76: Ways to Earn and Save More Money
As a financial therapist, the two most common financial goals people want to achieve are earning and saving more money. While the side hustle is often praised as the end all be all to making more money, negotiating a raise is one of the best ways to increase your income. Side hustles can be great, but they require time, energy, and often marketing to make work. Instead, I’ll share how to negotiate a raise, how to cope if your boss says no to your request, and some of my favorite tips on saving more money.
How to Get a Pay Increase At Work
Asking for a raise is an important part of work, and in fact, is expected. While many people hope their boss or manager will magically offer them a raise, most of the time, it’s on the employee to advocate for better financial compensation. Negotiating a raise as a member of a marginalized community (e.g., as a woman, BIPOC, disabled person, or member of the queer community) is even more important. There is a huge wealth and income gap between white men and all other groups of people in the United States. Contrary to folklore, women actually do ask for raises as often as men, but are more likely to be told “no.” This makes asking for a raise as a woman, especially if compounded with other marginalized identities, imperative. If you occupy any marginalized identities, negotiating for better pay is not only beneficial for you but leaves the door open for others to have access to better financial opportunities as well.
Prepare to Negotiate a Raise
Before you ask for a raise, you have to do some preliminary research and prep work. This will help you come to the meeting armed with the data that supports your reason for a pay increase. Carve out some time to ask yourself the following questions:
What value do you bring? Document your praise since your last review or raise. Check your email for client testimonials and positive praise for your work from teammates to help support your value. Get detailed about what specific contributions you’ve made to the company or team. While this isn’t the time to be shy, don’t overstep your work. For example, if you were on a small team that found ways to save 11% on energy expenses, include that. Don’t say, “I found 11% savings on energy expenses.”
What raises have you received? If it’s been 12 months since your last raise, it’s appropriate to ask for a raise. If you’ve been with the company for a while, review your raises. If they’ve only been “cost of living” raises, or raises in the 2.5-3% raise, it’s absolutely time to negotiate better pay. If you’ve been with the company or in your position for less than a year, you can still ask for a raise if you’ve taken on more responsibilities than originally outlined in your job description.
What do other companies pay/what are your colleagues earning? Ask colleagues what they earn or earned when they were in your position. Get on websites like Glassdoor or PayScale to learn more about the market rate for your position. If you feel uncomfortable asking your colleagues for their salary, you can preface it with, “I’m getting ready to negotiate a raise and am planning on asking for a salary in the range of $X-$Y. Is that about what you were making when you were in my position?”
Demonstrate a willingness to learn and show how you’ve taken steps/will continue to take steps to help your team or department. Track the additional responsibilities you’ve taken on, new skills you’ve learned, and share what specific goals you hope to achieve in the coming year. It’s expensive for a company to hire someone new and lose time training someone. If they know you plan to be with them for several years, they may be more likely to grant your raise request.
After you’ve answered the above questions, practice having a conversation with a friend or colleague you trust. Getting comfortable saying the words “I’d like to ask for a raise,” or “I’m asking for my compensation to match my increased efforts” can be helpful to prevent you from stumbling over the words in real-time.
Have The Raise Negotiation Conversation With a Manager
Now that you have your data backing up why it’s time for a raise, it’s time to set aside a meeting with your manager to negotiate a raise. These meetings can be as short as five minutes or run up to 30 minutes. Send a quick note or Slack message (depending on your company culture) requesting to sit down or have a 1:1 Zoom meeting to discuss your compensation and performance. This gives your manager a head’s up that you’ll be asking for a raise, and gives you both appropriate time to have the conversation. While many people ask for raises during their annual review or performance review, you can absolutely ask for a raise outside of that time period.
Here’s how to run the meeting to make the ask:
Evidence. Present the evidence you’ve researched. Share what you’ve been working on, the positive outcomes you’ve had, and why you’re a valuable member of the company.
Make your ask clear. After you’ve laid out your reasons for a raise, be clear and to the point. Ask, “can we revisit my compensation?” or state, “I’d like to adjust my salary to reflect my performance.”
If they say yes. YAY! Cheers to you! Make sure you finalize the details on when the raise will go into place.
