18 Ways to Maximize Your Wealth in 2018

Some of these strategies might be tough, but none will require a major life change. While you are certainly free to give up your daily trip to Starbucks ($3.65 for a grande latte x 365=$1,332.25), we weren’t going to suggest it. (Although it doesn’t seem like a bad idea…)

1. Cut the cord

Millions of Americans have dropped cable—and for a good reason. The average bill hit $103 a month last year, according to the Leichtman Research Group. But with so many streaming options now, who needs cable? A comprehensive package would include HBO Now, Netflix, Hulu, and CBS All Access, totaling around $37 a month, or $444 a year, for a savings of almost $800.

2. Switch your cell phone plan

The average family of four’s cell phone bill adds up to about $2,880 a year. But there are ways to get around that. Sprint’s prepaid family plan is around $1300 and seems like a great option.

3. Switch credit cards

The average household with credit card debt pays $1,292 in interest a year, according to NerdWallet. A balance transfer can give you a year of 0% APR to help you catch up.

4. Boost your credit score

Doing it in a year won’t be easy, but you can get there, says Greg McBride, chief ­financial analyst. Paying your bills on time is the first step. Also focus on keeping your “credit utilization ratio”—the amount of your credit limit you use—below 10%. Your new, higher credit score could shave as much as one percentage point off your mortgage rate in today’s market, says McBride. That will save you $1,000 a year on a $150,000 home loan.

5. Refinance student loans

On a $90,000 parent PLUS loan with a 6.6% ­interest rate, you’re shelling out $1,025 a month on a standard repayment plan. Re­finance to a private loan at 4.5% and you could save $93 a month.

6. Consider a cheaper gym

The average membership costs $50 a month—but with Planet Fitness and others, you could pay as little as $10 a month. Sure you won’t have two pools and a sauna room, but you can still get a decent workout in.

7. Eat at home

Sure, going out to eat can be fast and delicious, but eating at home has its pros. For example, you’ll save money AND have leftovers you can eat for lunch the next day. And the better you get at cooking, the less you’ll care about not going out to eat. There are a ton of easy recipes online that taste just as good as those overpriced chain restaurants.

8. Buy the store brand

The typical family of four with school-age children spends $1,054 a month on food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On average, store brands are 30% to 40% cheaper than brand name ones, says food marketing analyst Phil Lempert. That means, over the course of a year, shaving $1,000 from your grocery bill should be well within reach. One tip: Compare ingredients and nutritional information on the packages.

9. Stop ordering alcohol when you eat out

The average menu price for an imported beer is $5. In other words, treating yourself and a date to two drinks with dinner once a week will cost you $1,040 a year. Skipping those drinks won’t just save you money, but also thousands of calories apiece.

10. Stop wasting food

The average American household throws out between $1,350 and $2,275 in food each year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. When you cook, save the leftovers. Even if it’s something you don’t really want to eat again, doesn’t a free meal sound better than paying for one?

11. Pack your lunch

People who buy lunch every weekday burn through serious cash—about $2,500 a year, if you spend $10 on an average meal. Mona Meighan, author of What Are You Doing for Lunch?, estimates that brown bagging can cut your costs by 80%. You don’t even have to go that far. Swap your $10 lunch-out habit for a meal from home that costs $4, Monday through Thursday, and you will save about $1,200.

12. Just say no to impulse buys

84% of us have bought something on a whim. Many of these purchases are $25 or less, but 54% of people say they have spent more than $100, and 20% more than $1,000, according to CreditCards.com. Set up a rule, say a 24 or 48 hour hold period, before you buy anything over a certain price threshold. We tend to provide a greater weight to current payoffs than future ones, so waiting 24 or 48 hours before making a bigger purchase is an excellent way to overcome our present bias. Instituting a holding period gives us time to think about the future and not impulsively react. With that extra time, we’ll be less likely to make the purchase.

13. Use Mint

You can’t save if you don’t know how you’re spending your money. “By seeing how much money is going in vs. going out, you will be able to make better buying decisions to help reach your financial goals,” says Andrea Woroch, a consumer finance expert. Apps like Mint or PocketGuard help because they make it easy to see which needless purchases you can eliminate in the future. Most of the wiggle room will probably come from clothing, grocery, and entertainment spending.

14. Put savings on autopilot

With Digit, you select a goal and a time frame in which to accomplish it (ex: save $2,000 in the next year for a vacation), and the app saves small amounts of money for you. Digit has a monthly fee of $2.99 after a 100-day free trial, which is something to be aware of, but you can manage to save over $400 in just a few months, which is something you might not have done on your own. Plus, you get daily text messages with your bank balances and how far you’re progressing toward my goal.

15. Check your banking app more often

Research by economists at UCLA and USC found people who downloaded a financial app looked at their account 12 times each month, compared with going to the website twice a month. The results: Spending fell 16% in the four months after people loaded the app, led by less discretionary spending. Dining out expenses dropped by 19%, and grocery bills by 21%. Annual savings on the average grocery bill alone could net you over $880.

16. Make it fun

The 52 Week Money Challenge is simple: Save an extra dollar every week of the year—$1 the first week, $2 the second week, and so on, until you reach $52 saved in the last week of the year, for a total savings of $1,378. “So many of us don’t deal with money, because we have negative associations with it,” says Kristin Wong, author of the forthcoming book Get Money, who led a similar challenge for Lifehacker.com. “If you can make it fun and empowering to save money, you’re going to actually want to deal with it.”

17. Make it Fun Pt. 2

Try a “no spend” month, or a day each week, by picking a time in which you pay bills but buy nothing except the necessities (groceries, gas, etc.). It may seem difficult, but there are plenty of forums on the web for support—try Reddit’s 12-million-­subscriber-strong ­Personal Finance section, or NPR’s Your Money and Your Life Facebook group, where commenters update their “no spend” challenges daily. Small challenges lead to small wins, and it’s ­super empowering to see that you’ve actually saved some cash.

18. Get help from a pro

It’s never too early to talk to a professional for financial advice, regardless of your situation. Lucky for you, we’re here to help! Call or email us to schedule an appointment at your convenience.

Minimum thought. Maximum Wealth. (706)876-0844

maxwealth@wdouglasjones.com

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