This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Navy Federal Credit Union for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
Making money and paying bills is hard, which is why these easy ways to save money are a great way to hold onto as many of your hard-earned dollars as you can! Whether you’re in debt or planning for an early retirement, there are plenty of ways to trim expenses without changing your entire lifestyle.
Once you see your debt dwindling or your savings growing, you might be inspired to make other changes. But the goal of this post is to make saving money as easy as possible so you can start right away.
Easy Ways to Save Money When You’re in Debt
Avoid late fees with automatic bill pay. When you’re in debt, you start to dread opening and looking at bills. You also put off paying them as long as possible because you don’t want to part with those dollars that are in high demand.
Unfortunately, this can lead to a habit of late payments which increases your financial burden and hurts your credit. Set up automatic payments for your essential bills like utilities. Not only will you avoid late fees, you’ll avoid the fees many utilities charge to restore service if they had to disconnect you for non-payment.
You can set up automatic payments directly with the company, but check with your bank to see if they have a bill pay option so you can track everything in one place. Many banks and credit unions, like Navy Federal Credit Union, provide this service.
Negotiate a lower interest rate. One phone call can save you hundreds of dollars a year (depending on how much money you owe). Let your credit card company know you are trying to pay down your debt and ask to see if they have lower-interest options for you.
Consider moving your balance to a lower-interest card. Even if your credit card company is willing to reduce your interest rate, you might be able to save even more money by transferring your balance to a new card.
Search for a special credit card balance transfer offer like this 0% Balance Transfer Offer from Navy Federal Credit Union. Don’t move balances too often, since that can hurt your credit. Also, make sure to ask about balance transfer fees and be clear on what the interest rate will be AFTER the introductory period.
Look for low-cost alternatives to items and services you pay for. Unless you spend time regularly reviewing your spending, you might be surprised at how much money flows out of your accounts each month to things you don’t even think about (e.g. Netflix, Spotify, software, phone, and cable).
Check out these tips for saving money on mindless subscriptions. You’ll find several easy ways to save money on those automatic, regular expenses.
Easy Ways to Save Money For Your Future
Put your savings on autopilot. If you find that you tend to spend your monthly surplus, rather than save it, make setting it aside automatic. Set up an automatic transfer to your savings account every pay period or once a month so that the money goes to savings before you get the chance to spend it on something frivolous.
Earn more on your savings. If you have a healthy balance in your savings account, you could save a lot more with minimum effort simply by looking into savings specials. An extra 1 or 2 percent interest can make a big difference over time!
Don’t shy away from investing. Investing in the stock market is really intimidating to a lot of people. There’s so much information and things change quickly.
Look for programs for beginners like this EasyStart Investor Tool. You don’t have to be a financial wizard to use it and it includes tons of resources to help you learn gradually.
More Money Saving Tips
After you’ve tried these easy ways to save money and you realize how simple it is to make positive financial changes, you might want to try some of these other ideas: