Save money every day: Ten painless tricks
That said, he also hates paying full price: "Never pay retail" is his motto. Here are ten simple ways to be materialistic while still improving your finances.
1. Say goodbye and hello to cable
The same strategy can work on other services - from cell phones to companies that fertilize your lawn. These service providers know it costs much more to get a new customer, so they are willing to lower rates to keep you.
Payoff: 20 minutes a year to save $360 annually.
2. Pick the right credit card
A word of caution, however, is that just having a credit card makes you spend more. With one click on any web site, one can put in their credit card information and buy items one ordinarily might think about twice. Thus, the easier it is to buy, the more you will spend.
Payoff: $720 annually of cash back with no effort.
3. Play the "travel game"
Allan says in just about a half hour he can often save hundreds of dollars per trip.
Payoff: 25 nights at a hotel averaging $60 a night savings, or $1,500 annually for 10 hours work.
4. Coupons are cool
An extension of this strategy is, whenever he buys something off the internet where he see the "promo code" on the checkout, he'll Google the site's name with the words "promo code." More often than not, someone has posted a promo code.
Payoff: "Guestimated" $1,000 a year for 5 hours of his time.
5. Keep the car
Payoff: Annual savings from depreciation, taxes, insurance, and gasoline of $5,000 per car.
6. Shop online
The internet shifts power from the sellers to us consumers. With the click of a mouse, we can comparison shop across the world.
Payoff: "Guestimated" savings of $800 annually (He says he saved almost this amount on my big screen last month).
7. Buy knockoffs
Allan notes he can get on eBay and find a compatible cartridge for as little as a quarter of the price, including shipping. It comes from Asia, and may even be produced by the same company producing the OEM version. Now the printer documentation advises you that using non-OEM ink will render the warranty void, and cause your printer to self-destruct, but he says he hasn't had issues - just savings.
Payoff: Two toners a month, saving $60 per cartridge = $1,440 annually.
8. Get an insurance checkup
One word of advice: You need to make sure any insurance company you have is ranked high in both customer satisfaction and financial stability.
Payoff: Cut $600 annually from my property and casualty insurance.
9. Complain well
To speak with a person he knows will have more power to solve the problem, he immediately, but politely, asks for a supervisor.
Payoff: Varies but, when he toured a timeshare for a promised Carnival cruise, he turned the worthless voucher into getting reimbursed for the actual cruise.
10. Keep cash working hard
His favorite solution for cash he may need soon is in an unlikely place - five-year CDs at Ally Bank. They are currently paying 1.74 percent APY and have a 60 day early withdrawal penalty, which amounts to only 0.29%. If he closes the CD after 61 days, he's earned more than his money market account yielding 0.03 percent.
Even with $10,000 in cash, this is a way to spend 20 minutes and earn $174 a year more with your money. That's not a bad hourly wage.
Payoff: Allan has a $100K emergency cash reserve earning $2,740 annually at Ally Bank rather than a whole lot of nothing at Wells Fargo, his local bank (the rate was 2.74% when he opened the CDs).