In 2022, food prices increased by 9.4% on average in the year to April. This marked the largest rise in 40 years.
Rising inflation is making life more difficult for many as people struggle to afford necessities such as groceries, gas, and rent. And earning to manage your finances and planning ahead is becoming crucial in order to survive.
Luckily, often it starts from simple steps and changes in spending habits. This thread has people sharing simple and useful financial life hacks they swear by, so you may want to get your notes ready!
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Inherit a large amount of money. It’s the secret they don’t want you to know about
Adjust what you think your zero is. Everyone has that "oh s**t I'm broke" number-- I just inflated mine so I think I'm broke when I'm not. If I have $1000 in my bank account, I treat it like $0. $1050 is treated like I have only $50. It's weird, but it's been working so far.
Don't spend money you don't have! It's a revolutionary concept, I know, but it really works wonders.
Eat before you go to the store and always make a list and stick with it.
Every time you get a raise, hide it. Increase your 401(k) contribution, or put it into an IRA, or invest in stock, or just put it aside in savings.
In other words, don't get used to a higher level of consumption. This is especially important when you're young.
Yeah, but you really need to get to a point of consumption where you’re living, instead of just barely existing. Problem is, so many people are barely scraping by, living hand to mouth, one paycheck away from living on the street, even though they’re exhausting themselves working multiple jobs. Once we get people being paid livable salaries for ONE job, then we can advise them to put any increase in their salaries into savings and retirement.
Ask for small bills only, no dye packs or silent alarms
When you spend money think "Is this worth x amount of time that I spent at work?"
Don't cosign anything for anyone
Understand the point here. Did it for my stepson to buy a house. He qualified but they didn't like the fact he was in construction and the hours varied. He sold that house after five years for more than 40k more than he bought it to leverage his family into a more suitable house. Hate to think how many people get stuck in rentals and can't start earning equity because of this sort of thing.
Small hack:
If you pay your car off, continue paying your car payment into a new account.
This payment is already in your budget, so you should be used to it.
This new account is handy if you have any car-related repairs you need to make, like having to replace your fuel pump.
When you need to buy a new car, you can either buy it out right or you have a substantial amount to use for a down payment.
And don't buy another car right when you pay off the other one. Lots of people just keep a car payment instead of continuing to drive the one that's paid off.
Pay your credit cards in full every month. Don’t overspend. No exceptions.
I started thinking of things in terms of hours worked instead of money. Let's say you make $15/hr. Eating McDonald's after work costs $10, doesn't seem like much. But thinking "I worked 40 minutes for this" has a different psychological effect on me. I'm less likely to buy things with my time than I am with my money, if that makes sense.
Every time I want to buy something big or expensive, I ask myself one question:
Do I NEED this, or do I WANT this?
Both answers are fine, I think it's just important to know WHY you spend money. Beeing mindfull of things is always a good choice in life.
Also sleep on it...9 times out of 10 it was an impulse purchase and I realise I don't need it.
Banks are not your financial advisors, don't take their advices. They are a business and think about their profit.
In Canada a financial adviser is regulated and acts in your best interest. Banks normally do not have financial advisers, they have financial advisors. A financial advisor acts in their employers best interest. Check for the "er" or "or" before you invest! Edited for source and additional details. It looks like in about 2017 Canada had about 121,000 registered financial professionals. 4,000 of those could use the title financial adviser. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-s-deceptive-titles-put-investments-at-risk-1.4044702
Our biggest money saver is cooking our meals at home. We bake bread 3-4 days a week ($0.50/ loaf) and grow lettuce, peas, cucumbers, and herbs by a window all winter.
Feel great, more money in my pocket!
Great idea, but 50 cents for a loaf? In Belgium, quality bread costs less at a normal bakery than making it by yourself.
Always bring your own water bottle!! Ive live off from refills for 6 months and saved a lot of money
I've found recently that I do better with my finances when I check my account on the app every day. It's almost addicting seeing my credit balances lower. I also notice that if I haven't checked it in a few days I've been making bad financial decisions. It's all mental at this point but it's helped since I started doing it last October
That's what happened in the old days when you had your money in cash in your wallet. Every time you opened your wallet to pay, you instantly saw how much you had left. Nowadays you just swipe a card and nobody tells you what remains in your account.
