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Review Your Personal Finances

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“Money can’t buy happiness, but …

  • … it allows you to rent.” – Anon.
  • … neither can poverty.” – Leo Rosten
  • … it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.” – Clare Boothe Luce

Introduction

Regardless of your opinion about money (whether they resemble those sentiments above, or more aligned with Biggie’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems” claim), we all know there is a minimum amount of “the green” necessary just to meet the “bear” necessities (thanks Baloo). That minimum is different for all of us (based on cost of living, what we consider to be the bare necessities, and who all is dependent on us).

This past week, I tried to gauge my current circumstances, accounting for my location, salary, typical expenses, and existing debt. Here’s what I learned.

Young Fabulous and Broke

As part of my financial reflection, I realized that I needed some suggestions to get started. Based on a recommendation from a friend, I picked up Suze Orman’s “The Money Book for the Young Fabulous & Broke.” The book focuses on advice for those recently out of college that are trying to handle new careers, student loans, credit card debt, and future retirement demands.

While the book was a solid, quick read, there wasn’t a whole lot that I learned that I hadn’t already read on “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” or “Get Rich Slowly.” Having said that, if you are completely new to finances, YF&B is a great starting point. From the nearly 400-page book, I picked up the following:

  • For all things financial: Your FICO score is incredibly important. It’s the “credit score” that almost all banks and loan companies use to determine your interest rate. While many things affect your score, I didn’t realize that your debt/credit limit ratio accounts for 30% of the number you receive.
  • For retirement: If your company offers a 401k match, focus on contributing whatever amount required to get the maximum contribution from your company (it is “free money” after all). If they don’t offer matching, or if you’ve already contributed the max, the next place to go is a Roth IRA.
  • For saving money: All cost-savings help. Some of the more interesting suggestions included:
    • Avoid ATM fees at all costs (which happens to be $1.50 to $4.00 per). Luckily this is easy for me because Charles Schwab will reimburse any ATM fees I incur.
    • Stop getting a tax refund. It’s a free loan to the government that you could be using for investing. The key is to find the right number of exemptions that limit your refund but doesn’t leave you owing the government.
    • If you don’t have anyone dependent on you financially (no kids, spouse, etc), drop your Life Insurance.
  • For investing: Index funds can be a good starting point for getting into investing. They don’t require hours of research and historically have returned moderate returns.
  • For loaning money: Everyone wants to help their friends and family when they can. However when it comes to loaning money, failing to set clear, written expectations around repayment of loans can lead to strained relationships. So before loaning someone money, write down the terms of the loan (how it will be repaid, how often, will there be interest, etc).

My Current Currency Situation

After reading through the book, I assessed my current situation. I feel very fortunate to be able to say that I have no student loans or credit card debt. My only loan is for my (former) car, which will be sold to my brother before too long. I have 4 different bank accounts, each with varying amounts of money in them. One is a “brick-and-mortar” checking account, another is an online checking account (with 3% interest), the third is an online savings account (with 4.2% interest), and the last is an online brokerage account.

My living expenses have recently increased with the move to NYC. Thanks to an Excel spreadsheet I created, I have a handle on what my expenses have been since the move (and compared to Ohio), and what they “should” be. Using an online finance program, I was also able to see exactly where I’ve been spending my money (sadly I’ve been to McDonald’s 19 times in the past 6 months).

Financial Plan

Based on my assessment, I realized there are a number of things that I needed to improve:

