The best way to measure your financial success is how much money you have. It’s not how sophisticated your financial plan is, or what your credit score, it’s your net worth. It’s simply a calculation of everything you own minus everything you owe, it’s how much money you have! Since I’m in college and have expenses that are very low, I was able to double my net worth in the last year, which is awesome! Here are some great methods that you too can increase your net worth more so than you already are.

Pay off Debt – When you have high interest debt such as credit cards and payday loans, it really begins to hurt you. You might only be making a low easy payment, but over time you can end up paying several times what the cost of the purchase was. Your high interest debts are eating away at your net worth increases every month, so begin to pay them off today!

Cut Down on Expenses – This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend any money, just cut down on expenses which give you little value or depreciate over time rather quickly. This means cutting down on fast food, a bunch of clothes that you rarely ware, and expensive vehicles that you can’t afford.

Be Smart With Savings – For your basic savings account, make sure it’s not sitting in some major bank’s standard savings account which earns less than 1% APY. Be sure to keep your savings in a high yield savings account at a place such as ING Direct or HSBC Direct to get a decent rate on your savings account.

Maximize Retirement Plans – If you get a match from your company’s 401K or other retirement plan, you’d be crazy not to take it. It’s essentially free money. In addition you should max out your tax sheltered retirement accounts such as a Roth IRA. You can invest up into $4000 in one of those and never pay a dime in taxes in it!

Drive Smart – Brand new cars go down in value extremely quickly, the average millionaire drives a 2 year old or older car and you should too!

Start Paying in Cash – When you pay with cash, quite often you can get a discount for doing so because the store won’t have to pay any transaction fees for your purchase. When you wave money in front of people and use great negotiating techniques, you can often get a great deal!

Begin Investing If You Haven’t Already – If you haven’t already started investing, it’s never too soon to do so! Open up a retirement account at one of the major stock brokerages and begin to learn about investing to ensure you have a healthy and successful retirement!



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