Finance

I am going to get rich and I'm taking you all with me. Read this. Get rich. Use the profits for good. Fuck the establishment.

Books

3/23/23 Make It Last by Mary Flanagan - excellent guide for helping you keep appliances and home running smoothly, and fixing stuff yourself instead of paying an arm and a leg thanks to Murphy's Law kicking in. Doesn't cover everything, but covers a lot of stuff and is worth it.
3/30/23 Don't Throw It Out by Lori Baird and the Editors of Yankee Magazine - Lots of helpful information here. Has information for how to reduce money loss by maintaining appliances and home stuff and how to upcycle many things. but listen up: I read textbooks for fun and this was a drudge for me to read. It is really badly written. So gird thyself
The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half by Stephanie Nelson - Most finance books are more pop psychology and the author's attempt to get rich quick than anything else. Not so this one. It's the real deal and WILL help you save money.
The 30-Minute Money Plan for Moms by Catey Hill - Not just for moms, not by a long shot. Should be required reading in every high school.
You Need A Budget by Jesse Mecham - Considered a classic. Worth the read.
100 Ways To Live a Luxurious Life on a Budget by Fiona Ferris - explains some specific tips on how to use creativity and imagination to live a "rich life," whatever that actually means to you. It's easy to say "you can do so and so and live richly without funds, or without more funds." It's hard to describe exactly what you can do to make that actually real. She did!

Frugality Tips Along the lines of the "lifehacks" you normally hear about reusing toilet paper and spending all your free time crocheting stuff, but good

Assorted tips and tricks

This is an excellent read. Even if you don't read the rest of this page, read through it, please, it's worth it. I Was Kicked Out Of Home at 17 Reddit Post
4/3/23 r/askreddit lifehack from u/rooktakesqueen One of the best ideas for budgeting ever
12/9/22 Realistically speaking: if your budget plan looks a little like "don't spend anything more than a monthly self-care budget, savings, necessary stuff, saving for taxes, and "fuck you bills" per year" that is perfectly viable. In fact it's often better than trying to overspend on things that will supposedly be "a good investment in the long run." Usually, if that is referring to physical stuff, no, it's not, that's a high pressure sales tactic. And it's often better than spending cash on stuff that you don't desperately need. A monthly self-care budget exists with a budget like this to ensure you don't get tempted to spend more than you can afford to stop yourself from going insane. It's for your mental health. If all you can afford to spend per month is a dollar on yourself, or five bucks, that's fine. But I have seen good results with this practice in my life and therefore think it's a good idea. YMMV 1/10/23 Have recently realized that spending half the self-care budget on practical items such as cleaning supplies, house care items, emergency prep stuff like first aid kits, etc. etc. would probably help with mental health as well as physical well-being also. I'll give it a try this year. 2/10/23 It works really, really well. Apparently for my husband also. So that's two people. Still a pretty pitiful sample size tbh but better than zero
12/5/22 Had a couple realizations today. A lot of what goes as "financial literacy" these days more or less amounts to put your money in a tax-advantaged brokerage account, such as a 401k, Roth IRA or a 529 (for college), or a bank or credit union brokerage account that tells you it'll be a good investment, and have someone else manage it for you. This person or their firm can then invest however much of that money they want in whatever stocks they want, as crookedly as they want. But people just think money goes into the account and magically compounds somehow. No... it's compounding because whoever is managing your account is investing in whatever corporations they want to, and as long as you get money from it, you ain't complainin. Big oil, outsourced labor, etc. your money could be invested in any of it and here's the real kicker: people doing the managing of these accounts do not have to tell you exactly what stocks they invested in. Oh and by the way, there's a bit of a revolving door in the corporate world, with people chairing the board of directors of multiple corporations, then playing musical chairs with them for some suspicious reason. And I have heard that the higher your income is yearly, the more likely it is that you get a larger chunk of your cash from investments and investment-based earning. Hmmmm. The other side of this coin is all the people scamming other people and most notably the government in order to get taken care of financially without putting in work when they're perfectly capable of it. For instance, gaming the system to get unemployment benefits, to use Social Security when you're still able bodied and perfectly capable of working, flying a sign or popping out too many kids that you then neglect or getting a gofundme up so you can fund your mcmansion in Texas (some of which i've actually seen people do in person, so yes this kind of thing does happen) and so on. The end result? People who work are the suckers. People who game the system are the winners. It is in no way, shape, or form right for the IRS to take 40% of your paycheck before you see any of it. And, quite ironically and either by accident or by design, both the super rich and the relatively low on the income scale using these kinds of tactics to get paid are benefiting from... what looks a lot like Communism! It appears that when you don't regulate an economy enough and/or in the right ways, the system ends up being a kind of de facto Communist society where work is punished and corruption rewarded...
