Category Archives: Financial Independence

February 6, 2017

By Bobbi Rebell

NEW YORK (Reuters) The Bank of Mom & Dad is busy these days.

Millennials with kids of their own say they received $11,011 in financial support or unpaid labor, on average, from their parents in the past year, according to a recent study by TD Ameritrade.

All told, that adds up to $253 billion worth of financial assistance.

David Lynch, managing director and head of branches for TD Ameritrade, says the generation of young adults aged 18 to 34 faces a different set of financial challenges most notably, sizeable student loans and stagnant wages.

In other words, these are hardly slackers with their hands out looking for a free ride. In fact, millennial parents tend to view parental support as a tool toward their financial independence and not a way to delay adult financial responsibilities.

In fact, 56 percent of millennial parents are grateful for the financial help, according to TD Ameritrades research, although a quarter say they feel embarrassed for the handout.

Chelsea and Kirk Johnson of Lehi, Utah, consider themselves financially independent, yet they borrowed $5,000 from Kirks parents for a down payment for a new home.

Chelsea, 26, estimates that they are subsidized by about $7,000 annually from their parents, including babysitting, various family meals and a trip to Disneyland.

But they have also drawn up a contract to re-pay the money for the down payment, so that it can be used for Kirks five siblings, as needed.

John Tarnoff, author of Boomer Re-invention: How to Create Your Dream Career After 50, is not surprised that millennials are leaning on their parents to get launched.

As long as grandparents are in sound financial shape for their own retirement, Tarnoff noted they can be in a great position to support millennial offspring.

His advice is to take unexpected occurrences into account, including losing a job early or a debilitating health-related event. The older generation may be in a bit of denial about their own needs, Tarnoff added.

In addition, be sure to be using the money you gift or lend as a teaching tool so that the younger generation stays on a path to independence.

That opinion is shared by Kirks mom, April Johnson, who sees any financial support she gives her children as an investment in their future.

Sometimes it just takes another year or two to get over the hump, April said. We talk to them about it as we go.

(Editing by Lauren Young and G Crosse)

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Millennial parents still like to tap the Bank of Mom & Dad - One America News Network (press release)

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

By Bobbi Rebell

NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The Bank of Mom & Dad is busy these days.

Millennials with kids of their own say they received $11,011 in financial support or unpaid labor, on average, from their parents in the past year, according to a recent study by TD Ameritrade.

All told, that adds up to $253 billion worth of financial assistance.

David Lynch, managing director and head of branches for TD Ameritrade, says the generation of young adults aged 18 to 34 faces a different set of financial challenges - most notably, sizeable student loans and stagnant wages.

In other words, these are hardly slackers with their hands out looking for a free ride. In fact, millennial parents tend to view parental support as a tool toward their financial independence - and not a way to delay adult financial responsibilities.

In fact, 56 percent of millennial parents are grateful for the financial help, according to TD Ameritrade's research, although a quarter say they feel embarrassed for the handout.

Chelsea and Kirk Johnson of Lehi, Utah, consider themselves financially independent, yet they borrowed $5,000 from Kirk's parents for a down payment for a new home.

Chelsea, 26, estimates that they are subsidized by about $7,000 annually from their parents, including babysitting, various family meals and a trip to Disneyland.

But they have also drawn up a contract to re-pay the money for the down payment, so that it can be used for Kirk's five siblings, as needed.

John Tarnoff, author of "Boomer Re-invention: How to Create Your Dream Career After 50," is not surprised that millennials are leaning on their parents to get "launched."

As long as grandparents are in sound financial shape for their own retirement, Tarnoff noted they can be in a great position to support millennial offspring.

His advice is to take unexpected occurrences into account, including losing a job early or a debilitating health-related event. The older generation may be in a bit of denial about their own needs, Tarnoff added.

In addition, be sure to be using the money you gift or lend as a teaching tool so that the younger generation stays on a path to independence.

