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Doing things that are good for you can be hard for you, like working out or making a new friend or eating beets or saving money. But trust me, the result of not doing those things is way worse. Wow, life is hard. And that's why people get smart and develop clever little hacks that trick us into doing good things when, in all honesty, we'd rather be two paws deep in a kitten hole on YouTube, mostly to see them jump on countertops with aluminum foil. Endless entertainment. Also feels cruel, but cats are evil, so I don't feel bad.
Why aren't you a dog? So today, we're looking at seven ways to trick yourself into saving. And you'll find out which tricks slay and which tricks are more of a big yikes. But first, you can start doing things that are good for you right now by smashing those like and subscribe buttons. Remember, choosy moms choose George.
So the seven savings tricks we're looking at today came from the people of Money Talks News. Is it money? Is it talks? Is it news? It's all of it. It's its own thing. I respect that. And then my hip and with it Gen Z associate producer Skyler helped me create a custom rating scale to set them apart. JK, she wants no credit for any of this. But she secretly does, which I think is even more toxic. To be like, I don't care. But like you secretly care. Just like tell me you care. What are you even talking about right now? All right, let's get to it.
Okay, first savings trick on our scale, ranging from sleighs to big yikes, is to save your roundups. Apparently, it's not just for killing weeds anymore. This roundup, they say, moves the difference to your savings. And Bank of America does this, Ally, SoFi, Acorns. And the idea here is you get some spare change, you move it to savings, and you kind of trick your brain into saving some money. So for example, if you bought a U2X on eBay for $11.20, your bank will
would round it up to $12 and deposit that spare 80 cents into a savings account, right after silently judging you for choosing a C-tier psychic type. At least go base Charizard, keep it classy. What is this, amateur hour? Do I have to explain everything to you fools? Now, all in all, this roundup thing is a somewhat complicated way to save money. Plus, it's not doing a whole lot to further your savings in the long run. But sure, it's fine, it's not hurting you, and you definitely won't notice it. So on a range of slays to big yikes, this is somewhere in the middle. So I'm going to call it
Mid.
Investing spare change is like picking up spare change. It's not a bad habit, but you're never gonna build real savings doing it. Next trick on the list is set it and forget it. Set up a recurring automated transfer from your checking to savings every month. It's out of sight, out of mind. Okay, I like this one so far. And what I like about it especially is that will help you avoid the temptation of spending that money elsewhere, like on personalized merch for your kombucha and surfing club called the Booch Boys. So I'm happy to give this one our first of I hope many
Slays. All right, trick number three. They say use a cashback rewards credit card. Don't love this one already. If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of the credit. Actually, I hate it. And they say using a credit card that offers cashback lets you recoup a bit of your spending. My cashback earnings cover the cost of a few purchases each year. Free is good. Oh, boy. The author of this article thinks that that item was free.
Okay, now I can understand the thought process here, but I'm gonna go ahead and give this one a big yikes. The logic is that you earn cash back and you'll save the cash back. Now you and I both know that's not gonna happen, but we Americans are about as obsessed with rewards cards as we are with ranch dressing. And listen, if you need to put ranch on everything to make it edible, you don't like food, you just like ranch. That crosses the line. Someone watching out there just got decimated with that line. He's probably like eating ranch right now out of the bottle.
So next time you think about how much you love your rewards card and how you pinky promise that you'll save the cash back, remember these two data points. Nearly one in four people didn't redeem their credit card rewards in the past 12 months at all. And next, a study by MIT found that using credit cards motivated people to spend more money than they would with cash.
So think about that. If you got 200 in cash back at the end of the year, you probably spent more than $200 chasing that $200. You catch my drift here? My point here is that credit card companies are smarter than you. They know you better than you know you. Even you, Jared. And I know you scored high in the SAT, but it doesn't need to come up every Tuesday at Trivia.
lying about my SAT scores for 15 years. Credit card companies understand your behavior better than anyone else, and they know exactly how to persuade you to spend more. And if you think you're going to beat them at their own game with your precious rewards, they will happily let you think that. So when it comes to savings or using credit cards at all, the rewards are just not worth the risk here, in my humble opinion. You're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies, literally.
For every dollar you spend, you get a measly two cents with those cards. So here's my two cents, big yikes. And that didn't cost you nothing. All right, moving on. Next savings trick, ignore raises and bonuses. Here's what they say. Supersize your retirement savings by sending the additional income from raises and bonuses directly to your company's retirement savings plan. Just pretend the raise never happened. Keep your spending at the same level as before, giving your savings plan a major boost.
I like this. They're saying, hey, keep on living on the lesson you make, avoid lifestyle creep, and when you get a raise, put it towards retirement. Sounds simple, but this takes serious discipline. Let's say you got a raise that amounted to an extra 500 bucks per month. Now, you might be excited to have some extra Dave & Buster's money to play with here. Who wouldn't be? But if you decided to save that money all year instead, you would have $6,000 more than you had before. Now let's take it a step further.
