10 Quick Steps To Manage Your Money Like A Millionaire

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Your phone buzzes. It’s a Venmo notification: Somebody just sent you a cool $1 million. We wish. Life as a millionaire sounds pretty appealing, but unfortunately the chances of that dream scenario happening are, well, probably zero. (Venmo doesn’t even allow transactions that large.)

Even if your bank account is a few zeros short of millionaire status, that doesn’t mean you can’t manage your money like one. No, that doesn’t mean you should start shopping for private jets, but there are a few easy habits you can adapt to start managing your money like a millionaire.

These are simple money moves any normal, non-millionaire person can make today. Each tip can get you closer to achieving your big goals, whether it’s to start saving your money and living like a millionaire or achieve true financial independence.

1. Get up to $500 in Free Stock

We all know that most millionaires are investors. But if you feel like you don’t have enough money to start investing yourself, you’re not alone. Here’s the thing: You really don’t need that much — and you can even get free stocks (worth up to $500!) if you know where to look.

Whether you’re got $5, $100 or $800 to spare, you can start investing with Robinhood.

Yeah, you’ve probably heard of Robinhood. Both investing beginners and pros love it because it doesn’t charge commission fees, and you can buy and sell stocks for free — no limits. Plus, it’s super easy to use.

What’s best? When you download the app and fund your account (it takes no more than a few minutes), Robinhood drops a share of free stock into your account. It’s random, though, so that stock could be worth anywhere from $5 to $500 — a nice boost to help you build your investments.

2. Leave Your Family up to $1 Million in Life Insurance (For as

Little as $5/Month)

Have you thought about how your family would manage without your income after you’re gone? How they’ll pay the bills? Send the kids through school? Now’s a good time to start planning for the future by securing a life insurance policy.

You’re probably thinking: I don’t have the time or money for that. But your application shouldn’t take more than about five minutes — and you could leave your family up to $1 million in life insurance (for as little as $5/month) with a company called Bestow.

You can change or cancel your plan at any time. Plus, the security of knowing your family is taken care of is priceless.

If you’re under the age of 54 and want to get a fast life insurance quote without a medical exam, pushy sales calls or even getting up from the couch, get a free quote from Bestow.

3. Get the Same Credit Score as a Millionaire — Without The Bank Account

Good news for us “normal” folk: Your credit score has nothing to do with your income. Yes, having more money might mean you don’t have to take out loans or buy groceries on credit. But, in reality, you and I could have the same credit score as, say, a certain someone who owns Amazon. Heck, ours could be even better.

So if you’re looking to get your credit score back on track — or even if it is on track and you want to bump it up — try using a free website called Credit Sesame.

Within two minutes, you’ll get access to your credit score, any debt-carrying accounts and a handful of personalized tips to improve your score. You’ll even be able to spot any errors holding you back (one in five reports have one).

James Cooper, of Atlanta, used Credit Sesame to raise his credit score nearly 300 points in six months.* “They showed me the ins and outs — how to dot the I’s and cross the T’s,” he said.

Getting your free credit score takes less than two minutes.

4. Ask This Website to Pay Your Credit Card Bill This Month

Your credit card is getting rich by ripping you off with insane rates, but a company called Fiona could help you pay them off tomorrow.

Here’s how it works: Fiona will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every credit card balance you have. The benefit? You’re left with just one bill to pay every month, and because the interest rate is so much lower, you can get out of debt so much faster. Plus, no credit card payment this month.

Fiona won’t make you stand in line or call a bank. And if you’re worried you won’t qualify, it’s free to check online. It takes just two minutes, and it could save you thousands of dollars. Totally worth it.

All that credit card debt — and the anxiety that comes with it — could be gone by tomorrow.

5. Use up Your Entire Paycheck

No, this doesn’t mean book a flight to Vegas. We’re talking about creating a zero-based budget, a budget that finds a place for your every dollar. After all, millionaires don’t get rich by doing the bare minimum with their budget.

