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I'm a member of a forum encourages everyone to live below their means, invest everything they can spare, and always look for a good deal. The end game is to retire comfortably at an absurd age and enjoy your financial independence. They call followers of this philosophy "mustachian". Below is what I prepared as my tips for saving money.
Student Loan Refinancing
Sofi. If you are lucky, you don’t have to worry about these chains. If you’re a millennial (I hate that word) you’re probably living with Sallie Mae. I graduated Law School a little over a year ago with $50,000 in student loan debt at a 6.8% fixed interest rate. Relatively speaking that’s not too shabby, but being a Mustachian with FIRE ambitions really prompted me to research alternatives. I researched the pros and cons of student loan refinancing and determined it was right for me. I wound up refinancing to an adjustable rate of 3.8% and saw immediate results. My monthly payment went from $575.00 a month down to $500.00 which is a net savings of close to $10,000 over a ten year period.
Refinancing is certainly not for everyone. This is not for everyone with student loans. I would only recommend refinancing if (1) you will definitely pay off your loans within the traditional 10 year period (i.e. you are looking at a small amount of debt and a large salary), (2) you are not planning on relying upon Public Service Loan Forgiveness, IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE, (3) you understand if something happens to you and you are no longer able to work the private servicer may go after your estate, (4) you don’t foresee the need for a deferral down the line, and (5) you would rather dump extra money into investments (riskier) than take the safe route and pay off student loans early. I went with Sofi and they are great. The application is simpler than their competitor’s and they were the only lender that approved me for refinancing. You can use my referral link for a bonus $100.00 if you elect to refinance with Sofi (I will get $100.00 as well), but I strongly encourage anyone to apply to all lenders they can for refinancing and go with whomever gives them the best rate. My referral code is: https://www.sofi.com/refer/234/11233
Other options to consider are:
DRB - https://student.drbank.com/
earnest - https://www.meetearnest.com/
CommonBond - https://commonbond.co/
I hear DRB offers the best rates but are notoriously difficult to get approval for. I was denied but I encourage anyone considering refinancing to check with DRB.
Entertainment
Gofobo. Like good movies? Like going to the theater? Do you want to have access to sneak peeks of a good chunk of new movies? Then gofobo has got you covered. Make an account, specify your location and keep your phone nearby and keep your eyes peeled for weekly sneak peak offer of some of the hottest box office hits. Make sure you set an alert on your phone for when you receive an email from gofobo because they run out of tickets FAST. From my experience, you need to request a sneak peak pass within 10 minutes of receiving the email to ensure you get a pass. If you get a pass, you get a ticket for two to the film. Make sure you arrive 45 minutes early to ensure you get a seat as they do hand out more passes than there are seats so some people will be disappointed. So far, the wife and I have seen The Martian, The Last Witch hunter, Goosebumps, and the new Maze Runner movie within the past couple weeks and they were completely free (sneak in your snacks and drinks). We had plenty of options to see other movies too but we are a bit more selective over which movies to scope out. A link to gofobo is as follows: https://www.gofobo.com/index.php
Citi Private Pass. It's just like Gofobo but it's not as easy to get screeners in my area through CPP. I hear they also limit you to one screener per 6 month period but I havent verified this. A CPP link is as follows: http://advancescreenings.com/outlet/citi_private_pass
Shopping
Ebates. Perhaps the worst kept mustachian secret is Ebates. If you have been living under a rock, Ebates is an online cash back referral site. The way it works is that you go to Ebates and use their link to go to the site you want to buy from. A popup will come up saying you are on your way to getting X% cash back. Once you complete the purchase, your Ebates account will get credited with x% of the purchase within a couple days and Ebates will send you a paper check in the mail quarterly (I think you have to have at least $5.00 credit before they send the check but I may be mistaken. Before I buy ANYTHING online, I check to see if Ebates offers cash back. Most sites I use only offer 3-5% cash back but nearly every site I shop from is on Ebates and I do a lot of online shopping because I find better deals that way. Recently I even got 9% cash back from a big purchase I made at Jos A Banks.com, that was a very nice little bonus. As an added bonus, Ebates will give you a free $10.00 gift card after you make an account and make your first purchase by going to their site first. If you use my referral code, I will get a $10 credit as well: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrer...%3D&eeid=26471
Retailmenot. This is another good site for online shopping. It’s a site that compiles a bunch of online promo codes and coupons for use at nearly every online retailer. I use it with conjunction of Ebates. I find what I want to buy, go to Retailmenot to check for coupon codes, then go to Ebates to use their cash back link. Retailmenot is great, but many of the coupon codes don’t work so you have to be prepared to try different coupon codes to maximize your savings. You can even use this site on Domino’s Pizza! A link to Retailmenot is: http://www.retailmenot.com/
Groupon. This is a site that offers steep discounts on many restaurants and entertainment events. My wife uses this site often to get 50% at restaurants. They often have additional promotions where you can get either $5 off any Groupon purchase or 20% off any Groupon purchase. Just this week we were in Vegas for vacation and were going to head over to the National Atomic Testing Museum and stumbled upon a 50% Groupon deal and paired it with Ebates for an additional 6% cash back! We saved about $25 on that one purchase! My referral code to Groupon is as follows: https://www.groupon.com/visitor_refe...8-9ae9605eeb12
Livingsocial. This site is just like Groupon but it doesn’t seem to have nearly as many deals. Perhaps it’s different in different regions. It’s still worth checking out. A link to the site is: https://www.livingsocial.com/
Other Tips
Bing. Use Bing to search the Internet to earn points. I was a googler before and it was difficult for me to actually make the switch but im legitimately happy I did. I like Bing more solely because of their inspiring daily background images. I find myself downloading their photos and changing my desktop wallpaper much more often. If you use my link, I get a couple bonus points. https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards...5-bcd1e513134c
Student Loan Refinancing
Sofi. If you are lucky, you don’t have to worry about these chains. If you’re a millennial (I hate that word) you’re probably living with Sallie Mae. I graduated Law School a little over a year ago with $50,000 in student loan debt at a 6.8% fixed interest rate. Relatively speaking that’s not too shabby, but being a Mustachian with FIRE ambitions really prompted me to research alternatives. I researched the pros and cons of student loan refinancing and determined it was right for me. I wound up refinancing to an adjustable rate of 3.8% and saw immediate results. My monthly payment went from $575.00 a month down to $500.00 which is a net savings of close to $10,000 over a ten year period.
