Inflation has been the main topic of conversation across the financial world for nearly all of 2021. The federal government gave out an unprecedented amount of financial aid in 2020, and although tax and interest hikes may not happen right away, they’re certain to happen eventually. Meanwhile, companies’ supply chains were disrupted throughout 2020 and have remained abnormal in 2021. That means everything from raw materials to shipping is costing product makers more than ever – and they’re going to pass those costs on to you. You probably find that you spend more for just about everything these days. Your salary, however, probably hasn’t risen to match.
What you need is a way to start saving some money, and there are two ways of doing that. You can spend less on the things you need, or you can find a way to make your money grow – hopefully fast enough to outpace the rate at which inflation is eroding its buying power. That doesn’t sound very simple, does it? If it were easy to consistently save more money than you earned, no one would ever encounter financial trouble. You’ll find, though, that there is no one “quick fix” for resolving all of your financial difficulties and that saving money is more a matter of finding the many incremental steps that eventually add up to a substantial change. Are you looking for a place to begin? Start using these money-saving technologies right now.
Automatic Investing
One of the biggest fallacies of investing is that the only people who enjoy big gains are the ones who are already rich. While it is true that a small percentage gain is a much bigger deal when you already have millions of dollars in the market, it’s also the case that many multi-millionaires started with very little in the market and simply became fabulously wealthy by letting time, persistence and compound interest work their magic. Companies like Acorns are now offering services in which money is invested on your behalf automatically when you make purchases from partner companies – and many of those are companies that you’ll probably buy from either way. How would you like to have a percentage of your purchase placed in an investment account automatically every time you buy groceries? Automatic investing technology makes it easy. Thanks to the relatively new invention of fractional stock ownership, you can own a piece of your favorite company – even one with an extremely high share price such as Amazon – even if you can’t afford the price of a full share.
Vaping
Nicotine addiction is something that can seriously cripple your efforts to save money. Smoking costs an absolute fortune these days, and that’s not even taking the expense of your future healthcare into account. You’re already well aware of the fact that you can save a bundle of money by quitting, of course, but that’s obviously much easier said than done. If you’ve been smoking long enough, in fact, there’s a good chance that you’ve tried to quit already and failed to do so. If you haven’t been successful in quitting nicotine use, vaping is your next best option. Tens of millions of people around the world have already used vaping to help themselves stop using tobacco – and with delicious vape juice flavors like Strawberry Watermelon Bubblegum available, it’s not difficult to see why. If you’re trying to find ways to save money, though, your favorite thing about vaping won’t be the flavor – it’ll be the fact that vaping is unbelievably inexpensive compared to smoking. Switching from smoking to vaping is a single change that can easily help you save upwards of $2,000 per year.
Coupon Code Plugins
Have you noticed that, when you buy products online, you’ll almost always see a “Coupon Code” or “Promo Code” field on the checkout page? It’s extremely common for e-commerce companies to offer coupon codes. Sometimes they’ll do it as a reward to encourage new customers to make their first purchases. Other times, they’ll simply offer coupon codes to all customers as a way to stimulate sales. The problem, though, is that searching for those coupon codes when you’re ready to check out can be a serious pain. You’ll start entering different codes only to find that the vast majority of them are either expired or weren’t real to begin with. It can be difficult to justify going through all of that effort for the slight possibility of saving a few dollars, and that’s where an automatic coupon code plugin comes in handy. A coupon code plugin detects the website that you’re currently viewing and automatically applies the best available coupon code when you reach the checkout page. Coupon code plugins are free to use, so you really have nothing to lose by trying one.
Smart Home Technology
When you think about your biggest monthly expenses – particularly the ones that seem the most impossible to reduce – it’s likely that your power bill is one of the first things that comes to mind. Utility costs only ever seem to move in one direction, and no money-saving technology is going to make it possible for you to enjoy the same electricity prices that you enjoyed when you were younger. What you can do, however, is utilize smart home technology to take control over your power usage. Is it really necessary to run your air conditioning system at full blast when no one is around? With smart home technology, you can use a mobile app to change your home’s temperature from anywhere. Alternatively, you can program your air conditioner to operate at a higher temperature while you’re at work and lower the temperature automatically when you’re on your way home. That’s only the beginning. Smart home technology can also help you manage your home’s lighting and heating along with most major appliances. You can even use smart power devices to find out exactly which appliances are using the most power and to disconnect devices that might continue using electricity even when they’re in standby mode.
