Editor: Crass Cash

I got these from a yahoo.com finance article.  
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-things-shouldnt-waste-money-211013293.html

1. Cable TV - i stopped mine in March when a roommate moved out and it's been great.  College football season is coming up though and I'm going to try out sling.com so that I can watch some live games. 
2. Bank fees - you should never have to pay bank fees.  The only time it's reasonable is ATM when you're traveling over seas.  But even then a number of banks will reimburse you for those fees now.  
3. Extended Warranties - you should never get an extended warranty.  If it's a crappy enough of a product that you need it, don't buy it.  
4. Housing - Americans have increased the size of their homes by 20% since 2000 and that's with less people living in them.  It's a complete waste.  If you want to spend more on housing so that you can bike or walk to work.  I understand that.  
5. Additional smartphone data - I've gotten down to less than 1 gig a month.  There's wifi every where now so be sure to tap into it when you're at home or the office.  Chances are that's where you spend most of your time.   
6. Online shipping - When you order items online like with Amazon.com be sure to group your items in order to take advantage of their free shipping.  
7. Cheap art - don't even think about it. 
8. Fast food - grocery store food is always cheaper, unless you're getting scammed at whole foods. 
9. Piece mail insurance - lots of people have the wrong time of insurance and also the wrong amounts.  Get quotes and suggestions from many different agents.  Ask lots of questions why they differ.  
10. Gifts - cash is the most efficient gift.  
11. Weight loss traps - this includes gym memberships as well.  Start an exercise routine with no membership.  If you can stick to it, then maybe look at a gym.  
12. Lottery tickets - nothing but a tax on the poor. 
13. Brand new cars - brand new cars are ok if you keep them for 10 years.  If you know you're not going to do this buy a 5 year old car instead.  
14. Subscriptions - go to the library instead, they have pretty much everything you'd want to read.  
15. Starbucks - Make your own at home.  

Editor: Crass Cash

Let me first say that I in no way work for nor receive any sort of money/compensation from Vanguard.  I'm simply using them as an example because I like them (full disclosure: I do NOT have an account with them) and also because I helped a friend with setting up their account this weekend.  

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/openaccount


The above link and 8 screen shots will get you going for opening up an account with them.  It's incredibly easy and I was able to do it in 15 minutes for my friend this weekend. 

A lot of it is some very basic information that they need to know about you personally.  Some questions and road blocks that you may run into are: 

Screen 1: choose to open a new account until you want to setup a retirement account or transfer an account from another brokerage. 
Screen 3: opt for the general savings account and the individual account type unless you want it to also be in your spouse's name as well.  In that case choose "joint".  
Screen 6: Choose "no" for both questions a the bottom unless the account owner is a FINRA employee or if somebody close to use is a big wig at a publicly traded company.  Meaning they own 10% of the company, they're an executive, or is on the board of directors.  
Screen 7: I like the electronic bank transfer the best because it'll allow for you to setup an automatic investment plan.  Be sure to save $3,000 first and then start off with that amount for the investment amount.
Screen 8: To make this as simple as possible, just go ahead and select "reinvest".  What this means is when your investments pay you dividends (cash payments to the owners) it will automatically buy more of the paying investment.  

Now if you're wondering how this will make you a millionaire, it's quite simple.  Assuming that you start around the age of 25 and work until 65 and you get manage a very average 8% return.  All you have to do it save a measly $321.68 per month.  Better yet, just throw an even $100 a week at it and you'll have a nice little nest egg of $1,347,000 when you retire.  Super easy.  Set it up, automatically draft $100 a week into it and let it do the rest!  

Editor: Crass Cash

Let me start of by first saying that I am in no way affiliated with nor receive any sort of compensation from Charles Schwab brokerage.  I have and do use their brokerage and also do for an investment trust.  With that said I have used their robo-advisor services and have been quite pleased with them.  

Once you have deposited at least $5,000 you can then go to the robo-advisor.  At the top of the main page after you sign in you'll see a tab for "Products".  For the subsection of that tab you'll see "intelligent portfolios".  Click that and follow the process (get started in the upper right hand corner) and put in the information it asks you.  It will then give you the recommendations and even place the trades for you, free of charge (assuming they're qualifying funds).  Super easy and FREE! 

Set it and forget it!