Wow. Has the world gone crazy or what?

Since the last time I wrote to you, the world has hurtled headlong into a pandemic brought on by the spread of COVID-19, aka “the coronavirus”; the US economy has experienced historic unemployment, entered a recession, and somehow seen the stock market recover its losses for the year; and the largest human rights movement in history has exploded onto the streets of major cities across the globe following the callous murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

Unity, equality, and inclusion are some of the founding principles of this blog. Part of my goal in publishing my writing here is to help uplift you. I firmly believe that we all have more opportunity than we realize. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel, much closer than we ever thought possible. That the journey there should be fun, and that we can learn things about ourselves and each other along the way. Our culture doesn’t teach us these things, and it doesn’t equip us with the tools to take advantage of these simple truths and the endless opportunities that exist right at our fingertips. My goal in writing to you is to empower you by sharing the tools and experiences that have helped me along the way, in the hopes that you can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes, to live a happier, freer life. And perhaps while we’re at it, I can provide some entertainment as well.

One of the cool things about the FIRE movement is that when something crazy like a pandemic or recession rolls around, you’re pretty well set. Frugality, backstops, and planning are built right in! For the most part, you may not have to change too much about your financial lifestyle, especially if you’re able to keep your job. If you’ve spent the time and energy to learn about FIRE on your own, chances are you’re also not an under-achiever at work and have a better chance of being kept on board, as well. But what if you’re not already well-steeped in FIRE philosophy and ways of living?

In reviewing what’s already available on this site, I realized that while I’ve provided long-term strategies for living more frugally by cutting spending on the Big Three (housing, food, and transportation), all of which are still relevant now, what many people might have a greater need for is some short-term tactics for temporarily reducing spending. I’ve compiled a list of additional tactics for you here. While many of these are designed only to be short-lived, some of them could be carried forward into your new frugal life, as well! With the combination of reviewing my articles on cutting spending on the Big Three and these short-term tactics, I hope that you will not only be able to survive but thrive through this pandemic/recession and beyond!

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• Tracking Your Spending
• Emergency Funds
• Spending Freezes
• Housing
• Food
• Transportation
• Insurance
• Subscription Services
• Increasing Income
• Arbitrage & Cashback
• Investments

I’ve bolded the key points in each section so that you can just skim if you’d like, as there is a ton of information being presented here.

Tracking Your Spending

It’s natural to want to avoid looking too closely at your bank account or spending when you’re struggling. You know things are going to be bad, but maybe if you just don’t look at the scary monster, it will go away, right? This is the wrong way to approach this problem. In Ray Dalio’s Principles: Life and Work, one of his primary principles is “Embrace Reality and Deal with it.” He follows this up with several other relevant principles, such as “Truth – or, more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality – is the essential foundation for any good outcome”, and “Pain + Reflection = Progress.” And Ray’s not the only one. Peter Drucker, the legendary management consultant, famously said “What gets measured gets improved”, nearly half a century ago. My own experience has borne these out.

“Embrace Reality and Deal with it”

~ Ray Dalio, Principles: Life and Work

While it may seem scary at first, confronting the details and true nature of your situation will empower you to overcome it. As an example, humans are reliably bad at certain things. One of the things we’re bad at is understanding how a large number of small purchases like buying coffee at Starbucks every day adds up to thousands of dollars in lost wealth per year and tens of thousands of dollars in lost wealth over a decade. It’s common for people not to understand where their money went until they start tracking their spending. And unless you get a grip on how far you are in the hole, you won’t know the true extent to which you need to go to climb your way out.

There are two primary tools I would recommend for tracking your spending: Personal Capital, which is free, and YNAB, which is not.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is an excellent, free tool that allows you to track your spending, net worth, and much more. If you don’t own any investments yet and don’t have any debt, its primary use for you will be to track your cash flow (income and spending). If you do have debt, and especially if you own investments, Personal Capital will really shine for you. There are other free options out there, such as Mint, but I would go with Personal Capital. I have used their site for years, and it is a really top-notch tool. Here’s an example of just one of many views, showing how our expenses compare to last month and what categories comprise that spending:

One other benefit of Personal Capital is their referral program. If you sign up through my link and sync at least one investment account (you could potentially open one for free), we will each get a $20 Amazon gift card.

