Think you need a ton of time in order to make your finances work for you? Think again. In this post, let’s cover 6 money moves you can make in 15 minutes or less.
Fun story time!Ā
I once thought that rebalancing my portfolio was going to take me a whole hour. And when I talk about rebalancing a portfolio, all that means is I was going to sell off some investments I had too much of to buy investments I didn’t have enough of.
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I kept delaying it and delaying it because the idea of dedicating an entire hour to my finances just didn’t sound fun. It sounded like a big pain in the ass.
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But eventually, after procrastinating long enough, I decided… screw it. We’re doing this thing.
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So I set myself with a hot coffee, blocked an hour off in my calendar, and got to work.
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Guess what?
It took me about 15 minutes.
I’m not even joking.
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I had spent all this time overthinking it, feeling anxious about it, and turns out?
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I spent way more time thinking about the thing, than doing the actual thing.
Managing Our Finances Doesn't Take a lot of Time
I felt pretty silly, but let’s face it.
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This is something so many of us do.
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We put something off because in our mind it’s going to be this whole thing, but the more we put it off, the bigger it feels! So we keep pushing it off… and off… and off.. until before we know it months if not years have gone by.
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But managing our finances does not actually take that much time.
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And to prove that to you– let’s talk about 6 things you can do TODAY that will take 15 minutes or less to complete.
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6 Money Moves You Can Make in 15 Minutes or Less
1) Open a High Yield Savings Account
Last month my HYSA paid me nearly $50! And I didn’t have to do a dang thing. In fact, I wouldn’t have even noticed had I not logged in to do a transfer.Ā
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We won’t dive too deep into high-yield savings accounts, I’ve already got an entire blog post on HYSAs, but let me tell you… It’s a no brainer.
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Your standard bank account pays you pennies for the money you have saved with them. In fact, the national average for a brick and mortar bank account is just 0.17%.
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Womp, womp.
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But my high yield savings account?
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Right now it’s paying me 3.3%. Not bad, and as interest rates continue to go up this year, so will the interest that my bank is paying me.
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My two favorites (Ally and Yotta) are explained in my free guide here.
2) Cancel unused subscriptions.
How many of you have subscriptions that you KNOW you aren’t using anymore but you’re still paying for?
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*raises hand*
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Recently I discovered that I’ve been paying $4.99 a month for Discovery+, a subscription I only signed up for to binge watch and catch up on 90 day FiancĆ© nearly a year ago.
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I haven’t touched the subscription in months, and I’m still paying for it. Mostly because I’m not sure how to cancel it– but STILL!!Ā
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Imagine if I had ten of those subscriptions I forgot about– that’s an extra $50 a month and that stuff adds up.
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According to a survey by market research firm C+R Research, Americans spend an average of $133 more each month on subscriptions than they realize. That means there’s a LOT of forgotten about subscriptions out there.Ā
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So take a moment, look at your bank statement, and start cancelling those unused subscriptions.
3) Automate your bills.
How many of you are STILL paying your bills manually???
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FOR WHY.
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When it comes to saving, investing, credit cards, debt pay off and bills? We can automate pretty much every single one of these either through our bank accounts or the services we use.
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Autopay is so important because if you miss payments– that can mean a ding to your credit score, and we don’t want that. Your credit score is so important to everyday things like getting an apartment, getting a good deal on a loan, applying for cell service.Ā
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It’s like the report card for adults, so you want to make sure you’re getting good grades and automating your bills is a way to make that way easier on yourself.
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4) Check that your Roth IRA/IRA is actually invested.
I get these questions a lot:
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āWhatās a good Roth IRA to invest in?ā
āI have the 401k- what other investments should I buy?ā
āIsnāt a high-yield savings account a bad place to save your emergency fund because you need it to be liquid?ā
All great questions! Letās get something clear about retirement accounts and HYSA accounts:
These accounts are not investments.
They are just containers for you to store your investments or money.
Each container has different benefits.
Roth IRAsā your investments sit in the container and grow tax-free! Woooo! It is the tax-free container benefit.
Traditional IRAsā your investments sit in the container and grow tax-deferred, meaning you pay taxes on your gains in retirement. Itās the tax-deferred container.
With all investing accounts, you have to transfer the money into the account, and then you purchase the investments of your choosing.
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Without that added step of buying your investments, you aren’t invested and that can have devastating impacts on your retirement.
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5) Negotiate your credit card interest rate.
This doesnāt work 100% of the time but if youāve had a card with a company for a long timeā itās time to call and ask for a lower interest rate.
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Tell them that you have been shopping around for a new CC and youād like to stay with them, but their rate is a little higher than the offers you’ve received from competitor cards.
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So… can they do anything about it?
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Some of my clients do this every six months. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and they’ll offer you a new interest rate, and sometimes they won’t. Doesn’t hurt to ask.
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6) Register for my free investing class.
And finally– register for my free investing class šĀ
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It’ll take you 1 minute, and if you show up? You’re going to learn tons.Ā
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Knowledge is the key when it comes to starting our investment journey, so let me help you out with that in a chill, judgement free class.
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