11 Progressive Money Saving Tips (Save more by starting early)

1.  Cook at Home: To make it fun for friends/family, you can invite each other home for cooked meals. Make sure to also join diner's clubs and eateries that network so you can accumulate points but make sure there are no extra annual fees. Memberships at clubs (i.e. India House, Quarters Club, Yale Club) provides you with substantially lower costs for meals/parking in NYC's Wall Street/Midtown.

1. Join a quality food loyalty buyer's program: I've tried to help fans and friends by savings on meats and food purchases. The concept is like buying in bulk but you deal directly with the farmers who grow the foods. The food stays longer and is much fresher.

2. Avoid ATM fees: Many banks charge $ for taking out money from ATMs that are not owned by them. Check out where you go most often and choose the banks that have ATMs in locations you frequently go.

3. Be aware of your bank balance and avoid overdraft fees: If you use your checking account often or have some bills that are paid automatically from your checking account, be aware of the balance and avoid overdraft fees. 

4. Pay less for schools/degrees: There are numerous schools willing to open up discussions if they feel you can provide additional benefits rather than "just" being a student. This is a backdoor kind of scholarship but the amount of payoff can be $10,000 to $25,000/year in savings. Over 16 years ago, I understood that the Rensselaer Plan was necessary objective for the school. Tuition at my undergraduate has skyrocketed but to help offset some of those fees, the concept of independent co-operatives and advanced research & informatics were things that provided over 50% savings in tuition bills. Five years ago, I started to teach others this concept and it is also called P.L.A.N. ( Professional Leadership Alumni Network). Hopefully, proactive students can start to utilize some cost savings measures so their tuition bill can be reduced.

PS: I know this works because for the Masters of Science and Doctoral programs, the bill of school can be covered 100% in exchange for networking relationships/ideas and discovery.

1. Disconnect your land line and alter your wireless plan:  There are ways to use only your cell phone minutes and connect your entire household. This gizmowas created by SmithGear and it has an incredible capability to allow you to use 100% of your cell phone minutes with even an archaic homephone. Now join a plan for unlimited minutes so that you can have access to unlimited talk 24hrs/day ( Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T). With the gizmo, suddenly the savings on the landline comes with the bonus of avoiding the cellphone discharging through your head ( Psst: earpieces don't fully address this problem).

2. Reinvest into a Mercedes? Yes, the package that allows you to save on an MB purchase is the 24hr Roadside Assistance Package. Since 1982. this has been available! This means you can get your road travels completely 100% covered (tires,batteries, fuel, free-towing).  Now go and get a certified pre-owned vehicle and you can still get full benefits for roadside assistance at amazing rates of 3.99% APR. So should you pay 3.99%?! No, you don't have to. You can do monthly installments at 0% APR with a credit union. What you go into the bank and say is that you will be depositing the money into their bank. Some banks wanting your business will agree to take the business and extend you a 0% line for 24-36 months. This is how you can maximize on avoiding interest on your loans. Of course, you need to show good credit scores of 750+, deposit a sizable amount of security/cash for large purchases. This is why you should start to establish relationships with certain banks as early as possible ( business week article).

3. Airline Travel Savings: Choose to deposit points with airlines that have the best flight patterns and muscle power for scheduling. This means no extra charges for changes and extra luggage is always free. Most people don't know it but Continental Airlines offers a very exclusive package above most other airlines while still giving Asians access to Shanghai and Hong Kong as direct flights. While Cathay Pacific is competitive, Cathay gives you no access to domestic North American flights. Here are the steps to develop the Continental VIP track.

Step 1: Sign on to their mileage rewards program by establishing a relationship with Chase Credit Card Services.

Step 2:

Life UP your membership program with the Presidents Club Suite (this is valid for the rest of your life/spouse and every year the price goes up because it once only cost $500 for a lifetime membership program). Toll free line: 1-800-322-2640

Step 3: Utilize your revolving credit line and link it with your Life UP card and now you'll be flagged as special. Your baggage and everything you travel will be upgraded.

Step 4: Enjoy! You are forever in the system. And if it happens that you earn 1M miles, you'll never lose your elite status (shorter lines, bonuses etc)

1. Establish a premium hotel relationship: Over the years, you will always be in a sudden need of a hotel stay. This is bound to happen. One of the strongest hotels around are the Marriott, Hilton, Intercontinental, Starwood groups etc. If you combine the ones that don't have blackout dates + hotels over 50 countries + over 2000 hotel combinations, you're only left with Hilton HHonors and Priority Club Rewards. Now if you call up both locations and ask them which points they accept with credit card affiliates, you will find that only Hilton HHonors has both Visa and American Express rewards points.

1. Establish quality professional relationships:   Neighborrow and dental/medical comparison programs are useful things that are popping up. However, it doesn't promote personal relationships or equity in purchases. Equity is very, very important because without it, you don't really get anything down-the-line. Try to establish friendships, fanships and real-lationships with people. This offers substantial savings over time.

2. Vacation/leisure quality relationships: Investments have always been important because no matter who you are, those dollars earned are tough goings. If you need to save money to go on a vacation, that is $$$ that you still need to save and their seems to be few to no breaks offered for the traveler.

Businesses tend to try to take everything from you because they assume you'll never be back.  Well, years ago I tried to come up with a different model of approach at sites that I would frequently apply research. Negotiations were setup so loyalty programs could be redistributed and secondary homeownership could be possible. Therefore, you as the traveler would be getting a discount with the intentions that you may want to have a long term return spot for vacation, second home purchase etc. The gain for the country's tourism department is a more stable income and potential foreign investment. It works out nicely. Here are some examples of local domestic projects as well as international ones that have joined on. American/Canadian/Mexico( #191,#762, #818), Caribbean (# 1,# 2,# 3), China (# 1), Hong Kong (# 1,#297), Malaysia (# 1,# 2,#398), Singapore (#118). As long as you are willing to share/convert the vacation experience and increase traffic, you can gain discount points towards your travel costs. In Asia, the following clubs also extend their welcome to such programs.