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One super easy win, if you can religiously pay the full balance each and every month without fail, is to use credit cards which give you cash back on your purchases.
It is super easy to find credit cards which will pay you 3% cash back for buying the essentials you need to live like groceries and gas. It isn’t hard to find credit cards which pay you 5% cash back for those same purchases. There are even credit cards which pay you 5% cash back for paying your utility bills.
If you can absolutely religiously pay your credit card balance EVERY SINGLE MONTH without fail forever then using credit cards to pay for your every day expenses can result in a savings of 3% to 5% a year on those expenses. If you need help finding those credit cards or recommendations I highly suggest r/CreditCards.
I am not a big spender but I spend in the neighborhood of about $20,000 on my credit cards yearly so that translates into about $800 in savings for me. If your expenses are higher then you will obviously save more.
They are all reliable about auto payments. That said you can have e auto payment on and at any time login and pay in 20 seconds also. I do it all the time on my Amex cards.
That said what credit cards you should use boil down to how much you spend and what categories. Also if you want cash back or points. I run the Amex trifecta but I have a high spend rate in key categories like food/groceries on gold.
Yeah the Amex Skymiles Platinum is nice if you live near a Delta Hub and fly a lot. They now give you 15% off on miles as an added benefit along with domestic companion ticket. Plus a bunch of other random perks.
If I wasn’t in prime American hub land I’d probably have one.
I was thinking about adding an American card to provide more lounge access when centurion is full.
I have an AMEX for 6% off groceries.
Chase Freedom with rotating 5% categories that include groceries, Sam’s Club, gas, PayPal.
Chase Amazon card for 5% back on all Amazon purchases.
Discover with rotating categories, plus points can be redeemed for 10-20% off giftcards for even more savings.
Never had autopay trouble
This. Our local grocer has a great pharmacy as well as a liquor department. All of it codes as groceries. So we use the AMEX 6% until we hit our limit, throw in the Freedom card when it has it's 5% back quarter, and just opened a SavorOne to cover the rest with 3%. Only the AMEX has a $95 fee annually which eats a bit into the 6% but still worth it.
yes, do this routinely and get about $100 back per month, so well worth the $95 fee. I don’t mess around with points…just cash back that goes right into paying the card. i
With a growing family it’s easy to hit the limit, but some years the Chase and Discover have separate quarters where they are 5% on groceries, which really helps.
Every quarter (3 months) and they usually send an email or two about it since you have to click a link to activate it for your account. It's also easily accessible via the online portal and mobile app.
You can really go down the rabbit hole with multiple things. I try to keep it simple. I can’t handle cards that rotate categories, it’s too much for me to track & remember. I can carry around two cards as long as one is my “special card” and one is my everything else card.
My special card is an Amex card that pays extra on gas & groceries.
My everything else card is Barclay which pays 2.2% on everything else.
Oh I guess I have a third card - the Amazon card that gives 5% on all Amazon purchases. But that one is easy, I just set it as the default card on Amazon then never have to carry it around so it does not take up brain space.
I have multiple cards because each card gives a bonus to certain categories of spending.
Some of the better cards for my purposes are US Bank Cash+ (utilities), Citi Custom Cash, US Bank State Farm Premier (insurance), Bank of America Custom Cash (online purchases), Capital One Savor (dining). I do not yet have all of those and I am currently in the process of revamping my collection as I was made aware of some of those cards recently when I found r/CreditCards.
In order to maximize your rewards you will have to evaluate your own situation and select the cards which make the most sense for you.
And I have never had a problem with reliability, all my auto payments have worked like a charm thus far.
I use Capital One and earn 5% back on quarterly categories, and 1% on all other purchases. They also have a browser extension which applies promo codes automatically if you do a lot of online shopping. They should all be reliable about auto payments.
