There is no doubt that your savings rate is more important than how much money you make. Ultimately, if you are spending the money that you earn, there is no point in working harder to make more money. Saving half of your income will help you to secure your future financial stability. A brand that wants to build strong online presence can take advantage of the services from Social Wick at affordable rates to save money. Do you have what it takes to save half your income? Let’s find how to save half of your income.
Are you interested in trying to increase your savings? Maybe you harbor dreams of early retirement? Here are ten tips that can help you save more money and reach your goals. I want to share the strategies my family has used to consistently save half of our income for nearly a decade — even when we qualified as “low-income”!
Read on to find out how to save half of your income, today.
Our best tips on saving half your income
#1. Say no to debt
The idea of using money that you don’t have to buy things that you probably don’t need is pretty crazy if you think about it.
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Using credit cards too frequently can lead to staggering debt, poor credit, and even cost you in outrageous interest charges.
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According to recent data by the Federal Reserve, the average American household carries $137,063 in debt.
Compare that to the average household income of $59,039 and you can see that most Americans are living far beyond their means.
Use cash over credit cards whenever possible; if you have serious control issues with overusing credit cards, consider cutting them up.
When debt is unavoidable, such as for college expenses, try and pay it off as soon as possible following graduation using the other methods listed below to save money quickly.
Additionally, if you work in certain fields (education, healthcare, etc) in dedicated “public service areas” you might also be able to take advantage of student loan forgiveness programs.
Make sure you are educated about eligibility in your particular field prior to graduating.
2. Focus on trimming your big three expenses
I’m not talking about sports leagues here.
The “big three” are expenses that make up the three largest portions of annual consumer expenditures.
The big three expenses include housing, transportation, and food.
As of 2016, the average American spends about 33% of their money on housing, 15.8% on transportation, and 12.6% on food.
Savings clocked in at a paltry 3.6% of total income.
If you can cut down on the biggest three expenses, you can significantly reduce your overall yearly expenditures.
Here are some ways you can reduce your big three expense:
Downsize your home
Cut grocery expenses as much as possible
Eat out less
Use public transportation or carpool
Pie chart with household expenses for budgeting
Via the USDA website.
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3. Put off having children
This might be controversial, but I am going to come right out and say it anyway.
There is a reason I listed the “put off having children” section right after the big three.
If and when you chose to have children, your expenses probably are going to increase (there are exceptions, but that is the norm).
The biggest increase will be in those “big three” categories.
You will want more space, you will need more food, and you might even need a larger car — which means more gas mileage.
There is also the possibility of losing one parent’s income, depending on childcare resources.
Some parents choose to stay at home; for others, it might be a forced choice as childcare costs outstrip what one parent’s income would be returning to work.
I have noticed many FIRE (financial independence retire early) gurus seem to have accumulated their wealth and retired before having children.
Before having kids I could push myself to work as late as I wanted or skimp on cooking because I only had to care for myself. I could stay up until midnight easily working on side hustles.
Now that I have children I can barely make it to 9 PM without feeling like I got hit by an exhaustion truck.
By putting in the hard work while you are younger and childless, you can build momentum and savings so that you have plenty of money accumulated by the time you want to have kids.
4. Track your spending and count every penny
How can you save money if you don’t know how much money you are spending in the first place?
If you want to save half of your income you need to take a good hard look at your expenses.
Then you can create a budget based on that information.
How do you do that?
Well…
5. Trim the fat from your budget
Once you have a clear picture of how much you are spending each month, you can “trim the fat” as I call it.
Outside of the big three, are there any areas that are “wants” rather than “needs”?
Do you have a gym membership that you never use?
A Netflix subscription — but you can never find anything to watch?
Do you drive your car when you could save mileage and gas money by riding a bike or walking?
Trimming the fat means getting rid of those extra expenses that are eating up your money.
How much you trim depends on how fast you want to save money — and how far you are willing to go.
A colorful bicycle against a white wall
Are you willing to go the distance?
6. Boost your income
Cutting your expenses is an important part of the equation, but in the end, there’s only so much you can cut down on spending.
After all, people have to eat, right?
Most of us would also like a place to sleep at night.
Besides budgeting to save, you should also try and increase your earnings whenever possible; this is particularly important for people earning minimum wage or who have low salaries.
Quick ways to increase your income:
Negotiate a pay raise at your current job
Find a new, higher-paying job
Start a side hustle
Take on a second job (I have even held three jobs at one time)
Get cash back any time you spend money with Rakuten (they also give you $10 just for signing up)
Side hustles are one of my favorite ways to boost income!
In fact, I made $1,200/month simply selling my old junk after decluttering and now make 4-figures a month working from home in my pajamas with this blog!
7. Live below your means
Reject the keeping up with the Jones’ attitude and make yourself a promise to live minimally!
Even if your earnings increase, try to keep your expenses at the same level.
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Any extra income is money in the bank, baby.
If you have two people working, you can even challenge yourself to see if you can live on only one of those incomes and turn the rest into pure savings!
When you have the right attitude and a positive money mindset, budgeting and saving can even be fun!
I am proud that half my wardrobe comes from Goodwill — you better believe I look damn good in that designer dress I got for $2!
8. Make like MacGyver
Grab a hammer, a paintbrush, and your best MacGyver attitude.
In this day and age, you can teach yourself basically any skill with a quick browse on Google or YouTube.
Instead of eating out, learn how to cook amazing meals at home. Rather than going to a hair salon, invest in a good hair grooming kit (I use this kit to cut my children’s hair).
Teaching yourself how to mend and sew can also save you money if you can repair clothes rather than always replacing them.
There are tons of creative ways that you can save more by doing it yourself at home.
9. Beware sneaky fees
Sneaky fees aren’t just for credit cards.
You can incur late fees with nearly every bill that you pay and being forgetful can cost you big bucks!
I recently forgot to pay a bill on time and boom! — there goes $25 I could have saved for something else.
Here are just a few of the places you may be racking up late fees:
Banks
On credit cards
Childcare centers
Apartment complexes
Utility companies
Libraries
Yep, you can even rack up late fees at the FREE public library.
Automate whatever bills you can and make sure to track the rest and pay on time.
A woman calcluating how to save half her income on the computer
10. Invest wisely and grow your money
Think that saving money is enough?
Think again!
A million dollars might sound like a lot right now, but by the time you are ready to retire, that million could be worth way less — all because of inflation.
Inflation is the big bad monster that is gobbling up your savings by an average of 2% – 4% every year.
That’s why simply putting money in the bank isn’t enough.
Even the best high-interest bank accounts, such as the American Express High-Yield Savings accounts, only return 1.85% annually, which still isn’t enough to offset inflation.
So what can you do?
Well, you can start by contributing your 401k, if you have one through your company, especially if your company matches your contribution.
You can also start investing in the stock market.
The Oracle from Omaha, Warren Buffet himself generally recommends investing in index mutual funds rather than picking individual stocks to try and beat the market.