If they say “no.” If they say no to your request for a pay raise, there are three common reasons. If they give you one of these three reasons, they say you aren’t qualified, they can’t afford it, or now isn’t the time, here are some assertive responses, so all of your hard work prepping for the meeting and making the ask doesn’t go to waste. If they say “no” because you are . . .
Not qualified
“What specific things would I need to do/complete to be considered for a raise?”
Budget issue
“Are there non-salary benefits we can negotiate?”
“When will a budget be made available for this?”
Timing issue
“I understand now isn’t the time, can we talk about this again at the end of the quarter/month?”
Salary Increase When Changing Jobs
If your boss said no to the well-documented reason you asked for a pay raise, it might be time to look for a salary increase by getting a new job. In 2019, the average salary increase for a worker changing jobs was 5.3%. Using some of your prep work from earlier, you can more confidently put yourself on the job market or work with a recruiter for a better salary. Take some of the work you did in researching your responsibilities and positive outcomes and fold them into your cover letter and resume, too.
Remember, if you go the route of changing jobs to get a better salary, it’s illegal in most states for them to ask for your current compensation. This protection helps prevent people who are underpaid from continuing to be underpaid when they change jobs. Don’t feel pressured into telling them what you currently make; get comfortable with the number you want to be compensated. For example, if they ask what you make, you can say, “I’m not comfortable sharing that number, but I will share that I’m looking for compensation in the $X-$Y range.”
Ways to Save More Money
Most of us have a vague idea that we should be saving money. But if we are saving “just because,” it can be hard to maintain any meaningful momentum. Before you tell yourself you want to save more money, ask yourself WHY you want to save, and what you want to use that money for. Label a separate savings account with that financial goal in mind. And get specific, “Paris Vacation 2022” or “New AWD Subaru” are better than savings accounts labeled “travel” and “car.” Now, onto those realistic ways to save money:
Look at spending. Cut what isn’t serving you. One of the best ways to save more money (realistically) is by looking at where your money is currently going. Review the last 3-4 months of spending to see trends or patterns in your spending habits. You might find that you’ve been spending more on parking than you thought, or your spending on dry cleaning hasn’t changed even though you’re still wearing sweats from the waist down. Reviewing where you can easily trim is a great way to save money.
Get rid of aspirational spending. Most of us have “aspirational spending.” We spend on things like gym memberships, meditation apps, or meal kits based on the idea that having access to those types of things will make us the type of person who exercises, meditates, or cooks on weeknights. Maybe you are that person, go you! But if you’re anything like me, there might be some expenses that you just aren’t using, or using enough, to be worthwhile. I had to cancel all of my meal kits because I’m not organized enough to meal plan a week in advance and found that I was gifting meals to neighbors and family instead of cooking them.
Autosave. Let the robots do your heavy (financial) lifting. Auto-transfers are a gift; you can set up an auto-transfer from your checking account to a savings account every time you are paid to make saving for a goal as painless as possible.
Round up In keeping with the theme of letting robots do the work for you, join an app or enroll specific cards to round up your purchases to the nearest dollar, with the additional change being funneled into a specific savings account. If you regularly swipe, joining something like Digit or Qapital might be worth it.
Negotiate your bills. Call utility companies, phone, internet, insurance, and cable companies, to negotiate a more affordable package. It can be as simple as “I’ve been a loyal customer for two years. Do you have any packages that are more affordable than my current one?” or “I’m thinking of switching to X competitor as they are offering a better deal. Do you have anything similar?” I do this about once per year with great success!
Negotiate interest rates. Did you know you can negotiate a lower interest rate on your credit cards, auto loans, and sometimes even student loans? Yup! If you’ve got a decent on-time payment history, you can use that to your advantage and call them up (or use their chatbot feature) to share that you’ve been paying on time for X months and you’d like a lower interest rate. You can also do this if you have a mortgage; it’s called “refinancing.” It definitely can be worth it. While it takes more time and paperwork, it can save you money and potentially time left on your mortgage. Last year, my partner and I refinanced our home from a 30-year mortgage to a 20-year mortgage and shaved off seven years of payments!
Gamify it. Make saving fun. Get your friends involved, compete with yourself, and make it a challenge to save money.