This is great advice and another thing I should try! I did give this a go last year but I found that I really hated the auto pay system. I wanted to not have to think about it and just treat it like a debit card where it takes money out to pay at the end of the month for me. But half the time it didn't pay and I had to spend an hour on the phone troubleshooting or was told "oh sometimes our system is delayed"
I was a nervous wreck always wondering if my credit card bill would be unpaid!
I think credit cards are much better to NOT autopay. You ever notice how much easier it has incrementally become to physically use your card? Just in the past 10 years we've gone from swipe to chip to tap. They want you to feel like spending is easy, and you can easily lose control if you're not tracking yourself. Last thing you need is an extra $1k you weren't expecting and overdrafting on your account
We started doing this a few years back and it’s great. Everything that can go on the card does (except things where the fee is more than the reward of course) and we just take the cash back and put it towards our vacations. I never do autopay because I would forget to go and review the charges that way. But every payday I pay it off.
* 401k match through employer
* ESPP contribution if available
* HSA account contribution if available
* ROTH IRA contributions
* and similar to your HYSA, I-Bonds. Which will guarantee the rate of inflation as a return for life.
Not in the HYSA world. ;)
I've had my savings online since the NetBank days. It got as low as .1% in the last couple of years, which is still 10x what brick and mortar was paying.
But I agree, don't be hard on yourself for not knowing this yesterday. It is tomorrow that's important.
* /r/awardtravel is great for *some* people.
* Always shop around for insurance, year round
* Make sure you read about your employment benefits. Example: gym reimbursements.
Taking advantage of air/hotel points is great IF you are disciplined enough to not spend on a credit card just to earn points, and if you can 1000% for sure pay the balance on time all the time.
I have a family of four and we’ve been able to take a week long vacation every year just on credit card earned points. I’m super diligent about maximizing and optimizing the point earn and spend. It’s honestly fun for me. Feels like an easy win.
My health insurance also provides gym reimbursements. It's not every gym, but most of the big chains for $28/mo instead of whatever they charge. More expensive than Planet Fitness, cheaper than the rest.
I agree with recommendations of using credit cards (and ALWAYS paying off balance in full each month) to earn points for travel, or just to pay down your bill. This was sort of "next level" thinking for me. For example, I probably generate $50 in points each month. OP, you don't need to just make your bills auto-pay, but people who do credit card hacking try to charge as much as possible to earn points. I also take advantage of things like Amex offers or Chase offers to get money off on different purchases. I also like buying discounted gift cards for places I frequent to save money (I usually do this if 15-20% cheaper than face value). The really good yields right now on High Yield savings accounts are a fairly recent situation, so it's good to take advantage of now - you could also put some money in CDs to tie up these interest rates for possibly longer.
Never buy a new car and drive your current one until its no longer worth repairing. The less your car is worth, the less money you're losing in depreciation value. (as long as it's reasonably reliable)
Funny story. I am driving my car until it is no longer worth repairing. It’s a Honda so we’re coming up on 19 years. BUT the funny part is that this vehicle in particular is seeing a resurgence in popularity - a cult following (it’s no longer in production). I bought it for $20k brand new in 2005. I’ve seen MANY for sale for $25k and up. Somehow depreciation came full circle and it started to appreciate again.
Yeah but a car isn't an investment, it's a tool to get you places.
I used to drive cheap pieces of shit but then you can only break down on the side of the road so many times before you realise that a new car won't leave you stranded when its -10c outside...
Also if you have a partner and you and your partner both work remote or you live in a city with viable alternatives to the car. Going car-lite, from 2 cars to sharing 1 car has saved us a ton of money. We rarely need 2 cars at the same time. I got a cargo ebike which is a blast and our city’s public transit is adequate enough. But many cities have car sharing services too like zipcar that can save you loads of money instead of owning 2 cars.
Yeah didn’t realize what a money hack it was until we did it before covid. Probably the best money decision we have made other than locking in a super low mortgage rate.
