How much money would you like to have saved by the end of 2018? Or for your next vacation? Or your emergency fund?
Whatever your goal, the number probably seems overwhelming.
Trying to figure out where several hundred or a few thousand dollars might come from is tough. Instead, break it down. Find ways to set aside just a little bit at a time — you’ll be surprised how quickly you can move toward your goal!
To help you get started with that first step, we’ve put together 19 easy things you can do to help save and make more money this year! Not only can you read about them here, you can click the links provided if you want to take advantage of these ideas.
1. Get Paid To Take Online Surveys
Let’s face it, a lot of us have a bit of extra time on our hands that we just spend watching TV. What if you could get paid a little bit of extra pocket money just for taking a few online surveys? Would you do it? There’s a new website called Survey Junkie that allows you to do just that. You provide them with a bit of information about yourself and they’ll match you up with to surveys that you can complete for big brands. You then earn rewards and virtual points that you can redeem for Paypal or e-Giftcards. You won’t make a ton of money doing this, but it could help pay for a few things every month and it’s easy to do.
2. Drive For Lyft
Need a fun, flexible way to earn money this month? Try driving with Lyft! Demand for ridesharing has been growing like crazy, and it shows no signs of slowing down. To be eligible, you’ll need to be at least 21 years old with a year of driving experience, pass a background check and own a car made in 2007 or later.
We talked to Paul Pruce, who’s been driving full-time with Lyft for over a year. He earns $750 a week as a driver. Best of all, he does it on his own time. You can work days, nights or weekends — it’s up to you!
Work 40 hours a week for one month, and you could bank up to $2,400. Just remember to include the cost of gas and car maintenance in your profit calculations.
3. Get a Lower Auto Insurance Rate
You might think you’re already paying a low auto insurance rate, but recent research shows that only 5% of Americans over the age of 30 are paying less than $50 per month for car insurance. If you’re currently paying more than $50 per month, and have had no accidents or tickets in the past two years, you can probably secure a much lower car insurance rate. The best way to do that is to compare quotes from multiple insurers – let them compete for your business. In fact, there’s a new website that allows you to do just that – it’s called Best Quotes Auto Insurance. Once you fill out the form on their website they’ll provide you with multiple quotes you can choose from. If you’re still not satisfied, you can always call up the major car insurance companies and let them know you’re looking for better offers and see what they say.
4. Do Gigs on Fiverr
No matter what type of service you offer, you can likely offer it on Fivver. This is terrific for digital services such as graphic design, web design, short audio or video clip creation, editing services, writing and so on. If you have a bit of extra time and have decent command of the English language – you can make some good extra cash just from writing a few articles.
Fivver has expanded beyond just the $5-per-gig model. Fiverr Pro pools the best talent on its platform. Depending on your skills, you could do considerably well on here. There are even some people making 6 to 7 figures a year just from Fiverr!
5. Stop Paying High Interest Rates On Credit Card Debt
When I decided to get serious about saving money, I had about $2,000 in credit card debt. My old card had an 18% or so APR, so I was paying almost $400/year in interest alone.
I was able to cut this unnecessary expense by using Monevo to find a loan. With Monevo you can see the loan rates offered to you without it hitting your credit score. The lowest rate available with Monevo is 3.09% APR which could allow you to save a huge amount of money in interest per year.
And if you owe a lot of money in credit card debt? Move on to our next tip.
6. Consolidate All Your Existing Debt Into One Simple Payment
Facing a large amount of debt is like having a gorilla on your back. You’re constantly thinking about how you can pay it off. Debt consolidation is the process of combining all your unsecured debts into a single monthly payment. Generally this allows for much lower payments on a monthly basis than the sum total of the separate debts – making life a lot more manageable. The likelihood in these circumstances of reducing interest rates is very high, and there are many firms out there who will walk you through the process making it simple and painless. If you have more than $10,000 in debt, then this is something you should do right away. You can get the best quote to consolidate all your unsecured debt by clicking the link below.