High yield savings account. A high-yield savings account is a savings account that offers a higher interest rate than a plain vanilla savings account. While most banks and credit unions offer them, I’ve found that online banks tend to offer better rates. Check out banks like Ally, Synchrony, or Chime for their HYSA rates.
Use cash/debit if you have a tendency to overspend on credit. As my mom used to say, “buying something for 50% off still means your spending 50%.” In other words, if you tend to overspend on credit, put your card on ice and switch to cash or a debit card. Yes, points and rewards on credit cards can be great, but you shouldn’t use them if they are getting you into trouble financially.
Realistic Ways to Earn and Save Money
Now you’ve got tips on how to earn more money by negotiating for a raise with your current employer and what to do if your employer says “no.” You’ve learned how prepping for the raise conversation can prepare you for getting on the job market and some of my favorite tips for saving money.
Earlier in this podcast, I touched base on the intersection of money and gender. You’ve heard women earn less than men, but did you know that Black, Native, and Latinx women don’t have their “equal pay day” until August, September, and October? Equal Pay Day denotes how far into the calendar year women must work to be paid what men were paid the previous year. All the more reason to ask for a raise or raise your prices. Learn more from AAUW on their advocacy for equal pay for all women.
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In last week's episode, I shared that I'd be covering a little bit more about two of the most common financial goals I see in my financial therapy practice. And that is earning more and saving more. In today's episode, I'm going to talk about how to earn more money, not on side hustling or side gigs, but from the easiest way, in my opinion, to make more money, which is to ask your current employer for more money, or maybe even finding a new job. And then we will get into different little hacks and tips on how to save more money.
So I shared in the intro that what I'm not going to be covering today is side hustling not because I don't think that it's an important way or a nice way to bring in a little bit more money. But I think so often, when we are struggling to increase our income, adding on a side hustle is like, the last thing we have the energy or emotional capacity to do. Because side hustling means that we are spending even more of our time trying to bring in more money, whereas negotiating a raise or even switching jobs means that you're still hopefully putting out the same amount of effort but getting in more money. And and the other thing about side hustling is that, again, I don't think it's bad, I think it's fine to you know, drive a rideshare vehicle or do some grocery shopping for folks as a way to bring in more money. But it also means learning an entirely new skill set getting set up on new apps using more of your time. And if you are looking for a raise, you might not want to or if you're looking for more money, you might not necessarily want that to come at the cost of more downtime. Yes, money is vitally important in our society so that we can have funds that we need to purchase things that are important to keep us alive. But also working 80-90 hours a week, to earn a little bit more money isn't always the best option. So that's why I'm going to focus on talking about getting a raise or a pay increase.
And before we get into asking for a raise, I think is important just to acknowledge that there is a huge wealth disparity and income disparity in the US again, I'm speaking from the lens of a person who is American, who's born and raised in United States. So obviously, my lens of what's going on in the workplace is going to be through that lens as well. I'm biased in that direction, but there's a huge gap when it comes to being a woman, being trans, being a member of the queer community, particularly if you can't pass as a straight person. Even though it's illegal in many states to discriminate based on sexual orientation, or gender identity, it still happens all the time. And of course, if you are racially marginalized, which means in the US you aren't a white person, there are even more reasons why you have to be really, really intentional about asking for a raise, and to get not to get all high and mighty, but like it's not just about you, it's also about other folks in your community. And I know that that can be--it's so exhausting, as a person of a marginalized community to have to think about everybody else, and not to just have the privilege just to think about your own needs and to be able to meet your own needs.
