13 hidden ways to stop financial leaks for life
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Stop Financial Leak
Have you ever felt as money is just running through your figures? I mean, your bank account never reaches to any happy moment (number?) and always difficult to meet up two ends. There are several day-to-day events and stuff that can be turned into hard cash savings if you pay a bit of attraction and see things more attentively and from different prospective. You don’t need college degree to understand small little finance leaks of your life.
Financial leak number 1: Resist the use of technology/bank website - like, paying bills by snail mail.
Average American household gets 15 bills. If you pay by snail mail you need 15 x .42 cents tickets = $6.3 per month. It means $75 per year. Try to pay bills online through your bank. Now-a-days all bank give such facilities to their customers at no cost.
Financial leak number 2: Don’t bundle-up similar services
Many times for cable TV, Internet access, and phone service from the same service providers may save some money. Similarly get your house/rental policy and auto insurance from the same company to save some bundle.
Financial leak number 3: A cell-phone plan that doesn’t match your needs.
The Fix: J.D. Power & Associates, cell-phone subscribers use only 64 percent of the minutes they pay for. So observe your usage for a month or two and see if you need more minutes plan or less. As we all know, minute usage beyond your plan may cost you very steep. New California startup Billshrink can help you to find out optimum plan for your cell phone.
Financial leak number 4: Wait for right time to redeem gift cards.
Most of gift cards start building up some fees after a year in the name of inactivity fees or maintenance fees up to $2.50. Read the fine print on the back of the card. So use your gift cards as soon as possible. It’s worth knowing State Gift Card Consumer Protection Laws. If you are still not sure what to buy with your walmart’s gift card. How about swapping your gift card with your favorite store’s gift card? See these websites: www.swapagift.com and www.plasticjungle.com
Financial leak number 5: Letting the water run.
Turn off the tap when it is not needed. I know, we don’t realize the flowing water when we are brushing teeth or shaving. According to EPA - every minute the water flows wastes up to 2 1/2 gallons. Fix all dripping water faucets
Money Leak
Financial leak number 6: Paying airlines for extras.
Besides from a reserving a seat in airplane, recently airline has started asking money for just about everything ranging from extra fees for more legroom seat to checking luggage to in-board snacks. Generally my wife and I pack some homemade sandwich before we board. Travel light to avoid luggage fee. Choose economy seats and don’t mind weekdays for travel. See more tips here: how to score a cheap airline ticket
Financial leak number 7: Paying just minimum every month on credit cards.
This is my favorite one. Many people really don’t know what is cost of borrowing. I understand we do not have luxury to pay in full every month. But I would definitely try to pay my credit card debt first as those money are very costly to borrow, sometime up to 20% interest. Let’s say you borrow $5000 at 20% rate from your credit card. If you pay monthly $100 then at the end of pay-off period you paid $10840 back to credit card including principle amount ($5000) + Interest ($5840) and complete pay-off will take 108 months.
Now just assume that you are planning to pay $150 per month (instead of $100) then at the end of pay-off period you paid $ 7359 back to credit card including principle amount ($5000) + Interest ($2359) and complete pay-off will take 49 months. Did you see the difference?
Financial leak number 8: Paying for credit reports.
It’s always good idea to keep tab on your credit reports. Several websites are offering free credit reports but those come with fine print; like if you don’t cancel their service in 30 days you will be enrolled in credit monitoring service at $14.95 monthly charge. Federal law give the right you to a free credit report every year from each of the three major bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion (www.annualcreditreport.com)
Financial leak number 9: Few trips to the ATM to withdraw cash.
First I always prefer my banks’ ATM because there is no fee for money withdrawal. If you have a habit of money withdrawal just enough for a week then you are opted to visit frequently to ATM. Just think about the time and gas you spent every time you trip to ATM. So why not withdraw sufficient money that cuts number of trips to ATM.
Financial leak number 10: Never pay attention on which memberships and subscriptions you have.
Did you remember New Year resolution and joined local gym for $35/month service. Are you still committed and visiting gym on regular basis? If not, how about finding some alternate way - like buy dumbbells and do exercise at home in front of TV.
Other examples are the video rental services such as Netflix or Blockbuster. How many movies do you actually receive per month versus what plan you are on? Do you really need to have 3 or more videos out at one time?
Financial leak number 11: Didn’t search Google before you go for oil change or any service (or before you buy anything online, including electronics.)
My favorite one: Search for coupon or discount code for mostly all online purchase. My motto is “Never pay more than I have to!” (This includes finding the best deals online.) I always prefer to search like “coupon code for oil change” before I go for car oil change or any regular car service. Normally I spend 5 minutes on Googleing and 90% of time I found some coupon code or discount that saves my money. Several websites like www.retailmenot.com offers coupon code and discounts for 20000 online stores.
Financial leak number 12: Ignoring incandescent stupidity
Consider replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. fluorescent bulbs
Financial leak number 13: Buy morning coffee from neighborhoods star-bucks before heading to work. B
“A latte spurned is a fortune earned.” - People Magazine
Think about how many cups of coffee you buy in a week from neighborhoods star-bucks before heading to work. (sometime you buy a muffin too!) If there are two members of your household who go out for coffee together you could be spending more than $1,885×2=$3770 a year. This is called Latte Factor. Above saving is based on $5 per day (coffee + Muffin for one person) If you want to calculate how much you can save, go to latte Factor calculator. What I would do? Buy a nice expresso coffee maker
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