what's up guys it's Graham here and let's face it we're in trouble it's recently reported that the African-American only saves five percent of their income the median savings for those under 33 years old is just thirty two hundred and forty dollars and nearly one in four households is absolutely no emergency savings at all however that could stop today because there are six incredibly easy strategies that you could begin immediately if you want to save ten thousand dollars fast and best of all it costs you absolutely nothing Okay I lied the cost is actually one like
on the video and subscribe if you're feeling extra generous it does help out the channel tremendously so thank you guys so much and now let's begin to start I found that when it comes to any Financial Milestone it helps to break down exactly how much you want and in what time frame after all there's a problem if you tell yourself I just want to make ten thousand dollars as fast as humanly possible in that case there's no Finish Line the timeline is indefinite so it helps to have a realistic timeline in terms of when you
could accomplish your goal in this case I'll just go ahead and assume that you want to save ten thousand dollars in a year which if that's the case you'll break it down as follows eight hundred and thirty three dollars a month twenty seven dollars and forty cents a day one dollar and forty cents an hour or two cents a minute okay you don't need to go that far but you get the point breaking down your goal within a specified timeline gives you actionable steps that you could begin working towards on a smaller scale like let's
be real saving ten thousand dollars seems like a daunting task but when you break it down to twenty seven dollars and forty cents it seems a lot more reasonable and then from there you can move on to step two start right now I know this sounds kind of common sense but you would be surprised how many people think of a great financial goal get very excited about starting and then nothing maybe you get a text message forget about it for a day and then think to yourself well I'll start off tomorrow or perhaps you have
too many upcoming expenses and you say well this might work a little better if I actually start next week after the new Street Fighter PS5 game comes out whatever the reason you're only hurting yourself by not beginning immediate immediately and when it comes to this here's what I found you have the most momentum when you're excited about the prospect of something new and then within about a day that excitement begins to wear off and then you're left with the reality that your entire life has just become a giant procrastination however by starting right now or
basically as soon as the video is over you'll at least begin to build up some momentum and once you get the ball rolling it'll be a little bit harder to quit so in terms of how to start the first thing that you could do is budget the fact is if you're going to save an extra 27.40 every single day you need to know exactly where your money is going and how much money is going into and out of your account without it it's kind of like you're throwing a dark blindfolded and hoping you don't poke
an eye out plus it's incredibly simple to do not poking an eye out I meant budgeting all you need to do is make an account with a free money tracking platform like mint or rocket money that Aggregates all of your information into one place and then from there you can see exactly where your money is going in real time the benefit of doing this is that by tracking where your money is going you're going to be able to better pinpoint all the random miscellaneous small expenses that add up over time like did you know that
the average American spends eighteen thousand dollars a year on non-essential discretionary purchases or chances are you're spending 200 a month on subscriptions which is a hundred and thirty three dollars more than expected when you really get into the weeds of your budget strange things begin to happen and no I'm not talking about getting retargeted with debt consolidation ads instead it's like looking into the Matrix and seeing everything that you've just never noticed before except this time it's all about saving money all you need to do is track your spending for the next 30 to 60
days and then cut back on everything you don't absolutely need to buy it sounds simple right well it is really simple actually in terms of what to expect one survey found that it was the easiest to cut back on 10 main categories eating out alcohol credit card interests clothes electricity cigarettes heating or AC unreturned items convenience and the lottery just think about that almost all of those items so pretty much discretionary that you directly control like eating at home versus going out to a restaurant don't order alcohol pay down credit card interest turn off the
lights when you're not using them the list goes on but even if that's not your idea of fun and you want to be able to save money without changing really anything about your lifestyle then there is another option all you need to do is look at your most common expenses and then think to yourself how could I get the exact same thing for cheaper take car insurance for example be honest when is the last time you shopped around with 30 minutes of work I pretty much guarantee you could find the exact same coverage for less
than you're currently paying from there take a look at your internet and cell phone bill there are so many different Alternatives right now that could save you a ton of money just apply this to everything that you spend money on and sometimes just calling up and asking for a discount is all it takes to begin cutting back it's also incredibly important to realize that when it comes to this step saving money is a lot more impactful than earning more let me explain when you earn a dollar you're going to have expenses like travel to and
from work gas Insurance wear and tear on the car and taxes which could often leave you with about 75 cents left over when everything is said and done but when you save a dollar you get to keep that one dollar in full immediately and this is why saving money is so powerful to put that in context if you go out and spend fifty dollars on a meal you would have to earn 67 before tax to be able to pay for it but if you decide just not to get that meal at all then you have
fifty dollars left over in your pocket right now for you to do whatever you want with however I also understand that this isn't for everybody some people just want to live their life and spend some money so there is another option and that would be the concept of paying yourself first this runs with the philosophy that most people first spend their money on housing Transportation food entertainment life and then they save whatever's left over but paying yourself first flips this around entirely with this you'll automatically pay yourself a certain amount right off the top and
then you'll get to freely spend whatever's left over I mean let's face it the average person is not tracking what they make aren't budgeting and I have no idea how much they spend this will have the most immediate impact in terms of how much that person is able to save on top of that from what I've seen the average American household doesn't necessarily have an income problem they have a spending problem and expenses will always go up right alongside with your income so no matter how much money you make you're always going to be in