YNAB

I usually caution against subscription services and options that cost money, but YNAB, which stands for You Need A Budget, is the exception that makes the rule. YNAB is a budgeting tool like no other, and I and others have saved far more money using it than the cost of the software. YNAB is based on the envelope method of budgeting, which involves assigning each of the dollars in your account to a category (like groceries or rent) in your budget prior to spending it. In the past, people literally put cash into envelopes, but that isn’t very convenient or safe in the digital age. With YNAB, you can do it with software!

What makes this method powerful is that it is forward-looking. Most systems for budgeting or tracking spending are backwards-looking. At the end of the month, you look back, see that you exceeded your overly-optimistic budget and spent too much on alcohol, and feel bad about it. Same thing next month. And the month after that. Eventually you stop checking. With YNAB, you’re making a decision upfront about where you want your dollars to go. This doesn’t mean you’ll magically never overspend, but when you do overspend in one category (say eating out), you have to cover that overspending from another category (say paying off your debt), which forces you to consider the real, hidden trade-offs you’re making.

There’s a lot of philosophy built into the software. When you combine it with the explicit philosophy YNAB shares for free (starting with their Four Rules), you have a recipe for budgeting success. If you want to check out YNAB, you can get a free month to try it out and see if it works for you. There are free alternatives, such as GoodBudget that use the envelope method, but YNAB is worth its low price.

Emergency Funds

I want to at least briefly mention emergency funds. Hopefully, if you’ve been reading this blog, you have one! This may sound obvious, but if you have an emergency fund, you should be doing everything in your power to avoid spending it. While I absolutely agree that a pandemic and global recession qualifies as an emergency, hear me out. Most of us, regardless of how frugal we believe ourselves to be, have a decent amount of slack in our spending, although it may not be obvious to us. This is a time to cut that slack to the bone. An opportunity to experiment with how little you can actually spend in an effort to preserve that lifeline. Ideally, we experiment enough that we find a level of spending that feels unsustainably low, which is how we know what really matters to us and how low our spending can really be. If you haven’t hit this point and you’re facing financial hardship, keep cutting until you find it, and then add just a little back in until you can sustain it and are back on solid ground.

If you do have to dig into your emergency fund, you should replenish it as soon as possible. If you don’t already have one, now would be a good time to consider it, even if you are still employed and doing okay. No one knows what exactly will happen with the economy, the pandemic, the racial protests, global politics, or any number of other unstable variables right now. The one thing we know for sure is that we live in more uncertain and volatile times than most of us have known in our lives. Times like this are exactly what emergency funds are designed for. Even if your company hasn’t gone bankrupt, engaged in layoffs and furloughs yet, or you’ve survived the first round, it’s always possible that could change. I don’t say this to scare you, but simply to point out that the future is uncertain and an emergency fund provides you some safety margin for a safe landing and as little disruption to your life as possible if the situation worsens.

Enacting a Spending Freeze

A spending freeze is a temporary reduction in expenses to help you survive a tough period, catch up after higher than usual expenses or lower than normal income, or supercharge your savings. Here’s how to freeze your spending.

Housing

Where you live

The first thing to consider in your housing expenses is naturally where you live! A lot of people live in much larger homes than they need. Consider downsizing if possible. In some cases, especially if you’re really struggling, it may even make sense to break your lease and move to a smaller place, paying the early termination fee. The other thing to consider if you’re young and struggling is moving back in with Mom and Dad. There’s no shame in this, and certainly, less than bleeding yourself dry financially for pride. If that’s an option for you and you’re in a bad spot – take it!

Whether you have a mortgage or rent, this is a special time in terms of being able to ask for assistance. Mortgage companies have to offer you a forbearance plan right now, and foreclosures are temporarily frozen in some parts of the country. Landlords may be prevented from evicting you or charging late fees, depending on where you live. You don’t want to try to abuse this, as you’ll have to catch up eventually, but if you’re in really dire straits, you can at least kick the bucket down the road. Most mortgage companies or landlords would rather miss or delay a month or few of rent versus losing good tenants.

You may also be able to negotiate a cheaper rate, even if you’re under contract. Be real with whoever you’re dealing with. If you have a mortgage, interest rates are at historic lows right now. We refinanced six months after we bought our home, and as crazy as it sounds, we may be about to do it again. Especially if you haven’t looked in a while, it’s possible this could represent significant savings, even in the short term.

