Millennials and their "money saving tips"

[PanthersATL]

The Dave Ramsay concepts are common sense, it just takes dedication.

"Pay yourself first"
"You gotta either increase your income or decrease your spending. Or both"

For "pay yourself first", it's the "don't buy a starbucks coffee every day" that seems to get people in a tizzy. DON'T TELL ME NOT TO TREAT MYSELF!

Nobody said not to treat yourself. What they're saying is to take that $5 daily and put it away for later.

$5/day.
That's just $25/week.

So setup an auto-draft from your checking account to your savings account of $25/week.   

Then, if you still want that Starbucks coffee, go ahead and buy it from your checking account.  As long as you don't touch your savings account (unless an emergency comes up, of course), then over time, you'll still be setting aside $1200 a year.

Get a raise? Then take one half of your increase in weekly take home pay and add it to your weekly auto-draft for safe keeping.    

Eventually you'll find you have $5,000 in savings. Then hopefully $10,000. Then it'll keep rolling, building that safety cushion.

 

[Arroz con Panther]

20 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

Eventually you'll find you have $5,000 in savings. Then hopefully $10,000. Then it'll keep rolling, building that safety cushion.

 

Then, take whatever you wouldn't need to survive for 6 months and invest. While I do have a "play money" investment account that I manage, I also use Fidelity's GO Robo Advisor to manage an account.

I have a 401K through them, two Roth IRAs (one for my wife, one for me), a joint investment account, and my fun account. All but my fun account are ran by their Robo advisor. Under $10k in an account is free, $10-50k is $3/month, and anything over $50k is 0.35%/year. You'll get more return having most of your money in an investment account over what a savings account can offer.

[PanthersATL]

3 hours ago, Arroz con Panther said:

Then, take whatever you wouldn't need to survive for 6 months...

which comes back to Dave Ramsay's advice --- coming up with what your monthly budget happens to be.

Break out necessities vs nice-to-haves, and run the numbers.  What can you reasonable cut back on? 

Make a spreadsheet and (at a minimum) include these items:  Rent/Mortgage + car/transport costs + insurance + heat + electric + water + garbage + Internet connectivity + basic food + basic toiletry/household supplies.    don't forget other monthly debt payments.

You may be surprised at how much just the basics run you, before you get to the nice-to-haves.

Whatever those basics are? Make sure that you got at least a 6 month cushion to support those. Everything else is gravy

[LinvilleGorge]

Shiiiiiiii... I have an 800+ credit score and money is practically free right now. Take all that old "pay cash for everything and finance as little as you can" advice and throw it out the window in recent years. You can get better return on that cash than you're gonna pay on interest. Strategic debt is not a bad thing at all as long as you have financial discipline.

[Ja Rhule]

36 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Shiiiiiiii... I have an 800+ credit score and money is practically free right now. Take all that old "pay cash for everything and finance as little as you can" advice and throw it out the window in recent years. You can get better return on that cash than you're gonna pay on interest. Strategic debt is not a bad thing at all as long as you have financial discipline.

Inflation plus garbage interest basically screams finance finance finance

[PanthersATL]

46 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

 Strategic debt is not a bad thing at all as long as you have financial discipline.

Yup.  But gotta start with the discipline first, though.

[LinvilleGorge]

50 minutes ago, PanthersATL said:

Yup.  But gotta start with the discipline first, though.

Without financial discipline you're fuged no matter what. That's why so many lottery winners go broke. Millions won't save you from sheer idiocy.

[thefuzz]

18 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Shiiiiiiii... I have an 800+ credit score and money is practically free right now. Take all that old "pay cash for everything and finance as little as you can" advice and throw it out the window in recent years. You can get better return on that cash than you're gonna pay on interest. Strategic debt is not a bad thing at all as long as you have financial discipline.

Even with skyrocketed costs of real estate, I'm hoping to stick some money there very soon.  At less than 3% interest, with long payback times, and inflation going haywire...it's a no brainer.

I don't even care if I pay 20% over what it should be, it's free money....as long as you can hold.

You have to be able to hold.

[thefuzz]

But, like said here, this isn't a game for financially feeble folks, you need to be setup well to make it work.

 

I would like to pay off my home, but that would be a massive mistake with interest rates where they are and the current inflation.  Time to take on some more debt....something I haven't said in 20 years.

[Marcarvim]

If we talk about money-saving tricks, we must first start with discipline. Not everybody can pass by Starbucks having the last five bucks in a pocket and not succumb to the temptation of having a coffee that he or she had every day for many years. One strategy is to find an activity that would take the least amount of your time and effort and pay the coffee money. That can be done using apps that give you money that you can use on your way to a coffee shop. And if you get the right app for you, you can also treat yourself with a donut!

[thefuzz]

10 minutes ago, Marcarvim said:

If we talk about money-saving tricks, we must first start with discipline. Not everybody can pass by Starbucks having the last five bucks in a pocket and not succumb to the temptation of having a coffee that he or she had every day for many years. One strategy is to find an activity that would take the least amount of your time and effort and pay the coffee money. That can be done using apps that give you money that you can use on your way to a coffee shop. And if you get the right app for you, you can also treat yourself with a donut!

I have to be honest, this behavior is something foreign to me.  Why spend the money just to spend it?

Starbucks isn't even good coffee, and if you get the whipped up stuff...I just can't imagine how bad that is for someone.

Make a pot in the morning, then drink water the rest of the day.  Total cost...about $1.00 per day for liquids.  If things are tight, the last place I'll drop money is in something that's bad for me, doesn't taste good, and I'm going to piss it out in 50 minutes.

I see this all the time with Amazon, online shopping, Insta (especially women), I just don't understand the "high" people get when spending money....just doesn't compute.

[Chimera]

How does coffee always get brought up when the topic is saving money?

People aren't broke because of coffee. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Chimera

[CRA]

12 minutes ago, Chimera said:

How does coffee always get brought up when the topic is saving money?

People aren't broke because of coffee. 

bottled water!!!!

[stirs]

18 minutes ago, Chimera said:

How does coffee always get brought up when the topic is saving money?

People aren't broke because of coffee. 

Lots of amped up folks though