the exact same spot except probably with a slightly nicer iPhone but just consider that almost half of those making above a hundred thousand dollars a year are living paycheck to paycheck which is only slightly lower than those who make between 50 and 100 000 a year that goes to show you that spending habits are largely the same in proportion to how much money you make and that's all because we succumb to what's known as lifestyle inflation this is simply what happens when you earn more spend more and then need to earn more to be able
to spend more it's a vicious cycle so automate your savings move it before you think about it and once it's out of sight it's out of mind but in terms of how now you could actually save twenty seven dollars and forty cents a day assuming you want to hit ten thousand dollars in a year here's a few ideas first housing according to the consumer expenditure survey housing takes up the largest portion of the average budget so if you could find a way to reduce this you're set I know it sounds easier said than done but
perhaps you'd find a way to rent out a bedroom maybe you're able to ask your landlord for a reduction in rent or find a cheaper place when your lease is up if you own a home like I mentioned earlier you could shop around your insurance rates you could adjust the thermostat when you're not using it to reduce water usage you have a ton of ways of lessening your cost and by implementing just a few of these you should be able to save an extra ten dollars a day second we got Transportation right now the average
car payment is 716 dollars a month which is ridiculous but it's also a great way to save a lot of money personally my recommendation is that unless you need a nice car for professional use go and buy the most affordable reliable good on gas card that you could possibly find and then drive it until the wheels fall off remember most cars hit their Peak depreciation around year six and seven so use that to your advantage because then you'll be able to recoup as much value as possible throughout your ownership on top of that check your
mileage to make sure you're not paying more than you need to when your insurance premiums which could be overpriced to begin with so just by scaling back and shopping around you should be able to save another five dollars a day here third we have taxes remember how I said that housing takes up the largest portion of the American budget well that's true until you account for taxes it was reported that in the United States the average single worker paid 30.5 percent of their income to taxes in 2022 meaning that one-third of your entire working year
is spent earning enough just to pay the IRS this means that it's more important than ever to at least have a basic understanding of how the tax system works that you could utilize everything at your disposal that's designed to keep you as much money as possible from my experience hiring a good accountant goes a long weight saving you a lot more money and by doing this you should be able to save at least another three dollars a day fourth food one study found that the average person spends sixty six hundred dollars a year in this
category which works out to be five hundred and fifty dollars a month and about forty percent of that is eating out at 220 dollars a month now I'm not just gonna sit here behind a screen and yell at you for spending money eating out even though that would save you a lot of money but instead I'll take the more reasonable approach if you're dining out or going to a restaurant or ordering food delivery don't do that out of laziness but if your idea is going out with friends and family once a week or so to
an affordable place that you could budget by all means but stop lazy spending by doing this even if you're able to save just three dollars a day it begins adding up and all of this money is something that you could use to put yourself ahead financially fifth we also have debt repayment it's said that the average American has fifty seven hundred dollars of credit card debt at an average of a twenty four percent interest rate that is a hundred and fourteen dollars every single month that you're not paying off your bill in full so instead
take the approach of doing anything you can to cut back and then taking that money to pay down any credit cards once that debt is paid off you're gonna have the entire amount left over to then save and invest however you want but until you're completely out of debt paying this down should be your biggest priority and since we're tallying all of this up for the average person that would result in a savings of an extra four dollars a day and finally six we got apparel look Americans are spending an average of a hundred and
thirty three dollars a month on clothing and if that sounds like you go and take a look at your closet and tell me how many of your clothes you actually end up wearing if I were to guess you probably wear the same few shirts and pants and shoes ninety percent of the time or maybe I'm just discussing myself but if this sounds accurate cut down on this or at least reduce it by half and by doing that you'd be able to save an extra two dollars a day so just right there is your 27 a
day in savings by cutting back reducing your spending and paying yourself first which adds up to ten thousand dollars in a year but there could also be another way well thankfully there is with a side hustle here is the truth if you want the fastest way possible to make ten thousand dollars in a year get a part-time job honestly I am surprised how complicated people want to make things if you're not willing to cut back and you don't want to resort to eating rice and beans every night then you have to make more money and
the fastest way to do that is by working more hours it doesn't need to be glamorous it doesn't have to pay you an exorbitant amount but if you're willing to help out a local business do some work for somebody else or take on some side work on the evenings or weekends check what options are available in your city even if you're earning fifteen dollars an hour after tax that requires that you work less than two hours a day on average for a year to save up ten thousand dollars in your pocket without doing anything differently
or cutting back at all plus the more you work the more skilled you're gonna get and the faster you're gonna be able to make and save a lot more money or you could go and ask your boss for a raise you know because of inflation that works too and finally since this is all money you're going to be saving make sure you optimize it with a high yield savings account money market account or CD right now there's so many options that are currently paying between four and five percent interest which means once you hit your
ten thousand dollar Target that is an extra 500 a year just for diligently saving and following some of the steps that are outlined here the entire point to this is that all of these steps start small and then build over time as long as you subscribe and hit the like button if you haven't done that already so thank you guys so much as always feel free to add me on Instagram and don't forget that you can get a free stock worth all the way up to a thousand dollars with their paid sponsor public.com Down Below
in the description when you make a deposit with the code Graham enjoy thank you so much and until next time
