How To Take Control Of Your Money | Sustainability and Saving Tips

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

hi hello how's it going my name is elena and welcome back to my channel so glad you're here i'm bringing you guys a little finance video which i'm excited about i wanted to talk today a bit more about how to manage and take control of your finances especially when it comes to saving setting goals and kind of have a bit more of a sustainable mindset when it comes to your finances i feel like most of us we were not taught in school how to manage our finances we weren't even taught the most basic really like financial terms like i definitely wasn't even really taught what a stock truly was or how the stock market works as an individual investor like in high school or college which is a crime in my opinion so i'm here to talk to you guys about what i've learned from my own financial journey as well as just kind of share some of the research i do to hopefully help give you guys a bit more financial literacy help you with your own finances it's so important i always say this but financial freedom is the ultimate form of just self-care and empowerment especially as women having your own bank account investing your money preparing for your future is one of the best gifts you can give yourself so i'm here to help you get on it if you're new here too i'd love if you hit the subscribe button notification bell and if you enjoyed this video it would help me a lot if you hit the like button so i have a few stats to drive home the importance of saving your money and taking control of your own finances so 69 of adult americans have less than a thousand dollars in their savings account which is crazy and a bit concerning because as i've mentioned in a lot of videos i feel like one of the first steps to taking control of your money is to have an emergency savings an emergency savings fund is usually anywhere from three to six to maybe even months of your just like basic necessity money saved away you never know what could happen so this money is like just you know pay your rent pay your bills put food on the table etc because there is a very good chance an emergency will happen where you're gonna have to dip into that maybe your car breaks down and you need to pay it off that day so that you can get your car fixed to be able to drive to work tomorrow or there could be a medical emergency lose your job et cetera having emergency savings is so important big u.s banks charged over 11.7 billion dollars in overdraft fees just in 2019 plus the average monthly maintenance speed of bank in the us is around 17 which is over 200 a year only one-third of the households are running some kind of budget which leads to average american savings less than five percent of disposable income i'm gonna be sharing some basic ideas in this on just kind of how to manage and take control of your money and just some tips on how to save a bit more because it's all about the baby steps and it's not nearly as intimidating as it might seem at the beginning so first i want to mention aspiration which is today's sponsor which i feel like is the absolute perfect fit for this video basically a digital banking alternative that helps you save money and save the planet which i love i got quite a few comments on my last investing video people kind of asking of ways to think about investing with a more sustainable mindset which is something i'm not great at but i personally am working to get better at and what's really cool about aspiration is that they were kind of founded with this idea of being more ethically minded and being really conscious of where your money goes they offer some really incredible ways to align your money with your values which i think is super unique in this video i'm kind of going to break it down into kind of three sections give or take so the first section i just want to go over some basic knowledge of kind of like how do banks work what happens to your money i want to talk about some structural thinking about ways to be more proactive when it comes to your finances and saving as well as just some general saving tips so let's dive in so first off let's talk about banks how do the bank make money banks make money through a variety of ways the first is that when you put your money into your checking account your money actually doesn't just sit there so what banks do is they take your money and they actually lend it out to other people they make interest money off this money they're lending out from customer deposits from customers like you and me but unfortunately with that you can't really control where your money's going so that means your money that's been sitting in this bank account could be going to fuel fossil fuel projects private prisons political law being et cetera i got another stat for you also fuel funding by big banks is on the rise and over 2.7 trillion has been invested since 2016.

