Kris and I joined some friends last weekend for a 40th birthday celebration at Bluehour, a swanky Portland restaurant. While the other couples spent $150 to $250 for their meals, we escaped paying only $52, including tip. We hadn’t planned to do this, but our unintentional parsimony taught us a few ways to save the … [Read more…]
Consider this common scenario. You really like a house and decide to make an offer. After winning a bidding war and perhaps paying a little more than you wanted, that dream house is yours.
Once it comes time to move in, you start to observe things you didn’t initially notice. Yep, it turns out you have an annoyingly loud neighbor that fires up his Harley every morning at 6am and idles it outside your window because he goes to great lengths to follow proper motorcycle care.
At night another nearby neighbor is blasting bad music and throwing little midweek parties that seem to go on until the wee hours of the night.
It also turns out that your commute to work, despite only being two miles, takes more than 30 minutes. It seemed alright when you visited the house in the middle of the day and on weekends. But it’s not so great anymore.
A new partnership between Realtor.com and Airbnb aims to help prospective home buyers avoid these types of scenarios.
They refer to them as “unknown factors” that are typically associated with moving to a new hood.
You might recall the age-old advice to visit the property you’re interested in buying during the day and late at night to see what the vibe is all about.
Is it calm during the day but loud at night? Are there questionable characters having around after hours? Is the street used as a thoroughfare for commuters? It’s hard to determine all of this when you’re being asked to make an offer right away.
And this can be especially difficult when buying a home in a new city or state that you’re less than familiar with. After all, a mere difference of a few city blocks can completely change the picture, nuances only a true local would be able to point out.
Don’t bank on your friendly real estate agent talking you out of a certain home because of these potential issues.
Now to that new solution. If you visit the Realtor website you will now be able to book accommodations nationwide on Airbnb in the neighborhood you’re considering.
The idea is to “live like a local” before actually moving in and getting stuck in a situation that is less than ideal.
When browsing available properties to buy you’ll see an option to “Airbnb before buying.”
This button will appear on the homepage and on listing detail pages (assuming Airbnb isn’t banned there).
You’ll be able to book a short stay in any type of property ranging from a single-family home to condo or loft in the neighborhood of your choice
There is also a Realtor.com “Try Before You Buy” sweepstakes going on at the moment whereby nine lucky winners will get a $500 one-time use gift code redeemable on airbnb.com.
If you don’t feel like spending money on Airbnb, simply follow that advice of checking out the neighborhood and surrounding areas at all times of day and night before buying a house.
Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com
While browsing the web the other day, an ad popped up on the screen for a company called EquityKey.
Normally I’m not too moved by banner ads, but this particular ad aligned nicely with the type of stuff I talk about on my blog.
In a nutshell, EquityKey allows homeowners to tap into the equity in their property without taking on a monthly payment.
It’s kind of like a reverse mortgage (for senior citizens), but works quite a bit differently because it’s tied to future home price appreciation.
I dug into the details on their website to see how the program actually works.
As noted, in exchange for a share of your home price appreciation, the company will provide you with an upfront lump sum payment.
This upfront payment is not a loan, meaning no interest is collected and no monthly payments are due, but it does need to be paid back when you sell.
Additionally, you will part with anywhere from 30% to 75% of future appreciation, so it can obviously cost you quite a bit to cash in today.
You can receive up to 17.25% of your property’s current value, so for a home valued at $500,000, the max you could receive would be $86,250.
With a typical home equity line of credit or second mortgage, you’d have to make a monthly payment on the loan balance each month. However, when it came time to sell your home, you’d keep all the equity less the outstanding loan(s).
With EquityKey, you avoid the monthly payments but part with appreciation, which is measured using the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
When you make an agreement to share your equity, EquityKey will take the designated index for your property location and use that value as the Beginning Index Value for the transaction.
Your home will also be appraised at the time of taking out the equity, and these two figures will determine how much appreciation EquityKey receives when you sell.
The example posted on their website features a San Diego property appraised at $750,000 with a Beginning Index Value of 113 in the year 2000, per S&P/Case-Shiller data.
When the hypothetical property was sold in 2012, the Ending Index Value was 160, representing a 42% increase.
EquityKey would receive whatever percentage of appreciation you allocated when you made the original agreement with them.
This is regardless of what you actually sell your house for. So you are basically incentivized to take care of your property so it fetches a good sales price, and doesn’t underperform the index.
Additionally, you are entitled to the equity beyond the index value of your home. In other words, if that hypothetical home in San Diego sold for $850,000 because of a hot real estate market and pristine upkeep and/or improvements, that $100,000 belongs to you.
However, if that same home were to sell for just $700,000, you’d still be on the hook for the $750,000 valuation. Clearly this could make selling a bit more difficult.
There’s also a pretty important caveat. If you sell, transfer, or change ownership in the first six years after your agreement with EquityKey, the so-called “Minimum Settlement Amount” will apply.
It’s a little unclear what this amount is, but I believe it’s the amount they originally paid you, plus a fee to cover origination and investment return if appreciation isn’t large enough to cover those costs.
At the end of the day, this sounds like a fairly expensive way to tap into your equity. Sure, you don’t have to make payments each month, but you also part with a good deal of your home price gains, which is one of the major benefits of owning a home.
In the illustration above, you’d get $68,999, but you’d have to pay that back and part with $144,073 in home price appreciation, which is 50% of the projected gain over 10 years.
So it might make better sense to just go with a HELOC or a standard cash-out refinance if you can handle the increase in monthly payments. The interest expense would likely be much lower than the appreciation given up.
This product could make sense for someone unable to pull equity via the traditional methods, or perhaps for someone lacking income to make monthly payments, assuming they really needed the money.
And I suppose a homeowner could “win” if their home value went down because EquityKey won’t take a cut if that’s the case, nor require repayment if the home value drops by more than the payout you originally received.
But the chances of that are probably slim, and you’d have to question why you would stay in a home if the value were destined to drop big time.
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Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com
The American housewife! Who has a more important or more responsible occupation? Wife, mother, laundress, counselor, maid, chef, purchasing agent. All of these are her duties at one time or another.
So begins Buying Food, a home economics film from 1950. Buying Food is fascinating not just for its shopping tips, but also for the inside look at a grocery store from 60 years ago. (Self-service grocery stores were introduced in 1916 and grew in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, but they were still relatively young in 1950.)
The condescending narrator e-nun-ci-ates his thesis:
If her income is limited — and most incomes are — it is her duty to be sure that what she has to spend buys the most in healthful, nutritious food for her family. Yes, she feels that she must buy wisely if she can. But what does this mean? What can she do to be sure that her money goes as far as possible?
Most of these tips will probably be quite familiar. But remember, this film is meant to educate future housewives: high school girls. Tips include:
But successful meals aren’t just about smart shopping. The film notes that cooking skills are important, too:
The cooking ability of the housewife [is] highly important. It doesn’t take much skill to make an excellent meal from an expensive t-bone steak. But the sign of an accomplished cook is an attractive and tasty dish made from less expensive meat: hamburger, frankfurters. Even a well-prepared, well-seasoned stew is a dish a housewife can be proud to set before her family.
Over the past few weeks, Kris and I have had fun browsing through the Public Domain media at the Internet Archive. There’s a massive collection of old instructional films (like this one) on a variety of subjects — dating, diet, driving — including many on personal finance. If you, too, enjoy films like this, I encourage you to spend some time exploring the site.
Note: This film was created for high school home economics classes of the 1950s. Yes, by modern standards it’s sexist, but if you can put your brain on “pause”, it’s a fun film, and an interesting glimpse at the past. Plus, most of the tips are still applicable today.
Source: getrichslowly.org
Are you looking to learn new ways to save money? Here are 37 hacks to save more money with real tips from real people.
In today’s article, I asked my readers and some of my personal finance expert friends for their best tips on how to save money.
I love finding out how people are saving money. There are so many creative and resourceful people, and learning how they are saving money can be very motivational.
Whether you want to save money each month because you are saving up for a big purchase, want to retire early, have recently lost your job, or simply realize you are spending too much – there are ideas in this article for everyone.
From getting free houseplants, cutting your own hair, DIYing things around your home, to analyzing your spending and negotiating your expenses, there are many ways that you can save money. Plus, you can see the exact ways that people and households save money, and how it has impacted them. The responses I collected are quite detailed, which I love.
The money saving ideas in this article are strategies that real people use – some seem very simple, while others take a more complex strategy – and you will read about it in their own words. And trust me, you will be surprised by some of the ideas in this round-up.
If you are looking to save money, I recommend looking over this list and finding a couple of ideas on this list that seem realistic to you.
Not every idea on this list is going to help you save thousands of dollars a month, but every little bit helps.
Plus, seeing the difference that one or two of these money-saving ideas makes on your budget may give you the motivation to try more and really change your life for the better. That might mean paying off your debt faster, improving your financial habits, helping you reach your dream sooner, and more.
Like I said, learning how creative others get when it comes to saving money is very motivational. And if you are already creative with how you save money, you’ll be reminded that what you are doing isn’t “weird” at all – finding ways to save money is completely normal.
You are going to love the hacks, rules, tips, tricks, and strategies that are on this list, and I can’t wait to hear how you are saving money each month.
You can read my past article 60+ Extreme Things People Have Done To Save Money for even more ways that people like you and me save money.