7. Get Money Back Instantly For Stuff You’ve Already Bought
Do you love getting refunds? How cool would it be to get money back on stuff you’ve already bought without having to do a thing? Paribus is an app that lets you find out if stores you’ve shopped at online owe you a refund. It’s free to sign up. Paribus connects to your email account and checks your receipts. If they find out a retailer has dropped their price they file a price adjustment claim for you automatically. Try out Paribus.
Paribus works with a huge number of merchants that you probably already shop at, including Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Best Buy, Target, Apple, Kohl’s, and more!
8. Negotiate A Better Mortgage Rate With HARP
If you’re a homeowner and you want to save yourself thousands of dollars this year, there’s a government program that you might be able to take advantage of called HARP. The Home Affordable Refinance Plan (HARP) could help hundreds of thousands of Americans reduce their monthly payments by as much as $3,500 in their first year. The program was set to expire in 2017 but has been extended to 2018 for the time being. In order to qualify for HARP you’ll need good or excellent credit, so if you don’t have a very good credit rating then this probably isn’t for you. To check if you qualify visit HARP Approvals, and fill out the short quiz (take 2 minutes). If lowering your payments, paying off your mortgage faster, and having an extra $290 a month in HARP savings would help you, then this could be the easiest money savings tip you take.
9. Sell on CaféPress or Etsy
If you can design digital items, you can sell them for a share of the profits on a site like CafePress. You can do this with nothing more than some design software. They can include custom logos, inspirational sayings and other topical or trending designs appealing to the masses.
You could hire a designer to assist you with this, but you still need to come up with the ideas. This works best if you understand design yourself but requires no overhead. Items are printed and delivered on-demand. You simply receive a share of the proceeds. Similarly, you could sell items on Etsy as well.
10. Cut The Cord on Cable Forever
Millions of Americans are completely cutting the cord on their monthly cable costs, allowing them to save $100+ per month in unnecessary fees. Many of them are switching to Netflix or Amazon Prime Video subscriptions, but there are also other ways you can get cable channels without needing to pay a monthly fee. All your local news, weather, sitcoms, cooking shows, kid’s shows, sports and thousands of movies are available for free with an antenna. In fact, most broadcast stations offer additional regional programming, absolutely free. The SkyWire antenna simply attaches to your current TV’s antenna jack (all TV’s have them), and then you get to enjoy Free Broadcast TV. It supports 1080p HDTV and has up to 30 miles of range, so it’s nothing like the “rabbit ears” you used in the past. If you find you’re not watching as much television as you used to, this could be the perfect solution for you and can save you a lot of money every month.
11. Rent a Spare Room on AirBNB
AirBnB can be a terrific platform for renting out a spare room. You can make some good money, especially if you live in a tourist destination. If you don’t mind the neighbors, then this is definitely an option. You can crash with friends and family and rent out your entire house if you’re really desperate.
12. FIXD – Save Thousands on Car Repairs!
Have you ever gone to an auto repair shop for an oil change, only to have the mechanic say you need a new transmission? Or has the mysterious “check engine” light come on, and next thing you know the mechanic has a list of expensive engine parts that need replacing? Unfortunately, mechanics know taking advantage of people is easy, given their lack of knowledge about car maintenance needs. But there’s a new device you can carry with you in your car to tell you exactly what’s wrong with it. If you own a car built after 1996 then you can use this brilliant new device called Fixd to instantly diagnose any car problems. This means the next time your “Check Engine Light” happens to come on, you’ll know exactly what the issue is and the Mechanics won’t be able to lie to you! In the United States alone, this product did over $50,000,000 in sales in 2017.
13. Housecleaning
There’s a variety of platforms online that you could tap into for doing this, or you could simply scour your neighborhood or post on social media. You could use Amazon’s Home Services for this as well, or you could create your own simple, one-page website to advertise.
