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Free Wisdom, Jon the Saver reached out to some finance blogs to get their best advice on their #1 finance tip. Check out what they had to offer...
Sustainable PF- “Pay yourself first. By saving 10% in an automated matter you can save for your retirement more easily.”
My Personal Finance Journey- “My top financial tip would be for college students to open up a Roth IRA and fund it if they have a job in college or during the summer between classes so that they can take advantage of compound interest to save for retirement.”
College Investor- ”Start investing your income from your first job to get ahead. The power of compounding is amazing!”
Prairie EcoThrifter- “My best tip would be to make your own cleaning and personal care products. You can save a bundle and they are much healthier for you and your family.”
Net Worth Protect- “When developing a savings plan keep it simple. As soon as you receive your paycheck allocate a percentage towards savings and immediately move the funds out of your spending account. Out of sight, out of mind”
Funancials- ”Your child can easily get a loan for school, but you cannot get a loan for retirement. I think too many parents have the dream of paying for their child’s education (which is great) but they reduce their retirement savings to make it happen. Big no no.”
One Cent at a Time- “Do not prepare your buying list after clipping coupons rather, get your shopping list and find coupons for each of them.”
20′s Finances- ”Start saving for your future today! Planning for retirement even in your 20′s can earn you lots of money in the long run and make life much easier.”
DollarVersity- “Failing to plan is planning to fail—you need a roadmap to achieving goals. Paying off debt, building wealth, or running a successful business may be the goals, but you need to plan your course to reach those destinations.”
KrantCents- “Savings is the key to success. I learned how to save early and it, more than anything, helped me achieve success.”
The Jenny Pincher- “Spend Less Than You Earn! It’s so simple yet so effective if we can get ourselves in that mindset!”
The Family CEO- “Be very intentional with your spending. Cut back on or eliminate the things that don’t bring you much value, so you can have in your life the things and experiences that do.”
101 Centavos- “Early is for go, late is for show. If you want to be successful, get up early. Getting to work while everyone else is either still asleep or just now brushing their teeth will give you a leg up on the competition. Staying late is fine if you want to impress the boss, but your productivity decreases along with your energy levels.”
Millionaire Nurse Blog- “To prevent lifestyle creep, any raises, bonus money, and gifts can be put into your emergency fund, or added to your retirement savings. You will hit your savings goal faster and not increase your lifestyle costs, a twofer!”
Your Finances Simplified- “Limit your rent/mortgage payment to no more than 25% of your net income. The reason why you want to do this is so that you are flexible when life happens or you have the opportunity to invest more money and generate wealth. This tip alone has given me the income to invest in multiple income producing business that will have me retiring by 40 or sooner.”
The Frugal Toad- “Diversify among asset classes, re-balance quarterly, employ dollar cost averaging, and keep your hands off!”
20 and Engaged- “Don’t keep up with the Joneses. Live your own live beneath your means and you’ll prosper financially.”
Money Beagle- “When setting large goals, make sure to set smaller goals along the way. Reaching the smaller goals (and giving yourself a small reward) will help you stay on track and minimize the chance of losing momentum and focus on the way toward your larger goals.”
Money QandA- “We spend our entire lives buying things and collecting things. Instead spend your money doing things, gaining experiences, and checking things off your bucket list. Not only is that the way to financial success, it will make your life more rewarding as well.”
Retire by 40- “My top tip is to start saving and investing as early as possible. If you start saving and investing as soon as you start making money, then you will have a lot of time to take advantage of compound interest. It will also give you more time to learn about investing and a lot of time to correct the many inevitable investing mistakes. ”
Wisebread- “Many rewards credit cards pay you a sign-up bonus only after you reach a minimum spending threshold. The best way to reach this minimum is to purchase gift cards for merchants you visit often, or even cash cards from Visa or American Express. Simply make the purchase before the deadline, and use the gift cards later. You can also buy gift cards at grocery stores in order to maximize bonus spending categories. For example, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card gives customers 6% cash back from supermarkets.”
