Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#41

Post by charlesdm » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:39 PM UTC

drinchev wrote: post #15

My father always says : "saving money is the beginning of being poor". So I always try to save money by thinking how can I make more. These days money = time is a strong equation, so just don't loose your time and use it in a way to make money. Stop thinking about saving money and spend your thoughts on revenue stream. That's why I rarely use services like that and don't count the pennies ( I'm neither rich nor bragg…

Saving money is the beginning of being poor. Investing it, however, is not. You don't actually need a ton of capital to make decent income off of compound interest (capital gains), which is taxed at a lower tax rate (or not taxed at all in some countries). If your money is working for you, you shouldn't have to worry too much about saving on purchases.

That said, a lot of people are completely stupid with money. Some people will try to save money by cutting expenses everywhere and then, for example, proceed to overpay €10-20-50k on a house. Or not negotiate high random fees, ever.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#42

Post by sawthat » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:39 PM UTC

Don't use credit cards. I also recommend YNAB: https://www.youneedabudget.com

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#43

Post by paloaltokid » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:40 PM UTC

vemv wrote: post #30

There's https://digit.co : Every few days, Digit checks your spending habits and removes a few dollars from your checking account if you can afford it .

Just be careful! If you make a large deposit to cover an upcoming expense Digit can go crazy and pull too much money because it thinks you've had an influx of cash that it can squirrel away.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#44

Post by ap0 » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

tedmiston wrote: post #38

1. Fatwallet Until it was acquired a few months ago I was a longtime user of FatWallet to make a few percentage points back on the dollar at many stores. 2. Jet Anywhere Jet.com has an incredible cash back program called Jet Anywhere. While the number of stores is small, the percentages are very strong. For example, 20% back at Nike or Saks Fifth. What I'm getting the most out of though is plane tickets. Flight purch…

What card are you using with universal 2% cash back?

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#45

Post by kyleblarson » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

Zillow: use it to buy a house that's not in the Bay Area and move to a place with a reasonable cost of living.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#46

Post by paloaltokid » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:41 PM UTC

My strategy: * use mint.com for budgeting and expense tracking. * a budget line item is "savings". * set up an automated transfer from my direct deposit checking account to my savings account. * fire and forget.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#47

Post by jheriko » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:42 PM UTC

not spending. :P

its a shame banking services are still pretty archaic in their infrastructure - with secure access to user data through a good, secure, api, i'd love an app that would give me alarming notifications if i was spending money out of my account. :)

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#48

Post by ziggit » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:42 PM UTC

I like simply using the approach of pretending a portion of my income doesn't exist at all. I've got a Money Market account that I shuffle money over to automatically, and in a reasonable enough quantity that I don't have to run the risk of tapping into it.

I make a point to never look at my paychecks and never check the balance of the account, and instead simply deal with my post tax, post saving total.

It doesn't lend its self to an app, but it has served me well over the years.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#49

Post by elsewhen » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

patmcc wrote: post #23

drinchev wrote: post #15

My father always says : "saving money is the beginning of being poor". So I always try to save money by thinking how can I make more. These days money = time is a strong equation, so just don't loose your time and use it in a way to make money. Stop thinking about saving money and spend your thoughts on revenue stream. That's why I rarely use services like that and don't count the pennies ( I'm neither rich nor bragg…

Certainly it's good to increase your revenue, but saving money is often much more valuable; a dollar saved is $1.4 earned, assuming you live somewhere with a high marginal tax rate.

this is true, but the most you can save is 100%, but earning potential is generally unbounded. if you do not have marketable skills, then saving may be the only way to go, but if you can develop a valuable skillset, you can earn significantly more than you can save.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite way to save money?

#50

Post by sushid » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

sawthat wrote: post #42

Don't use credit cards. I also recommend YNAB: https://www.youneedabudget.com

Definitely use credit cards. If you know how to manage your finances (i.e. spend about 40-50% of what you make and save the rest), it shaves off 1~2% off of all your purchases.

This is even before mileage, hotel stay, etc. rewards come in.