  1. Organize. Based on interest rates and convenience, I need to move some of my money around. My “bills” account will move to the online checking account, the “emergency fund” to the online savings account, the retirement/investment money to the brokerage account, and a new “drew tarvin inc.”-type account to the brick-and-mortar bank.
  2. Automate. I already do Direct Deposit at work, but I need to modify it so that it goes to the “bills” account. After that, I need to automatically contribute money for investments. I’ll have 4 types of investments: 1) Retirement 2) Investing/Money Growth 3) Small business and 4) “drew tarvin, inc.” (With #4, I’m saying that I will be investing in the business of me, aka my comedy).
  3. Adjust. Based on where I saw I was spending my money, I need to make some changes. For example, food (more specifically dining out) accounted for a huge portion of my monthly expenses. Considering I have, on average, 90 “meals” a month (30 days at 3 meals a piece), dining out for all of them would get quite expensive. Assuming a typical breakfast is $4 (reasonable if it’s at McDonald’s or Starbucks), a lunch is $8 (assuming it’s not a formal sit-down restaurant), and dinner is $15 (the average for a moderately nice establishment), that’s over $800. If I can keep the number of meals I eat out to 50%, and assume a $200 monthly grocery bill (2x my current average), then I could save $200 a month or $2400 a year.
  4. Invest. As it stands, I have yet to enter the realm of the stock market. As any financial site will tell me, the biggest thing I have going for me is time. If I start a moderate investment program now and get a modest 8% return, I could be looking at over $1 million for retirement easily. Through a Roth IRA and otherwise, I need to pick a few Index funds and other investments to get started soon.

Conclusion

Everyone’s financial situation is different. Maybe you have more debt than me, or make more money. But hopefully seeing my personal exploration can help you with your own. Though not everything will apply, I can tell you that you can reapply doing the research on personal finance (online or through books like YF&B) and research on yourself (through a budget or online service). Those two steps alone will get you on the right track to financial clarity and freedom.

With some smart decisions, conscious spending, and diligent tracking, hopefully we can all be experiencing “Mo Problems” in a few years.

The Inner Game of Tennis

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Book Review: “The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey
Published: 1974
Pages: 134

In Troduction

“The Inner Game of Tennis” is subtitled as “the classic guide to the mental side of peak performance.” It has been in publication for more than 30 years and followed by a number of highly successful professionals in the tennis, football, music, and corporate worlds. I decided to read this book for two reasons: 1) A good friend gave me the book and spoke of it highly, and 2) Improving mental performance would seem to be beneficial in any activity, whether it’s tennis, stand-up or picking up chicks.

Selfish Thinking

The entire book is based on the premise that there are two “selves.” Gallwey names them Self 1 and Self 2, where Self 1 is the ego-mind or “teller” (“Hit the ball like this”) and Self 2 is natural ability or the “doer” (the actual movement of the muscles to hit the ball). In order to achieve peak performance, one must “quiet the mind” (Self 1) and let Self 2 do what it knows how to do.

At a high-level, this makes sense: stop thinking so much and just do it. In improv, you’re forced into situations where you don’t have time to think, and you just have to open your mouth and hope something comes out. Think back to the last interview you saw of someone doing something incredible such as saving a child from a fire or helping a drowning man. Some reporter inevitably asks them “what was going through your mind?” and the typical “boring” response is “I don’t remember. I just reacted.”

Sure, stop thinking, just do it, sounds easy enough right? Go ahead and try it now. Stop thinking…. I said stop. You can’t do it. The brain naturally thinks of something (such as the Stay-Puft Marshmallows).  So Mr. Gallwey, how are we supposed to quiet Self 1 if it’s impossible to stop thinking?

“The best way to quiet the mind is not by telling it to shut up, or by arguing with it, or criticizing it for criticizing you. What works best is learning to focus it.” (pg 82) Ah, so “to still the mind, one must learn to put it somewhere.” (pg 83) But what does it mean to focus the mind? Focus means picking up only “those aspects of a situation that are needed to accomplish the task at hand.” (pg 84) So if you’re hitting a tennis ball, all you really need to focus on is the ball. That’s it.

Changes

Getting out of the way of Self 2 makes a lot of sense … if Self 2 knows the right thing to do. When I’m on stage, I don’t consciously tell myself to look down during my segues, or to say “uh” to fill pauses. I just do it. Neither are particularly beneficial to my performance, but how can they be corrected if Self 1 has to stay out of it? How do I fix a bad habit if I can’t tell myself what to do?

“There is no need to fight old habits. Start new ones.” (pg 74) In order to “fix” a bad habit, you don’t actually have to “fix” the habit. Instead just start working on a good one. The bad habit doesn’t necessarily “disappear,” you just stop doing it. Gallwey edifies this point with the analogy of babies: just because they learn to walk doesn’t mean they forget how to crawl.