The Balance Has more financial literacy than you can shake a stick at and is worth reading every so often.
The world of work is divided into three categories: work required to help oneself and others survive physically, work required to help oneself and others survive mentally/spiritually/emotionally, and worthless "work." In the third category you find middlemen of middlemen trying to gain a living from other people's hard work and effort, and this third category is the same as earning a living by committing crimes. As for the first two categories, everyone must be proficient at the first category. This is why work as an artist isn't something that pays that well. The human race has trouble surviving without enough of the first category so every artistic career-minded person must also be proficient in the first category. The first category is "steady career" material. A lot of people confuse the first category with the third category. Take a look at Donald Trump and his supporters to see why. The second category of work is often not valued enough, with people preferring to spend money on third-category work. This is a major reason why the job market and the world sucks so much right now. Careful where your money goes. In no way do I mean that working some dead-end job is preferable to investing in stocks or to other white-collar work. The white-collar blue-collar debate is nothing new. In fact, it seems to be a good idea to do both. No, I mean that it's important to both be as ethical and responsible as you can in your job and to buy things from people who do the same. I also mean that there's both an ethical and an unethical way of doing any job (minus the illegal and unethical ones which are always bad, i.e. being a pimp or slinging drugs or evangelical money-grubbing or something), so avoid the people who unethically work.
For the bare basics, watch Schoolhouse Rock Money. Epileptics, do not watch this. Scroll down the list to find it. And avoid the "history" videos, which are incorrect. The science ones should probably be skipped too.
Wealth, if you look closely, is actually about relationships. Labor and work and the workplace, and how you treat one another there. Money and who and what you spend it on and how. It all relates to relationships. The question is if we as a species are content to live with toxic, shitty relationships with one another and with the planet/environment using money as the usual scapegoat for why things went wrong, or if we can pursue win-win healthy relationships, with and without money. Try to remember that relationships have two basic rules. 1. If it resembles slavery it's not healthy 2. Don't make the other party so miserable they lose their minds
Consider how much money you need, per year, for each major life event, for emergencies, for retirement, and so on. Needs, and enough on top of that to ensure you are taking proper care of yourself and those you care about mentally, physically, spiritually, and so on; people who say you don't need anything physical for any of that are probably trying to scam you fleece you or sell you a religion so they get the benefits (or unknowingly keeping that chain of events in motion after some huckster started it long ago). Once you have that, consider if you're just gilding the lily or not. Realistically, accumulating more than you need and just hoarding it doesn't help anyone, least of all you. But if you desperately want to earn bajillions for a specific cause such as bringing clean running water to the world or to buy a bunch of land for Native American Tribal Nations (like I do), then that's fine. It's the hoarding without a clear goal or purpose that's pathological.
