Practical Money Hacks with Lisa Rowan
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel, all while spending less and saving more. I'm your host, Chris Hutchins, and before we get started, I just want to give a shout out to a listener named Jeff. He emailed me to share that he reached out to the manager of his hotel that he was about to stay at, just like we talked about in episode one. When he checked in, he got upgraded to an executive suite on the top floor of the hotel.

It makes me so happy to hear stories like that. So if you're putting these hacks to good use, please let me know so I can share it with everyone else.

So today's episode is all about money hacks. And I'm joined by Lisa Rowan, who's a staff writer in consumer finance at Forbes. She was previously a staff writer at Lifehacker and before that at The Penny Hoarder. She runs a top fashion podcast called Pop Fashion. But more relevant to our conversation is that she's the author of Money Hacks, a new book that shares over 275 ways to decrease your spending, increase your savings, and make your money work for you.

I couldn't be more excited to talk with someone as passionate about money hacks as I am. But before we jump in, I'm obliged to let you know, Chris Hutchins works at Wealthfront. All opinions expressed by Chris and his guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Wealthfront. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Lisa, thank you for being here. I am excited.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me, Chris. It is always a thrill to talk to someone else who has hacks in their business name because it means I know I'm in the right place. Of course. I got your book and my wife was like, should you just give up? Someone else already did this.

No, keep doing it. We need more. I only have 275 in this book. There's room for plenty more. I was actually surprised. At the end, there's 280. Did you not want to say 280 hacks? Doesn't really look good on the cover. And do you know them all by number? Absolutely not. I was like, I thought it'd be great. I just run through and I'd be like, Lisa, talk about number 135. And we just see what happens.

There was a time when I did when I was going through the process of writing this book and editing this book where I could rattle off like what number a certain hack was. But it's been a couple of months since the book came out and all of that information is no longer essential and it's just dripped out of my brain. And I've just let it go. I have to be OK with it leaving my brain. I think that's fair. And how did you get so obsessed with money hacks yourself?

This is something I sort of fell into. And not to say that I... My life has not all been serendipity, right? But it was by accident that I got into writing about money because I used to be a freelance writer and I was taking basically any subject that came along. And the one thing that kept coming up over and over again happened to be small business for a couple of years because I owned a very small clothing store back in Washington, D.C. And so I was always thinking about small business or running one. And...

I kept writing about business, small businesses, small business finances, surviving as a small business person. And that ended up flowing over to personal finance when one of the content marketing companies that I was writing for picked up the penny hoarder as a client.

This was before Penny Hoarder had a staff of several dozen people. They had one guy and a couple of freelancers who were writing content about all these, you know, weird ways to make and save money. And I was like, sure, I love to get paid for writing. I will pick up some personal finance concepts to be able to get paid to write. Like, I'm game, sure. And I...

I'm not someone who's good at math. I barely, barely spelled my name right on the math portion of my SAT. And so I never thought that I could really do personal finance because I just can't do math. But I always thought, well, oh,

I can teach people about it. As long as I'm not doing the math portion of the class, I can teach people about it. So I started writing for the Penny Hoarder eventually so much that I ended up being a full-time writer with them. And that really was just like doing a cannonball into the personal finance world, just learning constantly, picking up tips, learning the to don'ts that a lot of the time we don't speak about because there's so much embarrassment and shame around talking about money sometimes. And...

at the same time that I was starting to write more and more and more about personal finance, I was also realizing that people maybe could learn from all of the money mistakes I had made in my life. So I was probably...

I was like 28 when I first like really started writing about personal finance and I was in a whole lot of debt. I had made a lot of mistakes. I had had a business that had opened and closed with a bunch of debt. And so I, I really felt like, okay, if I'm honest with people that, you know, I am not a mathematician, I am not, you know, a financial advisor, but I can pick up these concepts and better my financial life. Like you can too, anyone can do it. And

And so I just like sort of got caught in that wave and just even though I've been doing this since 2013, 2014, I still feel like I learn something new every day. Wow.

All right. I, I, I similarly, I mean, I'm, I guess not similarly. I was the opposite. I was the do great on your math portion and like fail. Like the only reason I had a good SAT score was because I did well on math. The writing section is mine.

like put us together and we could conquer the world. I mean, that's what, I mean, that's the plan. That's, that's this episode is, is let's conquer the world. At least, at least from, from money hacks perspective right now. And we'll see where we can take it from there. So, you know, when I read through this book, I found some hacks that I was like, of course I tell people about this all the time. I found a lot of hacks that I was like, I didn't know that. And, and put them to use.

I thought maybe a good way to run through this, because we're not going to sit here and read 280 hacks as much as I think that could be interesting. If you guys want 280 hacks, buy the book. And then you can read all 280 hacks. He's already doing it right. He's already selling the book. Good job, Chris. Yeah. I mean, that's the... There are some great hacks. But I'd love to hear some of your favorites in the sections. And then I have some thoughts and favorites and other hacks that complement maybe for edition number two. And we can just go from there.

So you kick this book off talking about curbing mindless spending, something that I think COVID over the last year has made harder because we're just all sitting at home. I'm very excited to have more time outside to stop. Well, I guess stop spending money online and start spending money in the real world. What are some of the hacks here that you think are the most exciting to talk about right now?

Oh, gosh. And like I if you want to talk about impulse spending during the pandemic, like just there's just like a target right on my face. It's like she she is the one who had the delivery guys at her home every day. But one of the things that I like to think about when it comes to impulse spending is to think about the long term and the short term at the same time. So I have a tip. It's hack number 44 in case you want to like open your missiles to, you know, page 45.

