1. Home
  2. 5 Easy Steps to Greater Financial Security
  • Sign up
  • Sign in
Money Talks News
  • Popular
  • Latest
    • Coronavirus
    • Ask Stacy
    • Make
    • Save
    • Borrow
    • Grow
    • Live
    • More
  • Deals
    • Automotive
    • Clothing & Accessories
    • Computers
    • Electronics
    • Everything Else
    • Financial Services
    • Gaming & Toys
    • Health & Beauty
    • Home & Garden
    • Movies, Music & Books
    • Office & Supplies
    • Special Occasion
    • Sports & Fitness
    • Store Events
    • Travel & Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Solutions
  • Academy
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Search our site
Seniors holding hands in pool4 Simple Steps for a More Comfortable Retirement
10 Amazing Ways to Build Wealth at Any Age10 Amazing Ways to Build Wealth at Any Age
Happy older investor5 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $100,000
Older woman with doctor looking at phone14 Things That Are Free With Medicare

5 Easy Steps to Greater Financial Security

Saving for retirement is really about small moves that add up over the years. Here are my five favorites.

Advertising Disclosure: When you buy something by clicking links on our site, we may earn a small commission, but it never affects the products or services we recommend.

Guest Blogger • September 27, 2012

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by Email Share on Pinterest Printable version available to members PDF version available to members
Image Not Available

The following post comes from Len Penzo at partner site LenPenzo.com.

Few people enjoy penny-pinching, but it’s easy to cut back on wasteful spending that costs most of us hundreds, if not thousands, a year. And it’s unlikely to harm your happiness or your quality of life. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: With more money stashed away in a retirement account, you’ll get the peace of mind that comes with financial security.

Here are five low-hassle ways to do it…

1. Use an online savings account for infrequent expenses

It’s easy enough to account for monthly expenses like groceries, cable bills, and student loans. But we often forget to take into account annual expenses – car repairs, home maintenance, property taxes, magazine subscriptions – that come infrequently or once or twice a year.

The best way to handle this is to estimate the annual expense and, every week or month, automatically put money into an online savings account earmarked for that purpose. INGDirect, for instance, allows you to create up to 20 individual savings accounts. Best of all, you can always move money between accounts if, for instance, a big car repair hits and you haven’t yet saved the money. At the end of the year, sweep any leftover money into your IRA or rainy-day savings accounts.

2. Be ready to switch cell phone and cable carriers

Nobody likes to lose a customer, particularly big companies with the financial wherewithal to take a hit on discounts for a few educated (and mildly patient) consumers. When it comes time to renew your cell phone bill, explore your options and, if you like your current carrier, call them to negotiate if you find a competitor with lower rates or better features. Do the same with cable every six to 12 months.

If the company won’t budge, try the nuclear option: Threaten to leave. They’ll often come around, and if they don’t, you’ll at least know you’ll be saving money by switching. One note of caution: The process of canceling and opening a new account can take some time on the phone or in the showroom. If you don’t have the time, the savings may not be worth it.

3. Get deals on gas

Saving a few dollars on a tank of gas may not seem like the most effective way to boost retirement savings, but stretch those savings out over a year and it starts to add up. Saving even $2 a tank, per week, add ups to $104 a year. And Internet sites and smartphone apps like GasBuddy make it easy to search for the lowest prices in your area. That extra mile is often worth the extra savings.

4. Do it yourself

Laziness (and in some cases, a lack of self-confidence) can cost you big. Over the course of a year, paying for someone to complete simple maintenance tasks like installing windshield wipers, unclogging a drain, and washing a car can really add up.

Sometimes it’s a matter of convenience or necessity, but typically it’s either because we don’t feel like doing it, or don’t feel like we can do it. But the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) community is alive and well online, and you can find written and video instructions on everything from painting a room to building a kitchen table. Give it a shot, save some money, and give your retirement savings a boost.

5. Don’t pay for storage

Backing up files like photographs, documents, and music is essential in today’s digitally centered world. But it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to do so. In fact, unless you have particularly huge storage needs, it shouldn’t cost anything.

Services like Amazon Cloud storage gives users 5 GB of storage for free. If you own an Apple device like an iPad, iPhone, or desktop computer, its iCloud offering backs up an unlimited number of files created or stored in its native applications (iPhoto, Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheets, etc.). Music purchased via iTunes is automatically available for re-download if your hard drive crashes and, for $25 a year, its iTunes Match service will even store music purchased outside the Apple universe. Google Music and others offer similar services for free.

  Like Article   Add a Comment

Sign up for our free newsletter!

Simple ways to make, save, and grow your money daily:

  happy subscribers    
MTN Podcasts

Every week our podcasts bring you lively money discussions that will give you a few laughs along with advice that will make you richer.

Money with Stacy Johnson

Listen/Subscribe

Read Next

Some of our favorite stories for you to read next.

Woman who is a cheapskate
10 Times You’re Right to Be a Cheapskate
Bananas at Walmart
9 Things You Should Never Buy at Walmart
Man with too many books
How to Get Rid of 5 Hard-to-Sell Things
Sign up for our free newsletter!

Join our many free newsletter subscribers building wealth and destroying debt:

Popular Topics
  • Retirement Investment
  • Surveys for Money
  • How to Make Money Online
  • Emergency Stockpile
  • Free Movie Streaming
  • Senior Discounts
Connect
  • Support & FAQs
  • Memberships
  • About
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Accessibility Statement
Media
  • Advertise
  • Television
  • Where We Air
  • Scripts
  • Sitemap
Legal
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
Editorial
  • Fact-Checking Policy
  • Ethics Policy
  • Corrections Policy
  • Ownership & Funding Info

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

© 2023 Money Talks News. All Rights Reserved.
‭1 (833) 669-8557 | 1732 1st Ave #26661, New York, NY 10128

Advertising Disclosure: This site may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website.

View This Page Without Ads

Help us produce more money-saving articles and videos by subscribing to a membership.

Get Started

Help us produce more money-saving articles and videos by subscribing to a membership.

Add a Comment

Our Policy: We welcome relevant and respectful comments in order to foster healthy and informative discussions. All other comments may be removed. Comments with links are automatically held for moderation.

Sign up for our free newsletter!

Join our happy subscribers and sign up for our free newsletter! You'll get:

  • Tips and advice from our expert money reporters. (Our average experience is 18 years!)
  • Unexpected ways to make more and spend less, delivered to you daily.
  • The best deals and coupons to save on everything you buy.
  • Free copies of our eBooks '208 Ways to Save Money Every Day' and '108 Easy Ways to Earn Extra Cash', together a $29 value!