Here is a very politically incorrect piece of advice. If you are really hurting for money, then don't spend every minute of your life trying not to be a Scrooge or a miser. (Pop culture is full of anti-wealth messages, as is most religion, also Communism, that essentially persuades the average Joe that if you aren't poor and work your fingers to the bone you are an un-Christian, un-Charitable piece of garbage. I grew up listening to that shit and was gullible, swallowed it wholesale and it damn near killed me.) USE THAT KIND OF PERSON AS YOUR MUSE IN AN ETHICAL MANNER. Not for life or as an ethos of "I'll hoard too much blah blah blah", just til you can get out of the red financially. Ignore the sanctimonious gits modern life is so full of that hypocritically tell you money is the root of all evil while enslaving a horde of quasi-legal underpaid minimum wage workers, fulfilling the quotes of Honore de Balzac, and worshipping the almighty dollar; don't use them as your muse, just the fictional misers because holy shit. Conserve resources. Yeah, beyond say $150,000 earned a year you don't really need more, probably, but if your cash problems relate to your literal survival as opposed to just "can I afford this frivolous luxury or not" then you need to get rid of the anti-wealth programming society has instilled in you, and fast. Besides, I know a great way of saving a lot of money and it's called being dead. Since you are alive you require resources, and life is "expensive" to maintain. Keeping this in mind, turn off the taps, turn off the extra lights, unplug the unused electronics, drive safely, and cultivate sustainable, consistent habits of extreme but reasonable (I mean, don't reuse toilet paper or go crazy here) frugality. (Of course, you must do this in an ethical manner only, because screwing someone over in the name of more pennies is more costly in the long run.) It will not make you rich overnight but it will certainly make your life suck wayyy less in the long run.
It is generally a good practice to check Craigslist for your location if you're looking for any kind of job. If nothing else you can check out the "free" section, and it is a pretty good gauge of how well business is going in your area and what kind of opportunities there are. Yes, Craigslist is shady. No, it is not safe. Keep that in mind.
The Millionaire Next Door Wikipedia article summarizing the book. Dunno if it's worth the read.
Learn what these things are and make a plan to use them: credit unions with high savings account interest rates, 401ks, 529s, Roth IRAs. These are extremely important.
If you plan to get any college, get the maximum bang for your buck. First determine what sort of job you plan to get after college and exactly how long at that job, with its median salary, you'll need to pay off any college loans. Trade schools are very underrated for getting paid btw. I'd go for CLEPing out of as many classes as possible for the first year's 101 crap, plus also getting your Associate's at an in-state Community College. Just in case you didn't hear the same stuff from all your Millenial acquaintances. Oh, and if you can't find any good stateside colleges that are worth the exorbitant cost? Foreign-country colleges are often excellent.
Paying a corporation-based tax advisor for help is imho a very good idea. This is also pretty darned important if you invest at all, or freelance. And for these latter two things you need to contact said tax advisor four times a year to pay estimated payments four times a year: by April 15, by June 15, by September 15 and by January 15 of the next year. It'll save you so much trouble, and a heck of a lot of money. The IRS is an evil sheisty piece of shit, keep your eye on everything you do that has to do with what it could care about.
Work on your relationship with wealth and money. A lot of people are indoctrinated young that 'money is the root of all evil' or other such stuff and it ruins lives. That shit is insidious. Many places are full of people who make you feel like you don't understand life at all if you aren't dirt poor like they are, who deliberately set out to make you feel bad for not living below the poverty line because if they can't have what they want, they don't want you to have it either. That's a trap. It is not somehow more virtuous to be poor! Just like it's not somehow more virtuous to suffer. You do not deserve to be living in poverty. You do not deserve to suffer. And you are worthy. Remember that it is entirely possible to earn plenty of money, even to be really rich, without harming anyone. Really. In fact, the richer you are, the more you can help people and create positive changes, but we all know the story of Scrooge, so there's a balance here. To convince yourself of this give yourself a financial goal (or a lot of them) that is morally and ethically the best possible use of a specific amount of money, and then work towards that. I have only rarely seen places full of rich people that have done the exact same thing, aka looked down on those poorer than them because they "don't understand life," a major trope in American media but a very old one from the 50's-80s, but those kinds of places/attitudes are few and far between since our economy's gone downhill.
Here's a piece of advice I give to anyone working magic for money that also applies to anyone who uses money: work to obtain it only in a manner that is ethical and good, which creates positive changes only, and which harms neither yourself nor the innocent. If you can manage that, then you can have a healthy relationship with money, wealth, others, and yourself. If you can't, then your problem's probably more psychological than money-related.
The rent is way too high. But what if you got together with an entire apartment block, pooled the money from everyone for say, a month's rent, got a lawyer to square things up, and then bought a building or some land together? Just a thought. Same basic idea can apply to groups of acquaintances/friends/family for buying land allotments for growing food, ranch land, houses, and so on. In fact I'm beginning to think that for every scummy, meritless way of earning a living, there is a way around having to pay for it and its captive consumerism bullshit.
