When we're growing up there are some core lessons that our parents bestow
upon us like always look both ways before crossing the street don't leave
the stove unattended and of course always save your money if you're
watching this video right now then i'm gonna assume that you've mastered the
first two but the third may still be up for debate which is why i want to share
with you five simple ways to save more money that i know will have your pockets
filling up in no time method number one mastering your domain do you know what
you and your wealthy neighbor have in common no it's not the size of your bank
accounts just yet that is but it's the fact that you both need a place to live
as fellow human beings in fact if we consult maslow's hierarchy of needs we
see that shelter is part of humans most basic physiological needs unfortunately
though most of us these days have really overblown what it means to have shelter
and as such housing has become one of the biggest hurdles to most people's
savings efforts you see whenever i talk about saving money i talk about
scrutinizing your big three expenses of housing transportation and food as these
expenses typically make up roughly sixty percent of your budget with housing
being the largest cost of the bunch at thirty percent of your total annual
expenditures getting your housing costs right will make or break your finances
unfortunately for most people this cost is often mishandled as you're probably
aware in the present day we live in we all want things to be newer faster and
bigger and the sentiment is definitely not lost on our dwellings presently new
home sizes average over 2 600 square feet up over a thousand feet from just
four decades ago but this increase in home size is justified by bigger
families right not quite in fact in the last 40 years the number of people
living in the home has decreased from three persons down to about two and a
half so with some quick math we can see that 40 years ago one person typically
required 533 square feet to live whereas today people are enjoying more than
double that room with over a thousand square feet to themselves now maybe
people have gotten big over the last half century or perhaps they just need
more room for all the [ __ ] they buy but there's no doubting the fact that
increases in home size is costing people a fortune in the us the median price for
each square foot of home is 123 with homes being a thousand square feet
larger these days that's over a hundred thousand dollars in the purchase price
of a home which if you own a home you'll know it also comes with additional
property taxes repairs and a larger commission check when you go to sell
your home down the road so what's the solution just like getting a big mac at
2 am after a night out just don't do it when buying a home buy based on your
actual living needs not based on how much you can show off that mega mansion
that will keep you host poor until your last waking breath alternatively if
you're already in a living situation where you own a rent start to track how
much of your home you actually use and ask yourself if the space you have is
warranted dialing down your living space by moving or renting at a room may be
what the saving doctor ordered method number two move cheaply have you ever
taken someone home from the bar and had immediate regret the next morning it's
as if it seemed like a good idea at the time however when you realized what you
were doing you knew you were in trouble well sadly the same sentiment often
happens when we buy a nice car and submit ourselves to the overly
burdensome transportation costs that come with it now i will be the first to
admit that i love nice cars the thought of owning a brand new sports car gets me
excited and i can easily see why so many people are enticed to buy them however
once i get over my initial moment of excitement and my logical account and
brain kicks in it dawns on me that i will likely never own an expensive car
simply at a principal and what is that principle cars are a waste of money you
see when people are considering buying a car they typically have an idea of how
much it would cost them to buy new overused what they do is they calculate
the after tax cost of each car and assess if the difference in price is
worth that new car smell unfortunately the realization that a new car is on
average going to cost them 17 000 more than a used one is where most people's
analysis ends sadly this is just scratching the surface of the cost
iceberg with a new car comes more depreciation higher cost for repairs
higher insurance premiums and the list goes on if you're serious about saving
money you need to get serious about how you move now i'm not going to sit here
and tell you to bike everywhere because that's not realistic for 99 of people
even though most people could stand to get a bit more exercise what i suggest
is that people offer a quality used car to sidestep as much sticker shock and
depreciation costs as they can while also having access to lower insurance
costs which are already criminally high to begin with with ridiculously high
priced cars out of the way saving more money will become easier than you ever
thought possible method number three have cheap fun do you remember how much
fun you used to have going to the park and playing on the play structure with
your friends i mean other than falling off the monkey bars or getting stuck
halfway down the slide these moments from our childhood were pure fun sadly
as adults we often lose the ability to find enjoyment in the simpler things in
life and as that your cost of having fun rises significantly for instance having
your friends over to watch a movie turns you into a 300 night out at the club or
going on a picnic becomes going to vegas for the weekend it's as if as we age we