Theoretically this makes sense. Hey stop doing A and start doing B. Magically, A disappears, hooray. But we return to the above problem: how do you start doing B if you can’t tell Self 2 what it means to do B (doo bee doo)?

A Thousand Words

The trick is that you can communicate with Self 2, just not in the traditional sense of “Hey head. Yeah, you up at the top. Don’t look down in between your jokes.” but in the sense of imagery, or rather sensory images. Gallwey refers to this as heightening awareness. Become “aware” of important aspects of whatever you are working to improve, get an accurate image of the correct action, imagine you doing that action, and then let Self 2 do the action.

Suppose you could use some improvement in your typing ability. You always seem to struggle to find the ‘.’ key quickly and it slows down your typing when writing multiple sentences. You know from your study of the “home row” that the ‘.’ key rests on the lower right of the keyboard, next to the ‘,’ and ‘/’, and that you’re supposed to hit the key with your ring finger on your right hand. How would you fix this?

Gallwey’s four step process is defined as 1) Nonjudgmental observation, 2) Picture the desired outcome, 3) Trust Self 2, and 4) Nonjudgmental observation of change and results. It’s important to note his use of the word “nonjudgmental.” When observing your own behavior (becoming aware of what is happening), you must do it without judging your behavior as positive or negative, right or wrong, good or bad. This type of analysis of the situation is Self 1 talking, so let it go. Instead you just observe the behavior as it is, indifferent to whether it’s “good” or “bad.”

So you nonjudgmentally observe you typing a few sentences. You notice that whenever you need to hit the ‘.’ key, you move your hand down and hit it with your middle finger. After hitting the key, you find that you have to move your entire hand back to the home row to get ready for the next sentence. Now that you’ve observed this action, you picture the correct behavior, that is, you picture your ring finger hitting the ‘.’ key. In fact you may even hit the ‘.’ key a few times, each time bringing the ring finger down to hit it and returning it back to its starting position, just noticing how it feels to bring the finger down, and letting Self 2 feel what it’s like. With all the information it needs, Self 2 is ready to go. You start typing again, observing what your fingers are doing. You don’t make a conscious effort to hit the ‘.’ with your ring finger, you just observe which finger is doing it. If the “Inner Game” and Gallwey’s theory works, you’ll observe that you were hitting it with your ring finger.

(Note: I purposefully gave this as an example because it’s something that I need to work on.  While typing the above paragraphs, I observed where my fingers were, but refrained from thinking “hit it with your ring finger.”  Based on the above results, it does seem that I am more consistently hitting it with the right finger and speeding up my typing.)

The Inner Game of ?

The concept of mastering “Inner Game” is certainly an interesting one, and it seems pretty obvious that it can be applied to other areas of your life. However, what are its limitations? Does it only make sense in sports? Sure it can help the golf swing, but what about the business world?

To me it seems that Gallwey’s theory works best for actions that are physical, those using muscle memory (such as a tennis swing or looking down during a stand-up set).   But how would it apply to the cessation of smoking cigarettes, saying “uh,” or picking up chicks? How does Self 2 learn/imagine a desired outcome of not standing there with a cigarette in your mouth, the lack of a verbal tick, or sweeping a girl off her feet?

For the more cerebral, verbal, theoretical circumstances, Self 2 doesn’t get much of a say.  If Self 2 is out of the picture, then that means Self 1 is the only one available.  And while a lot of Gallwey’s tips are dependent on Self 2′s presence, I think the underlying concept of increasing awareness, focus and observation can help with the less physical actions.  Being aware of the smoke filling my lungs might lead to a more pressing desire to quit (I can’t say as I never started).  Focusing on the words I’m saying could help me limit the number of “uhs” that creep out.  Observing both my own and other people’s body language could improve my “macking” skills.  As Self 2 accepts the Inner Game, maybe I’ll find out.