Either way, this is a terrific way to make upwards of $20 per hour or more doing a job that’s often in high demand. You could easily make this a long-term gig if you perform well and don’t cut corners.
14. Never Pay For Home Repairs Again
Many homeowners don’t have the extra cash to shell out for repairs when something in the house breaks. You most likely have homeowners insurance right? But what about if your washing machine of 10 years breaks down? Or your dryer just stops working one day? Homeowner insurance won’t cover those repairs. That’s why getting setup with a Home Warranty Program can actually end up saving you a lot of money in the long run. It will cover any unexpected repairs to your appliances, plumbing, water heaters, heating and other electrical systems. They also will replace anything that they can’t fix. Make sure you shop around for rates on a home warranty program – this website will give you quotes that you can then choose from. A home warranty program should be a minor cost that can end up saving you major money.
15. Learn How To Invest – Invest in Breakthrough New Technology
The money you have earned and saved is precious! And investing can be risky. If you had bought Apple, Microsoft or Amazon 20 years ago (with even a small investment), you’d still be swimming in money. If you had invested $5,000 in Amazon when it first IPO’d, you’d now be worth at least $2.4 million today. Of course, you’re probably thinking hindsight is 20/20. But what if it wasn’t always? A new video has been leaked on the Internet from Paul Mampilly (an Ex Billionaire Hedge Fund Investor) who talks about a new technology which will end up being bigger than the Internet. He explains step by step how you can invest in this new technology and reap the rewards, but you have to watch the video until the end. Now, we would never suggest you invest money that you can’t afford to lose… but if you have a little money you can set aside, learning how to invest from an expert with a proven track record could just end up changing your life.
16. Save On Medical Costs
Healthcare is an essential part of human life, and the costs of doctors and the right treatments add up more and more as we age. Most Americans need to take some type of medication, so it’s only right that you should be getting the most out of your medical insurance.
By working with the best insurance company for your needs you can be sure to have the best coverage for the cheapest prices.
Healthcare laws continue to evolve. Trumpcare is seen as the replacement of Obamacare – and along with replacing it, it will also expand access to affordable, quality healthcare. A proposal for Trumpcare is AHCA, which stands for the American Health Care Act of 2017. If you haven’t already, we recommend looking into comparing health insurance plans and prices.
17. Protect Your Identity From Thieves
Unfortunately, identity theft can happen to anyone and has far-reaching consequences for its victims. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s most recent study, 17.6 million people in the US experience some form of identity theft each year. This includes activities such as fraudulent credit card transactions or personal information being used to open unauthorized accounts. The DOJ’s study found that victims experienced a combined average loss of $1,343. In total, identity theft victims lost a whopping $15.4 billion in 2017. Not only that, think about all the time spent trying to get a hold of credit bureaus in order to freeze your credit score. That’s why using a credit monitoring service (not Equifax) could end up saving you thousands of dollars over the long run. We recommend signing up for Identity IQ – they work with all 3 credit bureaus to protect your identity and offer 1,000,000 in identity theft insurance.
18. Home Organizing
You could easily do home organizing for people. If you’re a tidy and organized person yourself, and you’re good at organizing spaces, why not offer your services to people around you? You’d be surprised at how many people, even on your own social media feed, might take you up on doing something like this.
Again, a site like Care.com also helps to connect home organizers with people looking for this type of service. It all depends on whether you want to go through a professional company or pitch it yourself to people that are already in your personal or business network.
19. Free Hardcover Book: Using These “501(k)” Plans to Retire Years Early
Ted Benna, “father of the 401(k)”, recently revealed to the public that most of his retirement is in a secretive 501(k) account. 54 U.S. Congressmen admitted to also using this secret “account” to claim up to 60 TIMES more interest on their money than regular people. And amazingly, this “account” is available to ALL Americans. It doesn’t matter your age, you too can begin using this 501(k) to bolster your nest egg and even retire years early with this free hardcover book.
