Category: Savings

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Financial Savings Tech & Media Technology

The 7 Best Coupon Apps Right Now

The 7 Best Coupon Apps Right Now

Are you looking to save money on your regular purchases? If yes, then coupon apps are the best way to do that. You can shop for a variety of items from popular stores at discounted prices without compromising the quality. Let’s take a look at the seven best coupon apps right now:

1. Dosh

Dost is the best overall coupon app for you and you can save big time without having to exert any effort yourself. In comparison to other coupon apps, you will find more savings on purchases with Dosh, including travels and accommodation too.

2. Coupon Sherpa

This one is among the oldest and reputable coupon apps since long and even today, offers a fantastic section of printable coupons. You can shop at multiple stores, restaurants, mall retailers, regional department stores, specialty retailers, big box stores and whatnot.

In fact, this great app goes way beyond than printable coupons too. It gives you several deals, coupon codes through mobile apps and lots more benefits.

3. Ibotta

Groceries are absolutely necessary but often it can tough to fit all into your budget for the month. Not anymore though because Ibotta not only more than 500 exclusive offers on your grocery shopping but also on delivery and grocery pickup.

4. YipIt

With the YipIt app, you can scour the internet for the best coupons available through a wide range of cities on your behalf. You can now find instant notifications of the great coupons and deals that a host of stores, retailers etc. are offering and grab them for yourself.

All you have to do is log on to the app and browse through the long lists of excellent coupons other apps are offering.

5. Honey

Honey is not just a great app but an extension browser too that applies the best discounts after searching for them. So when you shop from this app, you will see discounts applying automatically from over thirty thousand merchants.

This discount app covers more than 300 stores in U.S and several others from U.K and Canada.

6. Shopkick

This app is not your traditional coupon app but you can save quite significantly at the stores you shop more regularly from. with Shopkick, you get to earn reward points as “kicks” and then redeem them once you have gathered many with a gift card.

You can avail the gift cards at your favorite stores, including Amazon, Walmart and Target. You will be surprised at how much this app will help you on the same products you have been purchasing off-discounts since long.

7. CapitalOne

If you’re looking for one of the best apps and browser extensions for comparing prices on eligible items, then CapitalOne is for you. It automatically compares pricing of over thirty thousand retailers and even compares membership pricing and shipping costs.

This coupon app applies coupons automatically to your purchases from the thousands of retailers. If the app finds a place where your chosen item is on special prices, it provides you the link so that you can avail the offer.

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Financial Savings

6 Best Websites for Finding Coupons & Deals Online

6 Best Websites for Finding Coupons and Deals Online

Coupons are popular with shoppers for a reason. After all, who can resist the opportunity of grabbing a couple of high-quality products at discounted prices? Often the misconception people nurture is that shopping with coupons means they have to compromise on quality for the reduced prices but that is entirely untrue.

You can avail some fantastic coupons and find excellent products at great prices from the best websites. Not only do you meet your financial goals with coupons but you also get a lot of great products you’ve been after at half prices. Isn’t that wonderful?

Here are the best websites that offer the best coupons currently:

1. Ibotta

This is a cashback and coupon app that allows significant saving especially when you’re grocery shopping. You get to enjoy the cashback option when you complete certain tasks, such as purchasing a particular item, presenting purchase evidence, commenting on products or watching short videos.

2. CapitalOne Shopping

This browser extension alerts you when a coupon is available or when you get items at reduced prices. All you need to purchase the discounted items is to download the browser extension on chrome and make your account on it.

Then you search for your desired items through CapitalOne and it takes you to places where the said items are available at discounts.

3. Slickdeals

You can set your Deal Alerts quite easily with Slickdeals. It offers the customization option so that you get alerts that cater to your preferences and you can enjoy big savings. For example, if you’re looking for kitchen appliances you can customize alerts so that Slickdeals notifies you the moment appliances go on discount somewhere.

4. Rakuten

You will not regret signing up for this cashback and coupon site. Users can enjoy the free service and enjoy cashback opportunities from hundreds of its websites. You can also avail a dozen fantastic coupons additionally.

5. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an amazing coupon website that helps you save big time in several ways. The best part is that you can print their coupons quite easily and use for your purchases at clothing brand outlets, drug stores and grocery stores etc.

You earn a swagbuck upon each coupon you print and the more you earn the more online deals you can redeem. Once you have collected a significant number of swagbucks, you can also cash them in for gift cards and shop at your favorite popular stores.

6. Groupon

It’s not only the regular groceries and household accessories we love to shop for at discounts but also some essential services. You can now get great deals on restaurants, spa services, and beauty and entertainment events too with Groupon.

In fact, this site offers some attractive discounts on travel plans as well, including vacation packages, accommodation and tours at some of the famous holiday destinations. But this is not all; in addition to all of this, you can even find discounted merchandise on Groupon, including fancy items like necklaces and cell phones etc.

From local deals to shopping at thousands of stores both online and offline, you find almost everything your heart wants at this site.

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Financial Health & Home Savings Wellness

5 Simple Lifestyle Swaps That Can Save You Money

5 Simple Lifestyle Swaps That Can Save You Money

Trying to save money can be difficult, especially at the beginning. Most people aren’t exactly sure how much money they spend every month and therefore end up overspending.

Maybe you are saving up for a purchase or may you’re just wanting to be better with your finances, either way, these five simple steps will go a long way.

Make a budget

Having a budget using a simple tool like a spreadsheet can show you how much money you can afford to spend in each area of your life. Save receipts or go back through your bank transactions and see how much you really spend every month.

Looking at the numbers may surprise you. Keeping track of expenses is the start of knowing how much money comes in and how much comes out.

Consider taking out the money you can afford to spend out in cash. Then, once this money is gone, you wait until the next month to withdraw money again.

Eat at home

This one is a basic step, but that’s because it really does save hundreds a month. You don’t have to be a chef or a whiz in the kitchen. Just make simple meals that you enjoy eating so you are less likely to order takeout.

Have one day a week that you eat out or order food so that you have that day to look forward to. You can also meal prep so that the food is ready for you whenever you need it.

If you hate cooking, sign up for a meal delivery service that is in your budget to help you out. Consider only drinking water as well to save money you spend on soda or alcohol.

Ditch cable or some streaming services to save money

Spending a few dollars a month on several streaming services may not seem like too much, but things quickly add up. Take a look at what you really watch and what you can go without.

Cancel all the services you do not use often, especially cable, as this can be the most expensive. Most streaming services probably offer most of the shows you watch anyway.

Do more things yourself

Is there a service that you pay for that you could really be doing yourself?

Go through the services you use and find out. Sometimes this can be paying for pest control, lawn care, or car washing services. If you have time to do these things yourself, cut the services.

Start being a coupon clipper to save money

Actually, you don’t have to clip. Most coupons can be found online. Check online at the places you normally shop or go to. Chances are there are coupons online somewhere for all the businesses you frequent.

Even just using a few coupons a month can save you tons of dollars throughout the course of the year.

Sometimes buying in bulk with coupons can save you more money later. Having more supplies in your home can keep you from constantly buying the same items every few days or weeks.

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Financial Real Estate Savings

Rule of Thumb: How Much Should Your Rent Be?

Grab Your PopRule of Thumb: How Much Should You Spend on Rent

Now that winter has broken in many parts of the country, and it won’t be a punishment to move, people are heading to virtual rental tours in droves so look for new digs. But before you start cruising Zillow, Redfin, or other similar sites to look at your options, take a few minutes to figure out what you should be paying for rent.

The Short Answer Is 30%

Most experts agree that you should spend approximately 30% of your gross income. That’s before taxes are taken out. This means if you make $1,900 per month before Uncle Sam takes any, you should be planning on about $570 for monthly rent. Keep in mind that this is a general guideline and not a rule.

The major factor in how effective this estimate is is the cost of living in your area. While a simple one-bedroom apartment in the Bay Area or North Jersey could cost $2,000 or more per month, renters in rural areas of the midwest could see the rental of a 2 bedroom single-family home for less than $400 per month.

