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r/mildlyinteresting

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I'm a massive savings nerd. Here are the stupidest money mistakes I see people make.

1. Overpaying for car insurance

The average American saves a whopping $410+ a YEAR when they switch auto insurance carriers (sometimes significantly more than that: I saved $1300 this year).

The reason: some carriers offer discount prices to new customers when they switch.

Take 30 seconds and go to a 3rd party comparison site (Coverage.com and Auto-Savings.com are both fine) to see if you can find cheaper rates. You’ll likely save yourself a bunch of money.

Some people suggest switching every 6 months, that's a little bit overkill imo. Once a year should be fine.

2. Overpaying when you shop online

Big stores like Amazon know that no one has time to price shop through dozens of sites, so there’s often no incentive for them to offer bargain prices.

I typically hate browser extensions with a fiery passion, but Capital One Shopping has always worked well for me and I'd recommend trying it (link here).

When you shop online (on Amazon or elsewhere) it will automatically compare prices for you, and auto-apply coupon codes when possible.

3. Dealing with debt on your own

If you’ve got $10k+ in unsecured debt (think credit cards, medical bills, etc), you can ask a debt relief company to come in and negotiate it for you. You typically will save around 23% on average (after their fees).

Here’s a link to a savings calculator from National Debt Relief's website if you want to see how much you could save: link here.

4. Not having a financial advisor.

You know why so many rich people have financial advisors? It isn't because they're better at picking stocks (spoiler alert: they're not)

It's because a good financial advisor will help you with all of the bizarro tax implications you never would have thought of. People with financial advisors end up making ~3% more/year thanks to better tax planning.

If you don't know an advisor personally, use a 3rd party comparison site to find somebody with good reviews (WiserAdvisor is solid).

5. Using normal, low-interest savings accounts

I'm always shocked at the number of people still using garbage savings accounts that pay 0.5% (or less) a year. There are literally hundreds of banks that will pay you 8x that, usually 10x that rate

Here's a link to a bunch of options.

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There are tons of other things (obviously) but these are the ones that I see the most. Hope that helps.