put a price tag on fun however when we do that we are significantly impacting
our ability to save money personally the average american spends over three
thousand dollars in entertainment cost which equates to about 250 dollars a
month for some people this amount is a drop in the bucket but for others this
250 dollars could be the difference between getting deeper in consumer debt
or finally starting to dig themselves out of it now i am obviously not going
to recommend never spending another cent on having fun some of my most cherished
moments to date have required some sort of financial outlay however what i want
you to do is be more cognizant as to how you can enjoy yourself without breaking
the bank for myself personally i found some of my least expensive activities
are also the most enriching for instance instead of going up to the cub and
spending hundreds of dollars having my friends over to watch a movie or going
for a walk allows me to get in that social time i need without the financial
outline or the hangover once you realize that you can have your cake and eat it
too by combining fun and saving i know that you'll get hooked on having fun on
the cheap method number four avoid interest i don't know if you've seen it
recently but there are millions of people around the world who are
consciously burning their money but unlike what you're imagining there are
no matches or lighters involved you see in almost all circumstances paying
interest is like lighting your cash on fire because you're partying with your
hard-earned cash and are getting nothing in return now notice i said in almost
all circumstances because paying interest on debts like business loans or
mortgages can make sense but when it comes to high interest debts you need to
proceed with caution i can already feel dave ramsey graining ear to ears i'm
about to say that you need to be avoiding credit card debts as much as
possible if you want to have a fighting chance of saving money in the tough
economic world we live in today with the average credit card rate being upwards
of 18 most people who end up in the credit
card debt spiral are handing over hundreds of dollars a month in
unnecessary fees it's like going to work for a day just to make your creditors
rich than they already are it makes no sense just to be clear i am not
anti-credit card i own and use multiple credit cards on a regular basis but i
always ensure they get paid off on time and in full how do i do that simple i
never spend more on my cards than i have in my bank thanks mom and dad for that
hot tip in fact if you have the financial aptitude credit card's gonna
be an amazing financial tool that will allow you to build credit rack up points
and even gain buyer protection over your purchases now if you're starting your
quest for more savings from a debt deficit then here's the approach you can
take to become debt free as quickly as possible first organize your debts from
those with the highest to lowest interest rates next funnel as much money
into the debt with the highest interest rate first and then work your way down
in descending order this debt elimination strategy is often referred
to as the dead avalanche method and is proven to be the most cost effective way
to eliminate debt now if you're wondering doing this should be
prioritized over saving and or investing the return you'll get from reducing an
18 credit card is greater than the return you'll get for most investments
and certainly any savings account plan method number five earn more money you
know the saying the best offense is a good defense well when it comes to
saving money the opposite is true and that the best defense is a good offense
because making more money as long as you don't spend it all will do more for your
savings efforts and all the other tips in this video combined how do i know
this because it's worked for me and that's how i know it will work for you
as well you see as i mentioned earlier one of the things most young people are
growing up is that you need to save money i was no different and my parents
drilled into my head the importance of frugality and saving unfortunately they
left at the part about how you can actually gain access to more cash that i
could save and invest and over time i began to feel as if my savings efforts
were not yielding the fruit i wanted them to for instance when i first
started my career was making forty thousand dollars a year and it didn't
matter how much i pinched every penny simply put it's hard to save any
significant amount of money at that level of income now fast forward five
years and three things in my life have changed first i can no longer go
drinking without suffering excruciating hangovers second i finally look like i'm
25 and it only took me until 30 to get there finally as my income has tripled
since i started my career my ability to save more money has risen exponentially
you see if you can make more money and keep lifestyle creep at bay then saving
money becomes a breeze so the question is how do you go about making more money
most people struggle in this regard and for many years i did too i slowly rely
on my nine to five job to make money and then after getting one too many
lackluster raises it dawned on me that my job was never going to make me rich
at best i would only be able to keep up with inflation when i had what i call my
income epiphany i knew i needed to build new streams of income first i started
with freelancing then i moved on to my youtube channels and most recently i've
been bullish about writing articles on medium each stream puts more money in my
pocket and as long as i manage it well then saving becomes inevitable hey it
looks like youtube thinks this next video is the one that will change your
financial life forever give it a watch and let's see if they're right