But I often think about when we are asking for more money, or if you're self employed, if you're raising your rates, you're not only doing it for yourself, if you're a member of a racial, gender, or other marginalized community, that you're opening the door for others, you're showing others that it's possible. And when you're making that ask, you're helping to raise up others as well. So when it comes to negotiating a race, as a woman, as a person of color, as a person who's a member of the queer community, you might want to do a little bit more prep work, not in terms of doing things differently than the way that I'll outline here. But just in terms of, you know, sitting down with a friend or a partner or over zoom and practicing saying these things out loud, just to get more comfortable and confident in making the ask. So there are two parts of asking for a raise. One is the prep work, the work that you will do behind the scenes and then one is how to have that actual conversation. So let's get into the prep work. So this is kind of asking yourself, what value have I been bringing to this role? and not just subjective, "Oh, I've been, you know, a nice colleague--I've been on time," but thinking about what are the numbers that you can share with your manager or your boss and have them see the differences that you've made on your team. Sometimes it can be helpful to reference praise that you've gotten since you've been at the job since the last time maybe you've had a raise, or maybe you're, you're new at the job, and you've only been there a year, and you don't have anything to go back to. But you might be able to check in your inbox. Think back to, you know, things that people have said to you, that can show your value. It might be things like client testimonials, like "Oh, so and so was really great to work with, they were communicative. They made this deal really simple." It might be emails from teams, who are in your company, but might be on outside teams, like teams you've collaborated with who couldn't say that you were really timely, or you always met your goals. So sometimes it can be helpful to look toward external reviews to start getting your to start getting your brain kind of moving in the direction of the things that you've been bringing to your job. Other things to think about are, if you've been with a job for more than a year, what have past raises that you have been a recipient of, in many places, it's typical only to offer cost of living raises. There, I was gonna say they're called merit raises, but they're not called merit raises, they're literally just cost of living raises, where they raise your salary by two and a half to 3%. And if you've only been receiving cost of living raises, it's definitely time to get in there and negotiate for a more substantial raise, as I mentioned, in I think, at least a couple of these most recent podcasts, the inflation rate here in the US is at 5.6%. Normally, inflation is around two and a half to 3%. So if you have not been getting a raise that is in alignment with that 5.6%, you're actually losing money at your current job. So I want you to think about what raises you've have received since you've been there. And if it's been a little while since you've had a substantial raise, and not just a cost of living raise. Other homework I want you to do is to research what your colleagues are earning who've been in similar positions in the past or who are in current positions, and also looking to other jobs and and seeing what they are paying their employees for similar positions. I know it can be weird to talk to people about money. And I can imagine if somebody approached me and was like, "Hey, Lindsay, how much money do you earn?" I might be a little bit caught off guard, but if it was prefaced, with, "Hey, I'm getting ready to chat with my manager about negotiating a raise, would you be comfortable just giving me a range of salary that you've earned? Since you've been at the company, I just want to make sure what I'm asking is in alignment with what is reasonable in this particular job," and people might be more open to that. Some people get also a little bit weird when you ask them about money. And you can just reassure them that you won't be name dropping them, of course, don't actually name drop them. If you're telling them you're not going to don't say, you know, you know, "Jake from accounting told me he makes 120k. So I should be making 120k," be really cognizant of saying like, if you're going to ask this so called Jake, what they earn, being clear with them that you'll keep that salary in your mind. And you'll just use it as a way to kind of compare yourself to the benchmark of salaries that other folks in your company might be earning. And looking to what other companies pay can be really helpful. Because particularly when I am recording this, we are amidst the great resignation here in the US. And a lot of people are simply saying no to shit that they used to say yes to and companies are hungry for good workers. So it might be time to see what other people pay. And finally, in your prep work, you want to take a look at not only value that you bring or tasks that you've achieved, but also thinking about what are things that you'll tell your manager you want to be working toward. In the future. Essentially, what you're trying to do here is demonstrate loyalty. This doesn't mean you have to say, "Oh, I want to be with y'all for 10 years, and I want to be in the C suite in 10 years. It might be look over the next one, two years. I really would like to help get XYZ project off the ground or I really want to take on more responsibility in this arena to really show your manager/your boss that you want to be there for a good amount of time." Okay, so that's the prep work. Checking in with what value you bring by checking in with testimonials praise you've received, check in with how much money you've gotten so far from the company in terms of raises you've received already. Oh, one thing I should mention here with time is that a general rule of thumb is asking for a raise annually is is fair, if you have been with a company for less than a year, but you have taken on much more responsibility than initially was told to you that was going to mean that job description, and it might be fair to ask for a raise sooner than a year or particularly if your company went through some restructuring. And now you're doing the work of one and a half people or two people, which is not uncommon, sadly, what I've been hearing, it might be appropriate to ask for a raise sooner than that one year mark. So anyway, so what value you bring what raises you've received and making sure that you're on track to be asking for that salary? What is a proportionate salary based on what your colleagues are earning and what other people are earning in similar industries or in similar positions in your field? And then finally, demonstrating loyalty. So those are the four things I want you to think about as you prep to make the ask.