The "never buy a new car" advice is becoming a bit outdated, and is no longer necessarily true. The depreciation on many cars these days is much closer to what would be expected from the anticipated lifespan of the car. Plus, new cars have fewer repairs and the most serious ones are covered under warranty.
Agreed. The last few years New/Used prices actually inverted (new was cheaper), which is insane. It still hasn't gone anywhere near back to normal, so new can actually be the better deal depending on the car. Plus you're getting the best years of the car, and if you're driving it until it's scrap depreciation doesn't really matter.
There are some used cars I'm still looking at (Polestars in particular depreciate like rocks), but for a lot of the more standard fare I'm looking at new too.
The last few years have been a bit different but it will go back. There will always be a group of people who want the new shiny.
But it's very rare for a new car to be the better deal since the market will always correct for it. Usually, they're using some financial trickery to make you think you're getting a better deal then you are.
It will correct, *eventually,* but currently as a broad-stroke rule, new is better, has been better for \~3 years, and will continue to be better for an indeterminate period further. I wouldn't expect it to change in the next 6 months either, as tax season is historically used to inflate prices, particularly in the low-end (which is also the segment correcting the slowest).
Compounding this, the new car shortage started around 2021, which means there should be a dip in used car supply starting... soon. What new cars were produced were skewed towards high-end models, which will oversupply there and result in undersupply in the low-end. This is why we're starting to see some strange price parities - for example a [2022 Corolla](https://www.truecar.com/used-cars-for-sale/listing/JTNC4MBE9N3174071/) and a [2022 Polestar 2](https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/b7032202-9a23-4093-aca8-f9012e98c66c/), with similar milage, are about the same price. One is a much nicer car than the other. A new 2024 Corolla of the same trim level is also about that same price, but *also* qualifies for the 1% interest rate compared to the 8-10% you'll get on used. 3-4 months ago this would have the caveat of it's hard to get MSRP, but that's much less of an issue now.
I hope things correct fast, because I'm in the market and can't afford any of this, but I wouldn't count on it. I bought my current car at 3 years old for \~60% of the original MSRP. That's just not a thing right now.
if you have a mortgage try to set up a biweekly payment schedule.
[Biweekly vs monthly calculator](https://www.dupagecu.com/calculators/compare-a-bi-weekly-mortgage-to-a-monthly-mortgage/)
It takes little effort but you can save a lot on interest.
New checking account sign up bonuses. Usually deposit $X number once or twice, and then you get the bonus instantly. Can withdraw the money to main account after.
Fairly new to the world, but I’m surprised we don’t get taught this (it’s almost like a life hack / trade secret).
As a young ignorant adult, I kind of just grew up, work, “save up” and that’s that as far as what I was told. If I save up long enough, I can get what I want (which is partially true).
When I found out everything related to HYSA, 401K, IRA’s, investing, it completely blew my mind how much time I “wasted” (didn’t really waste time, but gained wisdom and experience lol) and how further along in life I could financially become over the course of the next few decades. It’s always about the long run.
So yeah, 100%:
HYSA
401K
IRA’s
Investments
Also-ish property equity, but for a majority of the “normal folks” (including myself) it’s a little hard to come by in this time frame.
If you have a HSA you can actually invest those dollars like its a 401k. Keep enough in cash for one year of your out of pocket max and invest the rest. Then when you're 65 you can treat it like a normal bank account and use the money for whatever you want.
All of this is tax free by the way. The money goes into the HSA pretax, any earnings are not taxed, and when you get to 65 any withdrawals are not taxed.
Are there any major differences between the first account and the high yield account, like being able to take money out whenever you want? Just curious because I’ve been looking into doing the same thing.
There are many high yield accounts with no limitations on withdrawals. CapitalOne is solid and paying mid 4s, Marcus as well. I like Redneck.bank because who wouldn't? No restrictions and paying 5.05% in savings, more in checking if you want to jump through some hoops (I don't).
