So many people fail to invest in stocks and other securities because they don’t have the cash to invest. Or at least they think they don’t. But the truth is that there are many ways to raise cash that might be staring you in the face. Here are a few ideas.
Sell the junk you don’t need. Just because you don’t want something any more doesn’t mean that it is valueless to everyone.
“De-clutter with Craigslist; it’s efficient and tends to be local and you might meet a friendly neighbor in the process,” says Nicole Slavitt, CEO of financial services company Kapitall in New York.
[See: 12 Steps to Protect Your Money in Divorce.]
So list your unwanted stuff on Craigslist or another community notice board and get rid of stuff. You may wish you’d done so sooner.
Most people should be able to raise at least $1,000 this way.
Ditch the storage unit. An uncluttered home means less reason for renting a storage unit. Such units can be a huge waste of money.
Ask yourself the following question: How much do I really need it, if I’ve put it in storage? For a lot of things, probably you don’t.
Prices for renting such units vary by size and location. In New York, even a medium-sized unit can exceed $100 a month, based on the prices quoted at Public Storage (ticker: PSA) which runs a slew of facilities across the U.S. and abroad.
Buy a car instead of leasing. “When you lease, you are leasing the three most expensive years,” says Barry Ritholtz, founder and chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management.
The moment the car leaves the dealer it loses value, and after four years half the value will have disappeared, according to Edmunds, the online listing company. To make a profit, the leasing company has to charge the customer for all that depreciation and then some.
“People lease because it makes their monthly payment cheaper than buying,” Ritholz says. “When you run the numbers you are better off buying.”
When you’ve paid off the car loan you own the car and can sell it. Sure, the monthly payment might be a little higher, but you’ll come away better off by thousands of dollars.
Edmunds.com shows how it works, with the buyer of a new car better off by more than $5,000 than they would be leasing. Better still, buy a used car and save even more.
[Read: 7 Hot (or Not) Stocks in 2016.]
Pump and dump, for your vehicle. You’ll get better mileage if you take all the junk out of the vehicle. Dump things like boots and coats. Remember, the lighter the vehicle the less fuel it uses.
Likewise, check that the tires are pumped to the recommended pressure. You will also get better mileage from that as well.
How much will this save? It’s dependent on the price of gasoline and the vehicle. Gas sells for an average of $2.15 a gallon according to AAA.
At that price some people probably won’t think pumping tires or dumping junk makes economic sense. But if you get into the habit of doing those things all the time, when gasoline prices jump back up to $4 then you’ll already be in good shape.
Get a library card. For some people, the addiction to buying books can get out of hand. Even as few as seven books at an average price of $15 will set you back at least $100. There are plenty of people who spend more than that each month.
You can save all that when you get yourself a library card and borrow books. Get the books back on time, and there’ll be zero cost.
Don’t carry a credit card balance. Start paying off your credit card debt in full each month and every month. Not doing so is wasting money.
Approximately one in three U.S. households carries a balance on their credit card each month, according to creditcards.com. That’s really bad news because the same source says the average interest rate across the U.S. is 15.2 percent and the average balance on a card where the balance is carried is $7,494.
If you carried a balance of that amount for every month of the year you’d be paying more than $1,000 in interest payments over a 12-month period. That’s money which could be better saved and invested. Even worse, such borrowing costs aren’t usually tax deductible.
It’s all about choices. “People have to set their own plans for what their circumstances are, whether it’s get a library card or grow your own food,” says Brian Levitt, senior investment strategist at Oppenheimer Funds in New York. “Everyone is different in what they are willing to give up to get money into the market.”
[Read: Why the Auto Industry Is in Trouble (F, GM, TM).]
And everyone, even those who work on Wall Street, has to make choices to reach their savings goals.
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How to Save Thousands of Dollars to Invest in the Future originally appeared on usnews.com
