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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?

#171

Post by charlesdm »

scotu wrote: post #102
charlesdm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Investing is also not as easy as saving. How does someone goes from no-invesment-knowledge to not-loosing-money in investment (and possibly "decent income off of compound interest")? Just trusting the bank guy?

Rule 1: Never trust the bank guy. With the exception of perhaps private banking (though fees are high there), if those people really knew how to make money, they wouldn't be working at a (consumer) bank. They'd raise a $10-20-50m fund and make a killing for their clients and themselves. It's that simple.

Either you go with low fee index funds (i.e. Vanguard S&P500, which tracks the market and will require the least amount of effort) or you learn about investing by putting in the time to understand things properly (which might lead to higher returns but can take a lifetime).

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

#172

Post by scotu »

charlesdm wrote: post #171
scotu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investing is also not as easy as saving. How does someone goes from no-invesment-knowledge to not-loosing-money in investment (and possibly "decent income off of compound interest")? Just trusting the bank guy?

Rule 1: Never trust the bank guy. With the exception of perhaps private banking (though fees are high there), if those people really knew how to make money, they wouldn't be working at a (consumer) bank. They'd raise a $10-20-50m fund and make a killing for their clients and themselves. It's that simple. Either you go with low fee index funds (i.e. Vanguard S&P500, which tracks the market and will require the least a…

bank guy: I somehow suspected that

thanks

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

#173

Post by scotu »

markdog12 wrote: post #130
scotu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investing is also not as easy as saving. How does someone goes from no-invesment-knowledge to not-loosing-money in investment (and possibly "decent income off of compound interest")? Just trusting the bank guy?

This is a great book, Four Pillars of Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portf...

thanks

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

#174

Post by scotu »

lukego wrote: post #104
scotu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investing is also not as easy as saving. How does someone goes from no-invesment-knowledge to not-loosing-money in investment (and possibly "decent income off of compound interest")? Just trusting the bank guy?

You could consider the Bogleheads investing start-up kit: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investing_s...

thanks

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

#175

Post by Adeohluwa »

faebi wrote: post #84

For me the simplest solution is to have a second bank account I never take money from. Then every time I get my salary a certain amount gets moved to the savings account. I do not miss money I never really had. Additionally some days before my salary all my money above a certain threshold gets also moved to the savings account, so that I have the same money every month, even when I spent less. Also I have my I am poo…

this has been the most helpful for me so far.

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

#176

Post by sawthat »

tedmiston wrote: post #53
sawthat wrote: post #42

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

More precisely: Don't use credit cards to carry a balance. By not using credit cards, you're giving away 1–5% free reward money from cash back programs. Not to mention the additional purchase protection you receive from shoddy vendors, like bars padding tips.

Best way to not carry a balance is to not have a credit card. It's very easy to say "don't carry a balance" but most people do. When I used credit cards I often carried a balance, despite my best efforts. If you have the discipline to NEVER carry a balance, more power to you. But most people don't and the points just aren't worth it.

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

#177

Post by myroon5 »

mancerayder wrote: post #138
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…

The other one I like is, "You can always make money back, but time you can never get back." My dad said that, and he was poor for a period of time in his youth. He later was an entrepreneur (but not of the tech kind, and not of the rich kind, more the independent kind that had $0 and no job, and later a staff of around 20, in the span of a few years). I cannot relate to the extreme savings world that isn't necessary.…

Where can one find these free bank loans? Seems like a good opportunity.

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

#178

Post by tedmiston »

sawthat wrote: post #176
tedmiston wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More precisely: Don't use credit cards to carry a balance. By not using credit cards, you're giving away 1–5% free reward money from cash back programs. Not to mention the additional purchase protection you receive from shoddy vendors, like bars padding tips.

Best way to not carry a balance is to not have a credit card. It's very easy to say "don't carry a balance" but most people do. When I used credit cards I often carried a balance, despite my best efforts. If you have the discipline to NEVER carry a balance, more power to you. But most people don't and the points just aren't worth it.

That's fair.

I've never felt like it's taken much discipline for me personally, and I've never carried a balance on any credit card. I try to live far under my means and mostly just spend money on food, coffee, travel, and a laptop. Most of the rest of my "things" are hand-me-downs.

One "hack" that works for me is reviewing each transaction and paying the card in full every week. If I see it especially high one week then I spend more conservatively the next. I don't do any explicit budgeting, but being conscious of the big picture helps me.

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

#179

Post by Havoc »

tedmiston wrote: post #149
Havoc wrote: post #31

I like the CamelCamelCamel.com extension for amazon. It does something useful - shows me price history graphs so that I can see if that 40% discount is actually a discount or a sales tactic...and they also allow me to set alert for the stuff I buy in bulk but need regularly (toothpaste etc). The amazon prices seem to fluctuate enough to make this worthwhile.

Didn't Amazon block CCC because of the price history graphs? I could have sworn they were all blank last I used it.

No just ebooks they can't track
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