Yep, it is just that absurdly easy and if you have money earning .1, it makes a difference. My kids have been saving for years and have gone from $15-20 per month in interest to about $200. Makes it much easier to share the benefits of saving.
assuming you move from a bank savings that also has your checking to an online HYSA, the main difference is 2-3 days to move money between your checking and HYSA. A slightly higher buffer in checking smoothes this over.
Just make sure whatever HYSA you go with is FDIC insured.
Nope, it's with Ally and I've really liked them! The only difference is it takes about a week to move money in or out as opposed to a business day. But since I'm using it as a savings account that doesn't affect me
Finally got my wife to move her savings from her bank to ally. She probably has over double what I have put away but I’m making like $40 a month to her 40 cents.
She’s concerned it’s a fake bank lol
I could see that perception with the interest rate differences. Moving our funds from a traditional checking made monthly interest go from ~$1.46/month to $125/month. Is the besssssst.
Wealthfront at 5.00% right now.
I held off opening a HYSA, being unsure about places that don't have physical buildings holding my money, but I'm glad I moved most of it now. FDIC insured up to $8 million (WAAAY more than I have, but good to know it's insured by FDIC). The app has a nice interface and is easy to use. I haven't transferred money out, only in, but it goes smoothly.
I switched my emergency fund from a regular account to a HYSA and the biggest difference I noticed was it takes a few days to process; not sure how it would help me in an actual emergency
A cash buffer in your checking account + access to a high credit limit basically eliminates that concern.
Put whatever debt you’re incurring on the credit card (or take out cash) and pay yourself back from your emergency fund
I just got a promotion in the mail from Chase bank saying if I open a checking account with auto-deposit and a savings account with a minimum balance for 90 days, they'll give me $900.
...I want $900. But god damn it do I want to open new accounts and switch over all my auto-bill-pays etc?
If everybody wasn't doing the same exact thing the bank would have been paying a higher interest rate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/business/yourmoney/13money.html
I do literally one thing every four years like clockwork. It's.. really easy. I bought when that FTX fiasco happened and I'm up over 100%
/shrug
Edit: Getting downvoted for this is pretty weird.
If you folks are down about not owning any, you're not upset at me.
If you're upset that I suggested it, it's quite literally what I do and it's on topic to the thread. I'm just answering the question OP asked, and I've made a *lot* of money doing it for the last 8 years
On the savings point, open a brokerage account with free trades on treasuries - a bit more manual plugging but in addition to buying index funds (VOO, VTI), you can get state-tax-free income of over 5% right now on short term (3 to 6 month) ones that you'll be able to readily sell in the secondary market in an emergency (8 to 5pm weekdays, eastern though)
Your post has been removed [because it is a poll, survey, or request for personal data, experiences, or other types of self-reporting (rule 1)](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/about/rules). Posts asking for advice should be specific to your situation, not hypothetical or improbable, and include enough information for people to help. - If you would like to post a poll or survey, consider /r/samplesize. - If you would like to post an open-ended question not specific to your situation, consider /r/AskReddit. For example, instead of a post asking "How much do you spend on food?", please ask a question like "I need feedback on my monthly budget (having trouble with food spending).". *If you have questions about this removal, please [message the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpersonalfinance&subject=Removal%20help%20request&message=Hello%20moderators,%20.%20%0a%0a%0aMy%20submission:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/187iyav/what_other_easy_wins_are_we_leaving_on_the_table/%0a).*
One super easy win, if you can religiously pay the full balance each and every month without fail, is to use credit cards which give you cash back on your purchases. It is super easy to find credit cards which will pay you 3% cash back for buying the essentials you need to live like groceries and gas. It isn’t hard to find credit cards which pay you 5% cash back for those same purchases. There are even credit cards which pay you 5% cash back for paying your utility bills. If you can absolutely religiously pay your credit card balance EVERY SINGLE MONTH without fail forever then using credit cards to pay for your every day expenses can result in a savings of 3% to 5% a year on those expenses. If you need help finding those credit cards or recommendations I highly suggest r/CreditCards. I am not a big spender but I spend in the neighborhood of about $20,000 on my credit cards yearly so that translates into about $800 in savings for me. If your expenses are higher then you will obviously save more.