People making it look easy to earn lots of money are doing so because it IS easy - for them - because they've convinced enough people that if they are followed, they'll also be rich. It's one of the few fully legal cons there is and it's a Ferengi way of doing business. One of the new ways of doing this is by selling Communism, Anarcho-Communism, or some flavor of these in a product or service. It's a form of virtue signaling, people go "yay!" and then plunk down cash to support this... cashless ideal. Even this is usually well-masked by someone beefing up their rebellious image, the "stick it to the man" type stuff, the hippie type stuff, intersectionality, oppression, and so on, which claims to be really original but at heart is straight-up Communist. Okay. Don't you fall for it, my friend.
7/27/22 You know, it really is easy to earn over 100K a year. If you're willing to enslave other people. It's just like that scene in that book by Mark Twain where Tom Sawyer persuades people to whitewash the fence for him. You'll hear over and over from people "you just aren't working hard enough!" if you aren't yet earning a good living. Guys.... earning a lot of money in an honest way takes time, effort, hard work, sacrifice. If someone earned a lot in a short amount of time without any evidence of effort, you should probably be suspicious. But to be frank not as suspicious as many people are of other people's wealth; sometimes it crosses the line into outright undeserved envy and the rich chick really did earn her money.
Save $5-20 or more once every two weeks. Put it in a credit union's savings account or some other bank's saving account (not recommended). Credit unions have a high interest rate so that's why I recommend them; otherwise it makes more sense to just hoard the cash at home (banks often have hidden fees for people who are poor). Why do this? Because at least once a year, some kind of stupid expense comes up. I call them @*&# you expenses. Your car breaks down, your cat has to have emergency treatment from a vet, you have an unexpected health bill, etc. Usually such expenses cost around $2000 a year in my experience. Without this money saved up you're kind of sunk.
For serious savings, as in long-term ones used for retirement and large expenses, understand that at the lowest tax bracket (10%), you only keep 90% of the interest you have earned at your bank account from year to year, and at an interest rate of 3% max this may not be your cup of tea. This may or may not be okay with you; calculate your gains twenty and thirty years from now and consider the value of inflation by then. Try looking into zero-coupon local municipal bonds and an investment portfolio as well, plus other low-risk investements. Bonus: these may actually keep up with inflation from year to year. Diversification of your investments and money is good, just like redundancy of documents and files and other resources. Adds an element of safety. The neat thing about many kinds of local municipal bonds is that if you buy them and they mature at the same value, you don't have a capital gain or loss, and you don't pay taxes on them or their interest.
If you can't afford your necessities, never EVER buy frivolities until you have everything else taken care of. That includes a substantial chunk of savings hoarded and a continued inflow of cash from a steady job. Learned this the hard way. It's pretty aggravating to have a budget of $0 for what you actually want, but it's better than being in debt or lacking food. Btw when you are in this situation, charity counts as a frivolity. In fact you should be the one taking advantage of local charities, see next point.
Regarding charity, if you can't afford necessities despite working your ass off, it has been my personal experience that it is good karma to accept charity from others, hit up the food bank, hit up the clothes area of a church's donation area, even accept money from others, especially if you've donated to charity in the past. It's good to take care of yourself and let other people gain good karma this way. However, it has also been my experience that accepting charity when it is not truly needed by you or when you haven't done your best to get a job is extremely bad karma. Personally, I believe in karma banking, where I pay it forward as much as possible, because who knows? The next turn of bad luck could be mine. Of course, if you're not a believer in karma, then believe in consequences of your money, because donating it to places in need around your neighborhood/that affect you prevents various kinds of social decay and crime. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all. Also, charitable giving is potentially helpful for doing your taxes, and can bump you into a lower tax bracket if you do it right. If you're rich enough for it to be significant, and I hope you do wind up that way, then please look into it.
How do you avoid spending money on stuff you can't afford? By realizing that it's more about peace of mind than anything. You can "buy" peace of mind by leaving your money in the bank, investments, or wherever it is that it's just lurking. In other words, you can "buy" peace of mind by not buying things.