That opinion is shared by Kirk's mom, April Johnson, who sees any financial support she gives her children as an investment in their future.

"Sometimes it just takes another year or two to get over the hump," April said. "We talk to them about it as we go." (Editing by Lauren Young and G Crosse)

Continued here:

COLUMN-Millennial parents still like to tap the Bank of Mom & Dad - Thomson Reuters Foundation

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Financial Independence Academy - Sign Up Today!

If you make $1 million a year from a job, you could lose your job any day. If you make the same $1 million from owning hotels, or businesses, no one can take that from you. Having a high income alone does not mean financial independence.. Robin Bartholick, Getty Images

Most people believe the key to wealth is a high-paying job. Yes, it's easier to amass assets if you have more money coming in each month, but the true secret to increasing your net worth is to spend less than you make. It is a cliche; but it is the fundamental, absolute, non-negotiable reality of money. To escape this trap, you need to understand that income is not wealth.

What is wealth? My personal definition: Wealth is the part of your net worth (assets minus liabilities) that generates capital gains, income, and dividends without your labor. If you are a Doctor or Lawyer, you need to put in long hours after years of specialty training and higher education to get a paycheck. On the other hand, if you have a portfolio of private businesses, car washes, parking garages, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, patents, trademarks, and other cash generators, you could sit by the pool. The real value, of course, is that you could maintain your lifestyle even if you were disabled or unable to continue working at your primary occupation. Better yet, unlike a salaried employee, wealth can't fire you you have to squander it. It's far easier to lose a job that wipes out a well-constructed portfolio.

The level of your wealth should be measured by the length of time you could maintain your standard of living without an additional paycheck. In other words, if you had to stop working right now, how long could you keep up your purchasing pattern for cars, clothing, music lessons, college tuition, video games, etc.? The average person isn't educated in this truth, which is why the more and more they earn, they are left wondering why financial independence and security continue to allude them, always seemingly just out of grasp.

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8 Secrets to Achieving Financial Independence

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FMO & IMO | Financial Independence Group, Inc

What are you investing for?

Why are you working so hard to save money, put it into special accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs, and figure out how to split it up between stocks, bonds and other investments youve never actually touched or even seen with your own eyes?

Whats your end game? What are you really trying to do here?

The party line is that youre saving for retirement. You know, that thing you get to do in your 60s after youve kept a stable job for 40+ years and finally have enough money to abruptly quit and enjoy your golden years.

But heres the truth: thats an old school way of thinking. The game is changing, and its opening up a whole new set of possibilities for people who are willing to think a little bit differently.

The big problem with the idea of retirement is that it forces you into a box. Not only does it assume that everyone should live their lives along the same linear path, but it assumes that you have to wait 30 or 40 years before you have the freedom to make your own choices about how tolive your life.

I dont know about you, but I dont want to wait. I want to start living my life on my own terms a whole lot sooner than that.

So when it comes to my personal financial plan, I no longer have a retirement goal. And when I work with clients, I try to take the focus off retirement as well.

Instead, Im turning the focus towards financial independence.

Heres what financial independence means to me: the point at which youre free to make decisions based on what makes you happy instead of what makes you money.

In other words, its the point at which youve savedenough moneythat youre no longer beholden to the next paycheck. Youre free to spend your days in the pursuit of happiness and fulfillment, whatever that means to you.

From a purely financial standpoint, the idea of financial independence is not all that dissimilar from the idea of retirement. They both require you to have enough saved up so that youno longer have to work for money.

But from a psychological standpoint, there are some key differences that open up a world of possibility.

While financial independence frees you from a dependence on income, it doesnt assume that you stop working. After all, work done in support of a mission you believe in is one of the most fulfilling ways you can spend your time.

I say that from personal experience. While Im not going to sit here and tell you that running this business is all rainbows and sunshine, I can very honestly say that I would still be doing it even if I won the lottery tomorrow and no longer needed the income. I love what Im doing and have no desire to stop.