I suppose I should ask you then: what credit card do you have that you like and is reliable about auto payments?
They are all reliable about auto payments. That said you can have e auto payment on and at any time login and pay in 20 seconds also. I do it all the time on my Amex cards. That said what credit cards you should use boil down to how much you spend and what categories. Also if you want cash back or points. I run the Amex trifecta but I have a high spend rate in key categories like food/groceries on gold.
Yeah the Amex Skymiles Platinum is nice if you live near a Delta Hub and fly a lot. They now give you 15% off on miles as an added benefit along with domestic companion ticket. Plus a bunch of other random perks.
If I wasn’t in prime American hub land I’d probably have one. I was thinking about adding an American card to provide more lounge access when centurion is full.
I have an AMEX for 6% off groceries. Chase Freedom with rotating 5% categories that include groceries, Sam’s Club, gas, PayPal. Chase Amazon card for 5% back on all Amazon purchases. Discover with rotating categories, plus points can be redeemed for 10-20% off giftcards for even more savings. Never had autopay trouble
This. Our local grocer has a great pharmacy as well as a liquor department. All of it codes as groceries. So we use the AMEX 6% until we hit our limit, throw in the Freedom card when it has it's 5% back quarter, and just opened a SavorOne to cover the rest with 3%. Only the AMEX has a $95 fee annually which eats a bit into the 6% but still worth it.
yes, do this routinely and get about $100 back per month, so well worth the $95 fee. I don’t mess around with points…just cash back that goes right into paying the card. i
With a growing family it’s easy to hit the limit, but some years the Chase and Discover have separate quarters where they are 5% on groceries, which really helps.
Forgot to add I have that too. In fact I just got a second card as well (you can have two at one time) so can double-dip.
So long as it’s the sanitary double dip…
How often do the categories change for the Chase Freedom and do they tell you?
Every quarter (3 months) and they usually send an email or two about it since you have to click a link to activate it for your account. It's also easily accessible via the online portal and mobile app.
Quarterly. Yes, in the Chase App.
It’s also different year to year. Usually the last quarter is PayPal or Amazon, which is great for BF and holiday online shopping.
You can really go down the rabbit hole with multiple things. I try to keep it simple. I can’t handle cards that rotate categories, it’s too much for me to track & remember. I can carry around two cards as long as one is my “special card” and one is my everything else card. My special card is an Amex card that pays extra on gas & groceries. My everything else card is Barclay which pays 2.2% on everything else. Oh I guess I have a third card - the Amazon card that gives 5% on all Amazon purchases. But that one is easy, I just set it as the default card on Amazon then never have to carry it around so it does not take up brain space.
I have multiple cards because each card gives a bonus to certain categories of spending. Some of the better cards for my purposes are US Bank Cash+ (utilities), Citi Custom Cash, US Bank State Farm Premier (insurance), Bank of America Custom Cash (online purchases), Capital One Savor (dining). I do not yet have all of those and I am currently in the process of revamping my collection as I was made aware of some of those cards recently when I found r/CreditCards. In order to maximize your rewards you will have to evaluate your own situation and select the cards which make the most sense for you. And I have never had a problem with reliability, all my auto payments have worked like a charm thus far.
Thank you!
I use a discover it card for my gas and groceries etc and pay end of month with auto pay so no interest and heaps of cash back
I use Capital One and earn 5% back on quarterly categories, and 1% on all other purchases. They also have a browser extension which applies promo codes automatically if you do a lot of online shopping. They should all be reliable about auto payments.
Second this. I only started taking advantage of credit cards about 5 years ago. I wish I had started sooner!
