Do you have money stress? Charmaine Huber is a certified money coach with Money Coaches Canada. She helps individuals, families and entrepreneurs by making money management easy to understand, and most of all, simple to do. She believes it is never too late to take control of your finances. We asked Charmaine to share her best money-saving tips.
1. Switch your bank accounts to a bank that respects you. You shouldn’t be spending your hard-earned money on bank fees – why are you paying the bank to keep YOUR money? They should be paying YOU some interest on your checking and savings accounts.
2. Turn off the television. One big way to save money is to watch less television. There are a lot of financial benefits to this: less exposure to guilt-inducing ads, more time to focus on other things in life, less electrical use, and so on. It’s great to unwind in the evening, but find another way to do that.
3. Master the thirty-day rule. Whenever you’re considering making a purchase you think you just have to have, wait thirty days and then ask yourself if you still want that item. Quite often, you’ll find that the urge to buy has passed and you’ll have saved yourself some money by simply waiting.
4. Write a list before you go shopping – and stick to it. Never go into a store without a strong idea of what you will be buying while there. Make a careful plan of what you’ll buy before you go, then stick strictly to that list when you go to the store. Don’t put anything in the cart that’s not on the list, no matter how tempting, and you’ll come out of the store saving a bundle.
5. Call your credit card company and ask for a rate reduction. Take any of your credit cards that are carrying a balance, flip them over, and call the number on the back. Tell them that you want an interest rate reduction or you’ll take your business elsewhere. If the first person you talk to won’t do it, ask to talk to a supervisor. If you have a $5,000 balance, even a 3% rate reduction saves you $150 a year.
Charmaine Huber, BA, is a Certified Money Coach located in the Simcoe County-York Region of Ontario. Her specialization is debt and cash flow management for individuals, families and entrepreneurs. For more information or to schedule a free consultation, please visit Charmaine on the web at mcoaches.ca/charmaineh.
Sue Cook, RSW, CCC, MEd Counselling, BAFN, CYC
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