It’s so important to consistently save money to prepare for rainy days and reach the goals you have planned, and it’s easy when you start small!
A great place to start saving is by cutting out any unnecessary spending. Frequently purchasing small-priced items (Coffee? Manicures? Rideshares?) could add up to much more than you intended to spend on non-essential items.
We’ve made a list of several items you might be guilty of purchasing when you could be saving! Better yet, instead of blowing money on coffee every day, set up automatic investments into a managed investment account with Auto Invest from MoneyLion.
How to Save Up To $1,500 a Year
| Item | Average Cost | How Many? |
| Specialty Coffees & Drinks | $5.00 | If you’re like many who make the coffee shop a daily habit, you buy 300 coffees a year! Hard to believe, but those Frappuccinos may have cost you $1,500 this year. |
| Fast Food | $6.49 for a value meal | With the average fast food meal close to $7.00, cutting out this habit will not only make you healthier but can help you save $1,500 a year. |
| Meal Delivery | $25.00 an order | Seamless, UberEats, and GrubHub allow you to order all your favorites 24 hours a day. While this makes dinner time easy, ordering 60 times a year or less depending on your order size can really add up! |
| Cable + Entertainment Platforms | $107 a month | While cutting cable alone doesn’t quite save you $1,500, many people have cable plus upgrades and other entertainment platforms. Cutting one or more platforms could save you a lot of money over the year. |
| Smoking/Vaping | $100-$200 a month | This one is huge! Also maybe the hardest for those who are dependent. Quit to get healthy and save major hard-earned dollars toward your investing account. |
What To Do With Your Savings?
The best thing to do is to set up Auto Investing. Automatically depositing money into a fully managed investment account can help you grow your money systematically all year long. All it takes is setting aside around $30 a week to save up to $1,500 over the course of a year.
Set your checking account to transfer this amount every week or adjust the timing to match up with your pay period. This way you don’t even have to think about saving – the work is done for you! Plus, investing your money can potentially grow your money faster than a traditional savings account.
How To Start Auto Investing?
If your guilty pleasure is buying a Starbucks mocha every day, opt for a regular cup of coffee or brew your own instead. Then, calculate how much you spend on mochas in a week and plan on investing that amount weekly. To make your life even easier, you can Auto Invest straight through MoneyLion’s app!
Here’s how you can auto-invest with us:
- Download the MoneyLion app and sign up for our Core membership.
- Answer a few questions, and we’ll personalize your new investment portfolio, which we’ll manage for you.
- Go to the Finances Tab to view your investment portfolio and set up recurring deposits to effortlessly save with Auto Invest.
- Watch your investment account grow!
Our investment account does not require any minimum deposits, so add a little, add a lot, it’s up to you! And we don’t charge any management fees, no matter your portfolio size.
Summary
It might seem hard to cut out your bad habits and unnecessary spending at first, but once you see your investment account build, you will feel empowered and motivated to keep going! Discover what might be holding your savings back and opt to make a change. After all, making one simple change could make a big difference and serve you for the better in the long run.
