NEW YORK, July 8, 2009
How to Avoid Losing Money to Laziness
Americans Waste Millions in Late Fees, Mystery Spending And More
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Early Show financial contributor Vera Gibbons shared tips and solutions for tracking and saving your hard-earned dollars with Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. (CBS/The Early Show)
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Play CBS Video Video Laziness Costs Thousands Financial Contributor Vera Gibbons spoke with Harry Smith about how laziness can cost you thousands.
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60 Minutes Is Your Money Safe? To find out if your money is fully protected, check out the FDIC's online calculator.
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Opinion Other People's Money Declan McCullagh writes on politics and the economy.
Early Show financial contributor Vera Gibbons Wednesday shared tips and solutions for tracking and saving your hard-earned dollars.
There are several ways laziness costs you money, everything from not paying your bills on time to paying for services you don't use. All it takes is a little organization and some planning to get your spending and saving on track.
People paying bills late! Not only are fees on the rise, make a late payment on your credit card and you could be hit with a fee of up to $39. In addition to the late payment fee you are going to be hit with higher interest rates and a negative effect on your credit score, which affects your ability to buy a home, car, rent an apartment and get a job!
It's all about being organized. Have a designated place for your bills and set aside time to pay them (have a schedule!). The easiest way is to pay online; you can set up to pay all of your bills automatically every month. You may even get a discount for doing this. Many financial institutions even allow you to set up alerts to remind you when payments are due.
Another big problem is not paying attention to where our money is going. You would think that we would be getting better at this given the current economic climate.
We actually are getting better with this one. Many Americans are choosing "wealth" over "stuff." You can see this reflected in higher savings rates. 6.9 percent today (highest in more than 15 years.) But still some "Mystery Spending" is going on. A recent Visa study found that Americans lose nearly $3000 a year. Mystery spending is spending that you cannot account for.
The simplest way is to track what's coming in and what's going out. There are free online programs that easily track spending.
Mint.com is a popular one, quicken also has a free online program. All you have to do is plug in basic information (name, email, password) then link up accounts and these sites track how much you spend on credit cards, car payment, mortgage, and then divides the money into categories: Rent, Insurance, Dining Out, etc. Once you see where the money is actually going, you can figure out how to cut the fat.
Right, in this environment it's all about negotiating and haggling. People who are doing this are saving a bundle. Consumer reports found that 80 percent of haggling Americans were able to win better deals on hotel rates, cell phone bills and clothing. More than 70 percent paid less for electronics and furniture. Its one of those things that so easy, all you have to do is ask. The worst that could happen is the retailer says no.
Right, just about everything is advertised as on sale these days. We see signs saying 70 or 80 percent off and we assume we are getting a good deal, but thats not always the case. No where is this more apparent than at the liquidation sales, and there are a lot of them out there. You just have to be careful, sometimes prices are better, sometimes they are not. Check multiple sources and do as much research as you can before you buy.
Unused memberships and unnecessary upgrades can really add up quickly. Upgraded cable packages could be anywhere from $10-100+ on top of what you are paying for the basic cable. Do you really use call forwarding or call waiting that you could be paying extra for. Monthly magazine subscriptions or Netflix can go months without use. Re-evaluate what you use and what you don't, and cancel all the services you are not using.
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