Had some time today and I thought I would make up a post on some tips and tricks to maximize the money God is entrusting you with. I have gone through this process with a number of people, I usually get paid for this so . . . take that for what it's worth.

(Or if you are trying to get out of poverty, this is how I went from literally $10.00 two days before rent was due and 1 day before payday in my bank account to owning a house in 3.5 years with an additionally 35k in the bank while making not a lot of money hourly. We're talking like $13.00/hr.)

Fundamental Concepts

Things that will help you cut costs way down, and give you an edge against the ever approach poverty line.

1) If you cannot comfortably afford it, you cannot afford it.

2) Pay with cash as often as possible.

3) If you are renting, and don't do very much with your bank, consider switching to a credit union with an APY over .00001% (lol) you can typically find CU's with between 2 - 4% APY, which means you are literally giving yourself a raise

4) If you have good self control, a credit card with cash back is another way you can give yourself a 1 - 2% raise.

5) Manual cars appear to last longer, and with fewer major repairs than automatic transmissions. (Plus you look like a cool guy.) This is purely my experience, but take it for what it's worth.

6) For the love of all that is good, never rent a car. Renting a deprecating asset is a horrible idea.

7) If you are still paying for cable, you are an idiot. You can get every single channel online for a fraction of the cost. Internet is the only thing you should be getting from the cable company. If you "must" have a landline, instead by a burner phone, plug it into the wall and forget about it. You'll thank me later.

8) While you are accumulating a comfortable bank account, never (read: rarely) buy anything full retail. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are your friends. If someone is offering a phone for $100.00, offer $55.00. (55 - 65% of their offer) You'd be astonished at how many people will take you up on that. I got a $850.00 dollar phone for $450.00. Same goes for cars and what-not.*

9) Learn 2 - 3 meals you can make in under 15 minutes that are very easy to make. This will help when you don't have the emotional energy to make dinner and are tempted to go out for those expensive dinners.

10) Read up on my post about hobbies, and seriously consider which hobby you are doing to help you make side income.

"Cheating" your Bills

Seperate all of your bills into these categories, then proceed to get discounts on them.

1) Rent/Mortgage + Utilities

Responsible homeowner classes will knock off fractions of a % when applying for a mortgage.

If you are privately renting and considering moving first ask for a % decrease at the end of your first year if you paid on time throughout the whole year. A huge number of landlords value consistency more than you understand. Heck, do it anyway just to see what happens.

When picking somewhere to live, price out monthly driving costs vs rent/a mortgage. It's likely worth the extra $80.00 - $100.00 a month if you are saving $60.00+ on gas/wear and tear on your car.

• Phone Bills

Understand that "Unlimited Data" currently means "Unlimited 4G" for most cellular retailers. Most phone companies give unlimited 3G with their plans regardless. For example, my phone bill is $30.xx a month. Lower than literally any of my friends. Likely lower than most of yours.

• Car Payments & Insurance

I shouldn't have to say this, but will just incase. If you are not in a position to live comfortably - you are not in a position to have a nice car. Don't ever rent. Buy. (Those of you that should rent, know it without reading this, so ignore this.)

You can purchase a safe driving course on groupon for ~$20.00. I got a $30.00 monthly discount or roughly $360.00/year off my insurance and it took maybe 30 minutes of total focus to do.

• Health Insurance + Medical Bills

Always ask for an itemized bill.

Sometimes, just to push my luck I'll ask for a discount for no reason. "That bill is too much." And they'll pretty regularly give it to you.

For prescriptions, GoodRX helped my family pay for my parents very expensive medicines. Could turn a $600.00 monthly insulin cost to $100.00.

• Student Loans

Screw student loans. Pay them off asap unless you have more effective ways to earn money. Bane of my existence. Went to school, dropped out, stupid. Stupid stupid stupid!

• Food, gas, and accessory money estimate

Connect with a few close friends or family about getting memberships to large retailers like Sam's Club. Get a "community" membership, collect cash, and use your cashback card for more. A $600.00 store run quickly becomes an $12.00 paycheck. Which is nearly the amount it costs for a half tank of gas.

If your hobbies are expensive, join a community that participates in it. You'd be surprised what you can get for cheap/free as well as events that let you participate in the activity for virtually no cost.

• Other (boat loans, monthly expenses for pets, $ for gifts, etc.)

If this post is beneficial to you, you should probably not have a boat any bigger than a fishing boat. Boating is a rich mans activity.


The goal with this is to increase the value of your takehome pay. Saving a dollar is really more like saving $1.20 - $1.30 after tax.

Anyway, if this post is anyway helpful to you, let me know. I have a goodly sum of other effective practices that have helped immensely and if you are in the position I was in, this will come in handy.