And let's say you invest that extra 500 bucks into retirement accounts every single month for 10 years. Well, assuming a 10% rate of return, that $60,000 that you invested would turn into $100,000 thanks to compound growth. And sure, you'd be sacrificing holding the coveted high score in Mario Kart DX, but I'm gonna make the bold claim that 100K is the better flex here, which is why I think this trick
absolutely slays. And that brings us to the next trick on the list, which is offer to 401k, use it. I like this. Money Talks says, aim to contribute at least as much as your employer is willing to match so you get all the money you deserve from your work. And I'm not going to lie, this is sort of a
trick that everyone knows about, which is why I'm going to see their trick and raise them a treat by saying that the real savings happen when you take it a step further and not only invest up to the match, but you invest more than that. 15% of your income, regardless of the match. Think of the match as the extra whipped cream on top of the grande half-calf white chocolate mocha with an extra shot. Actually...
Scratch that. The Booch Boys are going dairy-free for the summer. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm a big fan of your 401k and the savings method. So this one obviously slays. So if your employer offers a 3% match, well, if you put in 3%, at least, they will match 100%. That is free money, and I'm going to take that every single time. And get this, with the 401k, 80% of millionaires said that was the vehicle to building their millionaire status and their wealth.
Can't argue with that. And if you max that out, there's still more investment options out there for you. Now, the next savings trick they give here is to nudge up your retirement contributions. Just a skosh. They say whenever you can, especially when you get a pay increase, nudge up the percentage of your pay that goes to your 401k. Now, while I agree it's typically a good idea to increase your contributions, like I said before, you're better off to just contribute 15% of your income and be done with it.
and learn to live off the rest. Because believe it or not, it's your personal savings rate, how often you save your money instead of spending it, that makes the real difference in the long run. Not picking the perfect funds or having a big salary. It's about savings rate. And the more you save, the bigger the nest egg is going to be.
And when you can commit to saving a significant portion of your income on a solid long-term retirement plan, that's when your nest egg really compounds and grows. So I'm going to give this trick a mid because it's not necessarily bad advice per se, but this idea of slowly nudging it just feels weak. Just do better and invest 15% until your house is paid off. Then you can increase it. Let go, let God, live, laugh, love, enjoy your nest egg. All right.
It's time for the last trick on the list. And a warning here, this one is going to be a pretty big yikes. And before we get to it, I've got a bonus trick courtesy of my friends at Tello, who are committed to helping people save money on their cell phone plans. Sorry, guys, you know what? Let me get this real quick. Tello, here's the low fees you're looking for. I can see it in your eyes. I can see you when you die, oh.
What's that? Cease and desist. Oh, sorry about that, Lionel. No problem. Love you too. Love you too. All right. Bye-bye. I really do love Tello because they offer more data for prices as low as five bucks or just 25 bucks for the unlimited everything plan. Not to mention flexible plans and no contracts. So it's time to fall in love with saving on your phone plan. Go to tello.com slash George and get five bucks off the unlimited data plan for your first month of service. Or just check out the link.
in the description below. And while we're at it, let's make this bonus savings trick a two for one, because this trick really is something you gotta know about. You see, using a high yield savings account, like the one offered by our sponsor, Laurel Road, will make your savings work harder for you. Because they're an online bank, they can offer accounts that earn 5.15% APY without those phony maintenance fees. Less overhead equals more interest,
for you. Plus, with Laurel Road, there's a ton of other great perks. No minimum balance required to open an account and your deposits are FDIC insured, meaning it's safe and protected. So make the most of your savings by going to laurelroad.com slash george or you can always click the link in the description below.
Happy savings. All right, that's enough bonus content. Back to the final big yikes I've got for you, and that is divert coins to savings. Okay, here's what they say. Take the change in coins from your cash purchases and stash it away. An empty jar or coffee can will do. Make it a fun game with the children and get the whole family saving and help them learn the habit of saving from a young age. So what they're saying here is put the change in a piggy bank. Groundbreaking. Totally.
Totally unique, completely not ever been done before. And sure, this one isn't going to do you any harm, but do you really think it's going to do that much good? I mean, I doubt you're using physical cash often enough to fill up that ceramic oinker. With this strategy, even if you got a dollar of spare change every single week,
that only adds up to 50 bucks a year. It's just not realistically gonna impact your savings goal. So I'm gonna give this one a big yikes because if this is the trick you're counting on to save money, well, you're only tricking yourself. - How could I have been so stupid? - All right, so let's recap here and talk about what actually works when it comes to savings. For starters,
automate your savings. That's a good one. Next, save 15% of your income in a retirement account when you're financially ready. And don't focus on the piddly things that gets you saving a few extra bucks a month. Instead, focus on the big strides that will help you build real wealth. The real trick is consistently putting a big chunk of your income towards savings and learning to live off the rest.
Now in all of this savings talk, one thing we didn't cover was how to intentionally save for big purchases like an exotic trip to Poland or a house down payment. Because I know it can feel impossible to come up with tens of thousands of dollars without resorting to some stupid kind of debt, which is every kind of debt. But trust me, it's possible to save as much as $100,000 in just three years. And it's actually not all that complicated.
So watch this next video to find out how or click the link in the description below. For now, make sure to share this video with a friend who legit still uses a piggy bank. They need a wake up call and probably MapQuest directions to the nearest coin star. As always, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.