Financial independence supports your quest to find fulfilling work you believe in, rather than forcing you to wait for the day you get to quit a job you hate.

Retirement is absolute. Youre either working or youre not. Simple as that.

Financial independence has degrees, and those degrees give you options.

The end goal of financial independence is to eventually have enough money that you never have to work again. Not that you will necessarily stop working (see above), but you have the option to stop if you so choose.

But financial independence can also simply mean having enough money to temporarily give up income in pursuit of something you care about.

Speaking from personal experience again, this is exactly what allowed me to start this business instead of finding a job. Our savings gave us the option to go an extended period of time without an income, which gave me the time to build my practice from scratch. We werent fully financially independent, meaning I would haveto start making money eventually, but we were independent enoughto allow that to take some time.

This is why I talk about financial security being the foundation of financial freedom. When you remove your reliance on the next payday, you have so many more options available to you.

That little nugget comes from this short interview with Steve Jobs, and to me it completely captures the entire mindset shift that happens when you fully embrace the idea of financial independence.

When you stop working towards retirement and start working towards financial independence, all of a sudden the entire world opens up to you. Its no longer about reaching the same end point that everyone else reaches. Now its about dreaming up whatever kind of life you want and starting to working towards it.

I would encourage you to Google financial independence retire early and just start clicking. Youll find all kinds of stories about people who have reached financial independence at all different ages and are doing all kinds of interesting things with their lives.

Theres Jim Collins, who has continually used his F-you money to chase varied interests, ensuring that his days arealways spent doing something he enjoys.

Theres Brandon Sutherland, who figured out how to take advantage of pretty much every loophole in our tax code to quit his job and travel the world with his wife.

And then theres the infamousMr. Money Mustache, who reached financial independence at 30 and now spends his days writing, building houses, and teaching advanced math at his sons school.

The point is this: you have OPTIONS. There are no rules. You get to decide what you want out of life.

The rest is simply a matter of using the financial opportunities available to you to make that life a reality.

Take a minute to think about that question right above. Or take a few minutes, or an hour or more if you would like.

Youranswer to that question is the key to your financial success.

You dont have to wait until youre old and gray to start living a life you enjoy. You can use your money to buy your freedom a whole lot sooner than that if you want.

All it takes is alittle change in mindset.

Let talk about it in the comments: whats the first change you would make if you no longer dependedon your next paycheck?

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Financial Independence: The New and Improved Retirement

(Next Avenue is republishing this 2014 blog post, timed to July 4th.)

As the 4th of July nears, what better time to talk about a few ways that could help people in their 50s or 60s declare their financial independence within the next few years?

You may have noticed that the goal of financial independence and its close cousin financial freedom seem to be replacing the traditional goal of retirement.

Freedom and freedom money really resonate a lot more than retirement when we do focus groups, said Chris Brown, a partner at the Hearts & Wallets financial services market research firm.

Its not just about investing. Its about your life priorities and connecting your life to your finances to help enable those things.

David Tyrie, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

MorePlan for Financial Independence, Not Retirement

The financial advisory industry is onto this, too. Merrill Lynch, for example, has announced a holistic approach for clients, known as Clear. Its not just about investing. Its about your life priorities and connecting your life to your finances to help enable those things, David Tyrie, head of Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told me.

Some smaller financial advisory firms say theyve been doing this kind of client counseling for years. We believe its the right way to manage money, said Dave Richmond, a founding partner at Richmond Brothers in Jackson, Mich.

A guy who knows a lot about financial independence and just began living it is financial writer and editor Jonathan Chevreau. I relayed his advice last year when Chevreau was the editor of Canadas MoneySense magazine (the northern version of our Money) and had just published the U.S. edition of Findependence Day, a fictional finance novel.

But on May 20, 2014, a month after his 61st birthday, Chevreau left his magazine job and declared his own financial independence.