also banks make money off fees big banks charge all kind of overdrafts fees minimum balance fees etc so that's kind of how a bank fund themselves and how they stay afloat and make a ton of money off of our individual deposits now let's talk about kind of moving and dealing with your money so obviously when your employer pays you it's usually in a check i mean maybe it's cash but it's usually in a check and you usually deposit that check into a bank the first step to taking control of your money is to put your money somewhere that you trust your bank account is kind of like your homepage your hub and from your homepage you can send it to other areas like a brokerage account into a roth ira or into other investments and things like that but this is like the first most important step with your money is putting it somewhere that you know it's safe and you can trust i know this isn't necessarily gonna be everyone's priority but i know there are quite a few of you who do try to take baby steps to live a more sustainable life and i think it's really incredible that there's digital banking alternatives like aspiration that work to not just save you money but also to help save and protect the environment let's talk about aspiration for a second here i'm so proud that there are today's sponsors i think they could be great fit for quite a few of you out there they're founded to be different they don't use any of their customer deposits for things like i mentioned earlier like the fossil fuels or oil drilling or coal mines or private prisons they're super trustworthy they are b corp certified they're member of one percent for the planet and they commit to donating 10 of all of their profits i know my deposits too are going to be fdic insured up to 2.46 million dollars when you bank with aspiration 2 you can rest easy because there are 55 000 all point atms and we have a lot of features that just help you spend your money more sustainably they have this plan for change feature where for your debit card purchases you can round up to the next dollar and then they take that money and they use it to plant trees so you're basically offsetting your carpet footprint as well which i think is super cool they have a couple different accounts they have their spend to save account which is free they do have a pay what you think is fair feature if you wish to do that and they have their aspiration plus account which is only 15 a month it has a perk like offsetting your gas purchases with a recycled ocean plastic card i know money and finances can feel really intimidating but it shouldn't signing up for something like aspiration literally just takes five minutes and once you open it up you can just start moving your money at your own pace so now let's jump into kind of like the structural thinking of what to do with your money when it comes to saving first off what's really important is setting goals by setting goals this is like the number one thing that will keep you on task and on track when you have goals for your future you're going to be so much more inspired to save i think when you just like are saving here and there with no real goal in mind it's a lot easier to just fall back into old habits of just like spending your for the hell of it instead of actually like saving towards future goals start by thinking what that goal is for you maybe it's buying real estate you know buying a house on the road maybe it's buying a car buying a really beautiful couch for your apartment saving for retirement saving for a vacation when those birthing again hopefully soon you kind of have to figure out you know how much of those things gonna cost and you're gonna work backwards from there there's also short-term and long-term goals i think it's helpful to set both a short-term goal is going to be more about planning for that vacation buying that fancy couch long-term goals are going to be more like saving for retirement saving for the down payment enough home so then you want to pick the right tools for saving based off those goals so for short-term goals you're probably going to want them to be easier to access so you might want to put them in something like a high-yield savings account the current national savings rate is point zero five percent apy or annual percentage yield which is crazy the avy basically gives you the most accurate idea of what your money in the savings account could earn in a year so for example with aspiration plus you get up to one percent apy which is over 20 times the national average so then there's other saving tools for your long-term goals let's say you want to save and invest towards your retirement you're probably going to look at something like a roth ira account or a 401k there's other securities too like stocks index funds mutual funds etfs the whole deal so these are all obviously subject to investment risks and these investment products are often dealt with through accounts with a brokered dealer the next up is budgeting which is another great way to approach your money when you're looking to save a bit more i'm gonna gloss over this fairly quick because i have talked about it previously i'll link other previous videos i've talked about down below think of budgeting as just a plan because it doesn't mean you have to quit spending all together it just means you're now prioritizing some financial goals over others or you know saving towards a goal rather than just spending your entire paycheck on fun things here and there for example one popular budgeting method is the 50 30 20 rule this basically means when you get your paycheck 50 of your paycheck is going to go towards your necessities think your rent your basic grocery bills electricity transportation the whole deal 30 of that paycheck is going to go towards want guilt-free spending go get your nails done go get your hair done and then 20 is gonna go towards savings those could be your short-term saving goals your long-term saving goals etc this is going to kind of depend on your case you know you can change things up depending on how your life looks on the things that are more important to you you can also kind of budget by recording your expenses maybe if you really need to fully revamp the way you view finances you could use something like ynab which is an app that encourages you to record every single expense as you make it and i think that's very helpful for just being a lot more mindful it's a lot more tedious so this isn't necessarily for everybody but if you really feel like your money's just slipping away and you don't know where you're spending it this helps you be super on top of it there's also things like mint which i personally really love which basically has access to your bank account and essentially sorts all of your expenses throughout the month into different categories at the end of the month you can go and you can look and see where your money was spent so i'll go and be like okay i spent this much these coffee shops and this much on ubers like maybe i should cut back in that area like oh good i didn't spend that much money eating out here like you can kind of get to figure out where your money's going in a bit more of a broad sense in different categories which i really like another way to kind of structure your money out off the bat is to set up automatic withdrawals so when your paycheck hits your bank account the bank account can do these automatic withdrawals for you let's say 20 immediately goes into savings or maybe even more 30 40 depending on what you're able to