There are things we do, say and buy everyday that are costing us more money than they are worth. We need to take advantage of ways we can be smart about using our money. Are you leaving opportunities on the table? Here are 7 tips that are more than just a money for money investment.
Of course some of them cost money, but stick around for the ones that don’t! And make sure you start implementing these 7 investments right away!
- Cash Back and Rewards Credit Cards
- Reading and Learning about your field and self improvement
- Eating Healthy
- A Well Kept Look
- Good Shoes
- Writing down a list of 3 ideas daily
- Eliminating toxic people from your life
Cash Back and Rewards Credit Cards
If you live in the 21st century then you have heard of people “earning points” or getting cash back on purchases. By not taking advantage of these charge card and credit card offers we are leaving lots of money on the table and leaving us more prone to getting our accounts hacked!
You don’t use a rewards card for everyday purchases? What are you doing man.. There are rewards credit cards out there that will give you a lot of points towards traveling, hotels or just straight up cash for making everyday purchases. The incentives for everyday purchases like your grocery bill, gas or lunch at chipotle all will earn huge rewards!
This was a mistake I made for a long time. By using my debit card for every day purchases, I missed out on the opportunity to earn massive amounts of discounts on just about everything I’ve ever purchased!
Well, you might be thinking thats annoying to manage rewards or isn’t credit card debt bad?
The answer, No and Yes/no. The credit card companies make it extremely easy to cash in rewards through their mobile apps, get a statement credit, or redeem for travel. It is essentially getting a 1% – 5% discount on everything you buy, does your debit card do that?
The trick is to shift thinking about a credit card as something that we go into debt using and turn it into spending just like you would with cash/debit. Are you buying lunch at the sandwich shop today? Put it on your credit card and pay it off as soon as it hits your card. There you have it, a discount on your sandwich or instant rewards towards the next vacation.
Secondly, this is a much safer option to protect your bank account and cash. Anytime we use our debit cards we risk our information getting hacked.
Have you heard always use it as credit and don’t put your pin in?
The truth is if our checking accounts get hacked it is much harder to get back our money than it is disputing a charge on a credit card. Using a credit card for everyday purchases is going to add a barrier to your funds and stop anyone from stealing your info.
Plus these cards usually offer bonus insurances on return policys, rental cars or any major purchase so you can forgo buying an extended warranty on your new couch!
Step one to instant gains: Use a Cash back and reward credit card.
Best cards to use:
Reading and Learning about your field and self
Sounds boring and so totally not going to work. Self improvement is the foundation for earning more money. Your earning potential is directly related to the value you bring to the people of this world. Money comes from other people and the better you are at interacting, communicating, and serving those people, the more money you will make.
As Mr. Nightingale says one hour a day is all it takes. Imagine being the one of the best people in the world at your chosen study. How much would you earn? How rich, successful and famous is the best persons in the world at any calling you can think of?
The answer: Wildly Successful.
An instant ROI (Return on Investment) is reading anyone of Napoleon Hills books. Especially, Think and Grow Rich. Another amazing author is Jen Sincero. Her books are the modern day success blueprint, in a down-to-earth and non corny way. Plus she’s wildly successful! You are a BADASS at Making Money is one of my all time favorites and has helped me shift the way I think about wealth.
Start increasing your knowledge in whatever field your in, improve your personality and shift your mindset. The return on investment is infinite.
Eat Healthy
Wait, isn’t that expensive?
I was at the grocery store and the woman checking me out said “Wow, you eat healthy!” It was a proud moment and I appreciated her noticing the wave of fruits, vegetables, grass fed and organic meats, and whole foods. She followed up with “I wish I could eat like that.” The truth is she can, and so can you.
Constantly eating cheap and unnutritious foods lowers our energy, weakens our immune system and overall makes us in a worse mood to go out there and conquer the world. How are we supposed to get rich, and earn more money when we are putting on weight and feel like crap?
We only have one body in this life so feed it the best you can find! The more nutritious foods we eat and water we drink the higher the energy we will have to go out and kick some ass!
Another instant ROI, eat healthy and drink lots of water.
A Well Kept Look
Good looking people just have it easier, it’s a fact of life. Don’t fret, because we can all bump ourselves up a couple points on the hot scale. Even if you were smacked with the ugly stick at birth theres some basics that will make even the ugliest sexy.
