[alexbookhyip]

Hey guys

I have been trying to find the best way to save money and wanted to know how and where you guys save your money.

I just got done paying off my student loan and I am proud to say I don't owe anything besides my car which I have 2 years left. I'm not in a hurry to pay off my car loan since I got such a good deal on it (2.99% APR) few years ago. Now that I can start saving, I have been putting money into my PayPal money market account where I am getting 5.02% APY return. Whenever I get my paycheck direct deposited into my account, I pay all my bills, credit card payments (in full), etc and whatever that is leftover goes into my money market account.

Is there a better way to save money? Where else can you save or invest your money to get a better return? I thought about investing in mutual funds but my friend told me I should save at least $10,000 before investing in a mutual fund. :'( Any ideas / suggestions? I would love to hear what you guys are doing with your money!

[chzvacmyye]

Stop eating. Food is a killer!

I'm saving a heap on work lunch by going into a grocery store and giving myself $15 in food to last me 4 days (work pays for lunch one day a week). Simple easy stuff to prepare at work. As I hate preparing at home.

Breakfast cereals cost a fortune. So I don't have breakfast. I'll have a coffee but that's about it. Good savings to be had skipping breakfast.

For dinner, cooking up a big serving of pasta to last two meals will give you a nice cheap dinner. Also bulk packs of meat or chicken.


Alcohol is an expensive habit. My friends don't drink much or don't drink at all, so that really helps... cause I sure can down a few when people around me are drinking.

Other than that, just don't buy heaps of rubbish. Also buy good products that will last you for years.

Then the typical invest etc.

[M_Marked]

cook for yourself

[Timoxari]

I disagree with Little_Lenny. Nutrious food is the last thing I would skip on. I'd prefer to cut off my television and cell phone service. I can tell a difference in my attitude and over all well being when I've had fresh fruits and veggies one week compared to instant noodles the next.

Buy a cheaper car next time. For entertainment just check out books and DVDs from your library. If your investments are long term, invest in stocks.

Give me two weeks worth of expenditures and I'll tell you how to cut down on things.

[chzvacmyye]

I disagree with Little_Lenny. Nutrious food is the last thing I would skip on. I'd prefer to cut off my television and cell phone service. I can tell a difference in my attitude and over all well being when I've had fresh fruits and veggies one week compared to instant noodles the next.

Buy a cheaper car next time. For entertainment just check out books and DVDs from your library. If your investments are long term, invest in stocks.

Give me two weeks worth of expenditures and I'll tell you how to cut down on things.

I didn't say to not by nutritious food. You can still eat healthier and and eat cheap... cheaper and healthier than take away. You can have a nice healthy breakfast alright lunch and a small dinner. If you are health and weight conscious then that's the order you're meant to eat.

It's like you're thinking that I'm telling everyone to throw away their health for a cell phone or Internet connection. That is simply not the case. I certainly don't... work pays for my cellphone.

As for owning a car or buying most things... Don't take a loan or use credit! Unless it's for a business or house, Where you make money off the loan. Only buy what you can pay in cash straight up.

[Bletlemof]

yea foods the best way find something cheap to make/eat that you like.

all the food i eat is probably considered cheap but i like it

beans on toast , jacket potatoes etc

[Timoxari]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but pasta isn't healthy. Neither is skipping a meal. I also don't know where you shop, but where I shop I'll spend 15 dollars on fruits and veggies for one week, let alone meat, bread, milk, etc.

[heltduell]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but pasta isn't healthy.

Actually it is a very good healthy food.

As it is easy to prepare, its full of slow release carbohydrates (which release energy into the body over several hours) and its low calorie, so you can eat it in quite large portions and not worry about putting on weight.

If you choose the brown stuff too, its full of fibre, so it provides roughage which keeps your bowels healthy and keeps you "regular".

http://www.pasta.go.it/values.htm

[chzvacmyye]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but pasta isn't healthy. Neither is skipping a meal. I also don't know where you shop, but where I shop I'll spend 15 dollars on fruits and veggies for one week, let alone meat, bread, milk, etc.

