BiggerPockets Money Podcast - 496: 24 Money Tips for 2024: How to Save on Rent AND Travel for Free!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast. This is our final episode of 24 Money Tips in 2024. And with me to share these final tips is my wonderful, amazing, fantastic, fabulous, delightful co-host, Kyle Mast. Oh, was that too much? Probably, but people should know that it was even more impressive that you did that whole phrase in one take on a podcast. There's no way I would be able to do that.

Starting point is 00:00:24 That was not edited. She did that straight. That's because you are wonderful, amazing, fantastic, fabulous, and delightful, Kyle? Stop, stop. Okay, yeah, Mindy, these have been so much fun. These episodes have been fun to share all these different tips. And I hope our listeners are really getting value here as we sink into the new year.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Mindy, what's our number one tip for today? This one is a big one that's going to make you think. Evaluate where you are living. Not only your actual apartment or house, but also your city, your state, your country. Are you giving your city more than you're getting out of it? I know too many people who are living in New York City paying New York City rent, New York City bills, but not living a New York City life. Listen, you can sit inside your New York City apartment doing nothing, but it feels a whole lot like sitting inside your apartment anywhere else in the

Starting point is 00:01:16 country doing nothing. So really think about it. Are you utilizing all the things that your city has to offer? Are you utilizing all the things your state has to offer? And if not, either change that and start taking advantage of what's near you or move. So you can start taking advantage of a lower cost of living space or more things that appeal to you as a person. I love that one. That's so good. State taxes are so different in different states.

Starting point is 00:01:44 And with the advent of more and more remote work, it just makes a lot of sense to at least look at this for you and your family. Next one, look for ways to make your life easier. I love this one. What are your pain points and what can you do about it? one of my favorite quotes when I'm doing goal setting or planning retreats is one by Tim Ferriss. And I think it was in his first book, The Four Hour Workweek, but he uses it all the time. What would this look like if it were easy?

Starting point is 00:02:11 So look at the pain points in your life. Like what is causing you stress? What would it look like if it were easy? Just ask that question, what do you need to do to make it easy? Do you hate mowing the lawn? What would it look like if that was easy? You hire someone to do it? Do you have a robotic lawnmower?

Starting point is 00:02:28 which are awesome, by the way. What are these things that you can look into to make certain pain points in your life easier? And these can be really good uses of your finances. And it doesn't have to be big spends. It can be small spends, depending on where you're at in your financial journey, but you can make a big impact in your happiness in the quality of life by making certain unenjoyable things, especially easier. I love that. We took out our lawn and replaced it with rocks. We live in a desert. You don't need a lawn. Problem solved. And we hired a cleaning person because I hate to clean and I like having a clean house. And it made my life easier.

Starting point is 00:03:05 And that is such a great tip. All right. This one is really personal for me. Put together a giving plan. One of the comments that we got after being on the Ramit Satie show was that he should have encouraged us to be giving more. So this isn't something that we've actually traditionally done an enormous amount of in our lives. And that's something that we're changing. My husband and I in 2024. We're putting together

Starting point is 00:03:32 a giving plan so that we have a specific amount that we are giving this year to different charities and different organizations that we want to support. If you find yourself in a great financial position, put together a giving plan and give back. That's a really cool one. And I would add to it, too, even if you're not in what you would call a really great financial position, a giving plan can be $10 a month. It can be anything, but the intentionality of it and the habit that it builds will create something that is a part of you that when you do have more resources, you know how to give well because you've trained yourself in good habits during that entire time. Next one, after housing and transportation, groceries are often the next largest spending line item

Starting point is 00:04:18 that you have a decent amount of control over. There's several different ways you can go here, but, you know, find a different grocery store. Oh, my goodness, we went on vacation to Florida and I got to shop at Aldi's. I live on the West Coast in Oregon. We do not have Aldi's, and I was thrilled. I want that store in Oregon. But that's a side step. Shop different sales.