Utilities

Behavioral Changes

One of the main tricks with saving on utilities, which I’m mostly defining as electricity, gas, and water here, is simply to be mindful of your consumption. If it’s hot, make sure your fans are on, wear less clothing, and turn you AC down a bit so it doesn’t have to work as hard. You’ll get used to it; sweating will not kill you. Vice versa if it’s cold. Make sure your fans are actually turning the right direction. Unplug devices you’re not using. Installing a power strip can help with this. Gaming consoles and cable boxes (You still have cable?! Dear God, sir/madame, cut the cord!) are examples of known power hogs, even when they’re not “on”. Turn off lights when you’re not using them.

Don’t run anything that generates heat during the day when it’s hot outside (washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens, and stoves). Instead, run them in the morning or evening when it’s already cool(er). That way your AC doesn’t have to work as hard. If it gets cold where you live, you might want to run them when it’s coldest so your heater doesn’t have to work as hard, although this may not matter as much. Run a full load to conserve energy and water, and for that matter, you don’t need to wash your clothes until they’re really dirty. They’ll survive a few wears or more in most cases.

You can purchase a shower head that reduces water usage 30-40% for $3-8 at Home Depot or on Amazon to reduce water consumption. It’s even cheaper for sink faucets. This should pay for itself within a month if you don’t already have efficient heads and might improve your water pressure if it’s not already great! There are tons of DIY hacks that don’t cost anything as well, such as placing water bottles or bricks in the back of your toilet to reduce its water use. Google and YouTube are your friends. After that, the main thing you can do is be mindful. Don’t waste.

Non-Behavioral Changes

Luckily, even without changing any of your behavior or consumption, there may still be substantial opportunities for saving. Most people don’t have options for different providers or plans for water, but depending on where you live you may have choices for your gas and electricity. If that’s the case, you may just be in luck! It shouldn’t take you more than an hour the first time to review your bills and check for alternatives. After that, it will probably take you less than ten minutes each time. Here in Texas, you can check available electricity rates at powertochoose.org. Most places that have a choice in providers/plans have a site or service similar to this. A couple of common mistakes people make is to allow themselves to “default” onto a month-to-month plan (where you don’t renew on a “term” plan with a contract and a fixed price) or to sign up for a complicated plan structure. Generally, unless you have a really firm grasp on your usage patterns and the structure of the plan, you should avoid anything that isn’t straightforward.

If you do find that you’re under contract but you are on a complicated plan structure, you can call your company and ask them to allow you to change plans. While this might not normally be an option, most people’s usage patterns have changed significantly due to staying at home, especially for electricity and gas. Most companies should be understanding about this right now. If they’re not, threaten to complain about/report their company and they’ll likely let you swap plans. For example, some plans may have a different rate depending on the time of day. A plan that made perfect sense for you when you were never home during the day might be a huge burden to you now if you’re spending all of your time at home due to the pandemic.

Special Protections

Given the unprecedented nature of the situation we’re in, most utilities across the country are affording special rights to consumers, as are many other companies. In Texas, we’ve seen gas and water utilities issue disconnection moratoriums (where your service cannot be shut off for nonpayment), and electric utilities have also issued disconnection moratoriums if you prove you’ve been impacted by COVID-19. Most utilities across the country are doing something similar, and most of them are also funding relief funds for the most severely impacted, waiving late fees, and offering payment assistance and extended payment plans.

Food

Oh boy, Wallet’s going to tell me I can never eat out again and it’s rice and beans from here on out, isn’t he? Haha. Food is such a personal topic, it never ceases to amaze me. This is a tricky one to tackle in some ways, because there’s so much conflicting information out there on what’s healthy and how nutrition works. However, I’m aiming to provide you with suggestions that will help you save money on food regardless of what you believe.

Changes to the way you buy food

Two of the biggest and easiest (at least in some regards) changes you can make are to stop eating out or ordering in and stop eating processed foods. We’re in the middle of a pandemic, so hopefully, you’re not eating out too much, anyway. In some ways, perhaps this does affect your diet, but my point here is that you can still eat the same types of foods (carbs, salty snacks, etc), without eating a bunch of processed garbage or wasting thousands of dollars paying for someone else to prepare your food. Not only will this save you a massive amount of money in the short term, but it will save you even more in the long run due to the positive benefits for your health.