‘Cause every girls crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man
ZZ Top
Step One: Clean up your look by getting a hair cut, trimming your beard, and taking care of your hygiene. When we look good and smell good we play good. So get this down, regularly
Step Two: Take some time to learn about how to dress more appropriately. Our first impression makes all the difference. If you have a well put together outfit, look clean and smell good its going to be much easier to land a deal or new job. Plus, you’re going to feel way better and carry yourself accordingly. Men, check out Real Men Real Style on youtube, his channel granted me the right way to thinking about dressing for the occasion.
Step Three: This may be the hardest but has the largest pay off. Once you get it down it becomes effortless and enjoyable. What is it? Get in damn shape. Nothing looks worse than out of shape, complaining about back pain, low energy and neck fat. Anybody can bump their looks up a few notches by just getting a nice toned body. This will pay dividends for life not only in money but in dating, health and confidence.
The well kept look will pay way more than money, and the way you carry yourself will make it hard to resist you. This is one of the best ways to increase your worth to society as shallow as it may seem. People are more willing to hand their money to a clean and taken care of body, don’t fight on this one!
Good Shoes
This one piggy backs off the last. And I didn’t realize the importance of good shoes until I went to the cobbler with my dusty three year old pair of Thursday’s. These dress shoes and boots were and investment for me, they lasted a good solid three years and looked horrible. I took them to be resoled and cleaned up.. and viola! they looked amazing and brand new again.
Spending $150+ on a pair of handmade leather shoes that have the ability to be resoled will save you money, afford you a better look and more comfort.
Say for instance you buy: $90 off brand shoes from Macys and replace them every two years. Say you have 40 more years of wearing shoes. Thats a minimum of 20 more shoes purchases.
40 years / 2 year shoe lifespan = 20 purchases
20 purchases x $90/each = $1,800
Now imagine: Buying a pair of Allen Edmonds for $250 and getting them resoled every 3-4 years for $35. Those shoes will last ten years and need to be resoled a couple times. Now you have gorgeous high end shoes to be proud about wearing at a fraction of the cost.
40 years / 10 year shoe lifespan = 4 purchases
Resoling 8 times over the next 40 years: 8 x $35 = $280
4 purchases x $250/each = $1,000
Total investment = $1,280
By doing this, you’re saving over 500 dollars and wearing high end shoes. Shoes are one of the first things people look at so spend the extra money and buy something good. The same thing applies for most purchases like mattresses, blenders, cars and homes. Buy quality thats proven to last and you’ll not only save money but have a much better experience in the process.
Writing down a list of ideas everyday
Do you have a million dollar idea inside you? Have you dreamed about being the next Steve Jobs or changing the world in some beneficial way? The key to this is ideas, and then executing on them. The first step in executing is brainstorming ideas. Write them down on paper everyday.
The more we think about ways of making other peoples lives easier the more we are able to spot good opportunities. Who knows maybe you’ll invent the next Uber.
It takes a little bit of time for the truly great ideas to surface. However, once you get into the rhythm of writing ideas down great ones start to bubble up.
Our focus shifts to coming up with the next best idea, we talk to other people about ideas and this all generates into making something really stick. The goal is more than just ideas but executing these ideas to get filthy rich, so start writing and manifesting great things into you life by writing down ideas every day.
Eliminating toxic people from your life
One time, I was planning a trip with some friends to travel across the country to hike our gorgeous national parks. At this point in my life my finances were rocking and rolling to great places and I wanted to have an awesome trip and spend some money. The only thing holding me back was two of the people coming were completely broke! Not only did it slowly make me feel bad for them, their broke complaining energy was making me feel bad about having money!
People in our life that make us feel bad about having, wanting or acquiring money are sucking the energy to get rich straight from us. It is making it 10x more difficult to get really wealthy with this kind of energy in your life. These people need to be gently let go and replaced with people that have what we want.
If you want to really boost your money game, get the broke losers that hate money and suck with it out of your life. It’s not harsh, it’s only harsh to yourself to keep them around.
If you have any other non monetary investments that worked for you I would love to know about them! Comment below with what works for you.
One-on-one Coaching for money and mindset is available to anyone who wants to get better! Click the link up top to get started and we will be talking about increasing your net worth soon!