49. And it's called pay yourself to splurge. And what I like to think about is if I am thinking about spending money that maybe I wasn't planning to, maybe I'm browsing in a store, I'm just like cruising around online because I clicked on a sale advertisement. I can think about what's in my cart, what the total is and say to myself, well, can I put the same amount of money in savings right now? And if I'm going to buy this stuff, will I put the same amount of money in savings? So like I spent

$44 at Ulta the other day online. The box is sitting next to my desk full of stuff to put on my skin. I love it. But what I should do that I haven't done yet is put $44 in my savings account.

And it helps me now because I've got sunscreen on my face. It helps me later because I've got just a little bit more that's sitting in my savings account should I need it later. And so I don't have to worry as much about splurging because I know that I'm covered on both sides, right? I can satisfy the now. I can satisfy the later. I will give the caveat here that it does not work for every...

every amount. If you're thinking about splurging on, say, a new Corvette, you may not have the cash for that and the same amount of cash to put into savings. But maybe then it is time for a larger reality check. Maybe that is not going to be an impulse buy or a splurge. Maybe you should plan ahead to buy the beautiful Corvette. I think if you're buying a Corvette and you're worried about your savings, there's definitely a bigger problem.

Exactly, exactly. But if you're thinking about, oh, should I stop on my way home from work and pick up some French fries because I really have a French fry craving? Like, okay, that's going to cost you maybe five bucks. Can you also transfer $5 in your savings while you're sitting in the drive-thru line? All the better if you can and if you actually do it. So I think if you can pay yourself to splurge

And it sort of builds up a defense to anyone who says to you like, oh, that impulse buy was a waste of money. And you're like, whatever. I handled my business and I'm handling my later business.

I like that. It reminds me of Hack 18, which was saving 100%, which is... You see this thing and you're like, this is 40% off. That's a good deal. I should get it. How do I make sure that I save for the future while I do it? Why don't you just realize that if you don't buy it, you get to save 100%? And it seems so ridiculous, but I see myself...

being one of those people that see something on sale and thinks, well, I got to get it because it's a good deal. And then now I just start telling myself and my wife reminds me that if you don't buy it, you get 100% off. And I'm like, that's an even better deal.

Yes. And it's one of those things where you really have to trick your brain and just realize that like you're you have like a lizard brain that just wants stuff and wants and just so longs to exchange money for things. And you have to rewire your brain to not do that. I'm a sucker for deals. And and I've been using this to rewire my lizard brain. What what else on spending?

Since I just mentioned that I was shopping online recently, I'll bring up hack 14, which is don't fall for the free shipping trap. Because anyone, look, any of us who might be elder millennials who grew up like learning the internet as it was developed, you know that as online shopping got more and more popular, you know,

these retailers were like, please come shop with us. We will give you free shipping. And then they were like, we'll give you free shipping if you spend $25. And then a couple of years later, they're like, we'll give you free shipping if you spend $175. And

All of a sudden, to get free shipping, you feel like you have to spend like way more than you plan for. Maybe you went online to buy a specific type of socks. And now like you're in the hole 100 bucks. You're buying all these accessories that you don't need. And you're like, wait, I just came here for socks. So if you've ever started browsing online and you start looking for something to add to your cart so that you get the free shipping, you need to stop and look at what's in your cart and say, okay,

Am I willing to pay $7.95 to have this shipped to me? Because if you are, you should just pay for the shipping because I guarantee you whatever you find to put in your cart is going to cost more than $7.95. And all of a sudden you're going to spend more than you planned. You're going to just overspend. The box is going to come and you're going to be like, what the heck did I even like? Was this all even worth it? Like, why did I get this extra?

sock, one sock individually. I don't know what you guys are shopping for online. But it's so easy to get out of control when you're shopping online. And you know that there's like a little prize at the end if you get there, if you add up your cart to amount to that much. But that can also just make you overspend and then you blow your budget and you're not happy. So my version of this hack is let's say you're shopping online and you're trying to

get shoes and you're like, oh, if I just spend another $40, it's free shipping and there's free returns. Don't add another pair of shoes you might like. Add a pair of shoes in size 45. Like add, you know, a triple XL like basketball jersey that you're never going to need.

Because then you definitely will return it. So don't add one more thing that you may or may not want to return. Add something you will certainly return. Obviously, it takes time to drive it to UPS or wherever you have to go to drop it off. And time is worth money. But if they offer free returns and you want free shipping and the amount you'll save is worth it, just get something else. But ideally, something you don't need.

Yeah. And before you do that, make sure even if they say they have free returns, make sure that it's not going to be really complicated to actually do the return. Like make sure you'll be able to print a return label at home or you'll be able to just drop it off at a place that's convenient for you. Like say they use FedEx, but there's no FedEx office within like 30 miles of your house. That's not going to make sense for you. It's just not worth it. You have to, you have to like think the process all the way through before you hit, you know, purchase on the cart, which I

We get and take some of the fun out of online shopping. But if you're thinking smart while you're adding things to your cart, you might make a better financial decision than you would have expected for yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And to wrap up spending, you know, in the last year, I think we've probably all added at least a few subscriptions to ourselves. So, you know, talk about Hack 20, which is all about stopping these free trials. And then I think there's a hack right before it about subscriptions.

Y'all really, I'm speaking to myself directly in this hack, but y'all really need to look at your billing statements each month and see all the stuff that you are paying for. Like, why do we all have seven streaming memberships and why do they all cost $14.99? Like, what? I thought we were supposed to be saving money on this. My point is, there comes a time where...

