Tools to Save Don’t Come Any Easier Than Online Calculators
Chances are you’re smart enough to do the necessary math to make the best short term and long term financial decisions. But did you know there are free online calculators that will do it for you? They won’t show you the secret to buying stocks and they can’t keep your landlord from scattering your property across several self storage locations, but they can help you see the bigger picture when it comes to how you’re wasting money and the ways you can save it.
Online calculators can be used when figuring out:
Credit card repayment plan: Make sure you’re making monthly payments that matter, and not simply doling out interest to a credit card company. A credit card repayment calculator can crunch the numbers to show you the amount of money it’ll take to pay off your debt in a certain amount of time.
Car buying: Fuel prices are going to keep climbing higher and higher. If you’re about to be in the market for a new car, then fuel economy must be a top priority. Luckily there’s an online database that provides the fuel economy figures for every vehicle sold. Use it to get the most cost effective ride you can.
Retirement: There’s no sense in squirreling money away every month for retirement if it isn’t going to be enough when it’s all said and done. It’s important that you use a retirement calculator to find out how much you’ll need to have saved, and then select a plan to commit to.
The cost-of-smoking: Depending on the extent of your habit, smoking cigarettes can lead to an annual loss of $1000 or even more. Use a cost-of-smoking calculator to determine how much you could save if you quit the habit once and for all. But non-smokers shouldn’t get off so easily: the $5 pack of smokes is the same as the $5 latte or the $5 cocktail.
Reducing home energy waste: It’s estimated that Americans allow more than half of our energy to go to waste thanks to sloppy habits and inefficiencies in our home setups. The Home Energy Saver, a free calculator provided by the federal government, uses an array of information about a home and a person’s specific energy usage habits to provide a detailed list of ways that individual can reduce energy waste. Reduced waste means reduced spending.
It’s time to make online calculators your new best friend. They’re free, useful, and available at all hours of the day and night. Bookmark these bad boys and have peace of mind knowing that big saving strategies are only a click away.
