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

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

#71

Post by tamana »

charlesdm wrote: post #41
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…

I see you are in Europe. In USA it's overpaying $100K-$500K for a house.

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

#72

Post by ehnto »

I often frame my not-spending as a positive revenue, which works really well for small items. Don't run your business this way though!

For example, I didn't buy a coffee on the way in, that is five dollars more at the end of the day than I would have had otherwise, so the question becomes "Do I want five dollars for doing nothing?"

I have some habitual spends like that which are much easier to cut down on if I think I frame it that way.

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

#73

Post by dhruvkar »

ap0 wrote: post #44
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?

Citi Double Back is one with 2% cash back. Also Chase AARP gives 3% on restaurants and gas (no cap), my two bigeest expenses outside of rent.

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

#74

Post by papacoen »

Personally, I save money by not buying stuff. Otherwise I tend to buy secondhand. Requires some sort of lifestyle to get this to work, since you don't always find stuff the moment you need it. Not needing/wanting to spend money, is also a (new) mindset; appreciating or even realizing/knowing what you already have. Yes, this is very close to tree-hugging-hippie-style-living, but what the heck :) Also: never, ever spend money you don't have. Don't borrow money. Maybe for a house, but never, ever for a car, t.v., laptop, whatever.

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

#76

Post by ddebernardy »

pramit wrote: post #75

This list of tips is useful: 35+ Most Important (And Useful) Things You Must Know About Money http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/money-35-most-importa...

> The stock market gives 10-11% returns on an annual basis.

Before 2000, maybe. Not so much since, especially if you took the two rides all the way down.

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

#77

Post by Gustomaximus »

For me a good way to save money is 'not have it' and not get used to spending it. Each pay cycle I move set %'s of my income into 5 separate accounts.

These are;

Daily spending, risky investments, safe investments, lifestyle savings (e.g. holidays or other luxury spends) and bills/fixed expenses.

Often I will dip into lifestyle savings if I overrun my daily spending.

The best simple extension would be to have something that tracked my current spend for a month against time left in a month for my 'daily spending' account. But not sure I'd want to give just anyone access to my bank details.

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

#78

Post by tonyedgecombe »

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…

If you are very poor then clearly doing something to increase your income makes a lot of sense.

For most people on HN I'm not so sure, most roles have a ceiling that is very difficult to get above without moving into upper management or starting your own business. The odds don't look so good then.

On the other hand having some FU money will improve your quality of life significantly. Just being able to say no to that morally questionable feature your boss is asking you to implement or turning down a weekends work when you want to go to a friends wedding has a strong impact on your well being.

Having savings and investments means having choices, having debts imprisons people.

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

#79

Post by tonyedgecombe »

cylinder wrote: post #70

I would love a Chrome extension that converts all dollar figures on the page into a the number of hours of work at my salary it would cost.

Something like this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/time-is-money/oopp...

Note I haven't used it.

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

#80

Post by kranner »

charlesdm wrote: post #52
patmcc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Whenever I've had cashflow problems in the past, for me, spending less was never the solution. Having a good idea (and thus, making more money) always was.

Extrapolating from the past doesn't always work. In this case maybe you are not accounting for future illness or burnout.
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