Did you just not get what I was saying? [rolleyes]

YOU CAN EAT HEALTHY AND CHEAP (cheaper than take away)... I didn't say pasta and skipping breakfast is healthy. Please quote me where it says I find skipping meals is healthy. I said it was cheap to skip breakfast (obviously because you don't spend anything) but I never said it was healthy.

[oplapofffe]

I would not use the PayPal money market account because it's not FDIC insured. Although highly unlikely, if PayPal goes bust it's your money that'll be used to pay its creditors. Additionally, if you're involved in a PayPal transaction where the other party files a complaint, PayPal will tie up your money for as long as it sees fit. PayPal is not a bank. Don't treat it like one.

Also don't listen to your friend. Some mutual funds do indeed have minimum contributions but most do not. There's no reason why you can't buy into a fund with $500 or $1000.

I have a checking account where I keep a few months worth of cash. It earns me nothing but having a modest sum there means that I am never at a loss for money and that I can handle emergencies without incurring debt. People with cash flow problems are people who get into debt. Of course, there's no point in investing money at 5% if you're paying 18% on your credit card. Your 2.99 car loan's fine though - it's super cheap.

In addition to my checking account, I have a savings account where I keep a "back up" cash hoard at a very reasonable interest rate. I have never had to withdraw money from it for an emergency, but if I was suddenly in a pinch I could instantly have what I need.

When my savings account becomes a little too big, I typically take money out and use it to purchase other investments. The most basic are term deposits (in Canada, they're called GICs), which offer higher interest rates than my savings account and complete security of returns. Since the yield curve is pretty flat now, long term certificates aren't exactly worth it, but I buy my GICs depending on the direction I think interest rates may travel and the investment account that I'm assigning the money to. I typically pick longer term, non-redeemable GICs for my RRSP account (like an IRA) and shorter-term, redeemable GICs (at lower interest rates) for taxable accounts.

Cash and cash-equivalents currently account for around 55% of my assets. I think that stocks are a little pricey so I'm increasing the ratio of cash I hold.

The remainder of my assets are in mutual funds and individual equities. My bank happens to offer a single very nice mutual fund with an acceptable MER, excellent performance and a regular dividend payment, which I've instructed them to re-invest. This way my mutual fund provides me with the benefits of compound interest and offers the possibility of capital gains. More about mutual funds later.

I also pick my own individual equities and how I administer them varies. Since I'm Canadian, my options aren't as open as yours. I tend to buy companies that I feel are undervalued or underappreciated by the broader market and I tend to hold for the long term. In the case of companies that I am really comfortable owning and that offer excellent dividends, I use DRiPs. It's a hassle for me to buy DRiPs for American companies, because I'm in Canada, but as an American you absolutely need to look into this.

Most large American companies (and some large Canadian companies) offer them and they are almost totally free! The minimum investments are typically also VERY low. The only caveat is that some companies demand that you own at least one share in your own name before you can sign up. The cost of setting up an account? Zero dollars. The cost of buying additional shares? Zero dollars. The cost of reinvesting shares? Take a guess. You only ever pay when you want to sell, which is the sort of thing you really shouldn't be doing a lot of.

If you are confident in a company's long term prospects, then buying its shares via a DRiP is a superb way to invest for free, to invest in small quantities without worrying about commission fees and to reinvest your dividend payments. DRiPs let you buy fractional shares so you can experience the long-term benefits of compounding interest even if your dividend payments don't let you buy whole shares. It's perfect for long-term investments of almost any size. The rub is that you need to sign up with each company individually. Check out www.computershare.com for more - they administer DRiPs for more companies than you knew existed.