And then when it comes to the ask, no drive bys. Don't just you know, catch your boss in the tail end of a zoom and say, "Hey, can you say I want to ask you a question," that's not going to be appropriate, you don't want to catch them off guard. So shoot them a message, send them a Slack message, whatever the culture is at your company to say, "Hey, I really want to sit down and chat with you about my performance and my salary. When is a good time to do that and get that on the books carve out, at least I would say 30 minutes for that conversation?" And don't feel like it has to be done within that window of performance reviews. Like I said, it can be done really at any time. Use your best judgment. Don't do it like right before your boss is going on vacation. Don't do it right when you have seen the company go through mass layoffs, like be be cognizant of what's going on in your company. But it doesn't have to be just during that annual performance review. So set aside time to talk with them. And then bring in all of that homework in your ask bring to them the evidence that you've been doing a good job that you have been demonstrating, taking on and achieving the responsibilities that have been laid out for you. And then make your ask, say, I'd like to revisit my compensation, or can we adjust my salary to reflect my performance or the additional responsibilities I've taken on and then pause for a beat after you make that ask? Let them kind of digest it and wait to respond. Because they might say, that sounds great to me. But I have to run it up the flagpole. That's such a business term, sorry. Make them--they might have to again, ask somebody else for the stamp of approval. They might say they might put it back on you and say, "All right, what are you thinking?" and then you have to be ready with a number, knowing that there might be some wiggle room. So if you're asking for a $10,000 Raise, get comfortable that they might wiggle that anywhere from 10 to 30% down. So make your ask a little bit higher in my opinion than what you would like to land at knowing that there would likely be a negotiation? And if they say no, there are usually three reasons they say no. One is that they say nope, you are not qualified or you haven't been doing the job that you've been telling me you've been doing. Two is a budget issue or a numbers issue. And three is a timing issue. So if they say no, you do not get a raise, it's fair to ask them, "What are the specific things I would need to do or to achieve in this role to be considered for a raise," and then have them give you tangible specifics. And then make sure you have a follow up in your mind's eye. Okay, these are the three tasks they need me to complete. Once I complete them and have some good documentation that I have completed them, then go ahead and set up another meeting with your manager to talk about performance and compensation. So if they say you're not qualified, get on paper or in your mind at least what are the things that need to happen in order to get that raise? If they say, "Hey, it's a budget issue, we don't have the funds right now," you have a couple of responses that you can say. One is, "What are some non salary or non financial benefits we can negotiate? I get that it's out of the budget right now. I'm really looking for additional compensation. What else could we can we kind of brainstorm on?" and that opens the window for them to say, "You know what, we could probably throw you a couple more vacation days or some additional PTO," they might be able to share with you that you can take some additional time for professional development that won't be docked from like your PTO. So getting creative on things to think about outside of salary benefits. And also for you to keep in mind, is that enough for some people getting a few extra vacation days would be enough. And for some people, they're like, "Shit, I can have all the vacation days in the world, what I need is more money." So you have to know what works for you before you make that rebuttal to say, "What are some non salary benefits we can negotiate? So the other question you can respond with or the other kind of rebuttal rebuttal you can have, if they say, "Look, we don't have funds," you can say, "Look, when will a budget be made available for this"? Or "When are you expecting that there will be funds available for better compensation?" So that way, you can have it in your head when you'll go back and make that ask just because they say no, I want for you to think of it's a no. Right now. It's not right now. It's not necessarily a no forever endeavor.