Money Crashers- “It’s really important to focus on cutting expenses and implementing strict budgets to allow us to live our lives to the fullest while still saving for the future. But, beyond that, one of the most overlooked strategies is creating incremental income. For example, do you have a passion or expertise you could leverage into a business? Then consider some of the many side business ideas as an avenue for you to create some valuable passive income. And if you’re lucky, this could potentially turn into a full-time job that you’re truly passionate about each and every day!”
Afford Anything- “Spend lavishly on things you love and cut ruthlessly on things you don’t care about. Money is just a stand-in for your priorities.”
Financial Highway- “Start Investing EARLY! Even at $50/month you can benefit from the power of compounding, it is better to save $50 today then $100 a year from now. ”
Christian Dollar-
“Spend less than you make, make more through hard work and patience, and give more than you want to. It’s really that simple.” 
GenXFinance- “Don’t sweat the small stuff. So you’ve cut out the daily Starbucks, dropped cable, and clip coupons to save a couple hundred bucks a month. Who cares. You will never become wealthy by worrying about how to save the next five bucks. It is a losing game because there is only so much that can be cut, and beyond the basics you end up sacrificing your quality of life for the sake of saving what amounts to essentially nothing. Instead of spending time dreaming up ways to cut things out of your life to save ten dollars, think about how to make an extra ten dollars. Or a hundred dollars. Or a thousand dollars. Unlike the limited upside by cutting expenses, the upside of potential income is limitless. Yes, you still want to be conscious of how you spend your money, but focusing your energy on earning more has the potential to make a much greater impact on your life.”
Bucksome Boomer- “Choose your life partner well. Divorce sets you back decades in your net worth and financial health.”
Life and my Finances- “The best tip I could ever give anyone is “put on your blinders”. Your happiness in life does not depend on how shiny your car is or how many square feet you have in your house. Be thankful for what you have and ignore the Joneses.”
Financial Success Young Adults- “Stay on top of the markets! The Wall Street Journal and CNBC are great ways to keep up with the flow of information. The economy does impact your personal finances and keeping up with help you become familiar with the language of finance and help you better manage your money. ”
Narrow Bridge Finance- “My best money tip is to know when to buy and sell stocks. Technical and fundamental analysis sound complex, but once you know the difference you will know how to buy a stock for long run value over the trends of the moment.”
Debt Eye- ”Check your bank statements every month, and make sure there are no reoccuring charges that you’re not familiar with. These can include: identity protection, credit monitoring, and or services you hardly use.”
Ultimate Smart Money- ”Think wisely before you act. Make your purchasing decisions based on your need instead of what you want. Don’t allow your emotion to control your decision.”
Frugal Confessions- “Create an End-of-Year Windfall for Yourself: If you max out your Roth IRA every year ($5,000) by spreading out the payments, it would be around $416 per month. Instead, pay $500 per month for ten months and create a small windfall of cash for one of the most expensive times of the year: an extra $500 cash flow for November and for December. Remember to turn the automatic withdrawals back on after the holidays.”
Fat Guy Skinny Wallet- ”Whenever we are tempted to splurge on an item, or in some other way, spend money on an item for which we haven’t budgeted, we pay that money against our debt instead. For instance, if I get tempted to order a pizza and some wings on the way home from work, what helps me refrain from wasting my money is the thought of using that money to pay off debt instead. So we will not make the purchase and instead we will sign onto our bank’s website and make a payment against our credit card in the amount of the splurge ($20 for pizza in this case). This helps us to fight the urge to spend money frivolously, and it helps us to pay down our debt faster!”
Soldier of Finance- “Find a battle buddy that shares your financial goals to keep yourself accountable (like a workout partner) and help each other succeed.”