Starting point is 00:04:43 You know, if something's on sale, if the chicken's on sale, the pork's on sale, the tofu, whatever is your jam. Buy something that's on sale and look for ways to be creative with it. make different recipes with that. You can save a lot by just shopping sales, even if you're a big Costco person, just walking down the aisles and looking for the sales at Costco and stocking up on those things and then using those with specific recipes. Another tip along with this that kind of came out in an episode a while back I heard on The Money Show was to grocery shop a little bit more often. And sometimes that seems counterintuitive because you feel like you might impulse buy more. But what it does, it also allows you to know that you don't have to buy so much at one time.

Starting point is 00:05:27 You don't have to buy so much produce. You don't have to buy so many things. You know you're going to be back to the store. And sometimes that can actually help your budget, knowing that you can just spend a little bit this time for these next few days or for this week. And then you'll be back to the store again rather than trying to spend so much and some of it going bad and wasting money on that. Love that tip, possibly my most favorite tip in this whole thing. And we don't have Aldi's in Colorado either. Hey, Aldi, come west. Yes.

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Starting point is 00:09:06 If you've decided you want to do spa days at home instead of paying an exorbitant amount of money out, really set the mood with music, aroma, and ambiance. You can do a lot of these things that you do out inside and still get a very similar experience. You just have to plan a little bit ahead. Next one, spend some time and learn to play the credit card airfare points game. And this goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyways, don't do this if you can't manage your credit well. and if you have a hard time paying off credit cards,

Starting point is 00:09:37 this is for people that will pay off a credit card completely each month. But it can be a little intimidating at first, but it can be thousands and thousands of dollars in free travel if you do it right over time. This is a hobby of mine. There are people that do it way more intensely than I do, but just to give you an idea, I currently looked at my spreadsheet and I currently have 40 credit cards that are open.

Starting point is 00:10:00 You don't have to go this crazy. We have different LLCs, and I totally take advantage of having multiple businesses to be able to play this game. But to give you another idea, we had a family reunion in Florida, and I basically told my siblings and my parents about the Southwest Companion Pass. And all of them, except my parents, I think all of my siblings were able to get a Southwest companion pass to be able to fly their families to Florida. I have siblings on both coasts.

Starting point is 00:10:27 And the savings was probably in the $5,000 to $10,000 range in airfare between all of us coming out there. So just think about, you can do baby steps into that. One website I would recommend is travel freely.com. It's a great website to get you just started and you can go as deep as you want or stay as simple as you want. I love this next one so much, Kyle. Figure out your enough. Dictionary.com defines enough as adequate for the want or need, sufficient for the purpose

Starting point is 00:10:59 or to satisfy desire. What do you want and how much do you need to be happy? And I'm talking about money, investments, time with your family, whatever it is that you want or need, you will have an amount that is enough. And then once you have enough, you don't need more than. So figure out in every aspect of your life, what does enough look like? All right. This has been so much fun.

Starting point is 00:11:31 We are so excited for everything that's coming up in 2024, and we're always eager to hear from you. You can email me, Mindy at BiggerPockets.com. You can email Kyle, Kyle at Kylemask.com. Can they email you? They can. Go for it. Yeah. Thanks for asking.

Starting point is 00:11:48 After I share your email address, although really, you're not that hard to find. And if you have any life-changing tips that we miss, please share them with us in our Facebook group, which is found at Facebook.com slash groups slash B. money. All right, huge thanks to my partner, Kyle Mast, for sharing all of these tips with me throughout this entire month. And huge thanks to you for listening. And we will see you next week. If you enjoyed today's episode, please give us a five-star review on Spotify or Apple. And if you're looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash Bigger Pockets Money. Bigger Pockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by

Starting point is 00:12:30 Kaylin Bennett. Editing by Exodus Media. Copywriting by Nate Weintraub. Lastly, a big thank you to the Bigger Pockets team for making this show possible.

BiggerPockets Money Podcast - 496: 24 Money Tips for 2024: How to Save on Rent AND Travel for Free!

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