6 Easy Ways To Save Money

Have you noticed that the cost of everyday expenses have been rising? My insurance premium increased 55% for one property when I didn’t make a single claim! You can imagine my reaction when I got the letter from the insurance company. Even my grocery costs went up. A dozen eggs used to cost me $3. Now, the cheapest carton of a dozen eggs is $4.85. I can’t realistically decrease my grocery haul costs other than deciding to forgo snacks and choosing cheaper alternatives like quality of meat so I have to look elsewhere. 

While you’re building your personal wealth, it’s important to make sure your expenses are in line with your goals. Why overpay when you don’t have to? Here are 6 ways you can start saving money.

1. Figure Out Your Finances

This one isn’t a direct money-saving hack but the first thing you should do is understand where your money is going. An easy way to figure out your finances is to use a tool that automatically tracks and calculates your money coming and leaving your accounts. I recommend using Empower (formerly Personal Capital).

Empower is a free tool that makes it easy to track and manage your money. This has saved me a TON of time because I don’t have to import my transactions from every credit card I have into a spreadsheet and categorize each one manually. Unless you enjoy the process and you have the skills of developing dashboards, I recommend using this application. 

I did a year-end review of my finances and I was surprised that my food costs – groceries and restaurants – were higher than I expected. I was spending an average of $1,000 a month. I wouldn’t have known that if I didn’t review my finances and this app made it easy with their Budget dashboard that shows how much I spend in each category. 

The Cash Flow Dashboard shows how much you made against how much you spent or your cash flow for that period. 

Here’s a tip: You should review all the transactions that Empower imports automatically and make sure purchases are categorized the right way. Usually, small businesses are the ones that are miscategorized. 

2. Use Coupons and Cash Back / Rebate Apps

Any time I purchase something online, I always check for coupons. You’d be surprised at what you can find. Simply search “<Insert Store> coupon promo codes”. You’ll find multiple sites that have coupon codes to use. 

A cash back app I recommend is Drop. You earn points based on the dollars spent and can redeem gift cards with those points. The amount of points you earn changes frequently and major retailers often have those great point deals! Those are called “Boosted” deals.

You can view the amount of points you could earn for each dollar spent on the app and then shop directly on the app by getting redirected to the retailer’s site. It even shows available coupon codes that you can copy into your order. 

One feature I love about Drop is that you can link your bank accounts via Plaid, which is a secured way to connect bank accounts, and you’ll automatically earn points when you spend on those retailers with your credit cards linked to those bank accounts. For example, I have a Chase online login and whenever my Chase Amazon credit card is used, I earn points on Drop whenever it processes. I’ve already redeemed $50 gift cards for Amazon using Drop to shop on Amazon! It’s a nice perk especially when I make big purchases like gifts on Amazon. 

3. Decrease Your Phone Bill

I was really excited when Sprint was being acquired by T-Mobile. Why? Because AT&T and Verizon were the two dominant players in the market. T-Mobile and Sprint were nowhere close. With a valid third option, these companies have been competing against each other with trade-in offers, perks like HBOMax and Netflix, etc. but for some, it’s still too much. 

Mint Mobile’s mission is to save customers money by offering low cost cellular plans. Mint uses T-Mobile’s network with 5G speed and free hotspot. Their unlimited plan costs only $30/month and their lowest priced plan offers 4GB of data for $15/month. If you’re usually on WiFi and rarely use data when you’re outside, a $15 data plan is a great deal! 

Personally, the 10GB plan that costs $20 a month fits my personal situation. Some months, I only use 4GB and other months, I use 6-8GB. I don’t think I ever used over 10GB in my life since I don’t stream when I’m outside. 

4. Review Auto Insurance Premium

When was the last time you shopped around for auto insurance? The best customers for insurance companies are the ones who don’t file claims and continue to renew their policy year after year. 

Have you noticed that your premium usually increases year after year when you’re one of their best customers? Loyal doesn’t always mean you get the best pricing. I always recommend shopping around and comparing policies. Some providers even offer discounts for first time policyholders and for finalizing a quote online. 

If your insurance provider offers a driver tracking program that tracks your driving behavior through a device or through your phone and you’re confident that you can drive safely, you could open up more discounts! I did this and I received a 30% discount on my next policy renewal. 

5. Shop Around for Homeowner and Landlord Insurance

As a real estate investor, property insurance is one of the best things you shouldn’t cheap out on! When something serious happens, you want to feel safe knowing that your insurance provider won’t try hard to deny your claim. 

I was personally affected by a widespread weather disaster that affected the entire city with hail and wind damage. My insurance provider sent an adjuster 2-3 days after I filed my claim and I received a comprehensive report on estimated damages and was paid out to begin repairs. Then I noticed my electrical was messed up and received another $3,000 payout after getting a quote from an electrician with no questions asked. 

I strongly encourage every property owner and even renters to shop around. A company I use to get fast and free quotes is Steadily Insurance. They make it really easy to get a quote without dozens of pages to fill information into like major insurance providers. 

Best of all, Steadily offers short term rental coverage! If you want your property to be covered while renting the property short term, regular landlord insurance won’t work and your claim would be denied. 

It’s so important to have the right insurance coverage when you need it or you could lose out on all your profits for the year. 

6. Health Insurance

If you’re employed by an employer and receive health insurance, that’s great! Employers provide health insurance plans that are subsidized compared to if you were to go get your own insurance plan. Companies participate in these plans to offer their employees this benefit. Plans vary based on the plan your company participates in. 

However, not every company is a tech giant that provides fully-paid health premiums for its employees. Some companies have expensive plans and are limited with options. The company I’m employed with only offers ONE plan for medical and dental and it costs me $66 a month that gets deducted from my paycheck. That’s not bad and luckily, I haven’t had to do anything other than my regular check ups. However, my previous company offered 6 different health plans and my monthly premium was $35. My dental plan was fully covered and even offered 3 dental cleanings a year which is rare! Most dental plans only offer 2 cleanings a year so my dentist was surprised. 

If your company offers sub-par expensive plans or you’re self-employed AND you’re a healthy individual, I’d recommend checking out Sesame Care. It’s a provider marketplace that connects you with doctors, reviews from other patients, and transparent pricing. It’s easy to set up a virtual or on-site appointment and Sesame has over 80 specialties offered. 

Even if your company offers insurance but you didn’t have a great experience with it due to high copays or the number of in-network providers, you can still join Sesame regardless of insurance status giving you more options. 

Final Words

Having a solid foundation on your spending habits and expenses is the quickest way for someone to begin building wealth. I’m not saying that you should get the cheapest option of everything. But the benefits of having a healthy budget compounds as you continue to grow your wealth. By creating a healthy habit of reviewing your options and balancing your needs, the excess can be used to invest more.