In Conclusion

At 134 pages, the “Inner Game” is a quick read.  The concepts within are thought-provoking and applicable to a number of areas (plus I have a head start if I ever want to pick up the game of tennis).  If you found any of the above thoughts interesting, I highly recommend you pick up your own copy.  I barely scratched the surface of its big picture concept, and Gallwey does a great job of providing details and examples to further your comprehension of his ideas.  Of all the words in the book, I think my favorite might have been the following, found on page 127:

“Maybe wisdom is not so much to come up with new answers as to recognize at a deeper level the profundity of the age-old answers.”- W. Timothy Gallwey

Improv At Work

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Improv at Work

Stepping on stage, before 60 managers at a Fortune 50 company, Matt has no idea what he is about to say. Normally external speakers prepare days in advanced the exact speeches they are going to give when charged with the task of engaging corporate clients such as those at one of the world’s largest consumer products company.  But Matt is prepared only with a mental outline of how the next 45 minutes will go–no notes, no PowerPoint presentation, and no script.

Matt is a member of the Smarty Pants Theater Company getting set to go to work. Smarty Pants specializes in a form of entertainment called improvisational comedy. There are no scripted lines, rehearsed scenes, or extensive props and sets. Instead, Matt and his fellow improvisers use a framework of simple predefined rules, and suggestions from the audience, to create a customized show for their corporate clients.

Asked if he gets nervous before performing and having no idea what he’s going to say, Matt responds, “Not knowing what I’m going to say doesn’t scare me anymore. I know I’ve got the support from my fellow improvisers, and I trust my instincts for the rest. After hundreds of shows, you don’t get nervous, you get excited.” His fellow entertainers agree. “In improv, there is no failing. With my team here to support me, I know that any little mishap, any ‘mistake,’ can turn into a huge laugh,” says fellow Smarty Pants member, Dave Powell.

Calm in the Unknown

How can these performers be so calm and confident before performing before a corporate audience? And what can the business world learn from improv? It all lies in the power of two words, “Yes And.” The number one rule in improvisation, “Yes And” is a short phrase that improvisers around the world embrace and use every time they take the stage.

The amazing thing about these two words is that they can have a tremendous effect when applied to business. Not to be confused with a “Yes Man” (someone who blindly agrees with everything and is often viewed as a “suck-up”), and not the equivalent of blind optimism, “Yes And” is about the acceptance and building of an idea, situation or action.

When you first start learning the art and science (it is both) of improvisation, the “Yes And” rule is very literal. In fact, one of the first games new improvisers are taught is called “Yes And.” The game teaches the fundamental skills of listening and accepting (“Yes”) and building or contributing (“And”). By forcing the players to repeatedly say these words, they are reiterating, “YES I heard what you said and accept what you offered, AND here’s how I’m going to build on that.”

Advanced Yes And

At its root, this interpretation of “Yes And” is about listening to understand, rather than listening to respond. Knowing that you will have to accept what the other person is saying (notice the distinction between agreeing with what they say), and that you will have to build on it, shifts our goal from “Here’s my idea” aka “Me me me” to “Here’s our idea” aka “We we we” (all the way home).

The most basic form of “Yes And” is about literally saying the words, accepting what the person has said and adding to it. But it is important to note that the concept is not about agreeing with everything offered, but rather accepting that it was offered. In essence, it is about agreeing to have the conversation.

Novice improvisers assume “Yes And” means you can’t say “no” on stage. They don’t realize that it’s perfectly fine (and sometimes necessary) to disagree on stage, so long as they agree on the premise of the scene. Some of the best scenes on stage are when players are in a disagreement with one another (over money, how to spend their Friday, where to eat), but they are agreeing to argue.

Business Applications of Yes And

In business, this translates into a willingness to accept that something has been offered – a proposal, a corporate mandate, a budget cut. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with it, just that you acknowledge AND build on it, where “building” could include offering a new proposal (you are accepting that there is a perceived problem or opportunity and building on that by offering an alternative solution).

At first glance, “Yes And” seems to be synonymous with blind optimism. It seemingly adds to the stigmatism against theater (more specifically, theater actors or thespians) that they are “care-free,” that “everything happens for a reason,” that there is this zen-like “hippie” idealism that everything is positive. This type of mentality would not bode well for any business – crises do occur, projects do fail, companies do lose money.