While it can be daunting to start if you don’t have much experience cooking for yourself, it’s literally never been easier to learn. Google and YouTube have tutorials, shopping lists, and everything else in-between to make it as easy as possible for you to eat any diet on a budget. Take advantage of all that free information, and perhaps impress your partner or your mother for once!

Now that we’re in the grocery store, where we belong, how can we save money here? Pay attention to seasonality. Foods that are in season or on sale are significantly cheaper and will save you a lot of money. Buying in bulk can often save you a decent amount of money as well, so check out the bulk section. This isn’t always the case though, so be careful. Two prices you should familiarize yourself with in order to properly compare products is the unit price (cost per pound or ounce, for example) and calories per dollar. These allow you to properly compare your options. Usually, the math isn’t difficult, but your phone has a calculator to make everything easy for you!

Sign up for the loyalty program, if it exists. There are usually savings involved. Stick to the outside or perimeter of the store as opposed to the aisles in the middle. This is where all the healthy, affordable, non-processed food lives. Some pre-prepared foods can actually represent cost savings (or at least not break the budget), as well as helping out when you’re stressed out, don’t have time to cook, or would normally order in or dine out. A couple of examples that come to mind are the cooked chicken that most grocery stores sell, which are usually pretty cheap and of decent quality, and the buffet-style cooked food section. The latter will always have some options that would be more expensive if you bought them directly, offset by the cheaper/lower-quality food where the grocery stores make their money. If you can figure this out and focus on the more expensive options, you can get a decent deal.

Changes to how you consume your food

The first rule of saving money on food is: never throw away food. When you waste food, you are essentially taking your hard-earned money and flushing it down the toilet. Don’t do it! It’s not as difficult as it might sound. Most articles I’ve read about saving money on food espouse the virtues of meal planning. I have yet to embrace this skill, although I’m sure I would save even more money if I did! However, there are a couple of other skills that will still help out in this area.

First, embrace your leftovers. Some people think food spoils in an extremely short period of time. Unless it has mold on it, smells funky, or tastes funky, chances are it’s good! Making more food at once and eating the leftovers also prevents you from having to cook as often, which sets you up for success in the endeavor to cook your own food. You can easily mix and match to keep it interesting. Cooked chicken? It’s taco night! Followed by a salad with chicken for lunch. Dinner the next day might involve chicken with some roasted veges and quinoa. The possibilities are endless. While you’re at it, don’t trust expiration dates. Do the sight, smell, taste test. No need to throw away perfectly good food.

Second, check your fridge a couple of times a week to make sure nothing is close to going bad. Something that still happens to us occasionally is we cook a dish or a side, and it gets shoved into the back of a drawer or shelf. By the time we rediscover it, it’s too late. Especially if you’re new to cooking for yourself, this can also easily happen with fresh ingredients. You bought eggplant with the best of intentions, but you’ve never cooked it before so it keeps getting passed on when you cook. And now it’s bad. If anything is nearing the end of its useful life or isn’t looking fresh, prioritize incorporating it into your meal that night.

Raid your pantry and your freezer. Most of us have a backstock of items in our pantry and freezer that have been there for a very long time. For some reason, they aren’t appetizing to us. Get creative, and find ways to use these! That food represents stored wealth. You can make it fun, and hey, you might even end up enjoying something you didn’t expect to! Obstacles and constraints are, after all, the mother of creativity.

For ideas on other skills and habits, GMB has some tips for improving your relationship with food, potentially benefiting your wallet.

Changes to when you eat, aka fasting

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking at this point that I’ve completely lost it, but hear me out. Fasting is easy, healthy, and can save you a lot of money. To start, people disagree, strongly, on what the word fasting even means. There are many different types of fasting. I’ll review a few of them. While it seems daunting at first because people rarely talk about it, fasting is actually far easier than changing your diet.