Related content:
Get free houseplants. “There are many ways to get houseplants that don’t require you to spend any money. Get in touch with a local Buy Nothing group on Facebook or join a local Facebook plant community. Both of these types of Facebook groups offer free plants and you get to meet houseplant hobbyists. You can find local plant groups on Facebook by searching ‘your city + houseplants’ and depending on how big your city is, a few groups should pop up. I’ve personally had a lot of success with plant swaps. Local plant groups often throw plant swap events where you can get plants for free. A plant swap is where you bring plants of your own in hopes to trade for plants you’ve been wanting. I recently went to a plant swap and brought 25 cuttings of different plants and traded every single one. I came home with a wagon full of cuttings and even full plants in pots. The best part was I didn’t have to spend any money.” – Alexis
Cut your own hair. “When I was in university, getting my hair done at the beauty salon was very expensive, and I didn’t have the budget to pay over $200 per month to get my hair done. So I decided to take action and started browsing ways to style my hair on YouTube. After countless hours of watching hair tutorials and trial by error, I taught myself how to style my own hair which is thick and curly. Now I can braid and do other complicated styles on my own, which has been a huge saving for me. People saw my hair and loved it and even asked me to style their own hair as well, it even became a small side hustle!” – Jodi Smith
Contribute to your savings regularly. “Have an investment savings plan that you contribute to monthly. This could be a 401k, an IRA, or even just a savings account that you designate for investment purposes. By having this plan in place and contributing to it regularly, you’ll be less likely to spend your money on unnecessary things because you’ll have specific goals in mind for your investments. I invest 40% of my monthly income into my investment accounts, which allows me to save money for retirement, accumulate wealth, and sleep well at night knowing that my future is taken care of.” – Amira Irfan
Invest in a high-quality capsule wardrobe to save money. “I used to be a sucker for buying a lot of clothes, handbags and accessories, which many ended up going to donation with tags on them. When I realized I was wasting thousands of dollars each year, I turned to building a capsule wardrobe with timeless and high-quality items. This helped me downsize my closet to 30-35 pieces that I actually love and wear. By investing in quality and going for neutral colors, I didn’t feel the urge to buy new (or trendy) clothes for 2-3 years unless I needed to replace something. Not only did I save $300 to $500 per month, but I also saved SO much time! I no longer scramble or stress about what to wear because almost every item – from casual and cozy to formal and classy – can be formed into many different outfits with the same piece of clothing. Not to mention, being intentional with your spending on clothes also reduces waste, which is environmentally-friendly!” – Ling
Don’t touch your savings account. “I have a savings account called ‘DON’T TOUCH 100K’ in which I save money every month. With this account, I have two rules. The first rule is not to withdraw cash from this account ever because if I do, I lose interest for the month. However, I’ve had some months where I had to dip into this account. So, I have a second rule that I must DOUBLE the amount I put back with my next paycheck. For example, if I withdraw $300, I have to put the $300 back plus an additional $300 as a ‘punishment.’ And I can honestly say that this has seriously prompted me to NOT touch my savings account.” – Kristin Brause
Wait for electronic devices to break down before buying new models. “It sounds simple enough, but it takes a lot of discipline. Every time a new model of phone, computer, or whatever comes out, there’s always some new must-have feature that has everyone drooling and throwing away good devices that still work fine. But if you can hang on a little longer, eventually, that device will break down somehow. And then, when you buy the new model, the old one is discounted because it’s not the latest hotness anymore. For example, I used a Samsung cellphone for nearly five years; the gadget saw the good and the bad years. I did not buy a new device until the phone battery wouldn’t last more than an hour after a full charge and the phone’s screen started to ink out. That’s how I roll! It’s not a flawless approach, but the savings count. You may only have to wait a few months/years on occasion.” – Olu Ojo
Save money by going to a medical school. “Have kids who need braces? Crooked teeth aren’t just a cosmetic issue. Tooth alignment is actually very important for overall health and long-lasting teeth. We’re saving about $2,000 per child by bringing our teens to an orthodontic school that accepts our dental insurance. After a modest down payment of a few hundred dollars, our monthly expense with the school is only about $50 per month per patient, interest-free. For big savings on other health needs for your family and even your pets, see if your community has schools such as medical schools, chiropractic schools, veterinary schools, homeopathic schools, massage schools, etc. You can even donate your body to science through a medical school which can save from $600 to $3,000 in cremation expenses.” – Eileen Hubler
We buy meat from a local farm and store it in our deep freeze. “Not only do we get better quality meat, but we are able to save money because of buying it in bulk. At our local farm, we are able to get our meat for about 1/2 the price of other grass-fed options we have available at our grocery store. You can even look into purchasing a whole cow or part of a cow for bigger savings.” – Erin Nutter
Start meal prepping. “Meal prepping can be a huge money saver – if you’re someone like me who hates making time to cook during the week, you probably end up spending a lot of money eating out or on pre-made grocery store food. Once I switched to meal prepping for the week (every Sunday), I started saving up to $50 a week on food and got the added bonus of incorporating a much healthier diet into my life.” – Clair
Grocery shop online. “I love online grocery shopping! It has saved our family of 3 so much money since we started. I don’t have to worry about impulse buying because I can take my time and add things to my cart only when I need them. And if I’m ever worried about going over budget, I can always look at my cart and remove items accordingly. I always hated wasting so much time at the store too so online grocery shopping has not only helped save money but has saved us valuable time each week too!” – Mia
Beginning of season sales/shopping. “Many people are aware of end-of-season sales/shopping, but I prefer beginning-of-season shopping. I shop before the season starts because most people are not thinking about that season at that time. I always buy things when they are not needed the most. The rule of when demand is high, prices are high is applied here too. For example, school supplies shopping can be done in early July instead of waiting till August. If you wait till August, you will miss out on the bargain on school supplies. The bargain sale month for school supplies is in July.” – Mina Miller
Make your own homemade cleaners. “Instead of using store-bought cleaners, I like to save money by making my own homemade cleaners. I can easily make my own in minutes and use ingredients I feel comfortable with for my family. For example, my countertop cleaner costs me less than $1 to make versus $5 or more for a countertop cleaner in the store ” – Julie Sellers
Cut unnecessary spending. “One of the things that has helped me save money (especially during those early debt payoff years) was cutting most unnecessary spending from my budget. Instead of telling myself that ‘I can’t afford that’ or ‘I can’t have any fun,’ I told myself ‘not yet.’ I knew that cutting back on restaurants and shopping was temporary, so it didn’t feel restrictive. I had a strong ‘why’ and built in rewards along the way (i.e buying a new outfit or going out to dinner for every $X amount saved). Keeping some fun spending in my budget and understanding why I was doing what I was doing helped me keep a positive mindset around my finances and it was sustainable for the long term. And at the end of the day, I realized that I didn’t really like shopping every weekend or going to the bar every Friday night with people I barely knew! I was able to save money and hone in on the things that are really worth spending on to me!” – Megan
Go to the library and start thrifting. “I actually have two money saving tips. For context, I homeschool my kids, and we read a LOT of books and play a LOT of board games. Tip 1: Use the library! Our library had a little blurb at the bottom of the receipt when we checked out, saying how much we saved by using our library. I think we easily saved $5,000 a year, if not more (I don’t remember exactly, but did enjoy checking out that number each time). Tip 2: Thrifting! Many of our board games I purchased from the thrift store, as well as really good sales (Miniature Market had a sale and I got a giant box of games; most were just $1), good deals on FB marketplace, even our Buy Nothing group. I have no idea how much this saved us, but probably thousands.” – Ashley Wright
Participate in a no-spend challenge. “One of the ways I save money is to regularly get my family to participate in no-spend challenges. Every time I feel we are falling behind, or we have unexpected expenses come up, my family tries to go a set amount of time without spending any money, other than bills and normal expenses. Sometimes it’s a week long, and sometimes it’s a 30 day challenge. This really helps us reset and get caught up.” – Kayla
Save money with your fish tank. ” I added snails and shrimp to my 20-gallon fish tank. I used to spend a good amount of money on products to keep my aquarium maintained so that my fish could thrive. After several months, I decided to add a few ghost shrimp and nerite snails. Since these help with algae control, debris removal, and getting rid of dead plant matter, I don’t need to clean my 20-gallon tank nearly as often as I used to. I now only spend half of the money I used to spend on aquarium-cleaning products, since these invertebrates do most of the work. Suffice to say that the community in my aquarium (and my wallet) is quite happy!” – Brett Schiller
Carpool. “My money saving tip is to try and carpool to save gas! I do it all the time with my husband, and it saves me gas. If you can get a group of coworkers in on it, you can save a lot of money! Each of you can take a week of driving and with 4 weeks in a month, you may only have to drive once a month, to the office.” – Rob Flood
Review your spending. “It’s much easier to save your hard earned money if you know where it’s going. About a year ago, I went through my credit card statements and found some charges for automatic payments for apps I wasn’t using. I stopped those payments and deleted the apps. I also started to write down, by hand, all of the transactions that came out of my bank each month. This really helps me see where I’m spending money, going out, household frivolous items, even how much I spend at the grocery store. When you take the time to sit and review your spending, it’s easy to cut back and put money into savings.” – Melody Kenoyer
Plan your meals around what you already have. “Instead of making a grocery list of the food you want each week, plan meals from sales and food that’s in the house. Stock up on your favorites when they’re on sale and at their lowest price. Also, look for additional markdowns on discontinued items or fresh foods like meat, dairy, and vegetables that are about to expire. This grocery savings strategy saves my family over $2,000 a year.” – Jennifer Messineo
Dine out less. “Dining out is insanely expensive and it’s hard not to eat out especially when you work at a demanding 9-5 or 9-9 job. A single meal can easily cost $12 to $20 depending on what you buy. And let’s not forget that when you go out with friends to eat at a decent restaurant, your bill could cost over $50 per person, including drinks, tax and tips. So you can imagine how crazy food costs when you don’t cook at home. Given how busy our lives are, this problem can be solved with meal prepping and building a system. To save money and eat healthier on a busy schedule, I have meal prepped for years to save at least $8,000 annually, which is almost $700 per month! You may think this number is out of the ordinary but I encourage you to go through your credit statements to see how much you’re really spending at restaurants. Those numbers may come out and bite you.” – Rui
Eat cereal and ramen. “Groceries and eating out can add up. When I was in college, I cut grocery costs to the bone by eating cereal for breakfast almost every day. A cereal box and a gallon of milk were only a few dollars each and could last all week. I was just as thrifty for lunch, mainly eating ramen and sandwiches. Bread, cold cuts, and cheese are inexpensive, but ramen is even cheaper. A case of ramen is several bucks and has 12 packages. You can add whatever you want to boost the nutrition and protein content.” – Prakash Kolli