These events are hardly “for the best,” and that’s not what “Yes And” is suggesting. Rather, “Yes And” is about accepting a given situation and figuring out how you can build from there.

The theory of “Yes And” is quite powerful, but, at the end of the day, theory doesn’t sell product. The true benefit from the “Yes And” mentality isn’t realized until it is internalized. When “Yes And” becomes a part of how you behave, the effects are profound. When an individual, or even better, a team, understands “Yes And,” negating becomes building, complaining becomes doing, and wishing becomes getting things done. There’s no challenge a team can’t handle when they agree to work and build together.

How to Improv Work

So how does one go about “internalizing” this mentality? The short answer is to incorporate it into how you think and behave. Improv workshops can augment this process, as can talking the concept with others. Consciously applying this mentality in key business applications can lead to incredible results.

No matter what situation you find yourself in, rarely will growing frustrated and giving up lead to the best results. It is in these moments that “Yes And” proves its worth. Instead of growing frustrated due to lack of funding, or angry over mounting issues, you can accept the circumstances and figure out how you can build from where you are. Ask any manager, this type of attitude will surely lead to success.

The beauty is that once you internalize this process, you come to trust your instinct, and you become more confident that you can handle a variety of situations.  You don’t need a word-for-word script to succeed, you’re able to accept new challenges, and you can do it with confidence and a smile.

Yes And Goodnight

The lights turn on and staring at Matt are the 120 eyes of the audience.  He looks at his fellow players and smiles.  Over the next 45 minutes, Matt and his fellow improvisers perform an unscripted show, taking audience suggestions like “spatula” and “project management,” interviewing one of the Vice Presidents in the crowd and acting out her “typical” day, and doing a series of stand-up jokes based on products shouted out by the crowd.

The show ends to a great applause from the audience.  One man leaving the theater comments to Matt that he hasn’t “laughed like that in a long time.”  A woman is in disbelief, wondering if there was some way they could’ve scripted the show.  The Smarty Pants members shake hands with people as they leave.  Despite not knowing what they were going to say or do, were they still able to deliver great results?  Yes, and they’ll do it again the next time they step on stage.  And that’s what business is about.

15 Tips for Saving Money

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The single most important thing you can do to take care of your finances is to create a budget. Sure it’s an ugly word, and not a fun process, but if you don’t track where your money is going, and try to make a plan for future revenues and expenses, you aren’t going to achieve the kind of success you want. I’m not going to pretend that I sit down and plan my budget every month and stick to it to a T (or is it tee, or tea?), but the process of just making a budget of what you’ve done in the past 3 months is eye-opening.

When I went through this process a few months ago, I discovered I was spending around $700 just for a place to live (rent, cable and other bills), $750 for transportation (car payment, insurance, and gas – close to $200 for the fuel alone), and $400 or so for food (a pretty even split between groceries and dining out). That’s nearly $2,000 I’m spending every month just to survive (shelter, food, and of course getting to a number of places for either P&G or comedy). All things considered, this isn’t really that bad – I have no children or wife to take care, I’m only paying rent, and my car payment could be worse, but when I went back and looked at my individual expenses, it certainly could have been lower.

The advantage to completing a budget (even if it’s one based on past data, not future looking), is that it informs you of where that hard earned cash is going – and as the GI Joes told us, “Knowing is half the battle.” Once you know where your money is going, you can take steps to curtail spending in key areas to increase the overall amount of money you are saving.

Before I get into some steps to save money, I want to briefly talk about what you should be doing with the extra money you are saving. While “investing” may be a scary word, it is absolutely necessary in today’s world. Considering the state of social security in this country these days, you can’t rely on the government to provide you sufficient funds once you retire. You need to be proactive and plan for your own future, whether it’s having kids, going to college, or retiring. Plus investing puts your money to work and allows you to accrue income just for having money (sort of). I won’t go into details of how you can get into investing, as I am certainly not an expert. Instead, I’ll point you to http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com – the site that got me to really think about my finances. The site is geared towards a younger audience, but it certainly has relevant information for everyone (I suggest starting here). If you’re serious about increasing your wealth and your future security, go to that site now (well, after you finish reading this post).

