something going on with her Prepaid
Debt Cards but sometimes the everyday Joe/Jane seem to escape her thought
process. Here are some tips on saving
money if you can bring yourself to do them I know it’s hard and some are easier
than others. Pick and choose the ones you can do but give them a try. I’d like
to add to this list and reach 101 ways to save. If you can think of other ways
send me an email or add it to the comment area. I will start adding a Tip each week
to my Blog but your help is always welcome and encouraged. Please follow my
blog too by clinking on the FB follow my blog inside my blog. Thanks
1. Most financial advisor will tell you to pay
yourself before you pay anyone else. This is great if you can do it. Pick a
percentage that is comfortable that you can deduct from each of your payroll
checks and put it directly into your savings, 401K or some type of retirement
account. Most employers will help you with this but if yours doesn’t you will
need to do it yourself.
If you use direct deposit ask your HR
department if you can deposit into two accounts one checking, one savings or
money market. A healthy range is 6% to 10% of your income.
2. Get Rid of Mortgage Insurance, if your
mortgage is 80% or higher Loan- to Value you may have MI insurance. You can get
rid of this insurance if the value of your home is now less than 80% of
value. You can get a new appraisal to
establish the new value or refinance to remove the MI.
3. Refinance
your mortgages, Refinancing at today’s low rates can shave hundreds of
dollars off your mortgage. To check out your own savings by going to my website
mortgage calculator on roxyloans.com
plug in your balance and the same term your present mortgage is to see savings.
I think most of you will be pleasantly
surprised at the amount. Than call me! J
4. Improve your Credit Scores, by
improving your credit scores
you will be offered better interest rates saving you thousands of dollars in
interest from credit card, student loans, auto loans, home loans. You should be
checking your credit report every 12 months if not 6 months. With ID theft at an all time high I would opt
for the later. Knowing where you stand is very important. Get your report and
monitor it regularly. AnnualCreditReport.com
5. If your credit needs to be Repaired do it, for
all the reasons above you will want to also repair your credit. Repairing your credit is time
consuming but not hard, you just have to be diligent, keep good records and
don’t take any crap from anyone. Do a little research on your rights because
you have rights and there all on your side. Look up the Fair Credit
Reporting Act. Give me a call and I’ll help you or at least get you off and
running. The rewards of having good credit are wonderful. Because it will allow
you to finance those large items like a car, a home or education that
typically most of us need financing to obtain.
6. Insurance, Let’s talk about insurance..
boy is this an area I really hate, can’t live without it, rarely need it but
when you do boy you better have it! But let’s talk about savings because you
can save money here and you can save A LOT! Just by shopping! We get so
complacence that instead on spending a few minute online shopping for quotes
and dealing with insurance companies we’d rather just pay our overpriced
insurance policies, because we tell ourselves that well Agent Joe is so nice
and I hate to disappoint him or you’ve been with the same company for 20 yrs.
All the more reason you need to look at other companies. Last year I reduced my
auto insurance from $1432.00 per year to $741.00 per year a 50% savings and you
can too. I didn’t reduce any of my coverage BTW. But you can do so if you need
to;
7. Insurance, Increasing deductibles can
save you money, changing how you pay can also save you money. Most insurance
companies charge you to make payments. If you can pay in full do so. Maybe
after you change companies and get the savings as suggested #5 you will be able
to pay in full.
Or instead
of paying monthly you pay quarterly or bi-annually either way you save.
8. GO
GREEN, I know most of us would like to help the environment but let’s face it
we all need to do this to save not only save mother earth but money! I think
energy costs are going to get so high we will be force to see the light of
green energy and well we should. Our electric bills are staggering here in
Hawaii are high everywhere. I have a little condo and pay on average $200 per
month for electric, if I could go solar
I would. If you have a house you should convert to solar and this alone will
save money.
9. Convert your Hot Water Heater to Tankless
or Solar,
not only will you never run out of hot water it will be almost free.
10. Utilities, Ok this is a big area where
we can all save providing you cannot go green; let’s see what we can do to
lower your utilities bills. Let’s start with the electric bill. I am really bad
when it comes to leaving lights on. My husband follows me around turning them
off (when he’s home) I thought how much could I really be costing us? I went to
CA during the holidays and our electric bill dropped $50 while I was gone. So
my bad habits do make a difference in that bill. The next month I really made
an effort to turn off the lights and TV and my computer and all the other things
I have on when not in use and my bill was $36 cheaper. We can all do this! I
know it take awareness and commitment and it’s not easy to break bad habits.
11. Heating and Cooling, close the vents in
the rooms you are not using and close the doors in those rooms. Make sure you
service your HVCC unit annually.
12. Phone, Internet, Cable .. Most
companies have package deals now so combine these bills for a cheaper rate OR
get rid of your land line altogether if you can.
13. Cell Phones, This is such a competitive
market, shop, shop and then shop some more until you get the best rate and
terms out there. READ those contracts and know what you are signing up for the
long haul.
14. Stop
Smoking, this is a costly and bad habit. I know… but need I say more! Maybe
I’ll do some math for you. Pack a day $7.5 – HI = $2737.50. 2 packs a day = $5475.00
you can do the math if you smoke more. In Hawaii there is a Free program to
help you quit. Give them a call.
1-800
Quit Now(784-8669) CleartheSmoke.org
15. Stop Drinking, Again very costly, too
many calories, bad for you and your liver!
Roxy Redenbaugh
ACMC Loan Consultant
Branch Manager
808-637-0011
www.roxyloans.com
NMLS#269926
Roxy Redenbaugh
ACMC Loan Consultant
Branch Manager
808-637-0011
www.roxyloans.com
NMLS#269926
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