The 50/30/20 Method Works Well For Many

Another great method is the 50/30/20 split. This looks at your total take-home pay and splits it into three categories. This is 50% for your needs, 30% for your wants, and 20% for saving, investing, additional debt payments.

Your needs are expenses like insurance, broadband access, utilities, consistent debt payments, groceries, and of course, rent. Your wants are shopping splurges, dispensary trips or happy hour, concerts, and cosplay. For the last 20%, remember that you should only be keeping an emergency fund in a savings account, while all of your long-term savings should be invested in some fashion, so avoid inflation decay and begin building retirement income. If you have any debt, payments above the minimum should be in this category as well.

This means if you bring home $1,500 per month after taxes, your 50/30/20 split would look similar to this:

  • $750 for your needs
  • $450 for your wants
  • $300 for your future

The second and third categories are necessities, though in different ways than the first. You need a proper work-life balance, so if you can only afford to constantly work just to be able to eat, sleep, and work, your life can get bleak, fast. Make sure you make it a consistent goal to invest in your leisure, and your future.

With this in mind, you can get a really good idea of your rent payment by taking your $750 for needs, from our example, by starting with your relatively constant monthly bills, and working backward. For example, if broadband is $50, your groceries are $150 (I know, just pretend for our example), insurance is $35, and your minimum payment on your only high-interest debt account is $15, that comes to $250 in needs otherwise, so there’s $500 available for rent.

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Savings

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do?

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do, When, And How?

When you look at your opportunities in investing your money compared to your opportunities from saving your money, you might wonder: Is this a difference in quality, or kind? Is your money going to be more valuable in the future, or less?

And how do you act on these evaluations?

The Qualities of Investing and Saving

You have probably heard that when a person wins the lottery, they are given two ways of claiming their prize money: Either by taking it all in one big, heavily taxed, cartoonishly-oversized check, or in smaller installments overtime that ultimately amount to more money.

It seems obvious that the smaller installments overtime would be the more economical option. It amounts to more money, doesn’t it? Only a short-sighted fool would take the smaller sum.

Thinking about this is very similar to thinking about investing versus saving. Even a static amount of money has forces acting upon it.

Imagine you have a healthy sum of money in your bank account. After a year, your bank provides you with a 1% allowance of the money you have. So, a bank account with $100,000 in it would yield $1000 in interest.

However, the economy grows by more than that percentage every year. In fact, inflation goes up by more than that every year. Inflation usually results in every dollar losing 3% of its value. So while you may be given 1% in interest, you lose 2% of the value of that inanimate $100,000.

But if you invest that money and grow it by 4%, then in that case you have affected a growth of 1%. Granted, this is not a large increase. But it at least offsets the natural entropy of money’s value in the face of inevitable inflation.

Investing comes with risks that saving does not, however. Investing can make you lose money if you make a bad investment.

When To Do Either

For this reason, if you are currently managing your debts and not seeking to buy a house, car, or start a business, then you should save rather than invest.

The reason is because of the aforementioned risk involved in investment. You don’t want your ability to pay a bill to be reliant on the whims of the market.

Once your income eclipses your debts, then you can risk investments.

How to Invest and How to Save

The methodology of investing and saving are far more similar than you might expect. Saving your money means giving it to a bank. A bank will turn that money into loans, and the interest rate of the bank will see your savings grow as the bank grows.

Investing money is similar, as you still essentially give it away, but this time to a hedge fund. They will invest your money into venture capital and start-up businesses.

These will allow your money to grow as those businesses grow.

When, where, and how to invest and save is a matter of your own personal trust in these institutions. Use your money responsibly, and stay safe.

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Financial Health & Home Savings Wellness

5 Things To Do For Your Future Without Spending

5 Things You Can Do For Your Future Self That Don’t Cost A Dime

So many people have a good idea of where they want to be in the future. We envision ourselves working until a certain age in a career that we love, often living in a particular area in our dream home, while not worrying about money, and being able to live a life that we enjoy.