Ok, so you’ve got your resource for what do when you have disposable income, what can you do to actually get disposable income? Below is a list of 15 tips you can do to save money. Most of them are tips I use every day, others are things I’ve read but don’t necessarily do. A few disclaimers before we get started though:

  • This list is just a set of suggestions. You don’t have to do every single thing listed to see results. You have to define which things will work for you.
  • If you take the time to actually do a budget, this list can help troubleshoot key areas. If you find that you spend a lot of money dining out, then the restaurant or food tips will be of particular interest.
  • Like we’ve talked before, it’s best to start out small. Don’t expect to find happiness or success by doing all of things listed below, as most of them require some type of sacrifice that you may think detracts from your overall happiness in life. Identify these and manage them. The list isn’t meant to turn you into an anti-social hermit that does nothing, it’s just meant to get the gears in your own head moving to find other ways to save where you can.
  • Finally, the biggest way you can increase the amount of money you have is to increase the actual amount you receive. This can be done by getting a better job, getting a raise, adding a second (or third) job. The key is that if you do increase your income, don’t increase your expenses. It’s truly powerful when you can live below your means.

Ok, with all of that out of the way, here are 15 ways you can work to save money:

  1. Learn to love technology. Take advantage of new technology to save time (which then frees you up for other things) and to better educate yourself. Things like reading blogs (made easier through blog aggregators like Bloglines), listening to podcasts, and connecting with other people can help you learn new ways to save money.
  2. Become a savvy consumer. Use the Internet to do your research before you make any large purchases, and learn to negotiate prices. You’ll be surprise how many places you can actually haggle for a better deal. Check out this eHow article for more tips.
  3. Seriously, eat at home. Dining out can seriously damage the pocket book if it is done too often. The added expense of food, beverages, leaving a tip, driving to the restaurant, etc etc all adds up. When you combine smart grocery shopping with some creativity in the kitchen, you can create a number of meals that net out to be less than $3. And you don’t even have to be a great cook to dine at home. Anyone can use a George Foreman grill, and it’s perfect for hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, chicken breast, and a huge host of other things. Head over to Cheap Eats if you want to find some other inexpensive dining options.
  4. Be a freezer. If you really wanted to maximize your savings by buying groceries, learn to love your freezer. A Sam’s membership plus a sizable freezer allows you to buy in bulk and really find savings. Things like bread can be frozen now and then put in the refrigerator to be consumed weeks later. The watch-out here is that your savings from bulk purchases has to outweigh the cost of the Sam’s membership and of a new freezer (if necessary)
  5. Love water. For the times that you do dine out, stick to ordering water. Non-alcoholic drinks easily push the $2 range, and alcohol is even more – not to mention drinking water is healthier for you. If you dine out 5 times a month, that’s a savings of $10 a month or $120 a year – just to drink water. And if you must have your fix of Diet Coke or Iced Tea, buy it at the store where it only costs you $.50 a can. Drink water at the restaurant and then reward yourself when you get home with a much cheaper alternative.
  6. Be DD. I don’t drink alcohol for personal reasons, but it also turns out to be quite the money saver. Going out sober for a night nets quite a nice ROI, and not just because you aren’t spending money on drinks. If you offer to be the Designated Driver for your buddies, you can easily get them to pay for gas (if you drive your car), get them to let you drive their car (no gas or miles on yours), and/or pay your cover at the clubs/bars. They get to have a night of responsible drunkenness, and you get to have a night of free fun. If you don’t think this will work because you don’t think you can go out and have fun without drinking, then saving money shouldn’t be your only concern.
  7. Be creative. Find new ways to have fun that don’t require much money. Going to the movies is nice, but it’s also at least a $10 ordeal (whereas if you wait till it comes to DVD and do a rental it’s much cheaper). Find new and creative ways to have fun like playing Frisbee golf. Or do your research online and find free events happening around your area. Cincyupdate.com has a whole list of events going on around Cincinnati, subscribe to their email and pay special attention to the free events on Fountain Square or down by the river.
