Instead, before you set your New Year’s resolutions that you break before you lose your hangover, remember that being realistic about your goals is half the battle. The other half is making it simple.
We’re not going to tell you to lose weight or quit smoking (though that may lead to money savings in lower premiums for health and life insurance), but we will offer these tips so you don’t suck at keeping your money resolutions.
Use Your 401(k)
If your employer offers a 401(k) or similar retirement plan, take advantage. These plans allow you to save money pre-tax, which means you can lower your taxable income with every dollar you contribute up to the maximum, which for 2014 is $17,500. Those 50 and older can save an extra $5,500 “catch-up” contribution for a total of $23,000. After you contribute, your money grows tax-deferred, meaning you won’t pay taxes on your earnings until you withdraw the money in retirement.
If you don’t contribute yet: Start. If you can’t contribute the max, ask your benefits administrator about matching funds. These are free dollars your employer will add to your account based on your contribution level. Try very hard to at least contribute enough to take advantage of the full match so you’re not leaving free money on the table. If you earn $50,000 a year and save 5 percent of your salary, and if your employer matches 50% on the first 4% you save, a 30-year-old could have more than $500,000 at age 65 if the account earns an average of 7% a year.
If you already contribute: Consider upping your contributions. Maybe set your sights on increasing your percentage by 1% every two months so you can slowly get used to having a little less in each paycheck. If you save 10% of your salary with the same assumptions, you could have more than $860,000 at age 65.
Try BankRate.com’s 401(k) calculator to see how much you could save.
Stop Guessing About Your Budget
You may have a pretty good idea of where you spend your money, but most people simply guess-timate. And you can imagine many of the guess-timators are wildly inaccurate.
It’s hard to set money goals if you’re not really sure what you spend. So get to it.
You can do it the old-fashioned way — keep a small notebook in your pocket and mark down every penny you spend. Or, you can get high-tech with apps that allow you to enter all your spending on your phone — which you probably have with you every time you take out your wallet, anyway.
Try apps such as those recommended in this story by CNN-Money and this one loved by LifeHacker and take a look at BankRate’s favorites.
Stop Using Plastic
Easier said than done, but give cash a try for a change. Or at least promise yourself you won’t use credit cards until you’ve paid off your balances from that excessive holiday spending.
While you’re on credit card hiatus, take a close look at all the cards you have and decide which is the smartest for you to use regularly. Refresh yourself with the rules of your rewards cards, too.
Cut Down on Bank Fees
BankRate offers some scary banking fee numbers for 2013. The average overdraft fee rose 3% to a record $32.20, according to the site. And the average cost for using another bank’s ATM set another record, rising 2%, to $4.13.
For the new year, vow to avoid bank fees. How? Start by refreshing your memory on how your accounts work. Review ATM charges, minimum balance fees, checking fees and more, and see if you can find an account that will do better by you. Check out BankRate.com’s lists of the best checking accounts, savings accounts and more.
Start a Rainy Day Fund
Unexpected expenses are a part of life, so you may as well be prepared.
Start an emergency fund. This would be money you set aside in a separate bank account that you don’t tap unless you really, really need to. You know, in case the roof caves in or you need to have teeth pulled.
Most financial advisors suggest you keep three to six months of expenses in a rainy day fund. That may seem overwhelming, but remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and all, so you can take your time building your account.
Let’s not count interest here — because let’s face it, because most savings and money market account pay a pittance these days. But if you set aside $10 per week, you’ll have $520 in a year. If you save $25 per week, you’ll have $1,300, and $50 per week will give you $2,600.
While you’re at it, start a holiday savings fund for your 2014 purchases.
Have a topic you’d like to see covered in How To Not Suck? Or maybe you’re an expert who would like to share your insight with Consumerist readers? Send us a note at notsuck@consumerist.com.
You can read Karin Price Mueller’s stories for The Star-Ledger at NJ.com, follow her on Facebook, and on Twitter @kpmueller.
PREVIOUSLY ON HOW TO NOT SUCK:
How To Not Suck… At Last-Minute Christmas Gifting
How To Not Suck… At Saving For The Holidays
How To Not Suck… At Charitable Giving
How To Not Suck… At Disputing Credit Report Errors
How To Not Suck… At Lowering Your Utility Bills
How To Not Suck… At Home Inspections
How To Not Suck… At Understanding Credit Card Rewards
How To Not Suck… At Getting Ready For Tax Season
How To Not Suck… At Picking A Retirement Plan
How To Not Suck… At Deciding When To DIY
How To Not Suck… At Getting Out Of Debt
How To Not Suck… At First Year College Budgets
DISCLAIMER: Any websites, services, retailers, or brands mentioned in the story above are only intended as some of many options available to consumers, and do not constitute an endorsement by Consumerist, Consumerist Media LLC (CML) or its staff. Per Consumerist’s No Commercial Use Policy, such information may not be used by others in advertising or to promote a company’s product or service. In addition, this policy precludes any commercial use of any of CML’s published information in any form, or of the names of Consumers Union®, Consumer Media, Consumer Reports®, The Consumerist, consumerist.com or any other of CU or CML’s publications or services without CU or CML’s express written permission.
On yesterday’s episode of the show, CBS says it gave away its biggest prize yet, an Audi R8. The lucky lady had appearing on the show as one of her bucket list items, so when she not only got her chance to hang out with Drew Carey on national TV but also won the insanely expensive and shiny car, well, let’s just say she was excited.
Eyes a-popping and mouth agape, the hot pink T-shirt clad contestant takes off on a few victory laps crowing her delight at winning the game “Gas Money.” Watch the video below if you’re the type that practices what your reaction would be in a similar scenario.
Or just watch it because it’s super fun and exciting.
