5 Most Strategic Ways To Accelerate Your Savings Rate

I have paid off $11,642 in debt so far this year. I know you are thinking, That is not much money, etc. or whatever lies you want to tell yourself. 

Because Americans under 35 have an average savings balance of $3,240, I think this is a step in the right direction for me. 

Now a few of you are wondering how? Well, read on, and I will tell you, I may even be able to help you do the same thing. 

Here are some strategies I used to save more money because I understand it can be challenging. It can be easy, but implementing it cannot be easy.

I want to help people build wealth, live a healthy lifestyle, and be great parents all at the same time.

Building wealth is easier if you make more money. That way, you can have the ability to invest more and invest in that business you have wanted to start so that you can potentially fire your boss.  

THREE THINGS TO DO BEFORE SAVING MONEY

FIRST STEP

We should set broad goals to understand what you want in the next 12 months, five years, and 20 years. 

• Maybe you want extra beer money on Friday nights
• Do you want to be a millionaire in 20 years?
• Do you want extra money for family vacations? What do you want? Think about it and out it down.

SECOND STEP

This is essential to achieving financial success and saving money effectively, and that is by creating a straightforward personal budget. And monthly budget.

Creating the budget helped me pay off the debt because I saw where my money was going and could cut in the critical areas. You have heard this time and time again. I know you may not want to, but you should try it.

All of your monthly expenses and your total income are monthly. That way, you can see where the money is coming in and where it’s going out. If you’re not measuring and calculating your cash inflows and outflows, you will have many issues trying to save money.

If you don’t know what’s going on and you don’t know where that money is going. You don’t know how much money you’re spending on food and how much you’re spending on other various expenses in your life. It can pile up and get ahead of you. 

Budgeting is how I went from barely having anything to put towards my debt to putting at least $1000 a month towards my debt. 

THIRD STEP

Here is to create more specific goals. So you had those initial goals of where you wanted to stand financially some years ago. 

Now you want to set short-term goals. I want to take this and save $500 a month or maybe $100 a month, whatever you can afford. Maybe $1000 a month (Like Me) or perhaps $10,000 a month.

Budgeting is tough, and it depends on your income, and that’s understandable. So be realistic with yourself. You can’t save $1,000 a month on $30k a year; that’s almost impossible unless your expenses are $1,000 a month. 

So start with a small amount of $5 a day.

Maybe expand that as you go on; as you increase your income, you will be able to save money more efficiently. 

Quick Tip

One of my biggest and probably the main reasons I can put $1,000 a month towards debt is to take a percentage and save it automatically into an account where I can’t access the money. I also have automatic debt payments every month.

At the beginning of this year, I split my check into three separate accounts, one for bills (70%), one for saving/paying off debt (20%), and one for spending money (10%). 

As you can see, I live off between 70% and 80% of my income. Mainly because my income is higher than the average, I decided to stop being broke. 

Let’s dig into the five necessities that most people can cut back on.

Summary

• Food
• Health
• Clothing
• Shelter
• Transportation
• Conclusion

FOOD

This is one of my favorite ones to cut back on. Granted, it’s tough because it’s one income with a family of 5. It’s also hard because I love to eat, another reason I am on a weight loss journey.

So cutting back on food costs can be effective. Here are a few ways that you can cut on food.  

The reason I say consider buying off brand products from a store like Aldi is because it forces you to purchase none brand name foods. Surprisingly is good, so consider buying products that are not branded.

Store brand products can save you $50 a month, $100 a month, or more, depending on how much you spend on food.

Don’t cut back to the point where you are depriving yourself of nutrients. Make sure you’re getting good and healthy food in your body, which is essential now.

HEALTH

Health is essential. Not to be a clique, but health is wealth. Without health, you can’t spend the money you are saving or investing. You can’t do anything if you are stuck in a hospital bed.

The best way to help you health-wise is to do preventive maintenance. You are eating a balanced meal, working out, and taking time alone to relax and meditate (mental health). If you can keep your health intact, you may prevent yourself from paying high health bills, which America has the highest in the world.

Yes, things happen, and you can’t prevent certain things from happening to you. But I will say at least try to put yourself in the best position to keep your health intact. The three most important things you can do to try to save your body:

• Eating healthy
• Drink water mostly
• Workout

If you continue to treat your body like crap, then maybe 20 years from now, you’ll be paying a high health bill because of the compound health problems. So make sure you address that and think about that in the future.

CLOTHING

This one is straightforward to cut back on. The best way to cut back on the cost of clothing is to buy once a year (which is what I do) or only buy when it is a necessary time to buy, such as:

• After Major holidays
• Back to School (September)
• May(Memorial Day)
• July
• Black Friday

If you need to save money, you could go to thrift stores such as Goodwill, Ross, TJ Max, or Salvation Army if you need to go that route. There’s no shame in that, I have done it in the past, and I do it now, especially when I want a quick suite.

I will go there and get it tailored, which is reasonably cheap. I think it is an effective way to get decent clothes. Especially if you can find out when the drop days are for those stores. An extremely effective way to shop on a budget if you need to.

SHELTER

The next one is with shelter.

Sometimes where you are, the cost of shelter is challenging to cut out the cost.

Well, one way you can do it is to get a roommate or consider renting out a room in your home through something like Airbnb or Vrbo to cut the cost of living for yourself literally in half. Or possibly make some money.

Make sure that your apartment, HOA, or city will allow you to put your home up on Airbnb because some towns do not let you do that.

Another thing you can do is cut utility costs, and you can do this by finding another WiFi or electrical company which may have better rates than their competitors.

Just because you’ve been using the same provider for the past five years doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider getting a different one.

Now, if there is only one provider in your area, ask for a discount.

TRANSPORTATION

Like housing, this one is tough to avoid, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the average cost of operating and owning a vehicle is close. About $8500 per year. Owning and operating a car is expensive, especially if you’re raking many miles on it.

Different Transportation expenses:

• Auto Insurance
• Vehicle Expenses
• Gas
• New Tires
• Oil Change
• Etc.

Suppose you live in an area with some public transportation or even Uber. Do some calculations and see if it’s cheaper to take the metro or uber to work, or if you want to be extreme, bike to work.  

Of course, vehicles are difficult to avoid in rural areas like mine. It isn’t easy to have a vehicle. So at least try to get a reliable car brand and a brand that is known for having a good MPG.

Good Reliable Car Brands:

• Kia
• Hyundai
• Toyota
• Buick
• Honda

CONCLUSION

Hopefully, I can give you some different ideas for saving money. Let’s go back through it; the best way to keep in these categories:

First, identify your goals, then you can:

• Budget with food
• Budget with Health
• Budget with Shelter
• Budget with Transportation
• Budget with Clothing

This is what I am doing to help me get out of debt. I know some people will disagree with this. If that’s you, then make sure you comment below so I can hear your thoughts and learn from you.

If you enjoyed this post and would like them directly in your inbox, sign up for my NEWSLETTER.