And then finally, the big pushback, is timing. It's not the time. So what you can say in that instance, is, "I understand now isn't a good time. Can we talk about this again in and then give them a date, at the end of the quarter? At the end of the month? Again, you know your company best?" So thinking about what makes the most sense for them? So again, if they say yes, yay! Kudos to you, you have successfully negotiated a raise and you deserve a toast or a pat on the back. And if they say no, at least you have some follow up things you can have at the ready in the event that they say no. And again, keeping in mind that it's so important to ask for a raise and negotiate a raise, because so many people don't. And they just assume that their boss or supervisor will just give them a raise, because they've been doing such a great job. And I'm here to tell you that as a financial therapist, does that happen? Sure, but much, much, much less frequently than my clients going out and being really specific about asking for that raise and getting a pay raise or a pay increase at their job or at their work. So that is all about getting a pay increase or pay raise internally when you're staying at your current job. Now, when it comes to getting a new job elsewhere, it's really taking your skills on the job market and finding a new job. I won't go into super depth, super tough, I won't go into depth here. But I will just say in 2019, Bloomberg found that the average salary change for people who changed jobs was a 5.3% Raise. So keep that in your back pocket as well. If your job is negotiating with you, and they give you a two and a half or 3% Raise, go ahead and take it and then maybe start start doing some digging on your own. I know for me as a social worker, it's like every day, there's something landing in my inbox or my LinkedIn or I'm getting calls from people who are like, we need a behavioral health care manager or we need a supervisor here. We need hospitalist social workers. We need academic social workers. It's like non stop people asking to me to apply for jobs. And it's not like me, I'm this special unicorn and people need me specifically but because there's such a shortage of helping professionals. So there are a lot of great bonuses right now sign on bonuses happening. So if you're if your current job is just not able to give you the raise that you're looking for, it might be time to take your job search on the road. So that is how to earn more money by asking for a raise a raise that I imagine you deserve.
Okay. Now, when it comes to the other financial goal that often comes up in my work, it is all around saving more money. And as we talked about last time, to save more money, you really have to get specific about what that means and what you're saving for, to help to kind of amplify the speed or the intensity of what you're saving toward a goal. But first things first, you have to figure out how much money you're spending right now. So taking a look at how much money is going out and going What are things that I could potentially shave a few or many dollars off of when it comes to my monthly spending. I recently did this and realize that I in my minds I am a person who saves money by ordering meal kits. If you are like me, you might know where I'm going with this but I'll do I'll sign up for a meal kit and they give me that little discount of like $60 off For the first two weeks, or 10 free meals in your first month, right. And so I think I'm very smart. And that I will remember to cancel or downgrade the meal kit before I get hit with the full fee, and the full charge of those meal kits. Well, plot twist, I am not great at that. And I have ended up spending more money on this aspirational. I'll save money by beating these meal kits out their introductory offers. Don't I have thankfully not had to compost that food, I have thankfully been able to gift food to neighbors and family and friends in the three Yes, three times where I forgot to cancel a meal kit subscription and was not going to be around to eat the food. So think about what are the things that you are imagining you'll do when you're spending this money. And maybe that's an area to cut, my new thing is no more meal kits for Lindsey. That's my new thing. All right. So taking a look at your spending and cutting what isn't serving you, then there are some fun ways to save more money autosave use the robots and auto save could be as simple as going into your bank or credit union account and automatically on the days that your paycheck lands, moving $15, $20, $30 from your checking account into a savings account. And again, labeling that savings account for what you are saving towards whether it is a new vehicle, a new pair of shoes and emergency fund, whatever it may be. And then you can also use robots like digit or capital that's capital with a cue that have round up features. So let's say you go and buy a pound of coffee and it's $10-$15. Lucky you you're not as bougie as me drinking a coffee that's far too expensive. Anyways, it's 10-50 pounds, and these little robots will round up to $11 and put that additional 50 cents into a savings account. So that is a fun way to save a little bit more money. Another way to kind of gamify it without the robots is for you to gamify it as well. We bravely go is doing a savings challenge. as I record this there are 10 weeks left in the year. And so she is having her followers and newsletter subscribers strive to save an additional $1,000 before year end by saving $100 a week. And she's got different fun ways to do that. Another way to gamify it, there's one savings challenge. That's like, I don't know what it's called somebody will correct me but it's called like $1 a day and each January 1, you save $1 on January 2, you save $2 on January 3, you save $3 and so on and so forth. So then you'll have a lot of money saved up at the end of the year. So there are some fun ways to game a fire saving. But if you're asking