Intermittent Fasting

By far the easiest type of fasting to get started with is called intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting involves restricting your “feeding window” (aka the time when you’re eating). For example, if you’ve ever skipped breakfast, you’ve probably intermittently fasted! At least for a day. One common intermittent fasting protocol is to restrict your feeding window to an eight hour period so that your fasting period is sixteen hours. This is way easier than it sounds, especially since you’ll be asleep for roughly half of your fasting period. Sixteen hours is enough for your body to slip into a fasting state so you can start reaping some of the benefits.

For example, if you don’t eat breakfast, have lunch at 1 pm, and eat dinner at 8 pm, you’re good to go. If you’re used to eating breakfast, it will take a short period of adjustment, but your body will quickly adapt. Just as you’re used to eating at certain times of the day now and don’t really have to think about it, you’ll soon be used to eating twice a day, without really having to think about it. This generally tends to reduce the total calories people consume (even though they may eat larger meals at lunch and dinner), which can improve your waistline as well as your budget.

Another intermittent fasting option is to simply not eat on one or two days during the week. So, for example, you don’t eat on Sundays. Or Tuesdays and Thursdays. This will lead to similar benefits. With either schedule, you follow this every week. James Clear has put together an excellent Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting.

Prolonged Fasting

Prolonged fasting is defined as any fast over 24 hours. These types of fasts are meant to be undertaken less frequently, perhaps once a month at most. As you fast for longer, you will drop into deeper and deeper states of fasting, unlocking new metabolic processes as you go. Part of the reason fasting is so great for your body is that usually, your body never gets a break from eating. Our ancestors used to get breaks because they couldn’t find food, but that’s not a problem for most of us anymore. When your body gets a break from breaking down food, other metabolic cleanup processes kick in, giving your system a nice reset.

While fasting for over 24 hours sounds crazy, that’s mostly due to our mental attachment to eating as opposed to our actual physical needs. It’s far easier than you would expect. My last fast lasted five days. Surprisingly, I never actually felt physically hungry. I mostly just noticed the social, mental, and emotional cues that would normally lead me to eat. In the past, when I fasted for that long I usually felt the hungriest on day two, but starting with day three I simply felt euphoric and not hungry. Imagine how much money you would save if you didn’t eat a single calorie for five days! While I wouldn’t suggest fasting for that long simply to save some money, it’s interesting to consider that we don’t need to eat nearly as much food as we think. I maintained all my workouts during my fast and only dropped a couple to a few pounds.

There are differing thoughts on what qualifies as a “fast” in terms of calories. Some people believe you can have a couple hundred calories per day. Others believe it has to be under thirty. Others still believe you can’t have a single calorie, or that fat is okay in small doses, but not carbs or protein. My personal experience seems to suggest that you should maintain as close to zero calories as possible or it will at least temporarily interrupt or lighten your fast. In either case, if you plan to embark on a prolonged fast, do your research. Here are some tips for a successful fast:

• Drink lots of electrolytes and water
  • Make sure there are no calories, sugar, or carbs if you’re using an electrolyte supplement
• Consider taking a multivitamin
• You can continue with your usual exercise and physical exertions, but be careful as you may tire more easily or need to drop weight a bit
• Replace the ritual of mealtimes or any time you’re hungry with something to reward yourself with – I use tea and sparkling water

Changes to the food you eat

I waited to talk about changes to the food you eat last, as most people don’t seem to want to change this. That being said, if you’re truly financially distressed, you may be willing to try anything. Given that health is one of my top values, I am not going to suggest anything as drastic as living off ramen noodles, although if you’re a struggling college student and that’s your jam, more power to you. My goal here is to offer suggestions on how you can save money on reasonably healthy food. In my mind, there are primarily two schools of thought here: healthy fats and carbs.

Healthy fats (and to some extent meat, although generally in moderation) are more satiating. You feel full sooner or more easily, so you eat less food. This is both good for your health and waistline as well as your wallet. The average American eats poor quality fats and too many carbs, so if you fall into either of these buckets, it’s worth making the switch. Poor quality fats like vegetable oil wreak havoc on your body and can even cloud your thinking. Luckily, decent- to high-quality fats aren’t outrageously expensive, especially if you pay attention to prices, etc. Fats also have the highest calorie count by weight, so you can substitute less food for the same amount of energy (although most of us could probably cut back on our energy intake a bit). Unless you’re following something like the carnivore diet, you should limit protein intake to moderate levels. Quality sources of protein can be expensive.

However, what if you don’t eat a ton of carbs already? If you already eat a low to moderate amount of carbs, are looking to ease your food budget, and aren’t willing to compromise on the quality of the protein or fats you’re buying, you may be able to save some money by incorporating more carbs into your diet. Carbs do tend to fill you up pretty well, and many of your options, even healthy ones, are dirt cheap. This is what I’ve personally been doing right now, as I usually follow a low-carb or even keto diet and am looking to bulk up a bit. Again, don’t forget to look for options in the bulk section and fresh produce. You may still be able to focus on quality depending on your budget.

Another opportunity to save money while possibly improving your health is to try weird foods. Often, less popular vegetables and cuts of meat are cheaper as there’s less demand for them. Our bodies thrive on variety, so it may also improve your health! A couple of examples of this include organ meats, like liver, and canned sardines or oysters. While this may initially cause you to think “ew, gross!”, they are worth giving a try. These foods are nutritional powerhouses, containing plenty of healthy fats, micronutrients, and minerals. While I’ve primarily focused on how to save money while optimizing for certain macronutrient profiles, Examine.com has penned some excellent tips on how to minimize your budget while optimizing for micronutrients as well.

Avoid sugar and don’t drink calories. Most people neglect to count the calories in their drinks, such as soda or alcohol. Not only is this bad for your health, it’s bad for your wallet! I’m not saying never drink alcohol, just be aware of the calories you’re consuming and their cost. Alcohol is expensive, so this is an easy way to trim your spending. Sugar, whether in your drinks or your food is both highly addictive and terrible for you. It has no nutritional value, so you’re flushing your money down the toilet when you purchase it. If you like carbonated beverages and usually drink soda, try sparkling or mineral water. It’s often cheaper, and it’s better for you. While at first your body will miss the sugary sweetness, you will quickly adapt and won’t miss it.

Transportation

Normally, transportation is one of the “Big Three” expenses. However, with most people staying home due to the pandemic and public transportation representing a risky infection vector, there may not be a ton you can do here. Take care of your car, perhaps use an app to find the cheapest gas near you, and be careful. One of the biggest opportunities may lie in calling your insurance company and asking for a cheaper rate or reducing coverage due to your reduced use of your vehicle. If your household has multiple cars, you could also explore whether you really need all of them. We get by with one car, and the cost savings are significant, even when considering Lyft or Uber trips we have to take when we both need a vehicle.

Insurance

Two of the biggest opportunities you have for saving a lot of money with very little effort are home (sorry renters) and auto insurance. Given the cost of home insurance, if you’re not shopping around and probably switching companies each year, chances are you’re shelling out more cash than you need to. The same goes for auto insurance. Unfortunately, home and auto insurance quotes seem sort of like black magic or at least a black box. Pricing algorithms seem to differ from company to company and year to year, so you really have to shop around. There are some sites, like Gabi, that aggregate quotes for you so you can shop around more easily, but I wouldn’t solely rely on them – reach out to a couple of the top companies and maybe a broker as well. You also have the advantage of not being charged an early termination fee since insurance is required. You may even get a refund that’s larger than what you shell out to your new provider.

Subscription Services

In general, you should avoid recurring payments aka subscriptions like the plague, especially if you’re financially distressed. They’re just too easy to justify and the money disappears from your account without any thought. As I’ve already mentioned, if you have cable, stop burning your cash in a trashcan and cancel! Have you heard of Netflix or Amazon Prime? You could be paying tens of dollars a month instead of hundreds. Even if you already have your own Netflix, Hulu, or Spotify account, you may be able to save money by sharing with a friend or family with a Family plan. Amazon has the ability to add a certain number of family members to a single subscription as well, which can reduce your costs there and provide a separate login where your parents or loved ones can’t see your purchases.

Just like insurance, most people pay more than they need to on their phone and wireless (internet) bills. A little time and research can save you a lot of money. For phones, check out this excellent review of plans on MMM’s site. For both phones and wireless, if you’re not under contract, call and ask for a better rate. If they won’t play ball, see what their competitors are offering online. Usually, you can get a cheaper rate for being a new customer and just switch back and forth. Most people also think they need faster internet than they actually use. Try downgrading and see if you notice any drop in performance. Most of the time, unless you’re gaming a lot or streaming 4K on several screens at the same time, you probably won’t notice a difference. If you do and you’re not in a bad enough spot to suffer through it, simply switch back to the faster plan.

