proof of brain

Everyone is always looking for some extra cash, especially in the current state of the economy. Small tidbit tips and suggestions, such as cutting from your morning trips to starbucks, or not taking a vacation, etc. help a little. But I’m thinking big. Big ways to save enormous mounds of money. I’ll start with small, more common opportunities, and get bigger from there.

1. Embrace internet TV. Ditch the widescreen. More and more television shows are available online for free. Hulu.com, for example, lets you watch popular TV shows such as The Office, Colbert Report, Family Guy, The Jay Leno Show, and many more. In fact, TV and internet are expected to be merged by 2011. So instead of paying a monthly broadcasting fee, put that money in the bank and earn some interest.
2. Let the “Just Release”‘s wait a little. If you’re consistently buying the brand new iPod, Dell, Video Game, etc., you’ve got a bad habit going. First of all, making such a purchase is naive, because you have no reviews or opinions about the product. Instead, wait a week or so and ask your friends about it or go online and read reviews. If the feedback is poor, than you just saved yourself some money. Secondly, sometimes even waiting a couple months will give enough time for the price to drop.
3. Sleep on any possible purchase over $100. It can be easy to be browsing through a store, or be doing your daily shopping, and notice something “you just have to get”. This urge can be deadly to your budget, and must be stopped. Next time this happens to you, remember what the item is and wait for a day. By sleeping on it, chances are that you will realize that you don’t actually need that item, particularly considering its price.
4. Invest while you’re young. This requires that, well, you’re young. Simply put, the younger you are, the longer you’re invested money has to grow. There is a great post from FundAdvice.com demonstrating the power of investing at a young age. The picture on the left, which is taken from that post, illustrates investing $1000 a year starting at different ages. Notice that there is about a $200,000 difference between starting at age 25 and 35 (which would mean the difference of investing $10,000! That is $20,000 for every $1,000 invested!) and an $80,000 dollar difference between 35 and 45. As you can see, you will reek the benefits if you start to invest at an early age.
5. Get good grades. Again, you may not qualify for this tip due to age, but it certainly is worth mentioning. I believe that this point is best demonstrated in an example.Let’s assume that Bob gets a full ride to a state university because of his good grades. This particular school costs $80,000 for 4 years, which is not even an expensive school. Bob has saved up $10,000 dollars by working a summer job.First, let’s see the costs if Bob were to have to pay for college all by himself. His $10,000 he has saved can go bye bye. Plus he will have a huge student loan racking up debt to pay off over the next decade or two.But if instead Bob gets good grades and earns himself a full ride, the table turns. Since Bob has $10,000 sitting around, he decides to invest in a CD with 5% return. After 10 years, that very $10,000 would now be $14,802. And after 20 years, it would be $21,911. If you’re really self-disciplined, and wait 50 years, you’d end up with $71,000!Putting those two possible outcomes together, instead of paying $100,000+ of student loans over a period of 20 years, you could instead earn $21,911, simply by getting good grades.

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