Young people should not be ashamed to live at home for longer. It's crazy how much debt some young people are in, and they could be in a lot less debt if they just stayed home longer.
I know Boomers normalized bragging about kicking your kids out of the house at age 18 and leaving them with no support even though their own parents often helped them buy their first house (yes, that's actually true, and Boomers would prefer that you didn't know this), but that's really not OK.
PS. I'm 53 years old. This post was not made out of self-interest.
This is more of a western thing. It's completely normal for people to live at home for much longer than the age of 18 in other countries. And with housing being as expensive as it is in the U.S. right now, there's nothing wrong with not going into debt and making a smart financial decision.
If you are good at sometime - don't do it for free.
I can plant gardens and mulch them. It's relaxing, fun, easy and rewarding. Some people want a nice garden with edges and mulch. Takes me a few minutes to pick out some perrenials, and order them, with a bulk load of mulch and soil. I can drive it to a house, unload, cut out a garden and install the new one within a few hours, then go to a spot and unload to scrap I dug out (grass usually).
I did this for free for a buddy. His neighbour wanted the same, and I said we could do it. They paid me $500 for a few hours labour and the materials. Now I charge $500 and walk away with $350 profit for a few hours, for the same work I was doing for fun on Sunday mornings.
get a credit card with good rewards and route every purchase through it. pay it off in full each month and enjoy your free money while simultaneously giving credit card companies the middle finger.
When you have a partner and share finances, but you have different styles of managing money, it’s a good idea to keep separate accounts.
When my wife and I got married, we agreed that any expense over a certain amount, we would have to discuss and agree to. That amount is fairly low.
Low-fee market index funds are the best investment.
When you are considering a purchase, give yourself at least 24 hours, if possible, before pulling the trigger.
One of my friends does this. Her and her husband have a joint account they each pay a certain amount into, then anything extra goes in their personal account, to spend however they want.
Buy better quality clothes but on sale. Shop at stores like TJMax and Marshall's, especially if you live in a bigger city next to large malls. They get all of the good stuff that they didn't sell in the mall that season. This way, your clothes will last longer.
Set up an auto transfer to your savings and forget about it. You'll have a savings account in no time, and it doesn't even have to be a big amount.
in our country we have a type of account that does this but ALSO puts a time limit on the savings so you can't dip into them, it's called a "call account"
Act like you always broke
In a nutshelll : "don't be poor in the first place but act like you are". Who would've thought ?
Yes, and "save money by spending less". Wow, what an amazing 'hack'.
Load More Replies...Up next: Don't spend money you don't have. Wait, that's not a life hack. That's just common sense.
Honestly I'm so surprised every time you people complain about not making enough money to buy their lunch everyday. How do they not realize buying food at a grocery store and making your own lunch it so much cheaper?
Because a lot of people see the initial purchase and panic. Also, a lot of these people don't freeze anything, apparently. Like that person that commented that buying a loaf of bread isn't cheaper because they live alone, so buying a sandwich a day is. You just freeze the bread. It's fine. And the bigger grocery bill typically goes for the whole week, not just a single meal, but again, people don't look at it that way.
Load More Replies...In a nutshelll : "don't be poor in the first place but act like you are". Who would've thought ?
Yes, and "save money by spending less". Wow, what an amazing 'hack'.
Load More Replies...Up next: Don't spend money you don't have. Wait, that's not a life hack. That's just common sense.
Honestly I'm so surprised every time you people complain about not making enough money to buy their lunch everyday. How do they not realize buying food at a grocery store and making your own lunch it so much cheaper?
Because a lot of people see the initial purchase and panic. Also, a lot of these people don't freeze anything, apparently. Like that person that commented that buying a loaf of bread isn't cheaper because they live alone, so buying a sandwich a day is. You just freeze the bread. It's fine. And the bigger grocery bill typically goes for the whole week, not just a single meal, but again, people don't look at it that way.
Load More Replies...