Negotiate your monthly bills. “Most people don’t realize that they can negotiate with the providers of things such as cable, internet and cell service. It takes extra time on the phone, but it pays dividends! Asking to speak with the Customer Retention department at the beginning of the call will help to bypass the people who do not have the authority to give customized discounts, thus reducing the time on the call. I put the call on speaker and do computer work or other productive tasks during hold time. When I get to Customer Retention, I explain that I enjoy their service but will have to switch to another provider or eliminate the service entirely if we can’t negotiate a fee I can afford. Companies will do almost anything to keep a customer. It’s cheaper to keep a current customer than to constantly look for a new one. That’s just common sense. In the past, I have negotiated my bills with DirecTV by half, reminding them that I have been a loyal customer for years. After those two year promotion rates end and the bill goes up, the rates can be negotiated back down. They don’t want to lose the customer to another provider who has a two year reduced rate intro. Every time my new negotiated rate goes up, I call and renegotiate. Setting a reminder on my phone a couple of weeks before my current promotion ends helps me to never see a price hike after the fact. Also, many people qualify for a government credit on their cell phone and internet service when they use their household income to qualify. There are tables to check before going through the application process.” – Jamie Howell
Hide money from yourself. “My best money-saving tip is to hide money from yourself. I’m not talking about digging a hole in your backyard to bury money or anything. However, with technology today, it’s easy to immediately move your money into savings or investment accounts without ever seeing it in your primary account. We do this by setting up a separate bank account and having money from my paycheck deposited directly. This method is called the “pay yourself first” approach to budgeting. Out of sight, out of mind. You’ll be surprised how fast money can add up in a separate bank account when you aren’t tempted to spend it regularly.” – Mark
I buy my skincare and beauty products from private label manufacturers. “I’m also creating my own skincare brand using private label products. I have found that many skincare brands don’t actually formulate or make their own products. They buy white label/private label products from manufacturers and put their own branding and labels on the products. You can go direct to the manufacturer and purchase products for your own personal use. Each manufacturer will have its own minimum quantities, so search for one that will meet your needs. I have saved thousands of dollars by purchasing serums, eye creams, exfoliators, masks, and more, all with cosmeceutical-grade ingredients, from private label manufacturers.” – Kylie
Try housesitting to save money on travel. “There’s no question that one of the biggest expenses when traveling is accommodation. It can really make or break the decision of where you can afford to go – and that’s even if you avoid pricey hotels in the center of town. However, one great option that you may have heard of but not given much thought to is house sitting. It’s a fantastic way to stay somewhere for free that may not necessarily be in the most touristy spot in a city, so it gives you the chance to live like a local and save a ton of money. I tried this myself by staying in a beautiful place in Stavanger, Norway while pet sitting someone’s two cats. As a big cat fan, this hardly seemed like work, and it meant that after a long day of visiting the most spectacular fjords you’ll ever see, I got to go home to my (free!) accommodation and join the cats on the warm couch. There are some downsides to this, such as that you may need to factor in a slightly longer travel time to see the main sights, given that you likely won’t be right in the middle of the city. You also do have to be a bit flexible to match the homeowner’s schedule. However, overall, I would definitely recommend this as a way to see some new corners of the world while massively reducing your travel budget.” – Astrid Thornton
I stopped buying milk. “I stopped buying milk completely. There are a couple of reasons for this. I was having health problems at the time and was surprised to learn that conventional dairy had a lot of problems. Also, I discovered that many people with chronic illnesses or even hormonal problems get much better if they cut out dairy (or at least minimize it). Not all milk is bad, but the healthy kind was unavailable to me. (I basically would have had to raise a cow and milk it myself!) I still buy grass-fed butter to help my kids avoid cavities, but I have saved a lot over the years by not buying milk!” – Kristie
Throw away junk mail. “When retrieving the mail from the mailbox, do NOT walk back into the house with all of those catalogs, ads, and flyers to spend. Walk straight into your garage and proceed directly to your recycling bin and deposit all of the spending LURES into the bin.” – Donna Brophy
Only check out your Amazon cart once per week. “I am so guilty of making MULTIPLE Amazon purchases throughout the week, especially when insomnia hits at 3 am, and I find myself browsing Amazon. I now only check out ONCE per week. I add to my cart throughout the week but pick one day a week to sit down, evaluate my cart, and decide if I really need everything or if I can remove some of the impulse purchases.” – Kelly Anne Smith
Get discounted gift cards. “One of the ways I love to save money is by using my credit card points to triple-dip. Chase often offers discounted gift cards each month in their Ultimate Rewards Store. This allows you to redeem your points for a gift card but it ‘costs’ less points that it normally would. My favorite thing to do is to use my points to get Home Depot or Lowes cards when they’re being promoted for 10% fewer points. Using this strategy, I’m able to get $100 gift cards for $90 worth of credit card points. When my husband and I want to work on a project around our home, we use those gift cards to purchase items that are also on sale at the store to further boost our savings!” – Kristin Stones
I buy ETFs. “Most financial bloggers love ‘index and chill’ investing because it guarantees decent returns. Most fund managers can’t beat the benchmark anyways, so if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right? Well, in my taxable brokerage account, I level up my savings even more by making sure that whenever an index fund has an exchange-traded fund (ETF) version and a mutual fund version, I buy the ETF. Why? The short version: ETFs don’t generate as many ‘taxable events’ as mutual funds, so if all else is equal – the funds are built the same way – the ETF version of an index fund will cost me less in taxes than the mutual fund version. And money saved is money earned.” – Riley Adams
Save $200 in a mutual fund every month, no matter what. “We save $100 every two weeks from one paycheck totaling $200 a month. Though it might not seem like much, it is adding up. My husband and I started doing this together ten years ago. If we have more to save, we do. It has been an easy way to accumulate wealth we don’t have to think much about. We have a financial adviser select the best funds based on our level of risk. Pretending like we don’t have the money is an easy way to save money!” – Ashlee Fechino
Start using your credit card smartly. “When I was 25, I was against using credit cards but one day I started reading about the rewards and discounts I can avail on it. Since then, I realised how much you can save with these cards. The only caution – be responsible. I started using credit cards to pay for most things to gather points. I was able to fill a full tank of fuel almost 2-3 times a year which took care of my road trips. Similarly, we’re planning to use the rewards on our next luxury stay at Oberoi. At the points we have collected, we’ll get almost a $100-$120 discount. Besides this, I’ve also used offers on it. For example, we recently watched Top Gun. On a Citibank card, we had a ticket free on purchase of one ticket. This helped us save money and we were able to spend that on food instead.” – Chhavi Agarwal
Purchase discounted gift cards on Raise. “One of my favorite hacks to save money is to buy discounted gift cards from Gift Card Granny or Raise. You can often purchase gift cards for more popular retailers for a few percent discount; however in some specialty stores, you can save 10 percent or more. Additionally, you can stack discounted gift cards with coupon codes and/or cash back apps. With a little bit of strategic planning it’s not uncommon to save 6 percent or more on your purchase. It might not sound like a lot, but dollars are the sons of pennies, small bits add up over time. My son needed a new Xbox controller, so we purchased a digital gift card from Raise at a 6 percent discount which we were able to combine with 5% percent cash back from Rakuten. Combined we saved over ten percent, and with prices constantly rising every little bit helps.” – Michael Dinich
Restrict access to funds. “As someone who tends to spend readily available funds, I have found that keeping money in limited or no-access accounts helps greatly. I have a fixed savings account where the bulk of my savings goes until a predetermined time. I also have a flexible savings account I can fall back on if I run out of disposable funds. Here’s a breakdown of my accounts to facilitate saving: 1) A disposable account for paying bills and miscellaneous spending. 2) Accessible savings account for saving and backup funds. 3) And a fixed savings account with no access to funds. Keeping these three accounts has helped me organize my spending and improve my saving habits. Since it works for me, I’m confident it might work for you too.” – Jude Uchella
Save money while traveling. “My family and I have been able to save hundreds/thousands of pounds (or dollars) since the summer by house and pet sitting. We only say in houses we really like and in areas we want to explore/travel to. These are houses we would have booked as airbnb, but now stay in them for free saving us thousands. We’ve spent the last 5 weeks in luxury homes for free and have more homes scheduled for the rest of the year. With this, there is no need to pay for accommodation when traveling and you can find a house to sit literally all over the world. You can run a quick google search for local house sitting opportunities, or join larger international services like https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/” – Eunice Asante
Earn bonus money on your emergency fund. “I safely earn over $3,000 yearly by strategically signing up for bank bonuses and depositing my emergency funds in that bank. The ROI for only a few minutes of work is high, and my emergency funds are earning 8-10% FDIC insured with no risk. Banks routinely offer a bonus to open new accounts and have attractive promotions such as ‘deposit $5,000 and get $1,500 bonus in 3 months.’ Your local credit unions to larger National banks like Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo offer these bonuses. You can switch to another bank (to earn the next bonus) as soon as the promo period (3 to 6 months) is over.” – John Dealbreuin
Save money on your wedding. “Seek out alternatives to the standard products and services you’d use for events such as a wedding. Instead of going with a traditional wedding-specific option, if you can find comparable services or products from a more general supplier, you will likely save money! For example, instead of hiring a professional to arrange flowers, you could opt for faux flowers for your wedding bouquets. Doing things yourself is also an option, especially if you have more time than money to spend!” – Jessica Bishop
What do you do to save money? Which of the tips above is your favorite?
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Source: makingsenseofcents.com
Your first job thrusts you into the adult world and the tricky balancing act of managing your money. The key to a healthy, wealthy, and low-stress lifestyle is not to get rich, but to master this balance as early as possible.
Here are six money-related moves to make during your first job so you feel good about your future.
What’s Ahead:
If you don’t have one already, you’ll need a checking account to safely store your money.
The two most common reasons Americans are hesitant to open bank accounts are a) they don’t think they have enough cash, and b) they want to avoid bank fees. But many banks won’t charge you a penny for opening an account. And as long as you maintain the required minimum balance, if there is one, you won’t get charged any low balance fees and might be able to avoid maintenance fees.
The next question would be: which bank? You might’ve heard shifty things about some brick-and-mortar banks in the headlines, so who can you trust? Chime® and LendingClub are two great online-only options for modern banking.