When you realize that you're getting nickel and dimed in your budget because you're signed up for all these things that you may not be utilizing, whether it's a workout membership, either streaming or in person, if it's streaming music, streaming video, if it's...

like an online learning platform that you haven't used in three or five months. You know, there are all these things that just like languish and they just leech money out of your budget each month. So it is worth going through and sort of doing a little audit on all your subscriptions and going through and saying, what day of the month does it bill me? How much does it cost? And am I using this? When is the last time I logged in? When's the last time I actually used this? And if I haven't logged in recently, is there a legitimate reason? Maybe it's a seasonal thing and that's fine.

But if you can find two, three, four of those subscriptions that you don't need, you could be adding 20, 30, $40 back into your budget each month. And you could be using that for things that make you happier or take the money from canceling your streaming workout program and then use it to like splurge on one or two group exercise classes each month now that we're finally emerging from our pandemic cocoons.

Remember that you have options with your money. You don't have to keep a subscription forever just because you signed up for it. And, you know, canceling might take some calls to customer service, some emails back and forth. But it's worth it if it means you can get money back into your budget every month. Yeah, I recently signed up for something that had a 30-day trial. I forgot to cancel it. And then I had this bill just lingering everywhere.

And I was trying to figure out how to prevent this in the future. And now I've switched. And anytime I sign up for a free trial on anything, I use privacy.com.

And so at privacy.com, you can go put in your bank information and they will give you a virtual card and you can create one for every different vendor and then you can immediately turn it off. So if you're thinking, God, I really want to watch this movie. It's on Showtime. They have a seven day free trial. You sign up, you put in your privacy card number. Then as soon as you've signed up, you go and cancel the card. You turn it off.

Now, Showtime, instead of having to email them or call them or cancel your membership, they're going to cancel it for you because the card's not going to work. And so whenever I'm doing something where I want a subscription for a year and I can't cancel it, I'll just put in a privacy card number and then turn it off and know that, you know, there's no way that I'm going to get charged again in the future.

That's perfect. It is way more efficient. It's way hackier than my method, which is when I sign up for a free trial, I'll write a reminder to turn it off like three days before it actually ends in my paper planner, which is just like, I think that's just being organized. I don't think that's a hack. But does it always work? Because I always put a little calendar invite and then sometimes I just miss the calendar invite. And so I had to get a new system.

No, I will live and die by my planner. So sometimes I double up to I'll put it in my planner and I'll put a reminder on my phone. So I like I try to make it fail proof. Although like, look, things happen. And, you know, worst case scenario, like there have been times that I've emailed customer service and been like, look, I messed up. Can I have my money back? And sometimes that works. Oh, yeah. And it doesn't hurt to ask. I

I do that. I'm like, oh, I meant to cancel this. I'm really sorry. And most of the time I've been able to get money back and it's worked pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. It never hurts to ask. So that's spending.

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The number of hacks that I wrote in this next chapter on being a savvy saver was so many that I feel like we could do a whole episode on this. But I want to hit on some of the top ones. But first, what is your kind of one or two always want to make sure people know from this section?

Okay, I want to make sure that you know about hack number 70, which is pay less for prescription drugs, which sounds like the most unsexy topic ever. But it's something that I actually got to put into practice a couple of weeks ago. And I think in these changing times where like you might have insurance from your employer, you're doing stuff on the exchange, like it's confusing a lot of the time to figure out prescription drugs that you need and what you're going to pay out of pocket for them.

So this is something that really worked for me recently. I was seeing a doctor and she told me she wanted me to take this particular drug, but she warned me. She said, for this particular use, it's not covered by insurance. And I was like, all right, well, like, tell me how much it's really going to cost. Like, I can think about, you know, like what this is going to mean for me. And she said, no, no, I've got a coupon. And so she text messaged me a coupon from, I think it was a good RX coupon there, a couple of, of,

different options out there so that I would be able to get a 30 day supply for $30, which to me is way better than a 30 day supply for $85. So that was really meaningful to me that she was like thinking ahead of like, okay, I want my patients to be able to have this, but like,

Here's she figured out the hack for me, basically. But it got even better when I called the pharmacy because I got that text message that was like insurance rejected your your prescription. What do you want to do? And so I called them and I was like, hey, I know this isn't covered, but my doctor gave me a coupon and they said, oh, I think we have the same coupon. Hold on. Beep, beep, beep, beep.

$30 for a 30-day supply. And I was like, look at these heroes working for me so that I don't spend too much money. There are a lot of times when your doctor or your pharmacist will know of a way to save money on a drug. So it's always useful to ask when you're sitting in the doctor's office, you know, do you have any idea how much this will cost? Do you know if there are any ways I can save on this? No one's going to fault you for being cost-conscious and worried about your health at the same time, you know?

No. But if you are not sure, you can check some of the apps. The one I mentioned is GoodRx. And so you can do some research online to find out prices at different pharmacies for the drug that you need. So maybe you go a little bit out of your way to take it to a pharmacy that you don't usually use, but you could save a bunch of money. So it's worth doing a little bit of research online.

before you pick up a prescription. Granted, if you are feeling really sick and just want to get home, like don't, this isn't going to matter. Like just get it filled, get whatever you need. But if it's something where you don't need it, you know, that same day, it's worth taking 15, 20 minutes, maybe max to find out how much you can expect to pay and if you can save anything.