  8. Find a hobby. Hobbies can help you fill free time and prevent from spending money out of boredom. The key here is to pick hobbies that don’t require much money (so golf would be a bad idea). Consider trying knitting, reading, writing (blogs are free) or improvising.
  9. Break the materialism. Stop tying your “happiness”/confidence/perception of fun to material things. People often go shopping or get their hair done when they think they need a boost in confidence, when all they are doing is adding an expense for something they can work to get for free. Similar to drinking, learn to work on your own personality and character so that you don’t require the crutch of material things to satisfy you.
  10. Kick the habit. Whether it’s smoking, gambling, or even being addicted to coffee, habits often cost money. The cost of cigarettes continues to rise, you’ll never beat the house when gambling, and that $4 Starbucks coffee is putting a drain on your budget. And while it’s certainly not easy to kick a habit, using some of the previous posts from this week, and getting professional help where applicable, can certainly help – you’ll end up with more money and a healthier lifestyle.
  11. Drive like a granny. When you average around 3,000 miles on your car every month, gas starts to add up. But even if you only drive 5 miles to work, improving you gas mileage will always make financial sense. There are plenty of ways to improve that MPG (removing unnecessary weight from the trunk, changing your air filter when appropriate, having properly inflated tires), but one of the biggest sources of better MPG might be your own driving style. Driving the speed limit and using cruise control can easily bump up your mileage 2-4 MPG. Every car is different, though the standard is 35mph and 55mph provide the best mileage, but do your own experiment to find the optimal speed for your car. The next time you fill up your tank, reset the trip odometer and drive like normal. When you have to fill up after that, divide the number of miles on your odometer by the number of gallons it took to fill your tank back up (that’s your MPG for that tank). Now reset your odometer and drive only the speed limit. Next time you fill up, do the same division and compare the two numbers. Repeat a few times to decrease variance, and play around with your speeds, and you’ll see the difference. In addition to saving money by filling up less, you’ll be doing a small part in saving the environment.
  12. Get rid of the crap. De-clutter your life to save time when cleaning and relieve unnecessary stress. Plus if you put your garbage on eBay, you might be able make some money for getting rid of your crap. How do you know what to get rid of? If you can’t foresee needing something within the next year, get rid of it. Sure there will be a few times that you throw out something only to need it a month later, but it’s worth it to get rid of the remaining 98% of crap you’ll never need. And remember, “when in doubt, throw it out.”
  13. Don’t be dumb. Stupidity can be a big expense for some people. Speeding leads to speeding tickets and increased insurance costs. Jumping from a 10-foot ledge leads to a trip to the hospital and the cost of a cast. Take some basic precautions and save yourself some cash (because, as of yet, stupidity insurance doesn’t exist yet).
  14. Live pet free. Dogs may be man’s best friend, but if you’re really strapped for cash, he’s also an added expense. There are a number of studies that talk about the positive effects pets have on their owners, so if you need that then consider this a last resort, but if your happiness isn’t tied to having a pet, then consider finding it a good home. Dog food, bones, leashes, and the overall time it takes to care for a pet can really add up. Note: please don’t do this with children, though they are also huge expenses.
  15. Drop the Cable. Not only does TV suck away hours from your life, sapping you of your productivity, but cable is pretty expensive. As broadband Internet connections become more and more mainstream, you can find nearly everything shown on TV online for free (or at least cheap). Sites like Joost and YouTube allow you to watch all types of video content, and stations like NBC are starting to allow you to stream their shows from their websites. You can find even more if you ignore that whole “law” thing, but I am by no means endorsing that.

And there you have it – 15 tips for saving money. I realize this is quite the marathon post, but there’s a lot of content to cover. I certainly didn’t hit everything, so don’t be afraid to google specific topics that you can use some help in (which you have identified by filling out a budget, right?). Also, be sure to check out iwillteachyoutoberich and getrichslowly for more information dedicated to taking control of your finances.