![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
One of the bits of advice in books like Charles Givens Financial Self Defense (used for about $5, his newer books most likely repeat the same material) is to save money here and there and use the money that you saved to invest. So, if you eat at restaurants every day, cook once a week at home and you should have about $50/month to invest. Change your oil yourself instead of paying someone to do it and you have $30-50 each quarter. Buy cheaper gas for your car and you have ???/week more to invest. Smoke one less doobie per week and..., well, you get the picture. If you can find ten ways to save just $5-10/month, that can be $50-100 you now have to invest that you didn’t have before... and you didn’t have to (a) get a raise, (b) reduce your quality of life.
(and note: If you get a $100 raise, after taxes you really only get about $60-70. If you find a way to not spend $100 then you are really saving the full $100! (or you are not spending $140 before taxes!) (Ok, now all the math purists can post comments about my funny math)
Today I found 2 items on my VISA card statement that I was paying every month and eliminated them both. I now have an extra $27.90 to invest each month.
1. When I ordered free business cards on “Vista Print” somehow I signed up for some kind of “rewards” program that costs $14.95/month. Holy shit. How did that happen? I’d been ignoring it on my VISA bill because I thought it was the shipping from the cards... but when I looked at 3 months all together I saw it was a repeating charge. It took a full half hour to cancel this (they don’t make it easy) but it was worth it.
2. I signed up for efax.com when we were buying a house. I love eFax. Paperless fax reception for free. I upgraded to the “plus” version when I needed to send a fax. It turns out I couldn’t downgrade to “free” without canceling and creating a new account. Of course, canceling is a pain, so I didn’t do it. Well, now I’ve finally did the cancelation procedure and it’s worth it. (Cancelation isn’t listed in their ToS or help menus. You have to call them, and they tell you a secret URL to visit. Then you visit the URL and have an on-line chat with someone who tries to retain you. It took about an hour in total time for me to cancel. Ugh.)
The total is $27.90/month in savings; or $27.90 more that I can invest each month. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m listing this for my friends that invest $0/month and feel they can’t get started. Cancel a few of these scams, a porn site registration (email me for free alternatives) or two, and you should have enough to get started.
(and note: If you get a $100 raise, after taxes you really only get about $60-70. If you find a way to not spend $100 then you are really saving the full $100! (or you are not spending $140 before taxes!) (Ok, now all the math purists can post comments about my funny math)
Today I found 2 items on my VISA card statement that I was paying every month and eliminated them both. I now have an extra $27.90 to invest each month.
1. When I ordered free business cards on “Vista Print” somehow I signed up for some kind of “rewards” program that costs $14.95/month. Holy shit. How did that happen? I’d been ignoring it on my VISA bill because I thought it was the shipping from the cards... but when I looked at 3 months all together I saw it was a repeating charge. It took a full half hour to cancel this (they don’t make it easy) but it was worth it.
2. I signed up for efax.com when we were buying a house. I love eFax. Paperless fax reception for free. I upgraded to the “plus” version when I needed to send a fax. It turns out I couldn’t downgrade to “free” without canceling and creating a new account. Of course, canceling is a pain, so I didn’t do it. Well, now I’ve finally did the cancelation procedure and it’s worth it. (Cancelation isn’t listed in their ToS or help menus. You have to call them, and they tell you a secret URL to visit. Then you visit the URL and have an on-line chat with someone who tries to retain you. It took about an hour in total time for me to cancel. Ugh.)
The total is $27.90/month in savings; or $27.90 more that I can invest each month. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m listing this for my friends that invest $0/month and feel they can’t get started. Cancel a few of these scams, a porn site registration (email me for free alternatives) or two, and you should have enough to get started.
