Let’s have a moment of truth for a second, you probably landed on this post because you are looking to get the most out of your time and money?! Or even improve your systems. I don’t blame you, queen maximizer over here! These ten ways are what work for me, hopefully you will find them helpful in your life or for your business!
Let’s get to the juicy details:
Delegate
Grocery delivery and house cleaning are two of the easiest ways to maximize your time and money. For grocery delivery we use Wal-Mart and Thrive Market. See this post for ways to eat healthy on a budget! Oh, and use this link to save $10 on your first Wal-Mart delivery of pick-up order!
Tracking expenses
I know, boringgggg. We weren’t born to track expenses, enter the amazing tool, Expensify. You may have heard me raving about this on insta stories. It’s been a total game changer. This is a huge time saver for you throughout the year and especially tax time! There are a lot of different systems out there, and trust me when I say I searched high and low for one that was very easy to use and was not complicated or old school (quickbooks). Expensify fit the bill and at $5/mo it’s made my life so much easier! Oh and to top it off, it makes these beautiful reports for your CPA! They will thank you! Gone are the days where you have a shoe box filled with receipts that you have to sort at the end of the year! BYE.
Have a plan
On Sunday look at your calendar and make a game plan for the week ahead. Having a plan lets you move forward with clear intentions and purpose.
Taxes
Plan for taxes. Especially if you are self employed. Who wants to pull from savings when it’s tax time? Not me. You can also work with your CPA to pay your taxes throughout the year. If you decide not to pay them throughout the year, your CPA can tell you how much you should be saving. Dedicate a specific account to this!
Automate your retirement account contribution
You know that saying, out of sight, out of mind?! That is exactly what we are doing here. TEB and I like to contribute 15-20% of our gross income EACH to our retirement accounts. He has a 401K plan through his work and a ROTH IRA and I have a SEP IRA and a ROTH IRA. If you are employed somewhere, check with your human resources department to see if they have a plan, it was likely mentioned in that big stack of papers you got on your first day! Some employers even match a certain percentage of your contribution, HELLO FREE MONEY. Once you get this set up it will save you time and money because it will be automatic!
We highly recommend working with a Financial Advisor to make sure you are making all the right moves.
We are certain they will 1) tell you to automate it and 2) tell you to AT MINIMUM contribute enough to get the employer match!
Pay your mortgage payment bi-weekly
Not to be confused with making an extra payment, this is different. This is taking your mortgage payment, cutting it in half and paying the first half let’s say on the 1st and the second half on the 15th.
You might be wondering why, so let me explain. If you pay your mortgage monthly, like most homeowners, you’re making 12 payments a year. When you enroll in a biweekly payment plan, you’re paying half your monthly amount once every two weeks instead. There are 52 weeks in a year, so this works out to 26 biweekly payments or 13 monthly payments. Since you are making the equivalent of 13 monthly payments each year, you’ll pay less total interest while also lowering your principal balance much quicker! A few other reasons to do this: it builds equity faster, you pay less interest over time, and you pay off your mortgage faster! This is totally different than waiting until the end of the year and making an extra mortgage payment.
Get a high yield savings account
Ok, I’m really hoping you have money put aside in a savings account, and if not, there is no better time than today, right now to start. While you’re at it, open yourself a high yield savings account so you can earn money on top of your money. Yes, please. If you need a breakdown of all the options, check out this from Nerd Wallet. Typical high-yield accounts can earn close to 2% APY. To compare, the national savings average is 0.09% APY, boooo. If your money is in an account that earns a high interest rate, your balance will grow faster without any additional effort on your part, yay!
Buy in bulk
I mentioned above that we do grocery delivery, another way to save money is to buy in bulk if you have enough storage to accommodate. Often times you can buy nuts/seeds/grains in bulk and we do this on Thrive Market and at Costco. It’s usually much more cost effective to do this!
Unsubscribe
Seriously, it is 2020, yall. If it isn’t bringing value to your inbox, it has gotta go. Initially, it will take a little time. Once you have it handled, you will have a clean inbox and won’t be spending precious time sorting through all of those unnecessary emails.
Say no
Yep, I said it. Have blinders on to anything that doesn’t move the needle in your life/business, fill you with fun and joy, or align with your vision. Time is so, so precious and something that we will never get back, be very careful how you spend it!
BONUS: if your employer offers a Flexible Spending Account or FSA account, enroll
Let me explain, the short answer is tax savings. An FSA saves you money by reducing your income taxes. The contributions you make to a Flexible Spending Account are deducted from your pay BEFORE your Federal, State, or Social Security Taxes are calculated and are never reported to the IRS.
Essentially, an FSA plan lets employees take home a larger paycheck by reducing their taxable income. Employees enrolled contribute tax-free dollars into an account that can be used throughout the year on qualified medical, dental, vision or qualified dependent care expenses — reducing out-of-pocket costs. YESSSS!
So, if your employer offers this, I suggest sitting down and figuring out approximately how much you will be spending on co-pays, deductibles, prescriptions, dental, vision, etc! They also do dependent care expenses aka your child care!
Hopefully you will find this list helpful! How do you maximize your time and money?!
