Some of Your Biggest Money Wastes

While wondering the difference between an ira vs 401k is certainly important decide the right moves to keep your future nest egg when you do finally walk away from work and continue to enjoy life without the daily grind, in order really free up money to put towards other areas such as building an emergency fund and paying off debt comes from reducing spending.  This can come in the form of cutting back on monthly expenses, but a great place to start would be to cut out any big money wastes.

Not Going Grocery Shopping

Whether it’s picking up coffee and a bagel in the morning on the way to work, grabbing lunch at the cafeteria, picking up carryout for dinner on the way home, or even taking the family out for a big dinner at your favorite restaurant, these costs add up pretty quickly, especially if you’re eating out quite often, multiple meals per day.  If you can do a little meal prep and make a list of all the items you need for the week, you can find that going grocery shopping instead can save you hundreds of dollars a month, not to mention give you plenty of healthier options.

Using the Wrong Credit Card

As long as you use a credit card responsibly, meaning you can payoff what you charge in a given month and not get caught up in paying interest, it can actually make good financial sense, provided you are using the right one.  With virtually an endless number of cards out there, credit card companies should be fighting for your business, so you would select the best you can get.  Rewards cards which offer points and cashback on purchases are great so you can earn free money just by making the purchases that you normally would be making anyways.

Not Checking Your Credit Report

With so much fraud going on these days, you can never be too careful.  Even the credit bureaus are getting hit, and I just got a letter the other day from Equifax saying that my some of my driver’s license info may have been compromised.  Great, huh?  While you may not be able to stop the hacking, but at least you should review your credit report at least once a year, not to mention take a look at your credit score on a monthly basis on your credit card statements to ensure that your score is not taking a dive and possibly costing you money on a lower interest rate on a mortgage, loan, or card.

Booking the Wrong Travel

There are so many travel sites out there now, which one is the right one?  Well, it’s not simple, meaning there is not always one site.  Try looking direct on the hotel, airline, or rental car’s website to see the best deal between those and the travel sites.  A lot of times you’ll find those sites cheaper, not to mention booking direct gives you the comfort knowing that if any issues occur, they can help you, instead of directing you back to the third-party site you booked from.