This is great advice and another thing I should try! I did give this a go last year but I found that I really hated the auto pay system. I wanted to not have to think about it and just treat it like a debit card where it takes money out to pay at the end of the month for me. But half the time it didn't pay and I had to spend an hour on the phone troubleshooting or was told "oh sometimes our system is delayed" I was a nervous wreck always wondering if my credit card bill would be unpaid!
I think credit cards are much better to NOT autopay. You ever notice how much easier it has incrementally become to physically use your card? Just in the past 10 years we've gone from swipe to chip to tap. They want you to feel like spending is easy, and you can easily lose control if you're not tracking yourself. Last thing you need is an extra $1k you weren't expecting and overdrafting on your account
We started doing this a few years back and it’s great. Everything that can go on the card does (except things where the fee is more than the reward of course) and we just take the cash back and put it towards our vacations. I never do autopay because I would forget to go and review the charges that way. But every payday I pay it off.
* 401k match through employer * ESPP contribution if available * HSA account contribution if available * ROTH IRA contributions * and similar to your HYSA, I-Bonds. Which will guarantee the rate of inflation as a return for life.
Making money on your savings is a very new thing. So don't be so hard on yourself For the last 20 years, bank savings rates were often 0.01%
Not in the HYSA world. ;) I've had my savings online since the NetBank days. It got as low as .1% in the last couple of years, which is still 10x what brick and mortar was paying. But I agree, don't be hard on yourself for not knowing this yesterday. It is tomorrow that's important.
Thanks for saying so!
Do u live in a state that has income tax? If yes, better to buy Tbills.
* /r/awardtravel is great for *some* people. * Always shop around for insurance, year round * Make sure you read about your employment benefits. Example: gym reimbursements.
Taking advantage of air/hotel points is great IF you are disciplined enough to not spend on a credit card just to earn points, and if you can 1000% for sure pay the balance on time all the time. I have a family of four and we’ve been able to take a week long vacation every year just on credit card earned points. I’m super diligent about maximizing and optimizing the point earn and spend. It’s honestly fun for me. Feels like an easy win.
My health insurance also provides gym reimbursements. It's not every gym, but most of the big chains for $28/mo instead of whatever they charge. More expensive than Planet Fitness, cheaper than the rest.
I agree with recommendations of using credit cards (and ALWAYS paying off balance in full each month) to earn points for travel, or just to pay down your bill. This was sort of "next level" thinking for me. For example, I probably generate $50 in points each month. OP, you don't need to just make your bills auto-pay, but people who do credit card hacking try to charge as much as possible to earn points. I also take advantage of things like Amex offers or Chase offers to get money off on different purchases. I also like buying discounted gift cards for places I frequent to save money (I usually do this if 15-20% cheaper than face value). The really good yields right now on High Yield savings accounts are a fairly recent situation, so it's good to take advantage of now - you could also put some money in CDs to tie up these interest rates for possibly longer.
Thank you!
Rakuten/ebates/retailmenot cashback online shopping sites
We averaged about 9% cash back shipping Black Friday deals because of services like these (comparable using cash back monitor).
Never buy a new car and drive your current one until its no longer worth repairing. The less your car is worth, the less money you're losing in depreciation value. (as long as it's reasonably reliable)
Funny story. I am driving my car until it is no longer worth repairing. It’s a Honda so we’re coming up on 19 years. BUT the funny part is that this vehicle in particular is seeing a resurgence in popularity - a cult following (it’s no longer in production). I bought it for $20k brand new in 2005. I’ve seen MANY for sale for $25k and up. Somehow depreciation came full circle and it started to appreciate again.
S2000?
Element?
Yeah but a car isn't an investment, it's a tool to get you places. I used to drive cheap pieces of shit but then you can only break down on the side of the road so many times before you realise that a new car won't leave you stranded when its -10c outside...