Yeah, and I don't think this just applies to prescriptions. I've had multiple situations where I asked a doctor, hey, if I'm not going to be able to get this done with insurance, is there a different price? And one time I needed these like cortisone injection and they were like, well, if we send it to insurance, it's like $175. But if you're paying out of pocket, we can do it for 30. And I was like, $30? So now I've gotten in the habit, especially if you're on a high deductible health plan,

to just ask, hey, what is this out of pocket if I can't cover it with my insurance plan? And in all different areas, I've seen it work in dental. I've seen it work with kind of regular doctor's treatments. I know that some hospitals have a program for people going through IVF. If you're like, I can't afford all these drugs. So just ask doctors for coupons or discounts or special pricing, and it can save you a lot of money.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it can be so anxiety ridden to like ask a medical professional about money stuff because you don't want to seem like you're, you know, like afraid to spend money on yourself. But if you just ask, like, tell me about the costs I can expect, or tell me the difference between paying for this with insurance and paying for it out of pocket. Like,

just to open it up to a discussion, you'll be surprised what they're willing to tell you and, and how they're willing to work with you to make sure that you can get what you need and also not exhaust your deductible on one visit. Because let me tell you that high deductible health plan is really great until you're like, I'm sorry, it costs how much? It's unbelievable. You've got like a doctor's appointment can somehow be hundreds of dollars. So yeah, definitely worth asking. And yeah, I,

I know, you know, you talk a little bit about, I don't remember the hack number, but you know, how everyone should be trying to search online for promo codes and coupons when you're checking out. There are so many sites out there. Honey has a browser extension that will let you search for it.

The add-on to that that this made me think of because we were talking about getting coupons from doctors is I've recently started just live chatting with the brand. So if there's like a live chat at the bottom and I say, hey, I'm looking to check out, is there a coupon? Yeah.

They're not on commission. If there's a coupon and they're going to get you to the sale, they're going to be excited. And it doesn't always work. But I've gotten coupons for things where after searching on the internet, looking for promo codes, I can't find anything. And then I just ask. And they're like, oh yeah, here's 10% off.

Nice. I love that. Yeah, because they're not there to be salespeople. No, they just want to help you get checked out. And I'm sure if they help you with your order and you check out, it looks good for their metrics. So they're definitely trying to just get the order done. Okay. I want to do some quick hits here because we don't need to spend forever. But these are things that I actually have never heard of or don't know how to take advantage of. So can you talk like rapid fire repair cafes? Yes.

Ooh, repair cafes are a thing where you can take a thing you own that's broken and people will teach you how to fix it.

You get to use their tools. Yes, it's totally free. A lot of them happen at local libraries or local like different like artist workshops. And they will teach you how to fix something. They will share their tools with you. And they will send you home with newfound knowledge about how to fix your thing, whether it's like your blender or a bike. And you can get more life out of that thing instead of tossing it and buying a new one. Yeah, this was awesome. I didn't even know it existed. You had another one on pawn shops. I've everyone's seen pawn shops.

I've never even thought of how to use them. How can you use a pawn shop to save money?

Yeah, they're not all like you see on TV or like whatever like seedy thing you have in your mind. Pawn shops have all of those things that you want but aren't really sure if you want to invest on something new. Maybe like a piece of lawn equipment or an electronic item, something where you're not quite sure if you want to pay full price, but you don't really want to roll the dice at a thrift store on something that may be used or may not be in stock when you go to find it.

And the thing that I recommend is calling one before you go to see if they have that type of item you're looking for. If you want a weed whacker, you know, you don't want to show up and they never carry lawn equipment, right? So call them first. Say, do you have this type of item? What's your price range for this? And do a little bit of comparison shopping before you go. They're always willing to answer questions because they want to sell stuff. And if they don't tell you about stuff, they're not going to sell it.

Now, what about the flip? If you need to sell something, do you sell it at a pawn shop or where do you sell things you no longer need? If you want cash today, maybe a pawn shop is the best option. If you are willing to wait a couple of days, maybe do a Facebook marketplace, do a next door marketplace. Craigslist even is still a good place. Or if you have like a specialty item that might be something like on Poshmark or StockX or something like that. But they can be a good place to sell items. Again,

it's worth making a call first to see if they're even buying that item. So one other one, what do you do when you get to the grocery store?

Well, I immediately go to the baked goods because I want all of the pastries. But what I really do is grab a cart and I start on the right side of the store and I work my way around to the left side and it ends up being counterclockwise. And if you're thinking about this, you're like, Lisa, you're crazy. But look, the next time you walk into your grocery store, the entrance is on the right side. They want you to go counterclockwise. The reason is because more people are right-handed. They want you to steer the cart with your left hand and shop with your right hand.

Instead of trying to shop creatively and risk knocking over all the canned goods on someone, what you can really just do is go clockwise around the store. Go in the same entrance as everyone. Don't be crazy. But just go backwards. Start at the opposite section and work your way around and do it the other way. You will, scientists say, you will spend $2 less on every transaction if you go clockwise.

counterclockwise instead of counterclockwise. $2 may not be worth it for you, but there may come a time when it is worth it to you. Yeah. And this is every time, right? Once you get used to walking around the grocery store clockwise, now that just becomes second nature. So yeah, it's going to be annoying the first time. And then you switch it back. Just keep switching it up. Because if you break your routine, you're not going to be mindlessly grabbing things. And that's really what it comes down to.

I also used another hack of yours this morning, which was not getting a cart. So I recently moved to a suburban town where carts fit in the aisles, unlike the ones in San Francisco where you have the mini carts. And I found, you know, you're just always putting stuff in the cart. There's unlimited room in the cart. So I was like, I'm going to grab a basket this time. Because if you just walk around the grocery store in a basket, you're not going to buy that thing you don't need because you don't have room for it. I got in and out quick. I spent half of what I normally do at the grocery store...

And so that was a great hack. I did this the other day at the hardware store where I really thought that I could get everything I needed and just hold it in my arms.

