Knowledge is power

I wrote before about the path to riches being one of long term investment. Unfortunately, for many of us scrapping a few hundred dollars every month to invest for retirement seems like a Herculean task. The truth is that we waste more money on a daily basis than we know. There are many ways to save a bit of money that can be put towards retirement. This post outlines 2 easy money saving ideas that should help you reach your retirement goals.

Magazine subscriptions

If you are an avid magazine reader then it is possible to save lots of money from your budget in a couple of ways. First of all, you can spend zero money on magazines if you are willing to read them at your local library. If you think that this is too much of a hassle then consider buying a yearly subscription as opposed to purchasing your magazines at a local store on a monthly basis. Many magazine publishers will give you huge discounts for yearly subscriptions. For example, I am holding here a copy of Popular Science which offers a 1 year subscription for $12.95 which is a savings of 78% over buying each monthly copy locally. Similarly, Men’s Health magazine can be had for $29.97 a year versus $59.90 at the local magazine stand.

ATM fees

ATM fees is probably the easiest way to waste your hard earned money. Often you will be asked to pay a fee of $1.25 or higher (I have seen up to $2.0) to retrieve money from an ATM. I can’t believe that people are willing to pay this, especially when often all they want is $20; the fee is 6.25 percent of the money you just took out of your bank account. That’s a lot of money! Don’t pay the fees. Get your debit card from a bank that has lots of its own ATMs spread around your city. Sometimes, banks that do not have their own machines come to agreements with other banks to service their clients without asking for extra money. For example, my bank’s debit card allows me to withdraw money from any ATM that is part of The Exchange network. I never use a machine that is not part of the network. I’m not stupid. Are you?

These were 2 straightforward ways to save money on a daily basis. There are many more ways to save money and I will discuss them in future posts. Stay tuned!