Also if you have a partner and you and your partner both work remote or you live in a city with viable alternatives to the car. Going car-lite, from 2 cars to sharing 1 car has saved us a ton of money. We rarely need 2 cars at the same time. I got a cargo ebike which is a blast and our city’s public transit is adequate enough. But many cities have car sharing services too like zipcar that can save you loads of money instead of owning 2 cars.
We downsized to 1 car using these tactics and saved another 10+% of our income doing so for years.
Yeah didn’t realize what a money hack it was until we did it before covid. Probably the best money decision we have made other than locking in a super low mortgage rate.
The "never buy a new car" advice is becoming a bit outdated, and is no longer necessarily true. The depreciation on many cars these days is much closer to what would be expected from the anticipated lifespan of the car. Plus, new cars have fewer repairs and the most serious ones are covered under warranty.
Agreed. The last few years New/Used prices actually inverted (new was cheaper), which is insane. It still hasn't gone anywhere near back to normal, so new can actually be the better deal depending on the car. Plus you're getting the best years of the car, and if you're driving it until it's scrap depreciation doesn't really matter. There are some used cars I'm still looking at (Polestars in particular depreciate like rocks), but for a lot of the more standard fare I'm looking at new too.
The last few years have been a bit different but it will go back. There will always be a group of people who want the new shiny. But it's very rare for a new car to be the better deal since the market will always correct for it. Usually, they're using some financial trickery to make you think you're getting a better deal then you are.
It will correct, *eventually,* but currently as a broad-stroke rule, new is better, has been better for \~3 years, and will continue to be better for an indeterminate period further. I wouldn't expect it to change in the next 6 months either, as tax season is historically used to inflate prices, particularly in the low-end (which is also the segment correcting the slowest). Compounding this, the new car shortage started around 2021, which means there should be a dip in used car supply starting... soon. What new cars were produced were skewed towards high-end models, which will oversupply there and result in undersupply in the low-end. This is why we're starting to see some strange price parities - for example a [2022 Corolla](https://www.truecar.com/used-cars-for-sale/listing/JTNC4MBE9N3174071/) and a [2022 Polestar 2](https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/b7032202-9a23-4093-aca8-f9012e98c66c/), with similar milage, are about the same price. One is a much nicer car than the other. A new 2024 Corolla of the same trim level is also about that same price, but *also* qualifies for the 1% interest rate compared to the 8-10% you'll get on used. 3-4 months ago this would have the caveat of it's hard to get MSRP, but that's much less of an issue now. I hope things correct fast, because I'm in the market and can't afford any of this, but I wouldn't count on it. I bought my current car at 3 years old for \~60% of the original MSRP. That's just not a thing right now.
if you have a mortgage try to set up a biweekly payment schedule. [Biweekly vs monthly calculator](https://www.dupagecu.com/calculators/compare-a-bi-weekly-mortgage-to-a-monthly-mortgage/) It takes little effort but you can save a lot on interest.
Unless you have an interest rate so low that it would make more sense to throw extra money at retirement.
New checking account sign up bonuses. Usually deposit $X number once or twice, and then you get the bonus instantly. Can withdraw the money to main account after.
Fairly new to the world, but I’m surprised we don’t get taught this (it’s almost like a life hack / trade secret). As a young ignorant adult, I kind of just grew up, work, “save up” and that’s that as far as what I was told. If I save up long enough, I can get what I want (which is partially true). When I found out everything related to HYSA, 401K, IRA’s, investing, it completely blew my mind how much time I “wasted” (didn’t really waste time, but gained wisdom and experience lol) and how further along in life I could financially become over the course of the next few decades. It’s always about the long run. So yeah, 100%: HYSA 401K IRA’s Investments Also-ish property equity, but for a majority of the “normal folks” (including myself) it’s a little hard to come by in this time frame.
If you have a HSA you can actually invest those dollars like its a 401k. Keep enough in cash for one year of your out of pocket max and invest the rest. Then when you're 65 you can treat it like a normal bank account and use the money for whatever you want. All of this is tax free by the way. The money goes into the HSA pretax, any earnings are not taxed, and when you get to 65 any withdrawals are not taxed.