While this is something that many people can admit that they do, often advice on how to get there can seem sparse. But luckily there is some good information out there, and we’ve compiled 5 of the best things you can do today to put yourself on a better path for the future, for free.

1.   Start the habits that you want to see your future self practicing.

This goes for just about anything, from quitting smoking, exercise more consistently, painting, reading more, spending money more sensibly, literally anything. If you take small steps to incorporate this new activity or habit into your life, it will be easier to carry that small step into additional actions. If you are wanting to start a new hobby or learn a new skill, try to set aside 30 minutes a day to work on that activity. It will pay dividends.

2.   Keep your credit in the back of your mind.

It is used to score you for so many things, it just makes sense to keep your credit in as good of shape as you can. This means monitoring your credit and credit score, paying down old debt if you have any, and improving your credit where possible.

3.   Automate your saving and investing.

With apps like Stash, Acorns, Robinhood, and even Cashapp, you can automate saving and investing your money. Make sure you aren’t letting all your money sit and die of inflation in a savings account, though. Keep a liquid emergency fund, and invest the rest in stocks, bonds, and crypto to generate passive and retirement income with almost zero effort over time.

4.   Learn the difference in various retirement accounts before you need one.

The best time to start investing is whenever you can start. Employer-offered funds like a 401(k) are perfect starting points, particularly with many companies offering matching up to a certain point. Not only is it smart to invest early and often, but you can invest from pre-tax money to reduce your tax liability, and an employer match is basically free money.

5.   Test yourself monthly by cutting out one paid “extra” each month.

This can be almost anything that you pay for as an extra. One of the many streaming services, eating at a particular fast-food restaurant, a subscription box, and so on would be a perfect example. You cancel or cut one out for a month, and see if you can live without it. Many times we forget that we have grown attached to many “needs” that are actually well-disguised “wants”. Skipping a month here and there can save big bucks and build big discipline.

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Financial Savings

The Low Effort Ways I Earn An Extra $125 A Month

Earn Extra Income

Earning money in my spare time has always been a kind of hobby for me. I love hacking my spare time and using it to generate income, even if only in passive ways. There is nothing like being able to pay all my bills, have some spending money, and still have money left at the end of the month after budgeting for everything else.

The only problem is, I don’t generally like to stick to anything with a very rigid schedule, so any thought of a dedicated side hustle went right out the window. So after a lot of digging and some research, I found a healthy handful of ways to earn both active and passive income. Here are some ideas to help give your account some wiggle room.

Surveys and Focus Groups

This is the one that most people focus on, largely the portion of the survey since there are so many paid survey companies. The caveat of doing surveys is that there are a lot of spammy and even outright scammy survey sources. But once you find a reputable survey site, such as HiveMind or Respondent, you can spend a good portion of your free time answering questions and earn modest sums. Focus groups pay much better but are rarer and harder to do continuously.

Cashback Cards

If you can effectively manage your credit spending, be sure that you are taking advantage of a solid cash-back offer. Find one with a 1%-3% cashback deal, and use it for anything it qualifies for. Just be sure that you keep an eye on your utilization ratio if you’re concerned about your credit score.

Gig Opportunities

The gig economy is booming, and there are tons of organizations that need help on a daily, weekly, or gig basis. This could be working as an extra in a local film project or even working election polls or walking dogs. The money is modest for the hours you may work, but it’s a steady bit of income if you need it and most gigs will pay for training as well.

Selling Items

This isn’t one you can do all the time, but if you were looking to minimize some of the clutter in your life, you could use a marketplace app like Facebook, Poshmark, or LetGo to pare down your stuff. I use this method about every three months or so, just to keep up on it and make a little scratch as well.

Rebates

Rebates from shopping rebate apps are a great way to earn passive income on money you’re already spending for things you already use. Ibotta is a popular app, but there are several that all serve a similar purpose.

Selling Plasma

More profitable than blood donations, and it can be done more often as well. Many plasma centers will allow three donations per week, paying up to $50 per trip, with bonuses for those that are new to donating.