Designed to help young people build their savings while they bank, Chime offers a safe and rewarding place to keep the money from your first job — and even get it early.*
When you set up direct deposit with Chime, you may be able to get your paychecks up to two days in advance if you qualify for early direct deposit.3 What’s more, Chime not only doesn’t charge overdraft fees but will cover up to $200 in overdrafts for eligible accounts with a feature called Chime Spot Me®. If you overdraw, Chime will “spot” you the money and deduct it from your next deposit at no cost to you.5
For its simple tools and variety of features to help make your life easier when money is tight, this is an ideal first checking account.
Open a Chime account or read our Chime review.
* Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC.
3 Early access to direct deposit funds depends on the timing of the submission of the payment file from the payer. We generally make these funds available on the day the payment file is received, which may be up to 2 days earlier than the scheduled payment date.
5 Chime SpotMe is an optional, no fee service that requires a single deposit of $200 or more in qualifying direct deposits to the Chime Checking Account each month. All qualifying members will be allowed to overdraw their account up to $20 on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals initially, but may be later eligible for a higher limit of up to $200 or more based on member’s Chime Account history, direct deposit frequency and amount, spending activity and other risk-based factors. Your limit will be displayed to you within the Chime mobile app. You will receive notice of any changes to your limit. Your limit may change at any time, at Chime’s discretion. Although there are no overdraft fees, there may be out-of-network or third party fees associated with ATM transactions. SpotMe won’t cover non-debit card transactions, including ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, or Chime Checkbook transactions. See Terms and Conditions.
If you want a bank with more features that’ll pay interest on your balance, check out LendingClub. LendingClub offers a fee-free checking account that earns interest and cash back.
LendingClub’s Rewards Checking account pays 1.00% APY on balances between $2,500 and $100,000 (and 0.15% on balances above this). It’s not much, but the interest will add up the more you deposit. Plus, you can earn 1.00% cash back on qualifying purchases you make with your LendingClub debit card. And like Chime, users may be able to get their paychecks up to two days ahead of schedule.
Open a LendingClub account or read our LendingClub review.
Related: Best No-Fee Checking Accounts
Once you’ve opened a checking account, your next step is to apply for a credit card. This can be through your current bank or a new institution altogether.
As a good rule of thumb, you should look for cards that have no annual fees and come with benefits like cash back and free stuff. But as you’re browsing rewards cards, make sure you choose one that actually makes sense for your spending habits.
Most likely, a fancy metal card that offers a high rewards rate on one category wouldn’t be as useful to you as a more basic rewards card that offers less cash back on more categories. Watch out for high annual fees and high interest rates with any rewards card.
One of the best cash back credit cards out there is the Chase Freedom Unlimited®. We recommend this card for anyone looking to build their credit when they start earning money from their first job.
For starters, this card offers a wide array of cash back categories. These are:
For a card with no annual fee that you can qualify for with average or good credit, you can’t do a lot better.
Read our Chase Freedom Unlimited® review.
Depending on your income and credit score, you might not qualify for the exact card you want. Most unsecured credit cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® have income requirements and want to see a certain credit score from applicants. Frankly, it can be tough to meet these as a newbie.
Secured credit cards can be a great option for people applying for credit for the first time. These are called secured because they require a security deposit, which is used as collateral in the event that you can’t pay back your balance. Secured cards tend to be easier to qualify for than unsecured cards but help you build credit all the same.
The OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card is one of the best secured cards out there. With this card, you’ll put down a security deposit of between $200 – $3,000 when applying and this will become your credit limit.
All of your payment activity is reported to the three major credit bureaus, so making your payments on time will set you up for success and a better credit score.
What’s unique about the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card is that it doesn’t require a credit check or affect your credit when applying.
Read our review of the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card.
Budgeting is like driving. When you’re first starting out, it’s awkward, anxiety-inducing, and decidedly un-fun. But eventually, it kind of becomes second nature.
Effective budgeting can help you save money and feel less stressed. Knowing precisely how much money you have and where it’s going means there are no surprises and helps you plan for your financial goals. But making a budget and following it is a whole lot easier said than done.
If you’ve ever tried and failed to stick to a budget, it’s probably because you weren’t using the right tools. Trust us when we say the right tool makes all the difference.
We recommend PocketSmith and YNAB to beginners. If you want to make sure the money you’re earning from your new job is being put to good use, start with one of these budgeting products.
PocketSmith is not your average budgeting app.
Yes, it’ll track your income and expenses and sound warning bells when you’re about to go over budget. But its most unique and useful feature is financial forecasting. With this, can insert a “dummy expense” and see how it’ll affect your finances as far as 30 years into the future. For example, if you want to go on a $3,000 vacation, you can see how much of a hit your money will take a year or two from now from that trip.
This feature is especially helpful for people with a new source of income. It takes a lot of practice to learn what you can afford to buy with each paycheck, and PocketSmith can save you from making some costly mistakes.
Start budgeting with PocketSmith or read our Pocketsmith review.
You Need a Budget (YNAB) makes zero-based budgeting not only possible but simple. By linking your bank accounts, the app pulls information about your cash flow to quickly show you how much you have to spend. Then, you “give every dollar a job” each month by allocating all of your money to different spending and expense categories. Throughout the month, YNAB logs your transactions for you to help you stay on track in each budgeting category.
YNAB offers a variety of visuals and resources to help you figure out what you’re doing as you’re doing it. If you’re budgeting (or even just making money) for the first time and want to start out on the right foot, this tool is for you.
Start budgeting with YNAB or read our YNAB review.
You’ve probably heard a used car commercial say: good credit, bad credit, no credit, no problem! So what exactly is “credit,” why is it important, and how can you build it?
Your credit score is a three-digit number between 300 and 850 automatically assigned to you and updated regularly by the big three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each bureau will have a slightly different score for you, but they’ll be roughly the same. Your score essentially tells financial institutions how reliable you are and how likely you are to actually pay your debt.
Having good credit throughout your 20s and 30s pays off big time. For example, if you take out a $25k auto loan with a credit score of 750 instead of 650, you could end up paying ~$6,000 less in interest over 60 months.
Thankfully, building credit is pretty simple if you’re consistent.
Here are the two main things you can do to build good credit:
Related: How To Build Credit the Right Way
Is it ever too early to think about retirement? Nope! In fact, opening a retirement account as soon as you get your first job is one of the best decisions you can make.
A retirement account is a specialized savings account that you add to while you’re working and withdraw from when you retire.
The sooner you open a retirement account, the longer your money has to mature and earn interest (and interest on that interest).
How much interest you earn depends on the type of retirement account you open. The two most common types of retirement accounts are 401(k)s and IRAs.
The main difference between a 401(k) and an IRA is that your employer opens a 401(k) on your behalf but you open an IRA yourself. Some employers will match your 401(k) contributions up to a certain percentage each year. 401(k)s are common for full-time employees on payroll and IRAs are more common among self-employed folks.
If your employer doesn’t offer 401(k) options, you can open an IRA yourself pretty easily.
So after you open an account, now what? Your bank can manage your retirement accounts for you or you can hire a third-party advisor to take over.
There are a lot of ways to go about getting help managing and optimizing your retirement accounts, but one of the best options for beginners is a robo-advisor.
A robo-advisor is an automated platform that uses an algorithm to help advise your investments. Blooom and Betterment are two of our favorites.
Related: How To Figure Out What Retirement Account To Open First
Like other “robo-advisers,” blooom uses AI to optimize your retirement accounts.
To get started, you give blooom information about how much risk you’re willing to take with your investments and when you hope to retire. Maybe retirement is the last thing on your mind now that you’ve started a new job, but it shouldn’t be.
With blooom, there’s no pressure to know what you’re doing with your retirement accounts. The platform will make recommendations to make your 401(k) or IRA more profitable, rebalance your investments, and save more by avoiding hidden fees. They’ll even suggest an investment strategy for you and help you set goals.
Blooom can help manage both employee-sponsored 401(k)s and Roth IRAs at an incredibly low rate.
Start investing with blooom or read our blooom review.
Betterment is another great choice. This robo-advisor can help you pick the right retirement accounts for your needs from a list of options. If your go-to retirement account is an IRA, Betterment can help you choose between traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs.
To get started, all you’ll need to do is answer a few questions, and Betterment will build and manage an investment portfolio for you that aligns with your retirement goals. Then, they’ll handle rebalancing and managing your investments too according to your goals. Plus, Betterment offers tax-smart tools to help ensure your investments are always working efficiently.
Start investing with Betterment or read our Betterment review.
Most medium- to large-sized employers offer health insurance and automatically deduct your premiums from your paycheck. Sometimes your company’s health insurance is optional and sometimes it’s required. Usually, you can save when you get health insurance through your work because employers can negotiate better benefits and premiums from providers.
Once you opt in, you’ll receive a benefits package detailing everything your insurance covers. Take the time to read through this carefully because understanding the benefits and perks of your plan can seriously pay off.
For example, one common perk of employer-sponsored health insurance is free or subsidized gym memberships, which can save you hundreds annually. You might also be able to save on everyday health items you buy anyway.
If your employer doesn’t offer health insurance benefits, you’ll probably want to get some health insurance on your own to protect yourself from medical debt. Policygenius can help you choose the right provider for you.
Policygenius aggregates insurance quotes for any type of insurance you may need, ranging from auto insurance to life insurance to pet insurance. Basically, it does the hard work of comparison shopping for you.
The site saves you time and money by showing you only the best health insurance offers based on your answers to a few basic questions about what you’re looking for. Your privacy is protected and your personal details are not shared with any companies until you sign up.
Get insurance through Policygenius or read our Policygenius review.
Related: How To Pick a Health Insurance Plan
Becoming happy and well-off isn’t a matter of making money, but managing it. Making these six smart money moves when you get your first job shouldn’t take you more than a few hours and a few hundred bucks, and will accelerate you on your path to financial freedom.
Focus on doing these things – and doing them right – soon after you get that first paycheck.