And then I got to the register and while she was ringing up my items, I was like, excuse me, I'm going to go get a cart so I can get all these things out of the store now. And I kind of failed at my own hack. This is me trying to save 10 cents ridiculously at the grocery store. I'm like, they're like, do you need a bag? And I'm like, no, I can balance my eggs on top of my flour and with some vegetables and I'll put them in my jacket pocket because I know I don't want to spend an extra 10 cents for a bag. Yeah.

I've literally filled pockets with groceries to save 10 cents, which is an embarrassing thing that I should not be doing. The one other thing that I didn't see in the book that has been a fun one, especially watching what happens when I told my parents about it, depending on the city you live in, you may have multiple different energy plans.

And so I know in San Francisco, PG&E is our gas and electric provider. And on their website, you can choose different energy plans. You can say, I want the plan that has a tiered usage. As you use more, it gets more expensive. You can use the plan that's really expensive from like 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. And they're even third parties. So there's this website called OM Connect.

And you can create an account and link it to your energy plan. And they have some relationships such that they'll send you times where if you limit your usage of energy, they'll send you money. And so it's so funny. I'm at my parents' house and they're like, everybody, everybody, it's five o'clock. We have to turn all the lights off. Unplug the fridge. Unplug this. And I'm like...

Our daughter is sleeping. I'm like, can we leave the sound machine on? And they're like, oh, I guess you can leave the sound machine on this time. But like everything else has to be off. And we're like all sitting in the dark for one hour. And at the end of the time, I'm like, what did we save? And she's like, probably $7. And I'm like, well, maybe on the one family getaway where we come visit you, we could just not worry about the $7. But a lot of times they're not even home.

Or they're going to go sit on the patio and enjoy a glass of wine on the patio. And you could just turn the power off in the house. You can turn your fridge off. And so I think they've probably saved a few hundred dollars in the last year doing this. And they're loving it. That is amazing. And it taps into our sense of how much we love games, right? We always want to win. And we always want to win the game. And so when they're like, ultra.

oh, turn everything off. We're about to win. We're about to save some money. And then they look at their granddaughter and they're like, how much do we love her? Ah, she can stay. But we still want to win the game. We did this in San Francisco before we got an electric car, which ruins the whole thing because you can't be on the electric car plan and the game plan. So unless you have an electric car, get on the game plan and make saving money fun at home in the dark.

And maybe if you work from home full time, maybe this doesn't work right for you because you'll be like, oh, I can't get on that conference call. I must turn off my computer now and unplug it. Goodbye.

I'm trying to imagine that work call. It's like, yeah, four o'clock doesn't work. That's the hour I have to have my electricity off. They're like, where do you live? And you're like, California. Yeah, I live in a city. I just get paid seven dollars. So your mileage may vary on that one, but I do want to check it out. Yeah. OM Connect. I don't know if it works in every city, but it is pretty cool.

So we're spending a lot of time on spending and savings, which I think is really like the bulk of a lot of the hacks that I talk about with people. But there's some really good ones in the next section. So I don't want to miss out in getting debt free, which I know is something that you talk a lot about personally in the book. There are a few things in here that I think you have to hit on because I was blown away. Asking your landlord for rent. I've never even heard of this. And I know a lot of people start out with no credit. Can you talk about how to do that?

Yeah. Your rent is typically something that's not reported to the credit bureaus who calculate your credit score. So usually your credit score is made up of your debts and maybe you don't have any debts, but you're just, you know, starting to build your financial, you know, your financial foundation. You don't have any credit accounts yet. And like, how do you show that you're trustworthy with money? Right.

you can actually ask your landlord to report your rent to these different agencies. And a lot of them work as a pass-through for your rent. So they sort of confirm that like, okay, this person has paid their rent and they will report for you to the credit bureaus that you are paying your rent on time. And by having this account with this, uh,

company that will monitor your rent payments, they'll report it to the credit bureaus and then it gets added to your credit score. And so you can really start building your credit profile by doing the thing that you already do every month, which is pay your rent. You're going to do that no matter what in most cases, right? So...

If you can have it add to that picture of your financial health, all the better for it. The only caveat here is that if you feel like you might be in, you know, sort of a chancy housing situation, you know, for a couple of months, or there might've been a couple of months where you're late by a couple of days on rent, this may not be the best thing for you because, you know, the negative marks also show. So you want to make sure that you have a really healthy history at paying this very important bill before you add the extra step of requesting to have it

added to your credit report. Yeah. There is no shortage of information about how bad soda can be, but I love a good sparkling beverage, which is why I'm so excited to share a new favorite of mine with you, Dram, which I have loved so much that I reached out to see if they wanted to be a sponsor and I'm excited they're a partner today.

Dram is unlike anything you've ever had. Imagine a drink that's zero calories, zero sugar, but tastes incredible because it's packed full of ingredients made from real plants, not natural flavoring, which can sometimes mean synthetic chemical flavoring also.

They have some amazing unique flavors like cardamom black tea, which I love, not just because it tastes good, but it's also pretty good for cardiovascular health. Their citrus is crafted from orange blossoms and fresh citrus peels and tastes delicious. But my favorite is the mushroom cola. It's inspired by historic medicinal cola syrups, but it's made with adaptogenic mushrooms like chaga, lion's mane, shiitake, and cordyceps.

but you don't even taste the mushrooms. It tastes just like cola. It really is amazing. Lastly, I love that their cans are BPA-free and that their water is tested for PFAS, so it has none of those terrible forever chemicals. You've got to give Dram a try, and if you go to allthehacks.com,

And enjoy DRAM.