You’ll want to start by tracking a month of expenses. How much money do you (or don’t you) have remaining? Then, consider your financial goals. Do you want to save money? Invest? Pay off debt?

Work backward to cut your expenses until you can achieve that goal. It might take some patience, but it’ll pay off.

6. Grow Your Money Up to 11x Faster — Without Risking it

You’ve probably heard one of the best ways to grow your money is to stick it in the stock market and leave it there for, well, ever.

But maybe you’re just looking for a place to safely stash it away — but still earn money. Under your mattress or in a safe will get you nothing. And a typical savings account won’t do you much good (the FDIC reports that the average account earns just .09%).

But Aspiration lets you earn up to 5% cash back on your debit card spending and up to 11 times the average interest on the money you set aside to save.

Aspiration also shares part of its profit with non-profits, so you can stick up for your beliefs — without even having to write a check.

It takes just five minutes to sign up for a new debit card with the Aspiration Spend and Save account.

7. Grow Your Wealth By Learning From Others

One of the best ways to learn? Find a mentor. The same goes for money. Sometimes, the best way to get your money in order is to learn from others. This could be the millionaires themselves, personal finance experts or real-life people who’ve had success. Search the internet for blogs and websites, listen to podcasts and read books.

Here are a few of our favorite resources (ahem, besides ourselves):

  • “How to Money” podcast
  • “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey
  • “The Side Hustle Show” podcast
  • “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki
  • “The Money Nerds” podcast
  • “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Samuel
Image via PEXELS

8. Turn Those Crumpled Receipts Into Cash

What do you usually do with receipts? You check out, they hand you a mile-long piece of paper, and you jam it in your pocket, or stuff it in the plastic bag. Pretty worthless.

But a free app called Fetch Rewards will turn them into cash. It partners with tons of brands to give you points for every grocery receipt you share. Then you can exchange them for Visa gift cards.

Don’t want to put a ton of work into this? Perfect. All you have to do is send Fetch a photo of your receipt, and it does everything for you. No scanning barcodes or searching for offers — and you can use it with any grocery receipt.

When you download the app, use the code PENNY to automatically earn 2,000 points when you scan your first receipt. Then start snapping photos of your recent receipts to see how many points you can earn without a single trip to the store!

Not so bad for a useless receipt, right?

9. Cancel Your Car Insurance

Millionaire or not, no one wants to overpay any of their bills. So when was the last time you shopped around for car insurance? Was it more than six months ago? If so, you’re probably overpaying…

But don’t worry. A company called The Zebra makes it super easy to compare car insurance prices in minutes.

Take Lourdes Robles-Velazquez, for example. The single mom was paying $205 a month to insure two Toyota Priuses — hers and her daughter’s. By shopping around, she shaved $80 off her monthly car insurance bill. That’s nearly $1,000 in savings per year.

Wondering how much you could save? Head over to The Zebra, and get a free quote. It takes all of two minutes.

10. Invest in Real Estate (Even If You’re Not A Millionaire)

The stock market can be a scary place. Stock prices shoot up and down like a roller coaster ride, and who knows when the whole thing might crash?

It would be nice to diversify and invest some of your money in real estate, but don’t you have to be wealthy to do that?

Now you can invest like the 1% does, and all you need to get started is $500. A company called DiversyFund will invest your money in commercial real estate — specifically, in apartment complexes that it owns in California and Texas.

Real estate can potentially earn you more money than the stock market. Over the long term, investing in the stock market will earn you an average annual return of 7%, adjusted for inflation, according to a number of studies. Diversyfund can’t guarantee how its investments will perform in the future — no one can — but historically, it has earned an annual return of 17% to 18%.

So you don’t need a fortune to invest in real estate. With $500, you can play with the big boys.

Nick Dimengo avatar
Nick's a Sr. Editor for BroBible, mainly relying on his Sports Encyclopedia-like mind to write about things. He's also the co-host of the BroBible podcast "We Run This," and can be seen sweating his ass off while frequently running 10+ miles around Seattle.