Source: moneyunder30.com
They say your home is the museum of your life. I’m first to admit I can take that to a bit of an extreme. I’ve just always loved decorative objects. I find them on trips, the flea market, random boutiques. They always remind of the time and place where I found them. Thankfully, with all the styling we do around here these days, my accessories collection now comes in very handy! We decided to kill two birds with one stone with the Apartment 34 office redesign: store all our props and use them for our own decor!
When it comes to styling office shelves – especially when you’re working with a lot of accessories, the key is to keep things from getting totally overwhelming. In our case, there was editing involved although you might not be able to tell!. In order to avoid a hot mess, we styled the bookcases with a cohesive neutral color palette in mind: white, gray, creams and tans. A few pops of green, blue and bronze keep it from feeling too monotonous. Anything that didn’t work in our color scheme got stored out of sight.
Another shelf styling rule of thumb is to create vignettes in threes. Each shelf got its own mini-threesome or two!. We grouped bowls, candles, vases and the like. Be sure to always vary the heights of your accessories to create balance!
Stacks of books and my never ending collection of Vogues! also helped break up horizontal lines and offer additional texture. There’s something about books that immediately warms up a space.
We also incorporated a variety of our glass objects vases, carafes & even a selection of my favorite wine bottles to keep the shelves from feeling visually heavy. Adding in plants we picked a rubber leaf and snake plant injected the entire space with life duh but I also love their different shapes and textures.
We broke up the all the business we’ve got going on at our coworking desk by creating a distinct seating area on the opposite side of the room. It’s a lovely spot for group brainstorming sessions, magazine browsing and general decompression from screen time! I mixed a traditional sofa with more modern chairs and sweet white enamel side table. I used the art to inject the area with color.
Finally, you may remember our office supply closet DIY from last year. Well, now we get to fully enjoy it because we removed the supply closet doors! I was pleasantly surprised how much it opened up the room. Now all we see is all that great bright white space, styled desk supplies yes you can be picky about your office supplies and it DOES make a difference.
Even with all our details proudly on display the office feels more open, more spacious and really inviting. By keeping our edit tight and the floor plan spread out we keep the room feeling overtaken by stuff. Now when we’re working on our next shoot everything we need is right at our fingertips!
original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick
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Source: apartment34.com
Furniture shopping, whether you’re giving a room a much-needed update or moving into a new space, can be fun. It gives you the chance to daydream, make inspo boards, hunt for great pieces, and personalize your space.
But it can also be an expensive endeavor. However, that doesn’t mean you’re destined to purchase pieces that scream “first apartment furniture.” Just because you’re buying furniture for cheap doesn’t mean it has to look it.
Here are smart hack that will have you feathering your nest for less and even, in some cases, for free.
Scoring great furnishings on a tight budget takes some planning, and also knowing where to buy affordable furniture. Here are 25 ideas for creating a great space without spending a lot.
💡 Quick Tip: Tired of paying pointless bank fees? When you open a bank account online you often avoid excess charges.
Before going out to buy new stuff, you may want to do a walk-through of your space and make a list of what you already have. You can label each item “keep,” “donate/sell” or “toss,” so you know exactly what you need.
Do you have family members who may be harboring some perfectly good but no-longer-needed furniture? Consider scoping out their basements, attics, and garages for some free treasures.
It’s okay to dream a little. In fact, a good way to start furnishing a new home is to go to your favorite furniture store’s site and fill your cart without considering price. You can then cull down your list to essentials, and start looking for those pieces (or something similar) for a cheaper price tag.
If your furniture budget is super tight, you may want to consider renting furniture from a company like CORT or Feather, rather than buying everything you need. Renting can also be a good option if you’re only going to be in your current home for a short time.
Knowing when to make big purchases can help you get some steep furniture discounts. Furniture stores tend to get new inventory at the end of winter and end of summer. To make room for newer items, they will often run good sales in February and August.
When it comes to furnishing your porch or patio, the right time to buy furniture is typically the end of summer and fall, when retailers are trying to clear out any leftover inventory.
Cheap is great, but free can be even better. Consider going to a reuse/recycle site like Freecycle to see what people in your area may be looking to get rid of. You may want to keep in mind that good items often go fast.
It’s easy to fall madly in love with a cool sectional sofa and give in to impulse buying that can leave you with major debt. Before you pull the trigger on a pricey new piece of furniture, you may want to press pause. By giving yourself a week or so to really consider the purchase, you may realize you don’t actually need it. Or you may be able to scout out a cheaper but equally good option.
Recommended: How to Combat Impulsive Spending
Here’s another way to buy furniture cheap: You can often get a high-end look by splurging on one or two classic investment pieces and then going with cheaper, trendier accent pieces and accessories.
You may want to use social media to let people in your network know that you are on the hunt for furniture. You can even specify what you’re looking for (dining table, a chaise for the yard) and what you’re willing to offer (or barter) in return. You may be surprised at the response you get.
To bolster your furniture budget, you may want to sell pieces that no longer work for your space. If you have a lot to get rid of, you might host a yard or garage sale. For just a few items, you can list them on a resale site like Craigslist, OfferUp, or Facebook Marketplace and see how much you can score.
If you see a piece you love but it doesn’t fit your budget, you can download a photo of the item and then go to Google Images. If you click on the “Search By Image” button (the camera icon) and upload the photo, you can search for similar items. You might find the item’s twin at a better price.
💡 Quick Tip: When you overdraft your checking account, you’ll likely pay a non-sufficient fund fee of, say, $35. Look into linking a savings account to your checking account as a backup to avoid that, or shop around for a bank that doesn’t charge you for overdrafting.
Craigslist may be an oldie, but it’s still a goodie when it comes to finding affordable furniture. You can head to the site (which hasn’t changed much over the years), click the furniture tab, and search the possibilities.
Mass market retailers like Target, Walmart, and Home Depot actually have large furniture departments. You may be able to find stylish pieces at good prices, along with free delivery.
How else to buy furniture cheap: Check out Amazon Warehouse , a corner of Amazon’s main site that is dedicated to selling used, pre-owned, and open-box products (often things that were returned unused or close to it). You can click on the furniture tab and either search for your needs or just see what’s available.
You can spend a Saturday or Sunday morning driving around town looking for treasures. Or you can check out yard sales listings online, then map out a route that hits the yards or stoops with the most potential.
If there’s a piece in a store you absolutely love but it’s a bit out of budget, you can always ask the manager if they will sell you the floor model for a discount.
Since it is likely to still be a considerable amount of money even if the price is reduced, remember this when paying: If you buy it on credit, make sure to use the card that will give you the most rewards.
It can take a little time and effort, but you can often find great, affordable treasures at flea markets. Sometimes a little DIY is all it takes to transform something past its prime into the perfect thing for your place.
In the winter months, you can often get the flea market experience by combing through antique stores or, even better, antique malls that have multiple booths housed indoors.
Sites like OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace (where you may have listed items to sell) can also be a great resource for finding what you need. You can even do a search for a specific item you saw in store to see if anyone is offloading that same piece.
Large thrift store chains like Goodwill and Salvation Army typically get lots of donated items every day and can be a great place to find your next book shelf or coffee table. Local thrift shops can be worth checking out too.
One of the most widely known salvage stores, Habitat ReStore , has locations throughout the country and often sells new and used furnishings, as well as appliances, for far less than retail. Bonus: They are helping to divert those goods from the waste stream.
Once you’ve made your big item purchases, it’s time to think small (and cheap) with accent pillows, throws, artwork, and other decorative accessories. These items don’t need to cost a lot to add serious personal style to a space. You may fall for a $150 throw pillow but, odds are, you could find a super cute one for a fraction of the cost.
You can often find beautiful, high-quality pieces of furniture, as well as artwork, at estate sales for a fraction of what you’d pay at a store. You can find estate sale listings in your area on Craigslist as well as Estatesale.com and Estatesales.net .
No matter where you are shopping for furniture, it can be worth trying to haggle the price down a bit. You can ask a seller if the listed price is as low as they can go, if they will offer a discount for buying multiple items, or if there is any wiggle room on the delivery fee.
You can use Nextdoor , the neighborhood online hub, to let neighbors know what you are looking for and also scroll through the site’s “For Sale and Free” listings to see what your neighbors are selling or giving away.
💡 Quick Tip: If you’re creating a budget, try the 50/30/20 budget rule. Allocate 50% of your after-tax income to the “needs” of life, like living expenses and debt. Spend 30% on wants, and then save the remaining 20% towards saving for your long-term goals.
Here are some factors that contribute to whether a piece of furniture has a high or low price:
• Production: Mass-produced pieces are likely to be less expensive than a piece that is made in smaller batches or handcrafted by an artisan.
• Supply and demand: An item that is popular is likely to be pricier than something that has fallen out of favor.
• Materials: A solid wood piece, for example, is probably going to cost more than a similar item made of particleboard.
• Supply chain: If a manufacturer is using, say, a material that is scarce due to supply chain issues, they may have to pay more to obtain it. Those additional charges could be passed along to the consumer.
• Source: Depending on trade conditions, labor, shipping, and other factors, there could be a price discrepancy based on whether the item was manufactured in the U.S. or elsewhere.
Secondhand furniture can be a great resource when you are buying furniture on a budget. Btw, you can even shop for used furniture online at sites like AptDeco and Kaiyo.
Here, some buying furniture tips when you’re hunting for preloved treasures:
• Just say no to used mattresses. They can be a repository of stains, smells, dust mites, bedbugs, and more.
• Inspect for structural damage. Cracks, duct tape, and evidence of past repairs can spell trouble.
• Avoid upholstered furniture with an odor. Whether mildew, smoke, or pet smells, these smells can be very hard to eliminate.
• Be wary of painted pieces that might have lead paint; they would have been made before 1978 when laws were passed banning lead paint. Crackly, “alligator skin” painted surfaces can indicate lead paint. Also, if you rub your hand over the surface and get a chalky residue, it might be lead.
• Check for signs of mold, which may look like a patch of dirt that won’t rub away. That’s another health issue you don’t want to deal with.