The majority of my equities are not held in DRiPs. In this case, I use a discount online broker. As a rule, you want to keep your commissions below 2%. Well below 2% if you can, so investing in individual equities via a broker is the sort of thing that you'll want to have a little money on hand for. You really wouldn't want to be investing a couple hundred bucks at a time with $10 commission each time. It's obscene. It gobbles away at your potential gains.

This is partly why mutual funds were created and this is why many companies offer DRiPs. 2% applies to mutual funds too, of course. Many companies up-sell their shitty mutual funds as godsent and charge MERs of 2, 3 or even more percent. It's baloney. Most of them can't outperform a simple, low-cost index fund (Partly because their self-important managers pay themselves very generously for managing your money so poorly and partly because they rarely take long-term approaches to investing - they do too much buying and selling so they pay high commissions.) so avoid high-price mutual funds that make foolish claims. You can easily find index funds under one percent and you can expect good returns over the long run (decades, not years) if you reinvest your dividends, buy on dips and hold on for the long haul. Picking mutual funds other than index funds isn't as quite as onerous a task as picking individual stocks, but it's not the sort of thing you can be nonchalant about. It takes nearly as much research. Index funds really are the simplest, safest and often best performing way to access the stock market.

The other reason that mutual funds were created is because picking individual stocks isn't trivial. It's not as hard as mutual fund companies would have you believe but it does take patience, experience, self-control and a nose for sniffing out bull. If you want to learn more, there are plenty of quality books out there to have a look at. Read The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham even if you never intend to pick your own individual equities.

[BruceCroucshs]

Well I currently have most of money in a savings account similar to yours but I also put quite a bit of money in Gold and silver which has served me quite well gaining about 50% over the last few years, once I've migrated and settled down I will start investing a lot more of that cash, my wife also has money in several 'funds'. As for cutting back on food, never! Sure make your own lunch if you want but for me food is one of my favorite luxuries and I don't mind that a lot of my income goes on that esp. since I've given up drink, drugs and smoking since my body/organs could take much more damage.

[polleroy]

Always think about the difference of "need to have" and "nice to have" items.

[Susanleech]

property is where the money is in the uk atm, don't know about the states. saving your money in the bank and getting 5% is for chumps.

a friend of mine has gone from owning his own house to being worth £5 million in 5 year, he met his target of 1 million/year only on average after his first year he was only worth 500k pfftt..

he has worked quite hard but then again it was only five years!

other than that get yourself a job as a merchant banker

no need to save money then [thumbup]

[AricGoffgog]

i dont earn enough to really save. so the only way i save is by just not spending, and trying to see my current account balance go up not down.

[Anatolii]

i dont earn enough to really save. so the only way i save is by just not spending.

Thats the way I look at it.

[Timoxari]

Here's where I am getting confused. You said.

Stop eating. Food is a killer!

I'm saving a heap on work lunch by going into a grocery store and giving myself $15 in food to last me 4 days (work pays for lunch one day a week). Simple easy stuff to prepare at work. As I hate preparing at home.

Breakfast cereals cost a fortune. So I don't have breakfast. I'll have a coffee but that's about it. Good savings to be had skipping breakfast.

For dinner, cooking up a big serving of pasta to last two meals will give you a nice cheap dinner. Also bulk packs of meat or chicken.


Alcohol is an expensive habit. My friends don't drink much or don't drink at all, so that really helps... cause I sure can down a few when people around me are drinking.

Other than that, just don't buy heaps of rubbish. Also buy good products that will last you for years.

Then the typical invest etc.

Those were your ways of saving money. Those things are not healthy to do so I replied with this.

I disagree with Little_Lenny. Nutrious food is the last thing I would skip on. I'd prefer to cut off my television and cell phone service. I can tell a difference in my attitude and over all well being when I've had fresh fruits and veggies one week compared to instant noodles the next.

Buy a cheaper car next time. For entertainment just check out books and DVDs from your library. If your investments are long term, invest in stocks.

Give me two weeks worth of expenditures and I'll tell you how to cut down on things.