MorePlotting Your Next Move for Unretirement

Although hes now blogging twice a week for MoneySense (contracting back 40 percent of what I was paid as a salaried employee), Chevreau is otherwise taking the summer off to watch the World Cup, travel to Turkey and read books on semi-retirement. After that, he intends to work when he wants and only as much as he wants, writing fiction and nonfiction and taking on speaking engagements.

Its experimental, Chevreau said. Im learning as I go.

In truth, he noted, his financial independence timing wasnt particularly mine. But it was pretty close. I wouldve preferred to go another year, he said.

Now that hes living the goal he novelized, I asked Chevreau whether hed amend any of the five rules his book laid out on achieving financial independence:

1. Pay off your home in full.

2. Find multiple sources of income for retirement.

3. Develop guerilla frugality habits.

4. Save 20 percent of your gross income.

5. Invest with a Lazy ETF portfolio selecting, say, three Exchange Traded Funds (a U.S. stock fund, an international stock fund and a U.S. bond fund) and holding onto them, rebalancing as needed.

Chevreau said he is not only sticking by them, hes been living them, with a strong debt aversion and an allergy to excessive spending. He just sold his old Volvo and bought for cash a two-year old Camry Hybrid. Its gas mileage is three times better than the Volvos, said Chevreau.

Now that hes not employed full-time, Chevreau said hes an even bigger fan of the Easy ETF portfolio.

When I was working full-time, I was constantly checking financial websites and listening to stock-oriented podcasts from The Motley Fool or Jim Cramer, he noted. Now, Id prefer to have the Easy ETF portfolio in this phase of my life and not have the anxiety of individual stocks going up and down.

If youd like free electronic help to achieve financial independence, I have two suggestions:

Freedom$. This is a nifty iPhone app from the Hearts & Wallets folks. (You can find it in the iTunes store or at GoFreedommoney.com.)

Freedom$ lets you see how youre doing compared to others your age. More important, it quickly shows you how much sooner youll achieve financial freedom by adopting any, or all, of the 10 financial behaviors of the most successful people in the annual survey of households the firm has conducted (20,000 have been surveyed over four years).

You start by just entering your age, your total assets and your total consumer debt (other than your mortgage). Then, Freedom$ calculates your Assets to Income Ratio. The goal: to become what Freedom$ calls a 10-timer, where your assets equal 10 times your income.

Next, you get a Freedom Score: an estimate of how many years until youll achieve financial freedom. This number that will shrink if you take on the good behaviors and get extra points for doing so. For example, Freedom$ says, try to save in a burst by turbocharging the amount youre putting away, something that could be easier once youre no longer paying for your kids college education.

Burst saving is three times more common among 10-Timers 64 percent of them did it making it one of the most important differences between 10-Timers and others, said Brown.

The whole process should take about 30 minutes, longer if you want to give yourself electronic reminders to take actions thatll help you find financial freedom sooner.

FlexScore is an excellent, free site to help you with day-to-day money management. I wrote about it last fall.

Like Freedom$, FlexScore also calculates a score for you and shows you how to raise the number. Since I first talked about FlexScore, the company has now also created FlexScore Pro, a version financial advisers can use with their clients.

Have a safe and happy 4th and heres hoping you achieve financial independence when you want.

Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.

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How to Declare Your Financial Independence - Next Avenue

I want to let you in on a dirty little secret about prepping: it aint cheap!

Once you get through your Oh, crap! moment, youre going to do the same thing I did. Youll realize that theres a whole lot of action you need to take and a fair amount of things you need to acquire. A lot of these actions and acquisitions require money money you might not have right now. So, what are you going to do to get started?

Go into debt?

Buy it on credit cards?

WRONG!

Youre going to do the first thing I did sit down and make a plan to get out of debt. If you do nothing else described in this series, youll benefit immensely just by getting out of debt and creating financial independence for your family. Not being handcuffed by the credit card companies and banks will make you breath easier and sleep sounder.

Your first thought might be why should I get my checkbook in shape before I stock up on beans, bullets or band-aids? The answer is simple: without a solid financial backing, you cant buy anything. Putting yourself into debt just to be prepared is detrimental to your cause. You can have all the food store, medical supplies and firearms you can handle, but youll be up a creek without a paddle if spend all your money on preps and cant afford to pay your mortgage or rent.

The first thing I recommend doing to start getting your finances in order is nothing.

Sound counter-intuitive? It is.

Youre not going to change your spending habits, youre not going to change your income, youre not going to change your monthly bills. Youre simply going to track your incomes and expenses for the next three months. Tracking this information lets you find out where your money is coming from and where its going.

There are a ton of different ways to track your money.

Some people like the old school method of pencil and paper. And that process works just fine. Write down dates and transactions incomes and outcomes. At the end of the month, add them up.

Other people, myself included, prefer a slightly more technologically advanced approach.There are many software applications (both freeware and paid) that allow you to track your expenses. We have been using the freeware software Microsoft Money Plus. Yes, its Microsoft, but it does a great job of providing a clean interface that allow us to easily track my money. In addition, it allows us to run monthly reports. Plus its free thats a bonus for this endeavor! You can find it, along with a handful of other free finance tracking software suites, on this site.

Now you need to take an honest look at the results of your financial tracking.Im going to warn you right now this next step isnt going to be comfortable.

We spent three months tracking my financial transactions every paycheck, Dunkin Donut stop and fill up at the gas station. After three months, we was able to generate three monthly reports and get a pretty good snapshot of how we spend our money.

At this point, we could see where we needed to tighten the belt a little. One of our big findings was that we were eating out ALOT! Those $5 breakfasts, lunch runs and were too tired to cook dinners were catching up to us. We had a couple of other areas we were unknowingly spending a lot of money.

The next step is to tighten up in your overspending areas. This step will be uncomfortable. Not going out to eat as much as we used to sucked. For instance, I personally felt like I was losing a social aspect of work. Likewise, we felt we worked hard during the week and deserved to go out to a nice dinner on the weekends. But you know what else we found out? We found out we were able to save some money in just a few months. After tightening the belt a bit for a few months, we were starting to see our income trump our expenses for the month (youre still tracking your finances, right?).

We made a list of our debts credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc. And we also stumbled upon Dave Ramseys Debt Snowball. Spend some time reading up about this approach on your own, but the premise is this:

Pay off the smallest debt first by adding additional monthly payments while still paying your regular monthly payments to all your bills. Then you take the money you were paying monthly on the first bill and tack it onto the payments for the next smallest bill. Once that loan is paid off, you take the money you were paying on the first two loans and attack the third smallest loan with that extra monthly money. And so on, and so on. Essentially youre paying the same amount every month, but your debt starts to disappear.

Download the Debt Snowball spreadsheet from Vertex42.com

Were in the middle of this process approaching some of our bigger loans and can honestly say it works. Dave Ramsey has a pretty good approach to financial security give him a chance.

So youve paid off everything with exception of maybe your mortgage. What do you do now? First give yourself a giant slap on the back. Youve done something that most folks dont think is possible. Youve used what you have to get out of debt. You can breath easy. You can sleep sound at night. Next make yourself a promise. Promise yourself that this will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! Make smart decisions, dont finance your wants and live debt free. Now you can prep with an open mind.

Youre probably asking do I need to take care of my finances before I do any prepping?

The answer is YESand NO.

First, remember that building up your financial security is a big part of prepping, so dont overlook it. Second, realize that you can do small things on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to build up your preps. Well get into different ideas when we talk about water and food storage. Also, if you can find ways to augment your income, you can justify making a prepping fund where you can save money and put it towards prepping. This approach doesnt strictly follow Dave Ramsays advice, but I have found that allowing yourself an occasional reward does help you keep on the straight. At least for me, sometimes I need something more than seeing the monthly statements disintegrating before my eyes. Just be sure that your occasional treats dont overtake your debt reduction process.

