No Stupid Questions

Also, getting a good sleep leads to better decision making in all aspects of life and makes you more likely to tackle the stuff you've been putting off.

It's amazing how much money you can save by being well rested.

If your car is broken, don't trade it in for a new car. Just fix it. You don't need a new car. Any feature you (think you) can't live without is available as an aftermarket installation.

Obviously, some cars are more reliable than others. Do your research. If your car has reliability issues, get rid of it and get one that doesn't.

As soon as you buy a car, buy the Chilton or Haynes manual for it and start reading it. Don't wait until something is broken to learn how to fix it. Oil changes, brakes, spark plugs, fuel injectors, alternator, battery, and tires are all required reading.

If a fix call for tools you don't have, make a list, and start saving and buying them. Don't wait until you're half eay through a repair to find out you can't finish and your car is all apart. Buy the cheapest piece of shit tools you can find. When one breaks, that means you use it enough to make a better version worth your money.

Obviously, this only applies to people who actually need a car. If an e-bike or something else is viable for you, don't waste your money on a car; it's not an asset, no matter what that guy at the dealership told you.

Bills don't go away just because you don't open your letters, they just get more expensive. TBF I knew that from the start, but turning that into action can be a bit difficult.

Also, I'm saving a LOT of money by almost never buying food or drink anywhere other than supermarkets. This happened by accident, but at some point I started wondering why I seem to have so much more money available than most people with a similar income as me.

Don't just leave money in your chequing / savings account.

If inflation / COL is increasing by 3% year over year, and your savings account is giving you 2.5% interest, you are losing money every minute it sits in there.

Any substantial amount of money should be moved to an investment account of some kind. You want to keep an emergency fund relatively liquid and easy to access, but that can still be an investment account earning more interest on average.

In Canada for instance, there are 3 main government programs for savings:

• TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) - Can be spent on anything, you put post-tax money in, but any money you make from the account is not taxed. This is the easiest and most flexible, and you can usually withdraw TFSA money in a day or two.
• RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Program) - You put pre tax money into, and you don't get taxed on what it earns. More lucrative than a TFSA because you can effectively reduce the amount of income tax you pay by instead putting money into and RRSP, but you can basically only spend it on retirement or to help with buying your own home.
• FHSA (First Home Savings Account) - Like an RRSP (pre-tax money goes in, and profits aren't taxed), but can only be spent on your first home.

Any substantial amount of money you have should basically always be in one of these 3 vehicles if you're in Canada (or an education fund if you have kids).

I like have 3 bank accounts, paycheck split between first 2...1. Bills, this should have the whole month worth of bills covered + 10 % for some variable stuff like electric or water. 2. Play money, this is whatever money I have left over after filling the bills account as needed. I can use this money for whatever I want as long as it covers the cost. I am lazy and want to order delivery, account 2. I want a new game to play, account 2. I want to go out to the movies account 2. As long as account 1 is not touched everything should be covered. The third account is savings. At the end of every month I empty account 1 and account 2 and put left over into account 3. You have an emergency, your car breaks down, your partner is breaks a bone, a large gang of monkeys break in and steal all your bananas.. Take the money for the expenses from account 3.You may need to adjust the date of transfer for your situation for example make sure there is the rent money in account 1 on the first, don't empty it out on the 31st. It requires some tuning for timing of transfers and percentage of over paying into the bills account for variations but generally works well for me.