do so almost all banks offer these automated transfers between your checking and savings accounts you can choose how much when you can even split your direct deposit so a portion goes into checking portion goes into savings and aspiration plus has unlimited transfers as well if you do want to go something like aspiration splitting your direct deposit and setting up these automated reoccurring transfers is a really simple way to save because it basically does the work for you and removes all the temptation for you because it's just doing it without you having to click anything look at anything it's just sorted away for you so now i want to talk about some saving tips for you to hopefully save you some coin food safe to say is one of our top expenses i personally find it annoying that i have to eat three times a day i'm like can i just be full and ready to go i'm not a chef i like eating nice meals of course but i get annoyed with how often i have to eat and it's a depreciating asset you spent that money you never getting it back if you love food if you're trying to be a cook or a chef this could be different for you but in my case i feel like i can cut down a bit more when it comes to groceries and food i find it really helpful before i go to the grocery store to actually make a list of exactly what i need otherwise if i go and i'm hungry i for one will get a lot more than what i need and sometimes i'm like i think i need tahini and i already have like two cans of tahini in my cupboard because i didn't check before so making a list and like really checking your inventory of what you have and what you need often helps you save a lot of money when it comes down to it also compare prices store brand versus generic is super helpful coupons are super helpful obviously eating it is gonna save you a lot more money i'm not gonna say never eat out because i think eating out is really fun especially living in new york the food is so good but i do know the more i eat in the morning i'm gonna save and the better it is just across the board from my wallet my bank account will be happy a little shout out to gram staffin but obviously making a nice iced coffee at home is gonna save you some coins then drinking a latte out every day but again that's your air and your finances really like i want to get that damn latte get that latte but just a way of potentially saving your money another one when it comes to the food department is pregaming oh my goodness drinks in new york city are so damn expensive like cocktails on average in manhattan in like a trendy-ish area are literally like 15 which is insane i could get like a nice bottle of red wine for 15 but like a decent cocktail is gonna be like 15 remember one time i went to the speakeasy and it like looked like it was gonna be expensive and so i went to the bar i was like i'm just gonna get a gin and tonic i get the tab that g t was 18 i was like i hate new york i love it but i hate it so pre-gaming is a great way to go if you're going to go out on the town which doesn't really apply at the moment but in the time span this video is out we will be able to go out once again so freaking expensive especially live in a city to just be drinking out so drink your wine before take your cheap shot before do what you want to do but pre-gaming man it will save you coins another one is automatic subscriptions and memberships i think this is a really great area to kind of re-evaluate see where your money is going there's a service i recently came across called true bill which basically can help you track which subscriptions you're subscribed to because you may not remember you like accidentally subscribed to that like one magazine thing because you wanted to read that one article online and you've actually been paying for it for months or you like signed up for fabletics think you were just getting one pair of leggings and like plot twists you've been paying their like monthly subscription fee for months make sure that anytime you buy a purchase you're not auto renewing it that's just gonna add up of course there's subscriptions that are worth it i love my new york time subscription i love my spotify subscription there are some things that are great but there's others that are slowly sucking away your money and you might not even be realizing it unless you're really paying attention to your expenses also like do you really netflix hulu hbo disney plus like all of them like do we have enough time to watch all of those probably not maybe pick your top two maybe you know conspire with a friend and you guys share an account and like one pace for one and you both have logins just saying just throwing it out there little things like that they can add up you can put that money towards something else rather than paying for like 10 different movie streaming services let's talk about buying generic i love this one whenever i go to the grocery store with my dad he'd always show me like okay how to look for the generic brands to check like the ounces to the price to see like what is actually worth it if there's two similar products a lot of times it's easy to go for that nice trendy pretty label i love a good packaging design shout out to my graphic designers you guys make it look great when in reality generic brands are very often very similar when it comes down to the ingredients let's say you're getting like a face wipe you can go for the target brand or you can go for the neutrogena and one's gonna be a little bit more expensive but usually again when you look at the back of the ingredients they're almost identical this can really be the case with a lot of things think food supplies medicine some like cleaning supplies basic beauty from drugstore brands but again the generic brand is often just as good as the fancy brand another one is buying secondhand one that i love many of the pieces in my wardrobe are secondhand not only is it cheaper but it's also better for the environment which is something i want to hopefully incorporate a little bit more this can be applied to furniture clothing technology most of my camera lenses are second hand a lot of my clothing is second hand there are some times when buying new is worth it for example like my math book because of my job literally all runs through my macbook pro i was like let me get a nice macbook but maybe in your case you don't use your computer as much you can get it second hand throughout college seriously i would say 95 of my wardrobe was completely all like second hand also if you want to shop sustainably it can seem like it's going to be really expensive but it doesn't always have to be aspiration does have this conscious coalition program which offers cashback with mission aligned merchants which makes it easier cheaper to shop sustainably so a few include like lola which is a feminine care brand warby parker drops etc for example a reusable water bottle rather than buying a cheap plastic one every time better for the environment better for your wallet it's a win-win okay on that note i'm gonna wrap this video up because it's getting quite long but i hope you enjoyed i hope you found these topics helpful overall about kind of just managing your money structurally about some tips definitely check out aspiration if you think that'd be a good fit for you it's just a digital banking alternative if you are looking to be a bit more conscious with your money again if you enjoyed this video be sure to comment like subscribe the whole deal thanks so much for watching until next time bye you