like okay, but where is that additional money coming from? A great way is to negotiate now you know how to negotiate a raise. But what about negotiating saving money? I love annually. I say love with like an asterisk, because I wouldn't say I love doing the act of what I'm going to tell you. But I love the result. I like to gather my bills, utility companies, my phone, internet insurance, including car insurance, homeowners insurance, cable companies, I'd like to give them all a call and say, Hey, I've been a really loyal customer. I would love to stick with you, but so and so is offering a better rate. What can you do to keep me as a loyal customer slash? Can you match that rate slash? Are there any other promotions that current customers can take advantage of. And you will be shocked at what these phone internet insurance and cable companies will do and have the ability to do to keep you as a customer. They want to keep you as a customer. It's called like retaining offers. So customer service agents are trained on keeping their customers happy. So come in sweet as honey, sugar, whatever that saying is and say, Look, I've been a loyal customer. What can you do for me? I don't want to leave. What promotions Can you give me? How can you help me out and it'll be cool to watch the results which is what I like doing and seeing how much money you'll save. So let's say you were paying $100 a month for cable and internet and you call a negotiate a savings And your new monthly rate is 80 bucks. Now you have $20, to put into autosave. Or to put into that game of saving money. Another great place to negotiate some savings is on interest rates on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages takes a little bit more work because you have to do a bunch of paperwork, but it is possible. My partner and I refinanced our house and we shaved seven years off of our mortgage by refinancing from a 30 year mortgage to a 20 year mortgage. And we'd had our mortgage for three years. So it's definitely possible. It's just called refinancing. But calling up your credit card and same kind of thing. Look, I've been a loyal Amex or chase or whatever customer, I'm currently paying 11 and a half percent interest, what can you do? How can we get my credit card rate lowered interest rate lowered, and sometimes that might mean moving your balance to a zero balance card, do your due diligence to make sure that after that a lot of those 0% interest rate cards, they balloon up exorbitantly after an introductory period of six months or 12 months, so make sure to do your due diligence, but it's definitely possible to negotiate your interest rates and then again, take that whatever money you would have originally spent on a car payment or credit card payment and then funnel it into your savings account. Another fun way to save more money is to open up a high yield savings account. This is kind of helping your money to make more money without investing it. Stay with me, I'm starting to lose the wind in my sails, I can feel my energy running out. A high yield savings account is a savings account that offers a little bit more interest on your savings. Most banks have them but I find that brick and mortar banks don't offer as good of interest rates as online banks not affiliated with or endorsing. But your banks like ally, chime and synchrony, they tend to have better rates for high yield savings accounts. I personally have my emergency fund in a high yield savings account that's earning me more interest than it would if it was just sitting in a plain vanilla savings account. Of course, this isn't tons and tons of money. This is not going to make you independently wealthy. But if you were getting half a percent interest on a savings account, and you moved it over to something that's getting one and a half, or 1.75 or 2% interest that makes a difference over time. So having your money make you money is key. And another way to save more is if you have a tendency to overspend on credit cards, you might need to make the switch back to cash or debit. So let me see if I can run down those tips on how to save more. First and foremost, look at your spending cut what isn't serving you get rid of all those expenses where you're like, I'll do this when like I'll go to the gym when I have an unlimited yoga membership. If you're not doing it now, no you won't use the robots digit in capital to round up, use the robots to help you autosave negotiate rates like how that means negotiating more affordable utilities and cable internet insurance, negotiating lower interest rates on credit cards, auto loans, maybe even refinancing your mortgage, getting yourself a high yield savings account. And if you're getting yourself into trouble with credit make the move back to cash or debit, hope.
Alright, so those are some tips on earning more money and saving more money. If you missed the news last week here on the podcast. I am doing a live workshop on November 15 on how to plan your best year. If you are a therapist or allied health care professional in private practice, we will go over how to set goals for the year how to break them down into manageable goals, how to erase or wipe away those shiny objects and make sure that you're setting goals that are in alignment, in alignment with your needs in your values for your particular business. If that's you, if that sounds like you, I would love to see you there it is available for $29 It will be live recorded everybody will get the replay, don't sweat it. And when you register a little bit before the event, I will send over some prep work to help you get thinking about those goals for 2022. To register, head to MindMoneyBalanced.com/Events And you will find everything to register. So I hope you enjoy today's episode on tips on how to earn more money by getting yourself a raise and how to save more money with a couple of tips y'all are the best I will see you next week!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai