I do this thing that I like to call “stealthy saving.” I’m not sure if I made the term up, but I like to think that I did.
I love saving money “stealthily” because I don’t realize it’s gone and I don’t miss it. Depending on how often you stow money away it might add up quick or it might not, but it’s still saving. And any type of savings is a step in the right direction. Keep on reading to learn how I stealthily save and maybe try some of these out for yourself! We all have different lifestyles so what works for me might not work for you, but most of these methods could be adapted to fit your own financial goals.
Credit Cards
You heard that right. They aren’t as scary as they sound, I promise!!! People think of credit cards and they think of DEBT. Well, I see it like… free money? But not in the way that you think. You need to pay off your credit card every month, in full, on time. You should never put a charge on your credit card if you don’t have the money in the bank. I’ll go further into credit in a future post.
So how do they give you free money? If you have a rewards card you can get anywhere from 1% to 5% cash back on purchases from certain retailers, travel, gas, restaurants, and more. I currently have three credit cards giving me cash back rewards: Discover It, American Express Blue, and Citi Double Cash. I have well over $500 in rewards built up on these cards that I just keep letting grow and grow. You can put this money straight to paying off your card, but I’m waiting to use it all in one place, whether it be an expensive purchase or a trip.
I got all this money from spending what I normally would, just using my card to get those points instead of cash. If you have more than one card like me, you can strategize where you use your cards. For example, I get 3% for gas on my American Express so that card is strictly gas. Double Cash is my everyday card because I get at least 2% on every purchase, and I use Discover for restaurants because that is 2% as well.
Acorns
The Acorns app is AMAZING. Basically, it’s an investing app that you can hook up to your credit cards, debit card, and bank account and it will round up to the nearest dollar for every purchase. Those pennies will add up very quickly. You can also set up reoccurring investments that are taken out of your bank account daily, weekly, or monthly. I invest just $10 a month in addition to the roundup investments.
You don’t need to know a thing about investing to successfully save with Acorns. I wish I understood the stock market, but that’s for another day. All you do is set up how aggressively you want to invest, and Acorns will spread your money across different stocks, ETFs, portfolios, and whatever other investing jargon there is to invest in.
I am very on top of my money, but I look at my Acorns app just once a month, maybe less. Every time I log in I’m surprised about how much is in my account because I literally never notice it missing from my account. This is the stealthiest of stealthy saving. And the best part is, it’s not as accessible as your normal bank savings account, so you’re not going to pull your money out like we all are guilty of doing sometimes when our checking accounts are looking a little sad.
Automatic Transfers
Setting up your direct deposit paycheck to put a little bit in your savings account isn’t super stealthy, but a few paychecks in you’ll get used to the smaller amount and you’ll forget all about it. Currently, I’m aggressively saving because I don’t have a lot of expenses right now. Almost half of my paycheck is going to savings which is insane I KNOW, but it works for me for the time being. It took me a couple of months to find the sweet spot for how much I wanted to put away. It got to the point where I had to start pulling money from my savings because my checking account with starving, but now I’ve learned to live on just half my paycheck.
I can’t repeat enough that what works for me isn’t going to work for you. Just setting up a $10 automatic transfer per paycheck will help build your savings quicker than not saving at all. I do recommend setting up these transfers to be automatic because it’s very likely you’ll forget or even talk yourself out of saving that month. There’s no excuses when you set it up automatically. Banking is 100% online nowadays, so if for some reason you do need to turn off the transfer, decrease it, or you’re ready to increase it, it’s very easy and instantaneous.
That’s another post for you all! Happy saving 🙂 Talk to you soon!