This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Every year, our kids are getting older and it feels like some things are getting easier. They start to communicate better, then they're a bit more self-sufficient, but then you get to new hard things like teaching your kids about money. Now, I don't think our kids will really know how to manage their money until they're actually in charge of it. And that's where a product I love, Greenlight, can help.

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Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to greenlight.com slash allthehacks. That's greenlight.com slash allthehacks to try Greenlight for free. greenlight.com slash allthehacks.

I just want to thank you quick for listening to and supporting the show. Your support is what keeps this show going. To get all of the URLs, codes, deals, and discounts from our partners, you can go to allthehacks.com slash deals. So please consider supporting those who support us. And then a thing that I've been doing for a while, and it makes me so sad when I hear people not know about it,

was your hack 107. So if you're asking your landlord to report your rent, often that's to help boost your credit. But if you don't know what your credit is, a lot of people I know use Credit Karma and they go get a credit score

But that's not the same credit score that gets pulled when you buy a car or when you buy a house. They're pulling your FICO score. And it turns out that you can get your FICO score for free if you have a bank account, a lot of institutions. And so Hack 107, can you share a little more?

Yeah, always look for opportunities to get your free FIGO score. It's something where if you're paying out of pocket, it costs maybe $30 to access your score like in this current date and time, right? It's something that can change a lot. So you can look it up once, but that's not going to guarantee that it's not going to change tomorrow, right? But...

The services like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame, they show your Vantage score, which is good. It helps you get a picture of your financial health, but it is not the one that lenders use, like Chris said. So I'll give you an example from my own life. I have accounts with Bank of America. I have a MasterCard credit card. I have a Visa credit card. And all three of those give me the opportunity when I log into my online account to click and look at my FICO score today.

based on my activity that they've pulled. And it's a service that they provide to their customers, sort of like an added benefit. So I can, you know, while I'm doing my normal checks of my finances and my usual accounts, I can check in on that FICO score and know that that's the one that if I wanted to buy a car today or if I wanted to apply for a mortgage today,

You know, I would have a really good idea of what my quote-unquote official credit score is because the FICO one is used so much more by lenders. And remember, it's free. Do not pay for your credit score. Just know where to look. And you're probably already using an account that provides this service. Yeah. I got mine for years from Wells Fargo for free. So there's so many companies that offer this. Okay. There's one hack in this section. I don't know why it's in this section, but hack 125 about getting your missing money is...

Oh my gosh, this is my favorite of all time. So I'm going to start backwards. I'm going to tell you why claiming you're missing money is in the section about paying off debt. Because in theory, if you find money, if you get a windfall, you can put it towards your debt and pay it off faster. That is the ideal situation when you have any sort of spare cash. That's why it ended up in this chapter.

But the more fun part is finding the money. If you like treasure hunts, if you like anything related to like the thrill of the hunt, this is the one for you. Every state has a repository where money goes when they can't get it to you. It might be companies that you made a deposit with and they couldn't get it back to you like a utility deposit or a last paycheck.

from an employer or even I had a refund from CVS, from the CVS pharmacy that they couldn't get back to me in some way. They'd mailed a check to an address that I wasn't at anymore. And years later, I found it in Washington, D.C.'s unclaimed money fund, my refunds from CVS. So all this money is there. It is a matter of you investing

figuring out whether you're owed any. So it's up to you to look yourself up in your state directory or any state you may have previously lived in. Don't forget those. And then if your name pops up, you might not know how much you're getting, but it'll show you who owes you money. And you can withdraw that. You have to verify your identity by taking a couple of steps, but you'll get

a check in the mail or a PayPal deposit in some cases for this money that just could never make its way to you that you're owed. So my recent example is that I got refunds from CVS. I got like $11 total. It wasn't very exciting, but I have a friend who told her parents about this and they went on New York state's program and found some like old stocks that, uh,

her dad's workplace, you know, had given him or he'd gotten through the retirement plan there. And for some reason they got lost in the system or whatnot, but they were worth $3,500. And so when he got the check for $3,500, they were able to plan a trip to Italy, you know, with this like basis of like this money that they have had no idea existed. So,

Like I said before, if you find this money, you could take $3,500 and put it on your debt and pay it off that much faster. Or you could go to Italy. It's up to you. This goes back to the game idea. This feels like a game. When I go on these websites, I'm like, I'm on a treasure hunt. I feel like there is money to find and I want it. If it's $10, the satisfaction of getting $10 that someone owes me that they never gave me is probably worth even more than $10. Yeah.

But for us, we just found a $50 Delta gift card. They were like, you had a gift card. You never used it. Do you still want it? We're like, yeah, we want that gift card. We're going to go somewhere. Now, we're not going to go anywhere for $50, maybe like, but it'll maybe make a flight a little cheaper.

Yeah. And those little amounts can add up. I had a friend recently who was looking herself up after my $11 windfall and she's like, oh, it's like, you know, 50 bucks, but you know, it's under my maiden name and like to have that documentation, yada, yada. I got married years ago. I was like, girl, get your money. Like, why is it sitting there in the district of Columbia's bank account? Get your money, use it on snacks. Like think clearly here.

So I was trying to convince her to take the 20 minutes to pull out her marriage license and whatnot and do it because I think it's worth it. Yeah. And it's fun. There's nothing that makes you feel better than getting money that's yours that someone else has, at least for me. Finding money that I didn't have to work for is fantastic. Always the best feeling. There's this whole section that's about making more money. Some of it you do have to work for. Some of it you don't. When someone comes to you and says...

I've saved everything I can. I've spent, I've lowered my spending. I've increased my savings and I just want more money. I have some time. Maybe I don't. How can I just get more money? I feel like that's a common thing people want. How do you help people get more money? You've got to figure out how to make it. And generally you have two options. One is to figure out how to make more money at your current job or your day job or what might be your primary job.

