Here are 10 pain free ways to add a little “umph” to your lifetime net worth:

#1 Automate!
You can save a lot more than you think when you’re not thinking about it. Stowing away a few dollars every pay check can add up to ton over time, especially if this money goes into an interest bearing account, an investment account or an employer-matched retirement plan. Set up automatic deductions and transfers to painlessly and unconsciously pay yourself first.

#2 Stop the Bleeding.
Let’s face it. Nobody wants to pay fees and interest. They honestly do no one any good but your mean, evil debtor. Late fees, especially, make the angels cry. So put your bills on an automatic monthly payment system. Take cash back options at the grocery store instead of using ATMs. Have your bank email you overdraft warnings if you need them and use a snowball method to pay off high interest debt. Don’t fall for usurious scams like payday lending or tax refund advances. If you are extra ambitious and have the cash to spare, find out if your mortgage lender accepts pre-payments penalty free and consider making at least one extra payment a year. You may end up saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.
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The only way to truly save money painlessly is to not have to give anything up to do so. So how exactly do you go about doing that? Well it might sound all but impossible, but it’s actually quite easy, you just have to put your thinking cap on and be willing to think a little outside the box. The following are some great ideas, hopefully they will get you brainstorming and you’ll come up with even more ways to save money without making huge sacrifices.

Slash utility bills-you might not want to go without air conditioning, heating or the myriad of appliances your use on a daily basis and you don’t necessarily have to in trying to save money. One of the best ways to save money on utilities is to harness the power of nature. You could collect rainwater in a tank to slash water bills, or install solar panels for free electricity. Although these installations will involve an initial outlay they will enable you to save money in the long run painlessly.
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A portfolio is a group of financial assets such as stocks and bonds, held by an investor. In today’s financial marketplace, investors need to create well-structured portfolios that suit to their investment goals and strategies. There are investors who are risk-takers and investors who are risk-averse. Constructing a portfolio that reflects the investor’s risk profile and tolerance is a key factor for effective investment decision making.

Clarifying current situation and future needs for capital, along with risk tolerance determines the asset allocation among different asset classes. Optimal asset allocation is an effective method of diversification. Investors should diversify between different classes of assets but also, within each class. This allows them to incur long-term investment growth, while their assets are protected from the risks of large declines and structural changes in the economy over time.
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Dollar cost averaging is an investment strategy that can help lower investment risk by spreading out investment over time. While dollar cost averaging can be beneficial at times, it does not guarantee investment success because the value of the investment can continue to decline despite averaging down. Nevertheless, dollar cost averaging is a commonly used investment technique that is used both knowingly and unknowingly by participants in retirement plans, and is also used by financial management companies.

HOW TO DOLLAR COST AVERAGE:

To dollar cost average one essentially spreads out one’s investment in a particular financial instrument over time with a number of fixed or variable payments. For example, if one participates in a managed retirement plan such as an IRA or a 401K, monthly contributions may be made into various investment products as per agreement with one’s financial planner.
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Technical trading is one of the most widely criticized forms of investment. While the majority of the criticism comes from fundamental analysts – like Warren Buffet who said “I realized technical analysis didn’t work when I turned the charts upside down and didn’t get a different answer” and “If past history was all there was… the richest people would be librarians.”

There are two major flaws to technical analysis:

The first is simply that tech traders are what are also referred to as intra-day or day traders. Many day traders make upwards of 500 in and out transactions in a single day of trading. With per-trade fees running in at about $.30 for in-and-out buy or sell orders, that’s $150.00 per day just in fees, not to mention charting software and all the other tools (some traders pay over $1500.00 per month for screening programs).
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Investing for income is NOT what your typical stockbroker knows how to do! Investing for income is a way to take your future into your own hands, not depend on the whims of the market and the possibilities of government or pension failure. Do you have friends or family who lost everything in the tech crash? To Enron? To similar stock market fakery-failures? To get-rich-quick schemes? To buying a bad house in a boom market, only to lose everything when the market ticked south?
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