Increasing Income

One way to think of the modern world is as a huge, complex machine with spouts sticking out all over that have money pouring out of them. All you have to do to get ahead is stand under a decent size spout for long enough and not spend all of it! While this is obviously an over-simplification, it’s also not too far from the truth, especially in well-developed societies. Luckily, you’re not resigned to only collecting money from your one, main spout. By grabbing a couple of pots and pans, you can collect money from several spouts at once! This is known as diversifying your income streams.

Diversifying your sources of income sounds more difficult than it is. You can take active approaches, such as building an online business, engaging in the gig economy (by delivering food, for example), working a second job part-time, or any number of other side hustles. You can also build passive income streams by renting out extra space, collecting royalties, or earning cashback. Simply search “side hustles” or “diversify your income” on Google for more information than you could consume in a year. It could be as easy as selling some of the extra crap laying around your home that you never use!

Normally, it would also be important to mention increasing your primary source of income. While I will still mention it, this may be more difficult during a pandemic that features record unemployment and trying times for many businesses, especially small ones. You have to be your own advocate. It’s in your employer’s best interest not to pay you any more than they have to (at least in the short-term), so unless you negotiate with them, you probably won’t get a raise, even if you deserve it! It’s also possible you could be making much more money doing something else, the same thing you’re currently doing, or even less than you’re currently doing, so don’t be afraid to look around, either. Opportunities still exist in any environment! If your primary source of income isn’t cutting it, you should take a step back and figure out what steps it will take to move up to the next level. The sooner you begin taking decisive action, the sooner you will see results.

Arbitrage & Cashback

Luckily, there are even easier ways to add to your income with minimal effort. Cashback and other arbitrage opportunities can seemingly create money out of thin air. There are many apps and sites that provide either passive or active cashback, sometimes in pretty large quantities for active methods. These apps also often come with signup bonuses, giving you an immediate boost or a headstart when you first activate them. While most of these methods aren’t scalable, they can add a significant amount of income over time or provide a temporary boost when funds are tight. While an exhaustive review of cashback is outside the scope of this article, you can find a lot of information in my previous post on side hustles.

Investments

There’s a good chance you’re not in a spot to begin investing right now, and that’s okay! However, in the long-run, it’s one of the most sure-fire methods of getting ahead, and you should embrace it! In the words of legendary investor Warren Buffet, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” Investing is the easiest way to do that for most people.

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”

Legendary Investor, Warren Buffet

If you’ve already begun your journey as an investor, it can be a scary prospect to put money into the market in the midst of such volatile and uncertain times. Many voices will be telling you to sell everything or stay out of the market, forecasting imminent demise. I urge you to step back, make your own decision, and not give in to fear. No one can predict the market, which is why investing in well-diversified, low-cost, passive index funds is such a powerful strategy. Whatever your strategy and goals, don’t make your decisions out of fear. While there’s no way to know what the market will do today, tomorrow, or a year from now, over long periods of time, the market has always shown significant growth, creating one of the most powerful wealth-building tools of all time for the general public. If you’re lucky enough to have cash flow to spare during these strange times, it’s worth considering.

Next Steps

I hope you’ve found these tips, tactics, and suggestions helpful. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve certainly covered a lot of material! And if you’ve implemented even a fraction of these ideas, it’s likely you’ve freed up significant cash flow, leading to less stress, more options, and potentially even better health. If you’re still looking for more, you probably already have an idea of what direction you’d like to go. The internet is a wealth of knowledge, and a little searching can lead you down some deep (and hopefully productive!) rabbit holes. If you’re not sure where to turn next, searching for the FIRE community, frugality, or minimalism can take you even further. If you’re still unsure what the next step is or have ideas I didn’t mention, feel free to reach out to me in the comments or via email.

It’s my sincere hope that this post or others on this site will help you live a happier, healthier, freer life. Opportunity is only limited by your imagination. Don’t be afraid to experiment! It’s still possible to not only survive, but flourish and thrive, here and now.

Cheers,
(Your) Wallet