Your other option is to start working, doing something different, maybe a side hustle, maybe something that you add on to your primary work. So it's sort of a six of one, half a dozen of the other situation because a lot of people, maybe you're capped out in your current role, so you're going to have to add somewhere else. Or maybe you don't have time to take on a side hustle, so you really need to look to your current job, right? But you have to

figure out where you can find that money. And let me tell you, if you haven't updated your resume in a while or your portfolio in a while, like here's your reminder to keep it updated because you never know when an opportunity will arise. And it's funny how annual review time will sneak up on you at work and suddenly you're thinking back and you're saying, oh, what did I do all year? What were my accomplishments? What have I done? What,

Are my reasons that someone should pay me more money for the good work I'm doing? So you have to be ready to seize those opportunities, whether it's because you can go for a promotion, you know, annual reviews are coming up and you'll be able to ask for a raise. Or if, you know, maybe you're just thinking about your skills and how you might be able to add income through a side hustle. It's good to be thinking about those accomplishments, those skills, what's on your resume, what's on your LinkedIn so that you can think smart about how to bring in more money. Yeah. And yeah,

On the side hustle category, there are a bunch in here, and I'm curious how many of them you know about or have done. So I'm going to start with, have you actually put yourself up for rent as a friend?

I have never signed up for rentafriend.com. It is a real website. It is not as salacious as it might sound. It is really like a rated G place to find people to hang out with for, you know, maybe you are making friends in a city. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You pay them for the honor of spending time together. I have never done that, but I would be willing...

Would I be willing to do it? Let's be real here. I'm kind of an introvert. Maybe I wouldn't be willing to do that. Maybe I'm just offering it for the right person out there who's listening or reading. Okay. What are some on here that you have done to make a little extra money on the side? Wait, so have you sold your junk mail?

I have not sold my junk mail, but you could sell your junk mail. There's actually a program run by a thing called SBK Center. It's a market research company and they want to know what kind of junk mail you're getting. So you bundle up all of your junk mail. I think like every month you send it to them. They give you points. Eventually you get enough points to get like a prepaid gift card. And it's like you just got paid to bring in your mail every day.

Yeah, which I'm already doing. I'm already doing. I'm just throwing it in recycling all the time. So if someone wants to pay me and if they give you a prepaid envelope and I can just put it back in the mailbox, I'm going to start doing that. One side hustle that I'm not allowed to do because of my profession, but I think is very much...

worth your time in a lot of cases is to participate in focus groups. You can get paid for your opinion on everything from snack foods to shampoo to any other product under the sun. Companies are always looking for people to test ideas on when they have products in development or they're thinking about new flavors or new colors, that sort of thing. So

You, as I say in the book, you probably can't make a living off of participating in focus groups because you're not going to be a match for all of them. Some of them will take place at times of day that may not be convenient for you, but you could make up to $200 to participate in a single focus group session. And this is just to provide your opinion. This is not like medical test groups where you might be taking like a placebo for several months and be getting paid. This is just to share your opinion on something or maybe taste

some food. So it's pretty low stakes. There are a lot of companies out there who do this. If you Google focus groups near you or near your city, just keep in mind that legitimate ones will never charge you a fee to sign up or to access opportunities. But you can make a

notable side income just by sharing your time and your opinions. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be an in-person focus group. I know at Wealthfront, I build a lot of products and we do both user testing and idea testing on platforms like Dscout is one that you can sign up and get selected to go on these...

They call them missions. And a company will show you an app and you have to try to use it out and give feedback on how it's working. User testing is one that we've used. So you could do this from home. You could do this on online products. And I get a ton of value from talking to people about how they feel about our products. And we pay for that. Yeah. No matter how much thought or effort you put into something you're working on at your company...

You don't really know how good it is until you put it in front of real people and have them like try to break it, right? Or tell you how they really feel about it. And so it's really important for people to be willing to do these kinds of tasks. And if there's a monetary reward for you, like all the better for it. Yeah. Okay. Let's combine the last two sections, planning for the future and protecting your money and do a fast round greatest hits. What are your favorites here?

Okay, one of my favorites is don't watch the stock market. It is really tempting. But if you're someone who has really...

really simple investments. Maybe you have things in index funds. If you're doing that kind of thing, you do not need to be looking at how Tesla did yesterday. Okay? That is not something that is going to help your financial goals. Don't worry about it. If people are freaking out about the stock market, don't worry about it. I think Chris will tell you that the return tends to be like 7% a year or

On average. I would never make any promises about what the return would be. This is true. Historically, you could probably say historically, the stock market tends to grow over the long term. If you are investing for the long term, stop looking at the stock market. It's going to stress you out. That's just a tip from me to you. It's in the book too, but it's also...

from me to you. Just just another quick tip that like came up in my life recently. Don't click on text messages that say they're from your bank. Those are not real. Those are a good way to lose money and have your identity stolen. And then that's going to open up a whole financial can of worms for you. There's a whole bunch of friends and I recently got text messages that said they had some like, like, do this to, you know, like confirm your account or whatever. And

And we realized pretty quickly that somebody was trying to scam us into giving away our information. So if your bank, your credit card, your mortgage, if any financial account sends you a text message and they want you to do something or click on something, don't do it because it's

Financial institutions don't do that. They don't contact you that way. So just like keep your guard up when you're flipping around in your phone and you're getting text messages in. Do not let your guard down and start clicking on things because you want to be efficient and you want to like answer the request that obviously your bank has. No, they don't have a request that they're sending you that way. If you're really nervous, like call them and be like, hi, are there any alerts on my account? I got a weird text message and they'll probably tell you that it's a scam. So just remember to have your guard up.

