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Hey guys it’s chelsea and today i am going to be doing something very very different in fact we are about to leave the comfort of my home office for the still comfort but a different comfort of my office office because we actually did something very fun a few weeks back and we partnered with m&t bank to talk to real new york city women about how they do money no
Matter where we are in our money journey learning how to save and make the most of the financial tools we have like the right bank account is a part of everyone’s money journey so let’s get right into it and talk to some of these real new york city women about how they’re doing money what is the best piece of financial advice you’ve ever gotten don’t spend more than
You make thanks dad i think just being very aware of your finances is so important because i know so many people who just hope and pray that their card works all the time and i that i just can’t do that i would rather face the number the cold-hard number and then be able to work with what i have having that knowledge so i think just having that knowledge of where
You’re at with your finances is just good advice or everybody to pay yourself first my dad actually gave me this really awesome book called the richest man in babylon and it was written in 1926 by george claisen but it’s super relevant today because it gives these really awesome pieces of advice such as no matter how little you make always pay yourself one-tenth
Of whatever that income is and in ten years you’ll have a year’s worth of whatever that is what is the biggest money mistake you have made and why did you make it so when i moved into my first apartment by myself when i was 23 years old i have moved into a studio and i was never really educated on how to pay bills to be totally honest and so i thought that i
Had set up my monthly cable bill on autopay on my credit card and a couple months later my tv went out and i couldn’t figure out why and the little like pop up notification came up on my teeth that said call verizon or whatever company it was to pay your bill and i thought that i was paying every month and i wasn’t so my cable stopped working and then i had to
End up paying like like back pay like four months of bills my biggest money mistake was attending a private university for my first two years of college instead of going to the city university of new york which is the local public school where i could have gotten all of my prerequisite classes like writing or mathematics statistics in my case i went to a private
School which was significantly more expensive and i spent a lot more money to get some of the prerequisite classes than you do the way what is the money saving strategy you find most effective whatever you’re buying whatever you’re spending money on whether it’s 50 cents or $50,000 being present and conscious in that moment or else you just unconsciously spend
Money and then you end up not understanding where your money went at the end of the month um definitely when money is like automatically taken out of my account for me if i see all of the money at once i’m more likely to like do dumb things with it so for me if i know that i automatically get a certain amount of money deducted into my savings or into my retirement
Account that’s the best thing that’s worked for me and i just heard doing that like a year ago looking at my expenses on a daily basis i try as much as i can to keep track of all my expenses whether that be on a expenses app or actually bullet journaling so i can have some extra creativity when i’m looking at my finances because sometimes they can be really great
And sometimes they cannot be so having some color than that oh definitely couponing i can answer that one right away um i am a huge grocery store coupon er i have a t-shirt that actually bought two grocery stop at stop and shop last night i have a coupon for everything in red cart please make it mine good you know coupons yes i literally i could pull it off for
You yeah or pick another lane something like that and i quote my binder i have everything planned out i know what everything is gonna cost i know what coupons to use with it i know if the price comes up wrong i can check in with the store manager it was usually like counting cash cuz it’s late at night so has always liked it saved me so much money like last year
I saved about twenty three twenty four thousand dollars and i spent only like two thousand dollars yep you saved twenty four thousand dollars last year for at one store what do you wish your parents had taught you about money sooner spending money on yourself is not selfish i think having more honest conversations about student debt and student loans would have
Been great i think the balance between the money you spend and like the value that you get out of it so i’ll be a little more specific i think when a wife first started like shopping for myself i just like i want to read those or i want mac and cheese or i want this in that and you have to realize like that comes at a cost for example to your health so you can get
The cheapest food possible and you can survive on ramen or you can survive on mac and cheese but it’s not a perfect formula to just eat that and then like save every extra cent for you know a rainy day or for your retirement what is the smallest financial habit that has the biggest impact on your money i would say not buying like whatever like maybe i’ll walk past
This door and it’ll be like a want all everything and i’ll want to buy at every single day like saying no like i can get this at home where i get like maybe coffee it’s like the dollar seventy-five of a day but then on the long run it adds up and just like avoiding that i feel like seems money i think on the long run it’s easy to do especially in new york like
Just bet get like sucked in by those purchases you’re like it’s not really any money that’s not now we’re the course of but here it’s a lot of money yeah always repair everything that you can never buy cheap and throw out but repair your shoes repair your clothes repair your furniture learn how to do it it’s fun anyways and it’s good for your wallet unless i’m on
Vacation there’s one day a week where i spend zero dollars literally zero dollars and it’s not as hard as you would think in fact mondays and tuesdays are my gym days so i don’t feel restricted i bring lunch from home make dinner at home or have my boyfriend make me dinner what is the hardest part about saving for you not having a lot of income to put into savings
So i only work part-time and so by the time you deduct metrocards and i’m like i said this very small food budget i do try to like automatically put it into the savings account and just like not look at how slowly it’s growing so kind of being demoralized by how little i can put in and like how little the progress is but like trying to remember like to see that
It’s still climbing even though it’s not very best learning how to prioritize so where to spend your money where to save your money and also of course just living in new york having that extra money to be able to save it seems like every social engagement is centered around spending money the top three that comes to mind are stepping out to lunch with co-workers
Grabbing dinner with a friend or meeting for drinks um those are all cash flow negative and they seem to pop up constantly so instead i try to look for other money-saving activities like bringing a picnic to a park or meeting at a friend’s place and cooking dinner together or walking around a different neighborhood there’s really so many opportunities to save and
Be social at the same time out of curiosity i’m throwing this this isn’t on the list but what is a cultural difference you’ve noticed with you and your husband and you’re her husband is similar to mine a frenchman what is a interesting cultural difference you’ve noticed with money okay that’s interesting question because definitely i noticed that here we’re taught
To save because we don’t have the backing of a system where the medical bills are being paid the educational system isn’t being paid for so we’re always saving for having a kid having to go to the hospital having to get an education and he grew up i think being able to rely more on the system for being able to go to school go to the hospital if you need to and
Not having to save so vigorously like we kind of have to here ain’t that the truth so as you guys can see no matter what your money strategy whether you are someone who is all about couponing or you’re working creative digs to save for school or you’re making it work with a spouse from a totally different money culture ultimately defining your financial future is
Going to come down to being able to save and saving your money in the right place makes all the difference and when it comes to having those right tools m&t has got you covered if you’re looking to build up your emergency fund for example products like ez save will help you transfer that money automatically into your savings account so that you’re never tempted
To spend it elsewhere you can set up alerts with the mnt app to help keep you on track or use their new money smart finance tool to help track your goals create budgets and track your transactions at the end of the day mnt cares about helping every individual find the right solutions for them and as we saw with these new york women everyone’s money story is going
To be totally different but the right tools are half the battle so learn how you can get started with mnt today by clicking the link in our description and as always guys thank you for watching and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and to come back every tuesday thursday and friday for new and awesome videos bye you
Transcribed from video
6 NYC Women Share Their Financial Secrets, Tricks, And Regrets By The Financial Diet