by Betterbuck
I’m a massive coupon/savings nerd, and an embarrassing amount of my time is spent talking to people to find out how much they’re spending.
In my experience, the average American is making some pretty serious money mistakes on a daily basis.
Here are the 7 worst culprits (and how you can save money by avoiding them):
#1. Not using high-interest savings accounts.
If you’re like the average American, your savings account pays you virtually zero interest (typically under 0.3% a year, in my experience).
But believe it or not, plenty of banks are willing to offer you 10x that rate.
PNC, for example, has an account that pays a whopping ~4%/year right now (with no minimums).
(E.g. if you store $100k in a 4% interest savings account today, in a year you’ll have netted $4,000 from interest alone)
PNC doesn’t have minimum deposits or monthly service charges, so they’re a good option to consider.
2. Getting overcharged when shopping online.
You might be surprised how often you’re overpaying on Amazon and elsewhere.
Big stores like Amazon know that no one has time to price shop through dozens of sites, so there’s often no incentive for them to offer bargain prices.
I typically hate browser extensions with a fiery passion, but if you don’t have Capital One Shopping installed yet, do yourself a favor and grab it.
When you shop online (on Amazon or elsewhere) it will:
- Auto-apply coupon codes for you to save you money
- Compare prices from other sellers to make sure you’re not missing out on a better deal
#3: Overpaying on car insurance by $400+/year.
The average American family still overspends by up to $417/year1 on car insurance.
Check out a site like Coverage.org to compare the best car insurance options available.
#4: Not getting a financial advisor.
99% of people don’t have one, and it’s typically a huge mistake.
Sure, you can manage things on your own if you want to, but most people don’t have the time to actually do things right. There are huge benefits to having somebody pay attention to your money all the time.
- People with financial advisors tend to beat the market by ~3%/year (according to a 2019 Vanguard Study). That can make a huge difference over time.
- But more important: a good advisor will handle ALL of the annoying retirement stuff & bizarro tax implications you would have never thought of
If you don’t know a financial advisor personally, use a comparison site (like WiserAdvisor) and find somebody near you that has good reviews.
#5: Giving away your screentime for free.
Very few people know about it, but Nielsen (the company that measures TV ratings) will actually pay you for the time you spend on your phone or PC.
You basically are part of a mini-research study: you just install an app on your device that will give Nielsen anonymous data on how much you use your phone, etc.
Not everybody qualifies for it, but if you do, it’s a sweet gig.
#6: Not getting paid for your opinions.
There are companies that pay for you to give feedback. Really.
Sites like Branded Surveys are super simple. Sign up, set-up your profile with basic information about yourself, then you can start completing surveys.
In exchange for the time you spend responding to service, you’ll be rewarded with gift cards.
#7: Overpaying on credit card debt
Credit card debt is, obviously, REALLY expensive to deal with.
But this company (Bankrate) might be willing to pay all of it off for you.
Here’s the basic idea:
- Use this page to search for the lowest-interest loan you can find (make sure the loan actually works well for you, of course)
- Take that loan, and use it to pay off your higher-interest credit card debt
- Then slowly pay off the new loan over time
You’re effectively switching high-interest debt for lower-interest payments (but of course, do your own homework here to make sure it’s a good fit for you).
#8. Not investing.
If you’re like the average American, most (or all) of your income goes directly into your checking account. And for the most part, it stays there.
The problem: when your money sits in your savings/checking account, it’s slowly depreciating, thanks to inflation. And, over the past 40 years, inflation has averaged a whopping 3.8% a year.
The solution? Invest your money. Get an app like Acorns. They round up your spare change to the nearest dollar and then auto invest it. E.g. you buy a coffee for $4.25, they’ll round the purchase up to $5 and invest the $0.75 for you.
#Economy, #FinancialTips, #Awareness, #Options, #CrazyTimes, #Debt, #Financial, #HelpfulTips, #Organization, #Retirement, #SelfHelp,#UnitedStates
Vintage Dava 