Now, after you’ve read those warnings, also remember that you could get a real deal by buying secondhand. Go ahead and use your imagination. Often, with the addition of a coat of paint and new hardware or a slipcover, you can grab a bargain. Many inexpensive, tired pieces can become treasures when spruced up. Look online for how-to ideas.
Furnishing a new place can be daunting, especially if you’re shopping on a budget.
But by thinking beyond traditional furniture stores and turning to alternatives like flea markets, resale and salvage shops, estate sales, and online marketplaces, you can often score chic and cheap pieces that won’t fall apart in a year or two.
You can also stretch your furniture budget by mixing higher-end investment pieces with cheaper accent decor and sprucing up secondhand finds.
Better banking is here with up to 4.40% APY on SoFi Checking and Savings.
You can buy furniture on a budget by shopping at estate sales, thrift shops, and antique malls, as well as hunting at your usual retailers for floor models and other sale items. Lastly, see what you might be able to score for free via a neighborhood online community or Freecycle.
As with many products and services, online may have better deals on furniture than retail stores. Because online retailers don’t need to have a network of brick-and-mortar locations with staff, they may enjoy savings that they can pass along to customers.
Furniture may be expensive for a variety of reasons, from supply chain issues and material scarcity to inflation to the cost of labor, especially on handmade pieces.
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Source: sofi.com
One of my mentors, Carol, is rich.
By rich, I don’t mean she takes selfies on private planes. Rather, she’s achieved a level of comfort and freedom that most sensible people are striving for.
Carol lives in a nice place in the safe part of town, donates generously to charity, and spends more of her time on her passions and hobbies than on work. Her bank account balance has two commas in it, and she hasn’t really worried about money since Barack Obama held a senate seat.
Carol’s neighbors in the “Whole Foods-y” part of town are mostly lawyers, CEOs, and even a few movie stars hiding from the paparazzi. There’s even a Bitcoin zillionaire living somewhere above her, trading crypto all day and “sucking up the building’s power” she jokes.
But Carol is none of these things. In fact, she’s never made more than $60,000 a year. Instead of scaling some corporate ladder or selling a tech company, she somehow got rich just by rotating pretty normal job roles for 35 years. At some point on her career carousel, she’s been a teacher, accountant, and secretary.
So how exactly did Carol get rich? Inheritance? Luck? Buying 1,000 shares of TSLA in 2011?
When I asked her (we have that kind of blunt relationship), her tone was so mundane and matter-of-fact that you’d think she was giving me the time of day:
“Get rich slowly, hun!”
Wait, what does that mean? How can you get rich and achieve lasting comfort and freedom without selling a company or winning the lottery? Why is Carol’s method of “getting rich slow” so effective, and how can you pull it off?
In this piece, I’m going to teach you how totally normal people like Carol get rich (and you can, too). Without further ado, let’s investigate how the rich get rich (and you can, too).
What’s Ahead:
There are two types of rich people: happy rich people and unhappy rich people. The key to becoming a happy rich person is to establish your “why.”
Why do you want to get rich? After all, a seven-figure bank statement is just numbers on a screen. What do you want to do with the money?
Well, you probably want to get rich so that you can buy something.
Some people want to get rich so that they can buy something with a price tag, like a mantis green Lamborghini Huracán or a six-bedroom house. But chances are that if you’re reading Money Under 30, you’re probably more interested in something more enduring and conceptual, like freedom, comfort, safety, health, or the most valuable asset of all: time.
If you think about it, everything I just listed is a currency. You have a “balance” of each, and you exchange them back and forth all day like a personal stock exchange.
For example, when you go to work, you trade 8-10 hours of time for one day’s salary. Conversely, when you take an Uber to the airport instead of the bus, you trade $31 to save an hour of time.
For a good visual of these intangible currencies, I like to look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Photo credit: SimplePsychology.org
On a conscious or subconscious level, most people try to get rich so that they can take care of all of their basic needs. Naturally, they take care of their physiological needs first (shelter, food, etc.), and then keep earning to cover “safety” needs (paying off debt, health insurance, etc.).
However, level three of the pyramid is where happy and unhappy rich people tend to diverge.
Unhappy rich people keep earning piles of money and forget to convert it to needs. Although they could work a little less to spend time with family or developing their passions, they choose not to. Over time, they even give up their safety needs, working so hard that it negatively impacts their health. With heavy money bags weighing them down, they end up tumbling back down the pyramid.
The whole point of getting rich is so that you can take care of your needs, all the way from sheltering yourself to finding purpose and achieving self-actualization.
If the act of getting rich makes you miserable, what’s the point?
I enlisted the help of Varun Marneni, an advisor with Atlanta’s CPC Advisors and Raymond James Financial Services. At 31 years old, Varun is 23 years younger than the average wealth advisor in America and is passionate about making an impact on people by helping them navigate the complexities of their finances.
Happy rich people like Carol never lose sight of why they wanted to get rich: namely, to achieve freedom.
“Remember – your goal isn’t to get ‘rich’ – it’s to become financially independent” says Varun. “After a certain point, it’s time to stop trading your other needs for money, and reverse the flow. Money can (and should) buy freedom, which in turn can facilitate love, belonging, esteem, health, and self-actualization. Besides, giving up your mental health to get rich is counterproductive. Unhealthiness can affect your ability to perform, be a good person, and even make money. The simple fact is that it’s easier to get rich when you’re happy along the way.”
So how can you get rich without giving up your needs along the way? Well, let’s look at the options.
In his decade-plus studying wealth-builders, Varun has seen four general ways the rich get rich. He also has an easy recommendation for the method you should use.
Let’s analyze the four most common methods to getting rich.
“Get rich slowly, hun!” Carol said, matter-of-factly.
Then, she silently returned to the task of fetching two Key Lime Pie LaCroixs from the fridge.
I, on the other hand, was bubbling up with questions like a shaken champagne bottle. I asked her to elaborate and mentally cleared my calendar for a four-hour coaching session. But before she could even sit, she’d already given me her entire strategy:
“I’ve saved and invested 20% of my income since I was your age.”
But… what did you invest in, I zealously inquired?
“Oh, hun, I don’t invest any of my own money. I let Andrew [her financial advisor] do it.”
In addition to her 401(k), Carol had opened an investment account in her mid-20s, contributing as much of her paycheck as possible to it while her financial advisor managed it. They set a medium-risk portfolio, and she let it mature for years.
So… that’s it? The secret to getting rich without working 12 hours a day or betting the farm on Bitcoin is to open an investment account, keep adding to it, and… wait?
“Pretty much, yeah,” Varun says.
Carol’s not just some lucky outlier, either. According to Thomas C. Corley, author of the Rich Habits series of books, roughly half of rich Americans are just average earners who saved and “prudently invested” 20% of their income for decades. No CEO salary, no crypto bets, just smart money management.
Prudent investments could be hands-on like real estate, but for most low-key rich folks, it was just depositing into an investment account managed by someone else.
So if this method is so effective, and totally normal people get rich that way, it begs the question why nobody talks about it.
Carol’s neighbor, “the Bitcoin zillionaire,”, is 29. Rumor has it that he bought thousands of bitcoins when they traded at $2 a pop, which would’ve been around November of 2011. At the time of this writing (early 2021), a single bitcoin is worth $50,000.
Stories like that create a pretty potent sense of FOMO. A few clicks and he never had to break out his resume ever again. Sigh.
But if you truly want to subject yourself to FOMO Central, look no further than r/wallstreetbets, the now-infamous subreddit for retail aka amateur investors.
“WSB” is full of 22-year-old millionaires proudly showcasing their skyrocketing portfolios after having bet the farm on individual stocks.
But if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Such is the case with r/WSB. “This isn’t investing; it’s gambling” warns Varun.
Even if you do get lucky once, amateur day trading simply isn’t a path to sustainable long-term wealth. “Sure, you can make a 100% return on a stock – but how are you going to do that month after month?”
This method to getting rich is to work your fanny off. You can become a partner at Deloitte, for example, and make $355,000 on average (according to Glassdoor). And that’s chump change compared to your bonuses, retirement benefits, and stock options.
However, the path to becoming a partner at Deloitte isn’t short, easy, or even guaranteed. It takes more than a decade of sterling work, plus a chest full of medals and the universal approval of your clients and colleagues.
The sky-high bar for entry is why only out of 113,000 Deloitte employees, fewer than 1,000 ever reach the level of partner.
Attaining a high-salaried position is a surefire way to get rich, but it can be extremely difficult to juggle your work and your needs. In most roles earning $250,000+, you’ll end up trading most of your time and freedom: the two currencies that are the hardest to buy back.
Even getting there can take a lot of time and freedom. All of Glassdoor’s top 25 highest-paying jobs “require many years of advanced education [or] years of experience gained over time.”
Of course, there are plenty of people working high-salaried roles who love their jobs and have a great work-life balance. But it’s not the norm, and getting to that point can take decades.
In 2019, when Forbes announced Kylie Jenner as the youngest self-made billionaire ever, we all responded with the world’s largest collective eye-roll.
Sure, she’d built a profitable makeup and modeling empire, and claims that her parents had cut her off at 15, but was she really on an equal footing to the rest of us, as the title implies?
Certainly not, because even if she didn’t inherit cash, she did inherit her parents’ platform, network, and financial guidance; all worth way more than a lump sum.
The Forbes/Kylie Jenner drama serves to highlight a common way the rich get rich and stay rich: through the passing down of cash and assets, but also platforms, privilege, and financial guidance.
You may or may not inherit wealth in the traditional sense, and it’s safer to assume that you won’t. According to CNBC, over 70% of young people expect an inheritance, but only 40% of their parents plan to give one.
But that doesn’t mean inheritance is totally out as a way to get rich. If your folks have done well for themselves, you can ask them for other forms of inheritance, such as advice and connections. For example, if your parents are financially independent, chances are they have a great financial advisor helping them who would gladly have a complimentary planning session with you.
Overall, however, inheritance isn’t really a viable or predictable way to get rich.
What’s next?
Getting rich slowly is the most simple and straightforward way to get rich in this country. So why does nobody talk about it?
Well, here’s my theory:
How would you react to this headline?
