Ultimate Hacks To Save Money – How I Saved $85k In RRSP’s By 29!

I’m going to share my favorite hacks to save money that helps me save $85,000 in my retirement saving’s. All without having to feel broke and stretching yourself too thin. Oh yeah, and did I mention I was a Financial Advisor for six years? Would have been longer until I decided to pursue a completely different lifestyle (you can find more on my posts here!).

I never really realized until I was in my financial advisor position the lack of young savers. Don’t get me wrong there are certainly some great young savers out there, but there are very few! I get it, there are large purchases going down typically between 20 to 30 years old. But it’s still possible to save long term while accomplishing all those other things.

So let’s just get to it. Here are my favorite hacks to save money that will have you growing your retirement savings in no time!

Set Financial Goals

Setting goals is the foundation to having good finances. Without having proper goals in place, you’re finances will be all over the place. As soon as I graduated college I had a picture of all the things I was looking to accomplish. In the first year, three to five years and ten plus years.

It gives you something to work towards but also something to hold you accountable! My boyfriend (now husband) and I decided to have a smaller budget for our first home with the plan to build our dream home in five years. That allowed us room to save for other things and not be house poor. I am also passionate about travelling, so that was always a yearly goal and not something I wanted to budge on! For my ten plus year goals I had set that I wanted to retire by 55 – yikes, I know. What can I say, I had a clear vision of what I wanted!

Start Saving Early!!

I started saving for long term savings by 18. Literally months after I turned 18, my mom drug me down to our local Credit Union. All to open a retirement savings plan (RSP’s) to start contributing. It was a very small amount as I was going to college and only working part time. But I am forever thankful she got me started so young! Was RSP’s the right thing to use at the time, definitely not. I was already in a low tax bracket and had schooling write off’s. But at least it got me started and it was a smaller amount so really it wasn’t that big of a deal!

I cannot stress the value of investing early enough. By investing early, you allow for growth through those early years, meaning you have to invest less. Uh, yes please! I literally started with $25/semi-monthly into my retirement savings and invested with a local mutual fund rep. Best. Choice. Ever!

Look For Employer’s With Pension/Group RSP Options

This was not something I had considered when I was fresh out of college. But luckily for me, I was only two years into my full time employment escapades when I landed a job that did have a pension plan where they matched my contributions.

I know when my husband had two job offers, we broke down the income he’d make at both places. We looked at what the one job would have to pay since it didn’t have group RSP’s versus the other job that did offer. It was something like $2/hr more. I’ve been contributing to my pension through work for six years now and have around $35,000!

Meet With An Advisor!!!

When you are first starting out, it is so important to talk to a local advisor at a financial institution! It helps to get educated on all your options for investments. There are far too many people who save into a regular savings account under a RSP – those early incredibly low interest. And to consider RSP’s are longer term where the intention would be to not touch it for 30+ years, you are best to get that money into something to work harder for you!

Don’t get me wrong, not everyone needs an advisor. It’s all about educating yourself on what the best options are for you. There certainly can be great value to an advisor as they can work with you to achieve your goals, but some people are great at doing that themselves.

Let Your Money Work For You

This could go along with the last one but I wouldn’t be where I am today without investing my money into something that can earn me a return! Seeing as I’m no longer licensed to sell mutual funds I can’t go into detail. But consider this, if you have ten plus years to invest, historically for as long back as one can see, you have one shit year out of nine good years where you’ve had growth, you should be sitting on the good side.

Obviously it depends on lots of factors, but that’s why you have an advisor! They can recommend what works for what you’re trying to accomplish and within your comfort level. I’ve been investing in virtually the same investment since 2011 and I have $15,000 worth of growth. Yes, I’ve had ups and downs in the investment throughout the last ten years, but I didn’t/don’t need the money. I’ve earmarked it for retirement and I’m only 29!

Pre-authorized Contribution

Make those regular contributions with each pay day! It makes it easier to budget – you don’t even notice it’s gone! This would be my not so secret ultimate saving hack that gave me best success. I’ve been regularly contributing to my RSP’s each pay day since I was 18. It started with $25/semi-monthly to $100/bi-weekly. Not to mention I did still regularly contribute to my pension.

In summary…

It’s important to have a long term plan with your finances. Why are you earning money and what is it you’re looking to achieve? By figuring those things out, it gives you a destination and something to work towards.

Setting up those regular contributions along with pay days makes it’s extremely easy to set money aside. I can honestly say I’ve never felt stretched too thin.

But by far the biggest contributor to how I’ve managed to save what I did, is because I started so young. Growth on the funds you are saving at such a young age is drastic over the long term. It’s never too late to start taking advantage of that!

So, there you have it. Maybe I should have titled this “The Ultimate Easy Savings Tips”! The tips sound so simple, but too often we over complicate money and our finances. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s all about setting goals, checking in on them and getting educated about our options and using those options!