Good Financial Cents- “Incorporate the multiple bucket approach when saving for your retirement. Do this by incorporating Roth IRA’s, Traditional IRA’s, 401k’s, and regular investment accounts to give you plenty of options for your retirement income needs.”
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff- “Keep track of your spending. If you don’t know where your money is going, you can’t manage it for your present or future.”
Maximizing Money- ”Always make your money work hard for you, but remember to work even harder for your money.”
Roshan Watson- “The Real Golden Rule: He Who Has the Gold Makes the Rules”
ChristianPF- ”For me I think being content with all that we have is one of the smartest things we can do financially. We all know living below our means is a key to financial success, but for many being content with what we have is the first step to living below our means.”
Digerati Life- “My #1 personal finance tip is to prioritize where your money should go. Many people don’t use a budget or think about where their money is being spent. But if you take the time to sit down and do some planning (even just a little), by focusing on your financial priorities and on how you intend to parcel out your money (a limited resource), you may be surprised by what you find. For example, if you’ve got debt, you may decide to prioritize this over saving for a much longer term goal, like a house purchase. Either way, the exercise of thinking about your income and outgo can be a good first step in making sure your finances are in order.”
DQYDJ- ”Sweat the big stuff. Automate your retirement contributions and savings and eventually you’ll thank me.”
Thirty Six Months- “My biggest financial tip to budget for everything and don’t buy on impulse. That’s how you get in trouble.”
Frugal Wiz- Financial Tip: “Establish an emergency savings account first before paying off your debt.”
All of these tip may not be right for you, but most will be. Choose wisely!
Persona Finance 4 The People is here to help!
After doing some research I found that there are several key features to a debt diet. The first feature is tracking your spending. In order to slim down you have to know what you are eating or how many calories you are taking in. With a debt diet you have to know how much money you are spending. The expense tracker can be as simple as a small notebook you keep to write down what you spend on a daily basis. And that means everything from a pack of gum to the impulsive splurge for a mani/pedi or new shoes. I track my spending electronically on my iPhone using the Lemon app. I also tried Mint.com and iSpending both of which are good overall budgeting tools (and they are free) but I wanted something, at least for the first few weeks, that just tracked my spending. After about two weeks I saw that one of my biggest expenses was eating out, the quick cup of coffee in the morning and lunch that I was too busy to make for myself at home. It added up to about $2,392 a year, enough for me to pay off two credit cards.
The second component of the spending diet is figuring out why you spend. After about two or three weeks of tracking your expenses it’s pretty easy to see where and when you spend the most. Are there emergency bills that pop up? Like the water bill you didn’t pay for the last six months that just kept accruing? Do you spend when you are under the most stress and just need a little treat that ends up costing more than you thought it would? When I was a kid if I did well in school my mother bought me a new book as a treat, yes, I was a nerd even then and loved books. Anyway, in my mind, if you do well you get a reward. Unfortunately, I carried that over into my financial life. So, after cutting back on expenses for three weeks I saw something to reward myself with and did. Of course, that ate up my newly accumulating savings and I was back to feeling guilty. However, like any diet there will be times when you slip up, just get back into it and stay focused. 
The third common step in most debt diets is to completely stop unnecessary spending. This is the exercise part of your debt diet. For a fixed period of time you are “allowed” to spend money, cash only, on the things in your life that are necessary. The point is to develop good spending habits and to internalize the difference between what is necessary and what is a want when it comes to finances. I need to take things in small doses so a twelve month spending diet was not ideal for my needs. Instead, I decided to participate in a twenty-one day debt diet. It is challenging to limit my necessities to food, shelter and bills but that is what I am doing. Overall it is difficult but I have found several websites and resources that are helpful including Oprah’s Debt Diet website and Michelle Sinlgetary’s money articles in the Washington Post. If you decide a debt diet is right for you take the time to research the different types, be brutally honest with yourself about your spending and debt and most important be forgiving. You will make mistakes, just keep moving and in time you will develop better money habits. 
