Don’t take a tax refund
“If you’re getting a tax refund, something is radically wrong,” Orman told Yahoo! Finance in 2021.
Why? Because you've essentially had too much of your pay withheld for taxes — and have effectively given the government an interest-free loan.
When it comes to optimizing how much tax you pay, one smart place to look is your investing gains and losses.
That being said, it is possible to protect more of your money from taxes and optimize your gains and losses through direct indexing.
And FREC Direct Indexing is an investment platform that makes this strategy more accessible with their low management fees starting at 0.10%.
Direct indexing involves directly purchasing the components of an index to maximize tax loss harvesting. Frec can help you lower your tax bill, so you have more money to build your wealth. And even better, their powerful algorithms will perform trades for you to reduce your tax bill automatically so you don't have to worry about it.
Signing up takes just two minutes so you can quickly get started with optimizing your portfolio to save money on taxes and enjoy the same advantages as the ultra-wealthy.
If you do end up getting a refund this year, you’ll want to use it wisely.
"There is no smarter move than working on your emergency savings account if you’ve yet to accumulate up to a year’s worth of living expenses," Suze Orman wrote on her blog in March 2023. And a tax refund can be your kick-off point for doing just that.
Just make sure that you park your emergency fund in a high-interest account that will allow your savings to grow over time.
If you want to make your accessible cash work for you, consider a higher-yield, no-fee checking and savings account with SoFi. SoFi offers 4.60% APY on savings balances – which is up to 10x the national average — and 0.50% APY on checking balances.
With SoFi, you can also enjoy no-fee overdraft protection, early paycheck deposits and access to over 55,000 ATMs within the Allpoint network.
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You can also check out our list of the Best High Yield Savings Accounts of 2024 to find some savvy savings options that earn you more than the national average of 0.4% APY.
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Learn MoreDon’t waste money on coffee
According to Orman, your daily stop to pick up a cup of dark roast or a cappuccino is a habit you need to break. It's a "want," not a "need," and it's costing you a ton of money.
"You are peeing $1 million down the drain as you are drinking that coffee," Orman once told CNBC (causing coffee drinkers across America to do a spit take).
Here's the math on that: If you're spending $100 a month, that's money that could grow instead in a Roth IRA — to roughly $1 million after 40 years, assuming a 12% rate of return.
"Every single penny counts" when you're saving for your future," she says.
And there are much better ways to optimize those seemingly trivial coins. For example, rather than sliding your spare change over to a barista every day, invest it using an app called Acorns.
Once you’ve linked the Acorns app to your bank account, it will automatically round up every purchase you make to the nearest dollar and invest those extra cents in a diversified portfolio tailored to your financial goals.
Sign up now, and you can receive a $20 bonus investment
Don’t skimp on insurance
In an episode of “Who's Talking to Chris Wallace” in November 2023, Orman shared her belief that you should never lease a car, stating that “leasing a car is the biggest waste of money out there.” Instead she thinks it is “better to buy a car” and “take good care of it” so it lasts for many years.
That being said, regardless of how you pay for your car, having solid insurance coverage is of the utmost importance.
Car insurance policies include three key areas of coverage: for bodily injury liability per person, for total bodily injury liability, and for property damage you cause. Minimum coverage amounts in many states are, respectively, $25,000, $50,000 and $25,000. Orman doesn’t think that’s nearly enough.
According to data from MarketWatch, the national average cost for car insurance in 2024 is $2,008 per year. However, by spending just a few minutes shopping around for rates online, you can potentially reduce your yearly car insurance costs by hundreds of dollars.
Using an online marketplace like OfficialCarInsurance.com, you can shop around for the best auto insurance rates in your area. After answering a few questions, they’ll compile a list of the auto insurance rates for your unique needs.
And while you’re at it, online marketplace OfficialHomeInsurance.com offers home insurance rates so you can make sure you’re not overpaying for that either.
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Learn MoreDon’t take on debt for things you don’t need
In a 2023 blog post, Orman wrote: "Now is not the time to stretch to buy things that aren’t 100% necessary if you’re still working on building up your savings or paying off your debt."
There’s no better way to kick-start your savings than by playing the need vs. want game.
The next time you're about to buy something, ask yourself whether you really need it. Is it a necessity, or is it just something that would be nice to have at this exact moment?
If you’re not ready to eliminate all of your “want” purchases, the least you can do is spend a bit smarter — that means optimizing your savings and avoiding debt.
Climbing out of debt can be much easier when you consolidate under one lower rate. With Credible, you can speed up the process and even save money.
Credible makes it easy to streamline your debt repayment at an affordable rate. Their online marketplace of vetted lenders provides personalized debt consolidation loan offers based on your needs, allowing you to pay off your debt more efficiently at a fixed rate without juggling multiple bills.
All you need to do is provide some information about yourself, and Credible will present you with a list of loan options to start tackling your debt.
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