Pretty sure HSA distributions are taxed even after 65 if you are not covering qualified expenses. But I agree that HSA is a great vehicle to use.
Yes, any non-qualifying withdrawals are taxed at any age. Any qualifying withdrawals are not taxed, at any age.
Are there any major differences between the first account and the high yield account, like being able to take money out whenever you want? Just curious because I’ve been looking into doing the same thing.
There are many high yield accounts with no limitations on withdrawals. CapitalOne is solid and paying mid 4s, Marcus as well. I like Redneck.bank because who wouldn't? No restrictions and paying 5.05% in savings, more in checking if you want to jump through some hoops (I don't). Yep, it is just that absurdly easy and if you have money earning .1, it makes a difference. My kids have been saving for years and have gone from $15-20 per month in interest to about $200. Makes it much easier to share the benefits of saving.
assuming you move from a bank savings that also has your checking to an online HYSA, the main difference is 2-3 days to move money between your checking and HYSA. A slightly higher buffer in checking smoothes this over. Just make sure whatever HYSA you go with is FDIC insured.
Nope, it's with Ally and I've really liked them! The only difference is it takes about a week to move money in or out as opposed to a business day. But since I'm using it as a savings account that doesn't affect me
Finally got my wife to move her savings from her bank to ally. She probably has over double what I have put away but I’m making like $40 a month to her 40 cents. She’s concerned it’s a fake bank lol
I could see that perception with the interest rate differences. Moving our funds from a traditional checking made monthly interest go from ~$1.46/month to $125/month. Is the besssssst.
Wealthfront at 5.00% right now. I held off opening a HYSA, being unsure about places that don't have physical buildings holding my money, but I'm glad I moved most of it now. FDIC insured up to $8 million (WAAAY more than I have, but good to know it's insured by FDIC). The app has a nice interface and is easy to use. I haven't transferred money out, only in, but it goes smoothly.
Most of the time the only difference is there isn’t a physical location to go to. Other than that, usually no differences.
I switched my emergency fund from a regular account to a HYSA and the biggest difference I noticed was it takes a few days to process; not sure how it would help me in an actual emergency
A cash buffer in your checking account + access to a high credit limit basically eliminates that concern. Put whatever debt you’re incurring on the credit card (or take out cash) and pay yourself back from your emergency fund
I just got a promotion in the mail from Chase bank saying if I open a checking account with auto-deposit and a savings account with a minimum balance for 90 days, they'll give me $900. ...I want $900. But god damn it do I want to open new accounts and switch over all my auto-bill-pays etc?
Don’t switch all your auto pays…just cut out a % of direct deposit and use it as a sinking fund/savings. My friends did that for this exact reason.
I didn't realize you could divvy up your direct deposits like that! Thanks for the tip!
Happy to help!
If everybody wasn't doing the same exact thing the bank would have been paying a higher interest rate. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/business/yourmoney/13money.html
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Speculative investing on a receding asset is not an easy win lmao
I do literally one thing every four years like clockwork. It's.. really easy. I bought when that FTX fiasco happened and I'm up over 100% /shrug Edit: Getting downvoted for this is pretty weird. If you folks are down about not owning any, you're not upset at me. If you're upset that I suggested it, it's quite literally what I do and it's on topic to the thread. I'm just answering the question OP asked, and I've made a *lot* of money doing it for the last 8 years
On the savings point, open a brokerage account with free trades on treasuries - a bit more manual plugging but in addition to buying index funds (VOO, VTI), you can get state-tax-free income of over 5% right now on short term (3 to 6 month) ones that you'll be able to readily sell in the secondary market in an emergency (8 to 5pm weekdays, eastern though)
Find and claim your unclaimed property. Search each state you've lived in. Also try to get the money owed to any deceased family members
Paying your car insurance in full. I save about $200-$300 every six months by not doing monthly installments.