I hope you enjoyed this first article on Prepping 101. I am happy to answer any questions in the comments section here or on Facebook. If you dont want to make your question public, you can always email me at dan AT suburbansteader.com. Keep an eye out for our next Prepping 101 article on identifying what youre doing thats working against self-sufficiency.

photo credit: psyberartist via photopin cc

A beginners guide to the prepping mindset

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Prepping 101: Financial Independence | Suburban Steader

This is a place for people who are or want to become Financially Independent (FI), which means not having to work for money.

Before proceeding further, please read the Rules & FAQ.

Financial Independence is closely related to the concept of Early Retirement/Retiring Early (RE) - quitting your job/career and pursuing other activities with your time. This subreddit deals primarily with Financial Independence, but additionally with some concepts around "RE".

At its core, FI/RE is about maximizing your savings rate (through less spending and/or higher income) to achieve FI and have the freedom to RE as fast as possible. The purpose of this subreddit is to discuss FI/RE strategies, techniques, and lifestyles no matter if you're retired or not, or how old you are.

FI/RE is about:

Discovering and achieving life goals: What would I do with my life if I didn't have to work for money?"

Simplifying and redesigning your lifestyle to reduce spending. Your wants and needs aren't written in stone, and less spending is powerful at any income level.

Working to increase your income and income streams with projects, side-gigs, and additional effort

Striving to save a large percentage (generally more than 50%) of your income to accelerate achieving FI

Investing to make your money work for you, and learning to manage/optimize those investments for the unique nature of FI/RE

Retiring Early

FI/RE is NOT about:

Gaining wealth for the purpose of excessive consumption

Taking the slow road, or the traditional road to retirement

Becoming financially independent requires hard work and a healthy attitude towards money, but also a degree of privilege. When participating on this subreddit, please be mindful of the ways in which you are lucky.

Please read the FAQ and Rules above, then feel free to share your journey or ask for advice!

Blogs

Forums

More to read

Tools

Books / Resources

Reddit resources

Closely related subs

Regional FI/RE

Regional Personal Finance

Money subs

Lifestyle (frugal) subs

The rest is here:

financial independence / early retirement - reddit

Robert Daly/Getty Images

Ever feel like gathering up your bills in protest and throwing them in the nearest harbor?

OK, maybe you don't have to be that dramatic. But you can declare war on your debt, assert your financial independence and liberate yourself from fiscal stress.

All with a minimum of fireworks. (Although a parade would be nice.)

Like anything else, financial independence means different things to different people. To some, it means having the cash to buy what they want. To others, it means saving for retirement or a home. And for some folks, it simply means opening the bills without dread.

Whatever your definition, it means you command your money and not the other way around. That's a victory worth celebrating.

Here are7 strategies to declare financial independence.

Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

It's harder to overspend when you carry cash.

"You will spend less money when you know that, when the money in your pocket's gone, you're done," says Larry Winget, author of "The Idiot Factor: The 10 Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money, and Business."

Unlike credit or debit cards, which can go over the limit or into a negative balance, "you can't slide past zero when you carry cash," he says.

"And that's how you get in trouble," Winget adds. "Plastic, when you use it, doesn't show you're out of money."

There's an upside to a full wallet. "I believe that it makes you feel more prosperous when cash is in your pocket," Winget says. "You just feel better when you have money. You never feel broke -- which is a sense of independence and power."

Chris Ryan/Getty Images

You know that card that you've been "paying off" with minimum payments every month? The one with the astronomical interest rate? Draft a plan for getting that balance to zero.

You don't have to put your savings or other obligations in jeopardy. No need to tap your entire bonus or the money you'd stashed for a vacation. You just need to throw more at it than the monthly minimum -- preferably the same amount every month.