Now you defend yourself by claiming you didn't say to not buy breakfast or cheap unhealthy food (cheap unhealthy food is the simple easy stuff you prepare at work).

I didn't say to not by nutritious food. You can still eat healthier and and eat cheap... cheaper and healthier than take away. You can have a nice healthy breakfast alright lunch and a small dinner. If you are health and weight conscious then that's the order you're meant to eat.

It's like you're thinking that I'm telling everyone to throw away their health for a cell phone or Internet connection. That is simply not the case. I certainly don't... work pays for my cellphone.

As for owning a car or buying most things... Don't take a loan or use credit! Unless it's for a business or house, Where you make money off the loan. Only buy what you can pay in cash straight up.

I'm confused, didn't you originally say that skipping out on breakfast is a good way of saving money. That's one thing I said was unhealthy. Now you are saying it's cool to eat breakfast.

Then I respond with eating healthy cost more than 15 dollars for 4 days.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but pasta isn't healthy. Neither is skipping a meal. I also don't know where you shop, but where I shop I'll spend 15 dollars on fruits and veggies for one week, let alone meat, bread, milk, etc.

Did you just not get what I was saying? [rolleyes]

YOU CAN EAT HEALTHY AND CHEAP (cheaper than take away)... I didn't say pasta and skipping breakfast is healthy. Please quote me where it says I find skipping meals is healthy. I said it was cheap to skip breakfast (obviously because you don't spend anything) but I never said it was healthy.

You indirectly said skipping a meal and eating lots of pasta is healthy when you said that's what you did. When you said you did that and I replied I wouldn't because it isn't healthy, you said you never said to do anything that isn't healthy. So when you say that you can save money by skipping a meal and then say you haven't given any advice that advocates an unhealthy practice, you are saying that skipping a meal isn't unhealthy.

Actually it is a very good healthy food.

As it is easy to prepare, its full of slow release carbohydrates (which release energy into the body over several hours) and its low calorie, so you can eat it in quite large portions and not worry about putting on weight.

If you choose the brown stuff too, its full of fibre, so it provides roughage which keeps your bowels healthy and keeps you "regular".

http://www.pasta.go.it/values.htm

Ewwww, you actually eat whole wheat pasta? And pasta is juat about only good for long term energy while doing cardiovascular activities. It's lacking, typically even with homemade sauces, the real vitamins and minerals the body needs and almost always only gets from fresh fruits and veggies. Every body needs fresh fruits and veggies, and fat! And those things aren't nearly as cheap as pasta!

[UitEz0Qo]

#1 - I buy cheap diet soda in 24 packs. The water at work tastes like urine, so I'm stuck drinking whatever I can get out of a can/bottle.

#2 - Cheap lunch. If I don't bring my lunch, I go to burger king/mcd's/wendys. 3 dollar menu items + whatever drink I brought from home. Making a $3.50 meal.

#3 - Cheap supper. I buy in bulk from sams club. $15 for a 5lb box of chicken tenders. 3 tenders, 3 tortilla chells, and some BBQ sauce + cheese. Yum.

So it may not be healthy, but it costs more to eat healthy than it does to eat a McFatburger with some McFatsticks. I'd go to subway, but they don't take any form of plastic. Wtf? Even the lil mom&pop places I've been to take visa. Stupid subway. Sub of the day is an excellent deal. Its like ... $2.70 for a 6 inch. That + some crystal light is yummy.

[polleroy]

[quote=RainWind;465017So it may not be healthy, but it costs more to eat healthy than it does to eat a McFatburger with some McFatsticks. [/quote]
sad, but true in many countries

[Timoxari]

sad, but true in many countries

Not really. What's the cost of a potatoe, banana, carrot, water, and peanutbutter and jelly sandwich where you live?

[Idorsearogele]

NEVER EVER EVER use paypal as a finantial institution..they are NOT covered by fedral laws..