USA edition:

If you’re a billionaire: vote Republican.

If you’re not a billionaire: vote Democrat.

For bills that are due on a regular basis but not monthly (car registration, oil changes, pet’s annual check up, HVAC check ups if you own a home, etc) - figure out how much each costs per year, add them all up, divide by 12, and set up an auto-transfer to a savings account for that amount every month. Don’t forget to include that amount in your monthly budget too.

Look up how cumulative interest works, then start investing in ETFs or index funds that follow MSCI World or S&P 500 for example. Then wait.

If you can use credit cards responsibly, look into credit card churning for points. I fly business class for any extended flight and I pay less than what economy would cost.

Have no social life, it’s much cheaper.

But in all seriousness, if you have to have a social life, limit your spending on that stuff. Restaurant and bar tabs can add up quickly. Budget, limit your drinking, and if you don’t wanna limit your drinking, at least do some cheap drinking at home first.

Inherit your wealth!

Budgeting is very important. some people like the 20% of income for saving, 30% for living expenses and the other 50% for everything else. Pre or post tax is up to you as this is a rule of thumb. Important part is that it should be easy for you to build up your savings to cover important expenses. spending 50% of income on housing may be really bad since having back to back years of badluck can screw over your savings, and not give you enough time to save up in between.

This is a general rule that applies when you make enough to do so. If you’re struggling to pay rent, do what you can to remove risk and cut down on costs. One thing that helps is aiming to have savings. Often times, its cheaper to have money up front to resolve emergencies rather than later.

Car is one of those things that can make sense to remove. If you’re commuting one hour already by car, and there’s no public transit option then a car is a necessity. If you can take public transit, that could save you money on car insurance, car payments, car maintenance, and possible accidents.

Use credit cards as cash, and pay off the balance weekly. This protects your bank account from fraud, as chargebacks and fraud are more easily dealt with on credit, and they tend to have better account monitoring and security than banks and credit unions. Even better if you have a cash-back/points card, that’s basically free money.

This also makes it easy to track spending if you have specific purpose credit cards. E.g, one card for groceries and gas, another for recurring bills or service payments, another for frivolous stuff, etc.

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Even if you have no other investments, open a high yield savings account and keep the bulk of your funds there, other than what you need for a general emergency fund and monthly bills. Current yields are over 4%, generally better than inflation, without any risk.

Every luxury takes work to pay for. Even a fancy car for people making well over six figures is a financial ball and chain. Think long and hard about the stuff you buy.

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For me it’s a matter of my mentality. I have tried to get away from the spending mentality. As soon as you get money you start thinking of ways to spend it. You should be thinking of ways to save it. I usually try to think of something that is important to me. For me I like to go out and see the world. That means buying gas. If I spend $5 on a cup of coffee that’s about 20 mi I can’t drive. As others have stated you got all these streaming media sites and stuff. If you add that all up over a years time is quite a bit of money. You should get rid of anything you don’t need. There are two ways to have more money: Make more or spend less.

I really wish there was a personal finance community on Lemmy. Then reading that would be a good lpt.

We have a credit card that gives 6% cash back on groceries, 3% on gas and some discounts on streaming services. It blows my mind that every few months I can cash out a $200 or so credit towards my balance. I needed to buy those things anyway and have autopay set to the full balance each month so it really is free money. So if you can get one, absolutely a credit card that gives cash back. The one I mentioned is Amex Blue Cash Preferred but there other options out there that give other bonuses, like 2% back on everything or 6% back on something up to a certain cap.

If you don’t touch an account for 7 years, it disappears from your credit report. That means NO ACTIVITY at all. No usage of the card, no payments, no nothing.

There are some debts that this does not apply to, like school loans, but I know it works on credit cards.

Now, here’s the real world disclaimer. During those 7 years, your credit will TANK. You will have a hell of a time trying to finance a Happy Meal. If you have good credit, it will take another 5-7 years to get it back to where it was. But, if your credit is already trash, and you can’t afford to pay every bill, it is an option that could get you back within your means.

Is it ethical? I figure the system itself isn’t ethical, so stealing back from the ones who take advantage of others doesn’t bother me one bit, but I totally understand if someone would disagree.

If you’re worried about auto charges emptying your account when you need the cash for more immediate things, have another account where you can stash some money so it’s always accessible.

For example, this week I knew I was gonna get a big charge and didn’t have the $$ to cover it. But it was pre-authorized, and it was going to go through and put me to negative.

So I moved gas money (required for earning money) into my Chime account, so I could keep earning when my main account went negative.