It’s OK to Stop Saving Money If You’re Doing One of These 5 Things
At 7, your goal was to save enough money so you could buy that new toy all the kids were raving about.
At 18, you just wanted to scrape up enough to stock up on ramen for the week.
At 23, your cohorts started talking about emergency funds, and you thought, “OK, I probably need a little nest egg of my own, too.”
At 27, you started counting down to retirement — only about 40 years away… Better start saving now.
And you’re still saving.
You’ve basically been saving money your entire life. Is there ever a time you’ll be able to stop saving money? Perhaps even — gasp — spend it?
Short answer: Yes!
5 Times It’s OK to Stop Saving Your Money
We’ll forever encourage people to save their pennies, but, depending on your financial situation, sometimes it’s OK to stop saving, even just for a little while. Come on; you’ve earned it, right?
Breathe a sigh of relief. It’s OK to stop saving money if you’re…
1. Paying off Your Credit Card Debt
If you have credit card debt, you know. The anxiety, the interest rates, the fear you’re never going to escape…
And the truth is, your credit card company doesn’t really care. It’s just getting rich by ripping you off with high interest rates. But a website called AmOne wants to help.
If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.
The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 3.99% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.
AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
It takes two minutes to see if you qualify for up to $50,000 online. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.
2. Treating Yourself With a Reward
You know how most healthy people talk about the importance of cheat days? To let yourself indulge — just a little. The same goes for personal finance. You can be as budget abiding as you want, but you have to leave a little bit of wiggle room to treat yourself.
If you haven’t gotten a pedicure in at least a decade, escaped city limits for a weekend away from the kids or splurged on a new gadget, then maybe it’s time. But please do so responsibly.
Make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck with these tools:
- Ibotta: With Ibotta, you can bank cash back when you make an Amazon purchase, sign up for Hulu, book your next vacation or even order groceries through Shipt. Plus, if you sign up now, you’ll snag a $5 bonus when you upload your first receipt.
- Capital One Shopping Price Protection: This tool gets you money back for your online purchases. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund when there’s a price drop.
- When you’re spending money, always, always be sure to keep tabs on your budget to make sure you’re not overspending. If you don’t yet have one, the Empower app is a powerful budgeting tool that can help you figure out how you’re spending your money and develop a budgeting plan to keep you on track.
3. Signing up for Life Insurance
Your family rocks. They make you laugh. They drive you to do more. That’s why you know you need life insurance. It’s to help them.
But you’d rather spend your time hanging out with your fantastic fam than waiting for a doctor to give you yet another exam.
If you’re under the age of 54 and want to get a fast life insurance quote without the medical exam, pushy sales calls or even getting up from the couch, check out Bestow. The company is built around one concept — helping you get the term life insurance policy you want, simply and fast.
It just takes five minutes to answer some basic lifestyle questions, and you can get quotes for up to $1 million in coverage without a medical exam. If you’re approved, you can personalize your coverage to fit your budget. You can change or cancel your plan at any time.
Shopping for life insurance isn’t fun to think about, right? Get it done fast, and find something that fits your budget, even if it’s just a few dollars per month. You can get coverage terms as low as two years, and your rates will never go up.
Bestow is available in 48 states (excludes New York and Georgia) and expanding quickly around the U.S.
Over 54 and/or living in New York or Georgia? We’ve got you covered, too. A company like Bestow offers you an easy way to compare and buy life insurance. Once you find the right fit, you can apply right online.
4. Investing in Causes You Care About
Once you have a nice rainy day fund saved, investing can be a great way to grow your money. In a way, you’re still saving money — but know risk is always associated with investing.
You’ll want to make sure you’re using your hard-saved money to support companies you actually believe in — their morals and values. You probably wouldn’t want to invest in a company that’s destroying our oceans or cheating the system.
Impact investing is a simple fix. It adds a new layer of transparency to investing. Take Swell Investing, an SEC-registered investment adviser committed to supporting sustainable companies.
Its Impact 400 portfolio features companies whose products and services align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It considers everything from gender equality to ending poverty to clean energy.
You can start with just $50 and invest in this or other portfolios committed to clean water, zero waste, renewable energy or disease eradication, to name a few. Plus, you’ll get a $50 bonus with the code PENNY after making your initial investment.
Swell doesn’t have any trading fees, price tiers or expense ratios. It charges a 0.75% annual fee — that’s about the cost of one coffee ($3.75) per year if you invest $500.
Disclosure: We have a financial relationship with Swell Investing LLC and will be compensated if consumers apply for an account and/or fund an account with Swell through links in our content. However, the analysis and opinions expressed here are our own.
5. Buying a Home
Perhaps for the past few years, you’ve been saving for a down payment. That’s great! Now, you’re ready to buy your first home.
A great place to start is Better Mortgage, a company that bills itself as an online mortgage lender that’s built like a tech company — fast and innovative. It emphasizes speed and efficiency. It can quote you an interest rate in seconds, once you type in your ZIP code, credit score range, down payment amount and the price of the house you want to buy. Better can get you an initial pre-approval for a loan within minutes, without affecting your credit score.
In those first couple of months of homeownership, though, don’t feel bad if you have to pause your savings. Expect a lot of expenses to pop up: closing costs, real estate agent commission, property taxes, homeowners insurance, last-minute repairs — just to name a few.
Get all of that taken care of as you settle into your new abode. After a few months, once you’re getting back into the swing of things and are coasting along with your monthly mortgage payments, you can start saving again.
Time to Resume…
Sure, depending on your financial health, there are certain life events, investments and money moves you can justify pausing your savings for. But the break can’t last forever — you’ll need to resume your savings at some point.
After all, you never know when you’ll need the savings. That newest and hottest toy of the season could hit the shelves any minute.
Carson Kohler ([email protected]) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’ll forever be saving money.