How do you afford stuff you really need or want? Budgeting and saving. I hate credit because it's enslaving yourself to a future in what is likely a dead-end job, and I don't use it. Here's what I do instead. I prioritize the stuff I need to buy in terms of what's most urgent and do what I can to save up a few months in advance for it. I budget two years in advance, given my current, not wishful-thinking, income, figuring out everything from soup to nuts. Needs get allocated first so I pay my bills and for things like transportation first. Then every week (Sunday to be exact) and every month I review what's going on with my fucking finances and see what kind of adjustments I need to make (i.e. Oh, guess I'll be eating oatmeal for the next week's breakfast and lunches, or maybe hit up the food pantry). Foodservice jobs suck but... they often do feed you. If you're skilled with those and have been having trouble affording food lately, apply to your favorite restaurants and ask if they offer employee discount meals. That kitchen life is pretty dramatic though so let's hope you can handle your own.
Figure out your "why" before you figure out the "how." Why earn that much? Be as specific as possible.
Personal finance is usually somewhat of a misnomer. Usually, it's not personal finance that is determining your financial station in life but your family's finances. It is possible to create a "family" environment financially among a friend group if you don't have a family that supports each other financially. If you are lucky enough to be in a family that does that already then reframe how you think about wealth from a standpoint of "us" instead of just "me." For instance, if there's a primary breadwinner, there is probably something you can do to make their life easier. Or perhaps you can make all of their hard work worth it by boosting morale. Think about how you can support the family and you'll raise the family's wealth in ways not limited to just the material.
Beware social expectation expenses. This is a lesson almost every Millenial has learned the hard way. These expenses are those things that society tells you are "necessary for your future well being" or whatever. They include but are not limited to: a degree from a high-priced college, a fancy car that requires a loan, a McMansion, a white picket fence, 2.5 children and a golden retriever. Think long and hard about what wealth means to YOU, not as a piece of proof that you don't need to live in fear and lack, but as something that works for you to help you be happy. What is money for if not to create positive change?
These will absolutely drain your money: not having good health insurance (I recommend medicare; having been ripped off by various health insurance companies), having children, getting conned esp. by "friends" or "family" that wants a loan or a gift or something, getting conned by someone you trusted who then backs out of an enormous loan such as college, addictions, an overly generous nature, subscriptions or recurring payments to anything that isn't 100% essential, college at an expensive school, loans, credit cards if you're not careful, 'Treat Yo' Self' done if you haven't budgeted for it, and poorly considered government policy
9 times out of 10 it's best to not give your friends expensive gifts, no matter how much they need them. Chances are they aren't actually your friends. Same goes for allowing anyone to live in your house rent free, get free rides in your car, or eat your food. The poorer you are, the more likely it is you'll know a parasite pretending to be a buddy and that's just the way it goes. Good rule of thumb: if you were in a relationship with this person, would someone on the outside think of them as a gold digger? Yes? Drop them. This is ESPECIALLY true for family members, societal pressure to 'love your family' be damned. Of course I'm not talking about children or other dependents here, just parasitic 18+ jerks who could easily work a job but choose not to.
Choose the life you want. Define it in as much detail as possible or your chances of actually achieving it are slim to none. Put a price tag on the parts of it that are financially related and make a viable plan for getting there (see next suggestion). Money is only part of the equation of living your dreams but it's pretty helpful if you know what your dreams are in the first place.
Try to make money work for you instead of working for money. What that actually means is to remember that every dollar you have can be put to the best possible purposes for your life. You do not have to be a slave to it; it can be simply a means to an end. So define those ends. A lifetime financial plan is one way of doing that. All it involves is thinking about what you want to pay for (how many years do you want to be retired and how much per year do you need to survive on in retirement? do you want kids? those are about $250,000 to raise; how much do you need to live on per year if you lose your job; how many years of emergency funds do you want? do you want a house, and if so, where and what kind? be comprehensive and specific) and then deciding to save up for each thing, starting now. Short term financial plans are another way of doing that, and simply mean giving yourself a goal to save up for (i.e. I want a nice video game system). Once you have those figured out, then you can use arithmetic to determine how many hours per week you need to work and at what wages in order to afford the things you'd like. Importantly, determine how much you'll need to earn per year so you can choose a career field that pays that.