Figure out how much you can put toward it, and use an online debt pay down calculator to give yourself a payoff date. Play around with the numbers until you find a plan that works for you. Even though it won't be paid tomorrow, you know you've stopped coasting and have taken control.

"When you make the plan, that's a big step," says Chris Farrell, economics editor of "Marketplace Money." "It doesn't look like much at first. But it's like the train that keeps getting faster and faster."

And you may want to buck common wisdom and pay off the smallest balances first, says Winget. Seeing that zero balance sooner "gives you more of a sense of power," he says.

Hero Images/Getty Images

How would you like to instantly lower your APR to zero -- and raise your credit score at the same time?

The trick is to limit new card spending to only what you can afford to pay off at the end of the month. Want to charge that $500 TV, but you can write a check for only $250? Bank that $250 for 30 days. Next month, charge that television and put a $500 check in the mail to your card issuer.

You gain the convenience of any buyer's protection (from loss, theft and breakage) that your card provides, plus the right to dispute charges if the seller does you wrong. You lose something valuable: a climbing card balance that racks up interest.

Financial freedom is "all about developing good habits," Farrell says. "And that's a really good way to develop a good habit."

Compassionate Eye Foundation/Hiep Vu/Getty Images

When your Social Security tax dropped 2 percentage points at the beginning of 2011, what did you do with the money? Chances are the answer is "nothing much."

If you're like a lot of people, that extra cash just disappeared into (and out of) your bank account, says Wayne Bogosian, president of the PFE Group in Southborough, Massachusetts, and co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to 401(k) Plans."

A better move is to take any money you're already used to living without, and consciously put it toward one of your goals, Bogosian says. "Redirect it to some higher cause. You've already learned to live without it."

This works for the car you've paid off, a rolling card balance you've zeroed out or even a raise or bonus from work, he says.

So whether your goal is a little extra in the emergency fund or an extra-special vacation this year, your "found money" is going where you put it. And you can find it when you need it later.

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Almost every budget has a little waste:

But plugging those leaks can produce a nice stream of money to redirect.

"Don't assume what you're paying today is the least expensive option," Bogosian says. Bought a life insurance policy3 or more years ago? Chances are if you shop it, you can get the same coverage for substantially less today, he says.

With some bills, "spending can outpace your needs," Winget says. They become "inadvertent money wasters." Recently, Winget looked at his phone bill and realized he was paying for more minutes than he used every month. "I wasn't aware I was spending money that I didn't need to spend," he says. "I adjusted my plan and saved $30 a month."

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Your savings can be affected by what you don't know.

Many of today's 401(k) plans have automatic enrollment. Unless you indicate otherwise, you're automatically enrolled in the company plan, Bogosian says, and the default savings strategy might not match your goals.

While having automatic deductions is a great idea, take the strategy decisions off autopilot and think about where the money is going and how it's being invested, he says.

One big decision is how much to invest. "The easiest thing to do is say, 'What will they match?'" Bogosian says. "Whatever they'll match, that's the least amount you put in."

Unsure where to put the money initially? "If you don't like target-date options, just choose a balanced fund," he says. They have "the best risk-reward trade-off."

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Your health has a huge impact on your finances.

If you're healthy, you're free to pursue interests that generate income. If you're unwell, the cost of health care can sap your savings. All of which makes good health a valuable asset to nurture, Bogosian says. "It has huge implications."

Eating healthy food, getting exercise, getting enough sleep and ditching bad habits are, literally, putting money in the bank.

Health affects insurance costs. Many "companies today have realized that the biggest reason people are not living a healthy lifestyle is because they haven't looked in the mirror," Bogosian says. Toward that end, some employers offer cash premiums every year for employees who take a quick self-assessment quiz, he says.

Is your spouse on the company insurance? If you both take the quiz, you may be able to double your payout, he says.

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