Yeah, totally. Anytime I get a message, if it's not a six-digit number that I asked to be sent to me so I could log in, I'm not paying attention. And speaking of six-digit numbers...

I think at this day and age, if you haven't added two-factor authentication to all of your financial accounts, I prefer the method of adding to Google Authenticator or something that's not a text message just because people can... If someone gets your phone, if someone gets your phone number, if someone convinces Verizon to change your number, which has been known to happen, then... Or you drop your phone in a puddle and can't...

Can't get the code for the next seven days? Been there. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a big fan. And this is actually probably... It's a short-term non-money hack, long-term money hack. So I use 1Password. You can store all of your authentication in there. So my six-digit codes that come up when I log into my bank, those are stored there. I drop my phone. They're online. I remember my 1Password and that's it. And I even have a security recovery key version of it in an envelope in a safe.

that if something ever happens, my wife knows where to find it. And so I use that. It actually costs money. I tend to like to pay for things that make my life better and not pay for things that don't. And in this case, I'm happy to pay for that service. Yeah. That's one of the things that I pay for too, because it just gives me peace of mind to know that there are backups to the backups. And it's not just scraps of paper that... I used to tape under my desk. I used to write my password on a post-it note and tape it under my desk and...

Thank God I grew up from that point in my life where I thought that I could just manage my life that way. But like you said, a lot of these things that we talk about when it comes to managing your money, they're not sexy and they're not something that will directly help you make or save money, but they're going to help your overall financial health or just like your mindset about your finances. And I think that's so important to remember because you can get caught up in trying to hack every hack.

But if you're thinking holistically about just sort of like having that healthy path for yourself and your money, that's going to take you the furthest. Yeah, that makes sense. So I have a totally off the wall question. Was there a hack that you liked that the publisher wouldn't let you put in the book? No, but there was one that I thought they weren't going to let me put in there. It is hack number 78, which says stop buying books. I was like, she's never going to let me keep this in. I need to sell books. But

And especially during the pandemic, this has become a lifesaver to be able to borrow books, including electronic books, instead of buying each and every title new. I just tore through books during the pandemic. So this is one that really came in handy. So there are a couple of different ways. There's the Library Extension app, libraryextension.com. It's a browser that you can add to Chrome and Firefox. And when a book is available at your local library and you are searching for books on like a bookstore on the internet,

It will tell you that your library has it and it will prompt you to be like, do you want to put this book on hold instead of spending $21.95 for it?

So that's genius. I'm also a fan of the Libby app to check out ebooks from your library. You can also check out magazines from your library and electronic versions that are nice to read on the iPad, right? So I am someone who loves to buy books, but really does not need to buy that many more books. So it's funny that I'm here to promote my book that I wrote and hope that people buy it. But I'm sharing this like secret hack with you that's like stop buying books. But they let me keep

let me keep that in. It made it in. It's on page 78. So we've gone through a bunch of hacks. Obviously, if someone wants more hacks, there are so many in the book. Are there ones that you're just like, wait, wait, wait, there's one more. I have to say this. Hack 89 is called try every weird tip once. And this is the one that I want to like leave you with because I

When you see a book that has more than 250 hacks, you might think to yourself, I'm going to try all of them. I'm going to be so good at this. I'm going to make them all work for me. If I apply them all, life would be great. But no, you will get overwhelmed and it's not going to be fun anymore. And you're just going to become a crumbling mess of hacks. So what this specific hack recommends is try every weird thing you read once. Just give it a shot.

And if it doesn't work for you, leave it be, abandon it and do not feel bad because you tried it. So if you think a frugal blog or a book that's telling you about the frugal lifestyle is like a little too frugal and like maybe you don't want to wash your tinfoil to get two or three uses out of it, you don't have to do that. You can choose what works for your financial lifestyle and your day to day. So if

embrace the weird find what works for you if there are things in either this book or other places that you know you're listening or reading and they just seem a little bit off the wall just remember you only have to take what you like or take what works for you and leave the rest you know those other tips might be for someone else and don't get bogged down by this feeling that you have to be an overachiever and try them all you can just find a couple that really work for you and just embrace them

Yeah, I think this is my whole purpose behind this show and all the hacks is trying to find them all. It's not to do them all. It's to find them all. And then you can decide which ones make sense for you. So yeah, this was fantastic. If you're listening and you want all the hacks about money, you can buy Lisa's book. It's incredible. Where else can people find you online?

So you can find me at LisaRowan.com. That is my website. It also has a link to buy the book if you, you know, are looking for an easy route. I'm also everywhere on the internet at Lisa Tella, which probably, I mean, you can find me on Peloton. You can find me on Twitter. You can find me on pretty much any platform except for fanfiction.net. I deleted that account, but find me on the internet at Lisa Tella. I'm always happy to meet new people on any platform.

Awesome. Thank you for being here. And I'm excited to do this again in the future once I've collected even more hacks to share. Yes. Thanks for hanging with me and letting me share some of my favorites. And I learned a couple of things too. Awesome.

That was amazing. Thank you so much for listening. All of the show notes are at allthehacks.com. I wish we could have gotten through more of Lisa's money hacks because some of the ones we missed really are great, but I'll try to include them in a future episode. Also, thank you so much for all the listener support you've given me over email and Twitter. It has been fantastic. If you have any ideas for ways to build out this community or want to share your favorite hacks, you can

You can find me at chris at allthehacks.com or at Hutchins on Twitter. Finally, if you're enjoying the show, please consider sharing it with your network or leaving a rating and review in the podcast app. That's all for today. See you next time.