Whenever you find a job that states its hourly wage plus the number of hours per week, always calculate how much it pays per year, after taxes. That way you can see if it's worth it. $75,000 per year is comfortable for a 9-5 PM job 6 days a week. After taxes, that's roughly $45,000. That's roughly $20/hr AFTER TAXES and $32.55/hr BEFORE TAXES. A $15/hr wage is roughly $34,560 per year with those hours BEFORE TAXES. After taxes: roughly $20,736, which is equivalent to roughly $9/hr. A $10/hr wage is roughly $23,040 with those hours BEFORE TAXES. After taxes: roughly $13,824, which is roughly $6/hr. Taxes take on average 40% of all earnings and they are taken before you even get your paycheck. This is all before the yearly tax, which is not taken from your paycheck but depends on a variety of factors. This is also on top of sales tax for everything you buy, plus captive consumerism expenses such as the insurance for the car you likely need to get to your job and health insurance. And you wonder why Americans are so notorious for taking on overtime. It's a wonder our economy hasn't crashed before the pandemic. It was probably all created based on credit.
If you have a steady job, you can automate your bills so they automatically are paid first, or withdrawn from your paycheck straightaway so you never get your utilities cut off, etc. You can also automate savings so that say, 10% of your paycheck immediately goes to savings. Check with your bank.
Credit unions often have far better interest rates for their savings accounts because unlike banks, they don't need to earn a profit. Take a look.
Avoid banks with fees for having insufficient funds in checking accounts (coughusbankcough), overdraft charges instead of simply not allowing you to take out money, hidden fees, and so on. Also: it's better to get cash back at a grocery store than to get money from ATMs because they nickel and dime you. Ditto things like MoneyGram for sending money; use a cheaper money transfer app instead.
You can get into stonks if you really want to, but unless you're willing to spend the equivalent of a part time job learning how to do it right and then continuing to do it right, you'd probably better pay a financial advisor to manage your portfolio at a brokerage firm. As far as I know you can open a brokerage account with a minimum of $1000. There are various brokerage firms that allow you to make no-advisor DIY trades with no fees per trade and no fee to open an account (as far as I know). These include Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Etrade. Full-service brokerages that advise you on how to not go broke on stonks include Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Edward Jones, and Fidelity. I would recommend Fidelity or Schwab for full service brokerages here because they seem to involve less hidden fees and more options for stocks to choose. There are some penny stock trading apps such as Acorns, Cashapp, and RobinHood, but I have no idea if they are shady or not.
It is entirely possible to gain money on the stock market by investing in environmentally friendly corporations and socially just ones, and avoiding Evil Corporations That Suck Your Soul. It takes quite a bit of effort, but the more people do this, the less fossil fuel bastards have extra money with which to destroy the planet.
There is a new start-up investment website called WeFunder. Once upon a time, to invest in startups you had to be an "accreddited investor" which is a euphemism for "a millionaire." WeFunder changed that. You can invest in a startup for as little as $108. The drawback is that startups are very risky and you could lose it all.
EDITED 11/23/21 ***I messed up and attempted to fix this*** If you are self-employed or have sold any stocks recently, you have to pay taxes four times a year, for each quarter. The quarters are January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December, and tax day for each quarter is correspondingly April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 for the previous year's last quarter (and no, I don't know what payment due date corresponds to what quarter). I'd recommend paying these taxes on the 12th or even the 1st of each of these months to give yourself more leeway. TaxAct does not cheaply help with this so if you can, it's probably better to file in person at H&R Block or a similar full-service place so the IRS doesn't eat you alive. It is a good idea to enroll in this site early because it sends out a mailing via USPS of your login information before you can do anything.
If you have a steady job that offers a 401k, try to max it out or at least contribute a little. If you're self-employed look into a Roth IRA. The ideal time to start saving for retirement is right now.
Roommates are spectacular for both parties' finances if you get along. Try to have some kind of written roommate agreement and hash out all possible things that can go wrong before you or they move in.