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Financial Legal Savings Social Security Disability

The Difference Between 401k vs. Social Security

401k vs. Social Security

Many people wonder which is better to rely on, Social Security payments or your 401k income. What they don’t realize is that you can receive both Social Security as well as 401k income. Whatever income you receive from your 401k plan will also not affect your Social Security benefits. This is because it is considered income from a non-wage source.

Most workers count the days until they can retire at full retirement age, 66 years old. They frequently begin receiving Social Security benefits within the first few months of their retirement, as well as their 401k income. Some will retire as early as 62 in exchange for lower monthly benefit payments from Social Security going forward. At the other end of the spectrum, some delay collecting Social Security until the latest allowable age of 70. This means they reap the benefits of much larger monthly payments in return.

Why 401k Income Has No Effect On Social Security Payments

One of the foundational tenets of Social Security is that the credit system for qualifying for benefits is based on taxable wages. These wages are the ones that you earned during your highest-paid 35 years of work. Your contributions to your 401k are made with wages paid to you by an American company. Fortunately, they have already paid the Social Security taxes on those wages.

Many people contribute as heavily as possible to their 401k, however, under the impression that those contributions are tax-free. Well, they are, sort of. Those contributions can be made free of income tax imposed by federal and state entities. However, not by contributions required by the Federal Income Contributions Act, or FICA.

No matter what, your wages will always have the tax for Social Security paid before anything else can reduce your income level. So you do still pay some taxes, up to a preset threshold that is determined by the IRS.

The Difference In Dollars

So you are getting close to retirement age, or maybe just planning well ahead to ensure your comfort, and you want to get down to numbers on what retirement is going to look like. Well, there are a few scenarios centered around when you retire. You can begin collecting Social Security at 62, the full age of 66, or as late as 70. While you might get to begin enjoying retirement early, the change in benefit amounts by delaying can be incredible.

Using the top-end numbers for 2021, the highest monthly benefit when retiring at 62 is about $2,300 while waiting until 66 gives a monthly payment of more than $3,100. And for those waiting until 70, they can collect a massive benefit of nearly $3,900.

If you are planning on retiring early, your 401k income can certainly supplement your Social Security income without affecting it. On the other hand, if you have a few years to go, you may still be able to start taking life a little easier by utilizing your 401k income while you delay Social Security collection until you get the maximum benefit.

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Credit Financial Savings

Creating a Budget with a Credit Card

How to Create a Budget with a Credit Card

Introduction

Though credit cards make it easy to overspend, they also make it easy to keep track of and control your spending. If you have a hard time balancing your finances, there are many methods you can use to create a realistic and effective budget with a credit card.

General Tips

Most major credit cards group purchases by category and allow you to search through transactions and get detailed spending reports. This includes:

  • The option of viewing spending reports for any given period of time within your account (ex. for the week or monthly)
  • This allows you to not only devise a budget based off of when you get payed, but also make any necessary adjustments due to unexpected expenses

Establishing and Estimating Your Expenses and Income

Expenses

A good way to do this is by making a note of everything you pay each month, including:

  • Mortgage/rent
  • Insurance payments (auto, health, home, etc.)
  • Utilities
  • Cable, phone, and/or internet
  • Food
  • Non-essential purchases

It is important not to dismiss small purchases, as these can add up quickly. If you are not actively paying your credit card balance off, you must include an additional charge for interest from the card issuer. Try your best to avoid this by paying the account balance off at least once or twice per month.

Income

Calculate exactly how much income you generate each month. This includes your base salary and any extra money you have from other sources. It is a good idea to consider how often you get paid, so that you do not end up with bills you cannot cover before your paycheck.

  • For example, if you know your next paycheck does not come until the end of the month, do not schedule any major expenses on the last week of that month
  • If this happens, you can easily get behind on your bills

Comparing Expenses and Income

The next task is to analyze your income versus your expenses. If your spending is more than your income, it is likely that you will run into debt. However, if your income is greater than your spending, you should end up with money left over.