“She saved 20% of her income for 30 years, and now she’s rich!”
You’d probably think ummm… duh? And that’s the whole point! Getting rich slowly, the way half of rich people did it, isn’t headline-worthy at all. It’s boring. Martin Scorcese simply isn’t making movies about investors who build wealth over decades of safe investing.
Getting rich slowly isn’t glamorous, either. In fact, most people who look rich are in debt. Those Instagram influencers dangling Bentley keys and Prada bags in their followers’ faces are most likely in deep financial trouble. 96% of YouTubers make under $15k per year, and as one former influencer with 340k followers confessed, “I’ve walked a red carpet with $80 in my bank account.”
“Most people who are actually rich look and act pretty normal,” says Varun. They shop at Publix, drive eight-year-old Acuras, and live in homes just big enough for them and their loved ones. “Rich people don’t buy into the ‘rich people lifestyle’ because it costs money that they’d rather invest.”
There’s nothing wrong with buying fancy things, especially if they support your needs like comfort, health, or esteem. I “invested” in an old Lexus because of its low True Cost to Own®. Likewise, my friend Amanda bought a Burberry coat because it’s well-made, long-lasting, and it simply makes her happy.
But “slow rich” people never feel the need to prove how rich they are. They get rich precisely because they don’t buy into the glamorous lifestyle.
Like vampires, truly rich people are among us, hiding in plain sight. It can be hard, then, to spot one and ask them for advice.
Thankfully, we have Varun and Carol to set us up.
Saving and investing 20% of your income is an essential part of getting rich, but it’s only part of the picture.
“The path to financial independence is like a chair. There are four legs, and if one is too short or missing, the chair topples over.”
So, what are the other three legs to getting rich slowly?
As Varun puts it, “squeezing the lemon” is maximizing your existing money through:
What I’m about to share may sound obvious, but “9 out of 10 people don’t squeeze the lemon, and it needlessly delays their financial goals.”
Tax efficiency, not to be confused with tax evasion, is simply making sure you’re not paying more taxes than necessary.
A big part of tax efficiency is filing your taxes accurately and on time. Any tax software that helps you maximize deductions, such as those for Home Office and charitable donations, is great.
Another way to become tax efficient, specific to 1099 folks, is to funnel your income through an LLC. This will slash your self-employment taxes and provide some bankruptcy protection. If you own a business with more than one employee, I recommend consulting with a tax attorney for more ways to be tax-efficient, since there are too many to list here. A phone call could save you thousands.
Lastly, always be sure to take advantage of your various retirement plans offered through employers such as 401(k)s or IRAs and Roth IRAs.
“Many employers offer 401(k) matching and it’s important to at least put enough money in to take advantage of that,” says Varun.
So that’s tax efficiency: simply making sure you’re not giving Uncle Sam freebies.
Patching leaks involves, quite simply, slashing unnecessary expenses.
As a first step to getting rich, I strongly recommend you consolidate all of your financial information into a single dashboard. Getting a holistic picture of all of your accounts in one place is a huge stress-reliever and helps you find unpleasant “gotchas” like hidden charges and disused subscriptions.
Once you squeeze the lemon to save money, the next step is to multiply it.
Thomas C. Corley says the secret to sustainable wealth is “prudent investing.” What exactly does that mean? Are you going to have to get your Series 7 and start trading?
Not at all. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Prudent investing just means responsible investing, and there’s nothing more responsible than letting a trained professional invest for you.
Carol has never personally traded a stock in her life.
Human financial advisors typically charge a 1% management fee, which includes comprehensive wealth management solutions, soup to nuts. Think guidance on buying or selling a business, retirement planning, education funding help, insurance advice, and estate planning.
Robo-advisors typically charge 0.30%. The tradeoff is that they may not offer a human touch or personalized financial planning advice. But once you set some goals and risk parameters, they’ll manage your money for you, 24/7, for less.
Whether you opt for a real-life or AI-driven financial advisor, the important thing is that you invest. A pile of money in your checking account is just losing value due to inflation.
If you can’t afford to invest 20% of your paycheck, start with 5% and work your way up. Squeeze the lemon harder and pool that money into your investment accounts.
Another great source of investment capital is your credit card rewards points. Oftentimes this is cash you didn’t even realize you had, so you might as well invest it!
A solid, “investor-friendly” card option is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. It offers 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3X points on dining, 2X points on all other travel purchases, so you can quickly accumulate points and dump them straight into your investment account.
Prudent investing isn’t just about putting money in; it’s about leaving it in. When markets dip or accounts lose value, people tend to panic-pull, and it’s almost always a mistake.
Per Varun:
“the most difficult thing to do in investing is disentangling personal emotions from logic and tuning out the media. The so-called pundits will always give you 100 reasons why times have never been scarier and why you shouldn’t be investing and they are usually incorrect. 1968 was a difficult year for our country with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, War in Vietnam and the highly contentious election. Since then, we have had wars, 9/11, impeachments, tariffs, COVID 19 more recently and so much more. Despite all of this, the Dow Jones Index marched from 906 in 1968 to 32,000 as of this writing”
Daily market news can challenge your investment discipline. Their messages are often meant to stir anxiety about the future and your finances.
But as Varun says, “successful investors look beyond the headlines, have a long-term approach, and follow certain time-tested principles such as diversification and suitable asset location.”
Once you’ve begun investing money, it’s time to protect it. You don’t want bankruptcy to saw off a leg on your chair!
Earlier, I mentioned a critical form of bankruptcy protection for self-employed folks: routing payments through an LLC. Having an LLC as a “middleman” is important because it means anyone paying you has to sue the LLC first before suing you personally, reducing your liability.
However, lawsuits aren’t the most common source of bankruptcy in this country. Not even close.
“The #1 source of personal bankruptcy in America medical debt.”
If you can afford it, good health insurance will help insulate you from bankruptcy. But staying healthy itself is a key component of getting rich. Running, meditating, doing yoga, and eating healthy don’t just create happiness – they’re part of getting rich. “Healthy people are less likely to end up in the ER, and they work more effectively and make better decisions.”
Varun doesn’t want you to live like a pauper while you slowly get rich. In fact, getting rich slowly should be extremely enjoyable and fulfilling.
But what are rich people spending money on, if not Aston Martins?
“Rich people buy experiences, not things.”
Science overwhelmingly supports the idea that experiences make us happier than things. Plus, they’re often cheaper. That’s why most low-key rich people have come to the same conclusion:
Experiences are a good investment. Remember that happy rich people reinvest their capital into their needs. They realize that experiences provide more freedom, esteem, love, and belonging than most things can, so that’s what they choose to spend on.
Part of what makes experiences such a great investment is that the happiness you glean from experiences is infinitely renewable. Here’s some advice that Varun often offers his clients:
“In 10 years, you’ll remember the time you spent in Hawaii. You’ll remember who you were with, the laughter you shared, the experiences you had. You won’t remember what kind of watch you were wearing.”
Unlike an Aston Martin, experiences are affordable even while you’re getting rich and won’t delay your goals. Even after you put 20% of your paycheck into an investment account, you’ll probably still have enough cash left over for a pair of tickets to that funky new museum or a one-night AirBnB stay in the mountains.
Plus, experiences are less susceptible to hedonic adaptation, which drives our tendency to want to upgrade our things every few years. For example, even if you buy a brand new phone and a fast new car today, eventually you’ll get bored of both and want to pay for an upgrade. But a $20 ticket to a concert will always be fun, and never go out of style.
Even before hedonic adaptation can kick in, Varun warns of another expensive psychological trap many fall into: the Diderot Effect. In his essay “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown,” Denis Diderot, an 18th-century French philosopher, describes how his fancy robe made his closet look cheap. So he upgraded his closet, but that made his room look cheap. Upgrading his room made his house look cheap, and before he knew it, he sat bankrupt in a mansion.
Experiences may drive the desire to have more experiences, but they don’t necessarily have to be more expensive ones. Furthermore, those experiences will help grow you as a person, provide companionship, and support your mental health.
Things are awesome, but experiences are a more cost-effective way to feel joy while you accumulate wealth.
“Getting rich slowly won’t feel slow if you’re enjoying the journey.”
Before I wrap up, what smart moves can you make in the next 30 minutes to start getting rich?
Fake rich people on Instagram are fun to watch, but they can create FOMO and encourage bad buying decisions. They are “influencers,” after all.
Instead, Varun strongly recommends that you “surround yourself with people who have financial discipline.”
Break the ice with your friends about financial planning, swap advice, and try to cultivate a sphere of positive influence. To prevent awkwardness, talk about how you’re investing, not how much. I have a few friends that I regularly talk to about financial planning, and it helps the process feel social, validating, and fun.
If you haven’t already, head to your online banking dashboard and spend a few minutes browsing through all of your transactions from the last month. If there are any recurring charges you don’t recognize or don’t need, cancel them.
If you cancel $25 worth of subscriptions today, that’s $10,000 you might’ve wasted over 30 years. If you invest that $25 per month instead, it can create $15,000 in 30 years. That’s a delta in your net worth of $25,000, all accomplished in a few clicks.
To get rich by investing, you don’t have to pick a single stock yourself. Again, it’s actually better if you don’t. What a wonderful world we live in where “lazy portfolios” exist as one of the best ways to build wealth.
Once you’ve opened an investment account and set goals and risk parameters, your final (but critical) step is to set up monthly auto-deposits of 20% of your paycheck (or however much you can afford).
Then, you’ll start getting rich in your sleep.
Investing 20% of your income for 30 years is a proven method that roughly half of rich Americans used to achieve financial independence. It’s boring but it works.
If you’re intimidated by the prospect of investing, that’s all the more reason to let a professional do it for you, human or otherwise. You can open an investment account and set up auto deposits in just a few minutes, and your future self will let out a massive sigh of relief when you do.
As you’re making money in your sleep, remember that truly rich people don’t buy into “the rich lifestyle.” Don’t be seduced by designer bags or meme stocks on r/wallstreetbets. If your method of getting rich feels slow and boring, you’re doing it right!