The reason some say to have a credit card, buy puny cheap things with it, and pay it off on time every month is to increase the likelihood of a bank granting a loan to you, such as a mortgage on your first home. Good credit score = increased likelihood you'll get a loan on anything. This is important if you want to move out of apartments. After all, apartments are not rent-to-own. Homes are, and they come with privacy, lack of evil landlords, and generally fewer problems than apartments. However I still don't use credit cards, since I consider them a bigger hassle than they're worth.
Things you will need for the steadiest possible financial situation (unless you want to be rich, which comes with its own problems): Stable/healthy relationships with who you live with, a home on land that you own yourself, half a year of savings for each person in your family unit, a retirement fund steadily growing, at least one stable income source, home and health insurance plus whatever other insurance is applicable (i.e. business, liability), portable emergency supplies, everyday carry of emergency/useful supplies, home supply of emergency and just-in-case supplies, a pantry filled with food and water, and a heck of a lot of education
Get better at whatever you do for a living and don't stop. There's an old maxim in foodservice that goes "work smarter not harder." So do your best to find all the resources you can to improve at your job over time. Read books about it at the library. Take classes. Watch Youtube videos. Look at Instructables. Use Ecosia to search for "how to _" guides. Ask people for help, find good mentors. Find free college courses on it (see Big Brain Time for some onling free college resources, and also look at MIT and Stanford's free classes). Specifically look for textbooks in your field, not just pop science and pop culture bullshit. Although sometimes that can help. Even enroll in a local community college, trade school, or online college to get your education in. Also, accumulating certifications from accredited institutions is very important. Getting tutoring, and mentoring, and online classes is an investment in yourself too. Always worth it.
Some of the worst advice I ever got was to specialize in one field only and not get a well rounded education. See what happens when that advice is followed? Exhibit A, 2020-2022. A well rounded education is the key to everything! Just make sure it is not only broad but also deep, detailed, and thorough.

Couponing and Bargain Hunting

There is a real danger here of spending way too much time looking for coupons and finding nothing; a rate of diminishing returns because time is money. These sites should give you the most payoff for the least time spent. You might want to set an alarm so you don't spend too much time getting sucked into this
Broke Scholar For assistance in finding scholarships, neatly listed by major, and also for finding student discounts and many, many coupons
Offers.Com Good idea to check this before you head to the grocery store or really before you buy anything
Coupons.Com This too. In particular check this if you ever need to stay at a motel.
The Krazy Coupon Lady Moar coupons
Honey.com Website for comparing deals and getting coupons. Have not used this but supposedly it's worth it?
Check the actual websites of companies and businesses you buy stuff from on a regular basis for coupons and deals
Sign up for email newsletters from all the companies and businesses you buy stuff from on a regular basis. Check those emails. Stack the promos they offer with whatever coupons and other deals you find.
If there is a phone app for the company you're buying from regularly, try to get it, because those usually have deals on there.
Consider making lists of the stuff you buy on a recurring basis, especially things that you only need to get maybe once every couple of months cause they last a while. This is prime turf for couponing and once you know what you're looking for, you can cheapify it greatly not just by buying in bulk but also by applying coupons to the bulk stuff, while it's on sale. In fact, if you make a list of all your necessary expenses sorted by category (i.e. bills, household goods, food, etc.) you can find deals and ways of lowering the price for all of it.
Sign up for all the sweepstakes and freebies you can; for instance Goodreads has these. Plant catalogs are technically another freebie; Thespruce.com has a list of them. Do note that if you sign up for plant catalogs you WILL get a lot more spam in your mailbox because unscrupulous companies sell your info to the highest bidder and put you on marketing lists
Check Craigslist's Free section regularly to see if there's anything there you can use
Dumpster diving is ye olde bargain hunt. So is visiting the landfill. For good ways to do this safely visit Instructables.com since it has a couple tutorials
If there is a rewards card or any kind of customer loyalty benefit, sign up for it and use it!
After the pandemic, make a point of going to garage sales but if staffed by Boomers, leave. Full price well-used goods? Come on. Goodwill and thrift stores are excellent places as well, particularly for household goods like furniture and CDs, and for clothes. Aldi and dollar stores are also good.