Refinancing is certainly not for everyone. This is not for everyone with student loans. I would only recommend refinancing if (1) you will definitely pay off your loans within the traditional 10 year period (i.e. you are looking at a small amount of debt and a large salary), (2) you are not planning on relying upon Public Service Loan Forgiveness, IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE, (3) you understand if something happens to you and you are no longer able to work the private servicer may go after your estate, (4) you don’t foresee the need for a deferral down the line, and (5) you would rather dump extra money into investments (riskier) than take the safe route and pay off student loans early. I went with Sofi and they are great. The application is simpler than their competitor’s and they were the only lender that approved me for refinancing. You can use my referral link for a bonus $100.00 if you elect to refinance with Sofi (I will get $100.00 as well), but I strongly encourage anyone to apply to all lenders they can for refinancing and go with whomever gives them the best rate. My referral code is: https://www.sofi.com/refer/234/11233
Other options to consider are:
DRB - https://student.drbank.com/
earnest - https://www.meetearnest.com/
CommonBond - https://commonbond.co/
I hear DRB offers the best rates but are notoriously difficult to get approval for. I was denied but I encourage anyone considering refinancing to check with DRB.
Entertainment
Gofobo. Like good movies? Like going to the theater? Do you want to have access to sneak peeks of a good chunk of new movies? Then gofobo has got you covered. Make an account, specify your location and keep your phone nearby and keep your eyes peeled for weekly sneak peak offer of some of the hottest box office hits. Make sure you set an alert on your phone for when you receive an email from gofobo because they run out of tickets FAST. From my experience, you need to request a sneak peak pass within 10 minutes of receiving the email to ensure you get a pass. If you get a pass, you get a ticket for two to the film. Make sure you arrive 45 minutes early to ensure you get a seat as they do hand out more passes than there are seats so some people will be disappointed. So far, the wife and I have seen The Martian, The Last Witch hunter, Goosebumps, and the new Maze Runner movie within the past couple weeks and they were completely free (sneak in your snacks and drinks). We had plenty of options to see other movies too but we are a bit more selective over which movies to scope out. A link to gofobo is as follows: https://www.gofobo.com/index.php
Citi Private Pass. It's just like Gofobo but it's not as easy to get screeners in my area through CPP. I hear they also limit you to one screener per 6 month period but I havent verified this. A CPP link is as follows: http://advancescreenings.com/outlet/citi_private_pass
Shopping
Ebates. Perhaps the worst kept mustachian secret is Ebates. If you have been living under a rock, Ebates is an online cash back referral site. The way it works is that you go to Ebates and use their link to go to the site you want to buy from. A popup will come up saying you are on your way to getting X% cash back. Once you complete the purchase, your Ebates account will get credited with x% of the purchase within a couple days and Ebates will send you a paper check in the mail quarterly (I think you have to have at least $5.00 credit before they send the check but I may be mistaken. Before I buy ANYTHING online, I check to see if Ebates offers cash back. Most sites I use only offer 3-5% cash back but nearly every site I shop from is on Ebates and I do a lot of online shopping because I find better deals that way. Recently I even got 9% cash back from a big purchase I made at Jos A Banks.com, that was a very nice little bonus. As an added bonus, Ebates will give you a free $10.00 gift card after you make an account and make your first purchase by going to their site first. If you use my referral code, I will get a $10 credit as well: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrer...%3D&eeid=26471
Retailmenot. This is another good site for online shopping. It’s a site that compiles a bunch of online promo codes and coupons for use at nearly every online retailer. I use it with conjunction of Ebates. I find what I want to buy, go to Retailmenot to check for coupon codes, then go to Ebates to use their cash back link. Retailmenot is great, but many of the coupon codes don’t work so you have to be prepared to try different coupon codes to maximize your savings. You can even use this site on Domino’s Pizza! A link to Retailmenot is: http://www.retailmenot.com/
Groupon. This is a site that offers steep discounts on many restaurants and entertainment events. My wife uses this site often to get 50% at restaurants. They often have additional promotions where you can get either $5 off any Groupon purchase or 20% off any Groupon purchase. Just this week we were in Vegas for vacation and were going to head over to the National Atomic Testing Museum and stumbled upon a 50% Groupon deal and paired it with Ebates for an additional 6% cash back! We saved about $25 on that one purchase! My referral code to Groupon is as follows: https://www.groupon.com/visitor_refe...8-9ae9605eeb12
Livingsocial. This site is just like Groupon but it doesn’t seem to have nearly as many deals. Perhaps it’s different in different regions. It’s still worth checking out. A link to the site is: https://www.livingsocial.com/
Other Tips
Bing. Use Bing to search the Internet to earn points. I was a googler before and it was difficult for me to actually make the switch but im legitimately happy I did. I like Bing more solely because of their inspiring daily background images. I find myself downloading their photos and changing my desktop wallpaper much more often. If you use my link, I get a couple bonus points. https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards...5-bcd1e513134c
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