Anyone who has ever seen a Pizza Hut knows what a Pizza Hut looks like. Worldwide, people recognize that wacky trapezoidal roof, even though new Pizza Huts no longer have them. What happens, though, when a Pizza Hut closes down or moves, but the building remains? What about other global chains with instantly recognizable building formats? These buildings have not-terribly-secret second lives, if you know where to look.
Two amazing sites, Used to be a Pizza Hut and the venerable Not Fooling Anybody,
Notable ex-Pizza Huts include this sex shop in Australia:
This police station in Des Moines, Iowa:
What happens when other chain buildings get re-used? Here’s a great example: a former Taco Bell that became a restaurant serving Philadelphian cuisine in Arizona.
Used to be a Pizza Hut (via Atlantic Cities – thanks, Tenille!)
Earlier today, we published a round-up of the most popular Consumerist posts from 2013. That list only represents about .2% of all the stories posted to Consumerist in the last year, meaning thousands of important, funny, interesting, and helpful posts didn’t make the cut. So we each looked back at the year that was to pick the stories that meant the most to us.
Laura Northrup:
Favorite Post: Walmart Now Offers “Naughty” Costumes For Toddler Girls
Why It’s My Favorite: It had everything: cute children, Walmart, a discussion of how the meanings of words shift in contexts and over time, and angry people e-mailing us to call me a pervert. I maintain that the bigger problem with the costume was that it doesn’t look anything like a leopard.
Honorary Mentions:
• Hobby Lobby May Have Overreacted To Theft Of $5 Worth Of Iron-On Letters;
• Sears Admits: People Only Come To Our Stores To Park;
• Nation’s Two Largest Funeral Companies To Merge, Form Bereavement Voltron
• Bertolli Takes Advantage Of Barilla’s PR Problems, Says Their Pasta Is For Everyone
Chris Morran:
Favorite Post: Former Staffers: Bank Of America Rewarded Us For Lying To Homeowners, Losing Paperwork, Denying Modifications
Why It’s My Favorite: In the years following BofA’s ill-advised acquisition of Countrywide Financial, the bank attempted to blame the too-common complaints — lost paperwork, delayed filings, rushed foreclosures, inept customer service — on the bad paperwork it had inherited from Countrywide. But these sworn statements from former BofA employees highlighted the bank’s calculated, systemic attempt to push homeowners toward foreclosure.
BofA has subsequently tried to discredit these employees, but the mud slung by the bank focused on making the former workers look like bad people, rather than attempting to prove that the claims made in the statements are false.
Honorable Mentions:
• After A Dine-And-Dash, Is It Legal For A Restaurant To Take Money From A Waiter’s Tips?;
• How Far Off Were The Predictions Of 1967′s Home Of The Future?;
• 23 Things Debt Collectors Are Not Allowed To Do;
• Proof That Bank Of America’s Twitter Account Is Moderated By Robots Or Morons (Or Moronic Robots)
Mary Beth Quirk
Favorite Post: There Is No Such Thing As An Apple Core
Why It’s My Favorite: Sure, it’s simple, but it was one of those posts that I felt personally attached to because I was physically eating an apple and living through the experience of realizing there really is no core. I also love it when there’s a topic that is so polarizing — without having to involve anyone or any entity other than the person who cannot fathom eating an entire apple. I connected with that apple in its corelessness, and it changed my food-eating habits… I’d like to think it affected other people as well.
Honorable Mentions:
• Slushie Machine Wonders What It Ever Did To Naked Woman Attacking It At Gas Station;
• 15 Explanations For Company Name Mashups You Never Knew You Wanted Explained;
• 11 Company Slogans That Say What We Know To Be The Real Truth;
• 5 Foods That Have More Sugar Than A Krispy Kreme Doughnut
Meg Marco:
Favorite Post: We Are In The Era Of “Nightmare” Bacteria And Nobody Seems To Care
Why It’s My Favorite: When the CDC says the word “nightmare,” it’s time to pay attention. I think that if people stopped to take a closer look at the way we, as a society, and, hell, as an organism, are stupidly wasting antibiotics, they’d rethink their behaviors. For the most part, people who are alive today don’t remember what medicine was like before the widespread availability of antibiotics. If we don’t pay attention to how we are using them now, we may not have to remember.
In what sounds like an insurance company’s worst nightmare — and also your own nightmare if you happen to appreciate a house that is intact — the Indy Star says the couple who live in the home were minding their own business on Sunday, watching the Colts game in their living room.
Suddenly a Chevy Equinox crashed through the wall, missing the woman by perhaps a foot.
“This time I thought she was dead, five inches away from it,” the husband told WTHR. “I had no idea how something didn’t hit her. She was sitting just on the other side of the wall there.”
When you have to say “this time” there could possibly be a bigger problem here, no? And that problem could be the fact that the house is near a railroad crossing, where speed could be an issue in many of the 11 or so crashes that have happened at the house, according to the fire department. Drivers could be trying to beat a train at the crossing, instead of getting stuck waiting for it to go by.
In this particular case, the 29-year-old driver wasn’t seriously injured, despite going through the windshield. She told officials that she’d been going too fast over the railroad tracks near the house and lost control of the car.
Despite the occasional danger that exists simply by living in the house, the woman’s mother who lives on the other side of the duplex home says she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
“I’m staying,” she says. “They’ll have to carry me out.”
Indy house hit by vehicle for 11th time in 30 years [Indy Star]
Vehicle crashes into house – again [WTHR]
Sure, the PS4 is now on the market, but not everyone keeps up with the hottest and latest consoles. For those people, especially if they have no idea what year it is, Walmart offers copies of decade-old PS2 games at comically high prices.
“This copy of PS2 NBA 2005 was in the large bin mixed with bargain CDs and DVDs,” notes reader Ian, who made this amazing find at a Walmart store in Florida.