There are services available that can do this for you and make it easier to see where you are overspending. The difference between the two values will show the excess/inadequacy of your funds. When considering your budget, it is always a good idea to set aside a contingency fund for any unexpected costs that you may incur.

Some of these service capabilities include:

  • Grouping your expenses by category
    • These can include retail shopping, dining out and other food costs, rent, and insurance payments
  • Some of these programs allow you to set a budget per category and may even notify you when you are approaching the set limit

Alternately, you can do it yourself by going through your bank and credit card statements:

  • Group your purchases into your own categories and calculate the total for each month in each category
    • You may want to use the same or similar categories that are generated automatically by credit card services, but you may want to use others instead
  • Compare the values to see where and on what you are spending the most money and make any necessary adjustments, such as wanting to shop online less

Both of these methods have pros and cons. Using services is:

  • Quicker and easier
  • But there is always the chance that programs will make mistakes:
    • They could input incorrect values or group expenses into the wrong category
    • Though these problems are uncommon, it’s not a mistake you want to make

Conversely, doing it yourself has its own pros and cons:

  • It is more thorough because you have the ability to nitpick through your expenses
  • However, it is tedious and takes much longer

Conclusion

The bottom line is that looking at a visual breakdown of your expenses is the most effective way to determine your budgetary status. Your goal, whether you are in debt or have surplus, should always be to save money and cut expenses.

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Financial Savings Tax Services

How Saving for Retirement Can Reduce Your Taxes

saving for your retirement can reduce taxes

It is definitely no secret that saving for retirement is important. It is so important that the government even offers a tax credit for those that choose to save for the future. Worth up to $1,000 for an individual tax-payer, or $2,000 if filing jointly, many independent adults can qualify for the saver’s credit.

Who is Eligible for the Saver’s Credit?

To receive this credit, you must be 18 years old, not enrolled in school full-time, and not be claimed as a dependent. You also must make a contribution to an IRA or other eligible retirement plan and fall within specific income thresholds.

As far as your contributions go, you can only claim contributions of new money. Any money that was a rollover from an existing account does not count towards your eligible contributions.

Your income must be underneath the following thresholds to get the credit:

  • Head of Household: $48,750 in 2020; $49,500 in 2021
  • Married, Filing Jointly: $65,000 in 2020; $66,000 in 2021
  • Other Filing Statuses: $32,500 in 2020; $33,000 in 2021

How Your Saver’s Credit Value is Determined

Those that qualify for the saver’s credit can receive up to $1,000 ($2,000 for married couples that file jointly). The value of your credit is based upon how much you contributed to your 401(k), Roth IRA, SARSEP, SIMPLE IRA, 403(b), or 457(b) plan. You may be eligible for 10%, 20%, or 50% of the maximum contribution amount, depending on your adjusted gross income and your filing status.

Saver’s Credit Rates

Married Filing Jointly

  • 50% of contribution: $39,000 or less in 2020; $39,500 or less in 2021
  • 20% of contribution: $39,001 – $42,500 in 2020; $39,501 – $43,000 in 2021
  • 10% of contribution: $42,501 – $65,000 in 2020; $43,001-$66,000 in 2021

Head of Household

  • 50% of contribution: $29,250 or less in 2020; $29,625 or less in 2021
  • 20% of contribution: $29,250 – $31,875 in 2020; $29,626 – $32,250 in 2021
  • 10% of contribution: $31,876 – $48,750 in 2020; $32,251 – $49,500 in 2021

Other Filers

  • 50% of contribution: $19,500 or less in 2020; $19,750 or less in 2021
  • 20% of contribution: $19,501 – $21,250 in 2020; $19,751 – $21,500 in 2021
  • 10% of contribution: $21,251 – $32,500 in 2020; $21,501 – $33,000 in 2021

With many credits, the math to figure out how much you are getting can be a bit tricky, but not with this one. Based on your income, your credit is worth 10%, 20%, or 50% of a cap on the amount contributed of $2,000 for an individual filer, or $4,000 for married couples who are filing together. If you are a single filer with an income of $18,000 and you contributed $1,000 to your Roth IRA, your saver’s credit would be $500.