While the method to getting rich slowly might be boring, the journey should be anything but. “Investing” in experiences, passions, and relationships along the way will set you up to be a happy rich person; martyrdom to work is not necessary.
Enjoy the journey, and for more on saving and investing, stick with Money Under 30.
Source: moneyunder30.com
Looking to learn how to make money as a digital designer?
A digital design business may include making things such as graphics, printables, planners, t-shirt designs, calendars, business card design, social media graphics, stickers, logo design, and so much more.
The opportunities are endless with a digital design business and this can be a great small business idea where you can work from home.
In today’s digital world, the demand for eye-catching and captivating designs has never been higher.
However, starting a new business can feel overwhelming (and even scary!), especially when you’re not sure where to begin. That’s where this How To Make Money As A Digital Designer guide comes in.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps and answer questions you may have when launching a new creative design business.
Today, I have a helpful interview about how to start a digital design business with Kelli Mitchell. Kelli is the owner and principal designer of Pink Lemonade Company.
Kelli started her creative business offering website design and business branding in 2011. As her work and brand grew, Kelli focused on creating commercial use graphics, design, and business courses, and helping others grow their own online creative businesses.
Today’s interview on how to make money as a digital designer answers questions such as:
Today’s in-depth interview will help you get started with learning how to start a design business and perhaps even introduce you to a new way to make money from home.
You can learn more about how to start a digital design business by signing up for a free training from Kelli by clicking here. In this training, she shares the steps she took to start designing for others and how she grew her business to over $100,000 per year. She also shares the different design ideas that you can create and sell.
Hey there! The idea of my design business began because I needed a way to make money from home. I had been working 12-hour shifts at the local hospital, but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in my job, I needed to earn more, and I needed more time to be with my kids. And while it was scary in the beginning, it has paid off well – in so many ways. PLC consistently brings in multi-six figure years with the bulk of my income coming from the graphics I design.
My business started somewhat as a side hustle offering design services and business branding because my full-time job was taking care of three small children. I wanted to be able to create a business that would give me plenty of time to be a mom. It was important for me to create a business that would work around my life, and not have all my hours consumed by my business.
When I first started out, I quickly became obsessed with Photoshop. I realized that I could create something in Photoshop, and turn around and sell it online. It became apparent that Photoshop was a playground where I could take my ideas and turn them into income. That fact really made my imagination come alive. Creativity turned into possibility and, as a result, my life changed rather drastically.
And, I must admit, I didn’t consider myself creative in the beginning. I often doubted myself, and questioned whether I was creative enough to make this happen. I had no experience in running a business. But I gave myself permission to follow what felt fun and I made the decision that I was committed to making it work no matter what.
A design business can really be so many different things, which I think is great for people who are wanting to have a creative business since they often have a lot of ideas and want to try so many different things.
I have, personally, sold a variety of different things in my own design business from website design and business branding, to digital papers, graphics, printables, t-shirt designs, sublimation design files, digital journal pages, and more.
One of the things I teach my students now is that by learning some solid design skills, you’re able to go in so many directions, create different products and services, and let your imagination run wild.
Since Photoshop is an endless playground and blank canvas where ideas can come to life the list is essentially endless. There are so many things that someone could create and sell with some skill and imagination.
Here is a list of 15 potential ideas for digital and graphic design:
Since the products and services that can be created from designing are so endless, there are a lot of different reasons people buy designs.
For example, they might buy a birthday invitation design from Etsy, or they might want to use a digital paper as a supply to create a holiday-themed printable banner. When I started out, I offered fun, brightly colored business card designs. I was able to bring a sense of fun to my work and, in turn, to somebody’s business branding.
A quick search on Etsy for “digital downloads” or “digital designs” can shed light on just how many types of designs are available and what different things they can be used for.
It’s such an open, endless field with so much potential – for the designer and the buyer.
The answer to this is dependent on a lot of factors, of course, such as how the designs are promoted, the marketing strategy involved, and quality of the designs but there are many people making really good money selling designs online.
Once I learned how to sell my designs effectively, I quickly went from bringing in around $8,000 a year to cracking that $100,000 a year mark.
My motto over the years has become ‘my ideas are limitless therefore my income is limitless’. And, it rings true.
One of the great things about having a design business is that you can design and sell digital download files. That gives you the option to mass sell one file. So, the file can be created once, and sold over and over again for passive income. You put the work up front, and then sell the file as many times as you want.
I will never forget when I sold my first graphic on Etsy. It was a $3 file and it felt like I had won the lottery because it was the best feeling in the world! I knew if I could sell one file, I could sell thousands.
When we tap into that potential, we can essentially create a business that doesn’t have an income cap. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to put in the work, but we can design our businesses to serve us and our lifestyles along with serving our customers.
In the private community where I hang out with my students, we often celebrate when someone makes money in their sleep because that’s one of our fun goals that we set in my course – Design Business in a Box. That kind of freedom is what I love helping people with because it changed my life and I love seeing it change other people’s lives, too.
Absolutely. I did.
More important than tech skills are a willingness to learn and a strong commitment to making it happen. And, sometimes we just need to start telling ourselves we are creative and go for it.
Self doubt can kill a business quicker than anything else. We have to let ourselves be bad at something so we can get good at something.
Ya know, I could probably list 100 reasons.
I’m very passionate about this because it really changed my life and how my family moves through life. But nobody has time for my list of 100, so I’ll give you my top three.
One big reason is that I still see Photoshop as this open space for my imagination where I can create something and sell it. And it still feels like so much fun.
The second reason is that I know I can have designs on my website, or in my membership site, and I can make money in the background while I’m out and about with my family and friends.
And reason number three would be because not only can I pay my bills, and have money to make my life easier, I also get a sense of creative fulfillment and that has been very beneficial to me. I still get to show up to work excited and feel this enthusiasm for what I get to do. I’m really grateful for that.
Yes, 100%. I don’t believe in the idea of market saturation.
I believe there will always be room for more art, more books, more creativity, etc.
Now, I will say that I think you need to know not only how to create designs but how to sell them as well. I believe that once you know how to sell your designs, implement marketing strategies that work, and how to call in your audience, then you can make it work for you.
I think having an awareness and appreciation of life and all that surrounds us is the quickest way to come up with new ideas. I always keep a notebook or the notes app on my phone filled with ideas as they come to me.
I don’t usually follow trends or try to stay ahead in that way, I usually just pay attention to what feels fun to me and what I feel called to design.
If I’m stuck on what to design next, that’s when I know I need to get out from behind my desk, and go play, do something fun, or go for a walk and let inspiration come to me.
Fortunately, because of where we are with the internet and technology today, you don’t need much.
A computer, Photoshop, and an Etsy shop was all I started with in the beginning.
Not a lot, especially compared to how much money you would have to have to start a business even 30 years ago, for example. There isn’t a need to go take out a large loan and set up a brick and mortar on main street. I was beyond broke when I started out on my venture.
Designing digital files doesn’t require a large warehouse for physical inventory and you can run this business from your kitchen table, like I did in the beginning.
So, while you’ll need some money to begin with, it will vary depending on what you use in the beginning, the start up costs are considerably nominal.
For sure! Before getting started, I recommend doing a little ‘pre-work’. Just allowing yourself to dream a bit and think of the possibilities will be helpful.
If the idea of earning a living or starting a side hustle in designing appeals to you, then make a commitment to yourself. I had that ‘line in the sand’ moment where I made the decision and just went all in.
I also made a list of why I wanted to do this – and how my life could change for the better if I made this work. I really recommend doing that so you can start with some momentum, and then you have a list of your big reasons why you’re doing this when your momentum starts to wane a bit. Really zeroing in on what you could gain from having a successful design business could be immensely beneficial.
Once you’ve done the pre-work, you’re ready for the next steps!
Step One – Do some online research. You can start by searching on Etsy or browsing Pinterest for different design ideas. Take notice of what feels fun to you. This really helped me not get overwhelmed in the beginning since there were so many different things I could potentially create and sell. I was drawn to designing for other businesses, and helping people get started with business branding. I loved the idea of creating a logo, with business cards, and matching marketing materials. So, make a list of what feels the most fun for you to create and start there. You can always add to the list, or try something new down the line.
Step Two – Learn how to design. I’m a big fan of Photoshop, but there are lots of options out there. However, I would not be doing you any favors if I didn’t mention this (because I always get asked about this). Canva is great. I use it myself for certain things, but Photoshop is an industry giant and there are things it can do that Canva just can’t. Can you use Canva for designing? Of course, you can. But just know it has its limits. With Photoshop, you’ll get professional level editing and complete creative control.
Step Three – Set up a website or Etsy shop. There are lots of online videos and articles to help you find what options would be best for you. Google can definitely be your best friend when starting a new business. I would use Google endlessly when I first started. Pinterest also has some excellent tips for new business owners, too.
Step Four – Set up your social media presence. Whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, any and all of those and more, social media can help you share your designs and connect with those who are needing what you have to offer.
Step Five – Start building an email list. This is something I didn’t do in the beginning that I should have. Growing my email list has been one the most helpful things in my business. I can share what I’m working on, market to my loyal customers, nurture my new subscribers, and more. I use (and love) ConvertKit, but as I tell my students “D.Y.O.R.” Do your own research to find a solution that will work best for your business.
Step Six – Create and Deliver. Create amazing designs, and deliver an amazing customer experience!
A little belief in yourself will go a long way.
I didn’t know what my business was going to look like exactly but I made the decision to try. I had a lot of fear but one thing that helped me move past the fear was to get excited about what could go right, and how this could really change my life.
I also recommend finding a community of creative business owners who can help encourage you and give you inspiration for what is possible for you. I’d love to welcome you into my private community where I help aspiring and seasoned designers alike.
Of course! I have a free training where you can learn more about digital design and getting paid to create. I’m sharing more of the steps I took to start designing for others and how I grew my business into a brand that brings in multi-six figures a year.
We’ll also look at some different ideas that you can create and sell. I’ll send you a short video a day for five days. You can join us for free here if you’re interested.
Are you interested in learning how to start a digital design business and how to make money as a digital designer?
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Source: makingsenseofcents.com