Why You Should Stop Buying Starbucks® and Start Saving for Your Dream Instead

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We all do it.

Call it YOLO. Call it cravings.

I love a good Gingerbread Latte.

But what are you sacrificing for that latte?

A grande latte from Starbucks® is $5.25 with tax. That’s a lot of gingerbread do-ray-me. Money you could use for something else, ummm like making more money.

As the saying goes “It takes money to make money.” So spending your money all the time on even small splurges could be preventing you from something bigger and better.

Putting that money into savings instead can eventually yield big results. 

Here are three things you can do with your saved money to start making more money, even with a small amount.

1. Purchase a home

Did you know you can purchase a home with as little as 3.5% down?

If you are throwing away money on rent, saving for your own home is a smart money move. 

Every month you are paying down the loan on your house, which makes you money. Plus, you have the option of renting out a room or two to make even more money.

Or, if you can save a larger down payment, you could consider purchasing a rental property of your own.

Saving money is how I purchased my first home, a home that is now exclusively an Airbnb property that makes a profit every month!

Earn your first $25 on Airbnb with this link.

And best of all, once you have that extra income coming in, you can use it to make another investment!

Learn the 6 steps to buying a home!

2. Invest in stocks

While the stock market can be a volatile place, it can also be a great way to make your money grow. 

You can choose safer stocks, like funds and make sure to keep them long term to see an overall increase with less risk.

Even if you only have a small amount of extra money, you can easily and instantly start investing with an app like Acorns. Acorns allows you to invest in stocks with just spare change! 

You can invest as little as $1, or as much as you want. It syncs with your bank account so that when you purchase an item with your debit card, it rounds up the purchase to the nearest dollar amount and invests the spare change for you.

You can choose the risk level of the fund you invest in and Acorns will do all the work of picking the right stocks and funds so you don’t need to even understand the stock market to use it. Use this link to get $5 to start your Acorns account! 

3. Start an online business

An online business can be started without much capital. And there are a ton of options! 

For example, you can buy and sell vintage items online or your talents in art or photography. Or you can start a site to sell your freelance capabilities.

The best thing about starting an online business it it is easy and cheap. You just need a url and a hosting service-I suggest Blue Host where you can get both! Or for an easy-to-set up ecommerce store selling products, Shopify is awesome.

The result? You could be making extra cash every month for something you enjoy doing anyways!

Here are a few of the many options for an online business:

Blog

Get your creative ideas and expressions out while making money! A blog is fairly easy to set up, and there are a ton of ways to generate revenue with one. You can make money off affiliate ads, click-through ads, and product sales.

Etsy shop

There used be requirements for selling on Etsy that your product be handmade but they have widened the options. 

You can sell vintage items, arts and crafts, photography prints, digital graphic templates and even baked goods!

Setting up an Etsy store is easy and the cost to list your first item is only $0.20. They do however take a 5% commission on your sales. For this online business you will not need to purchase a url or hosting, everything is handled by Etsy which makes things easy.

I actually had my own Etsy store for a time selling abstract original artwork. Painting was enjoyable for me, like therapy so making a little extra money off it was such a bonus! 

Plus through Etsy I was contacted by not one, but two interior design firms who commissioned a piece from me!

Online store

If you like to shop, you might like to sell!

Another great online business is product sales. You can choose anything, jewelry, clothes, home decor.

You can set your own store up with Blue Host and WordPress if you make sure to use a theme that integrates with woo commerce or is compatible with a woo commerce plugin. 

Another option if you would like to do less set-up yourself is to use an ecommerce solution like Shopify. The hosting, url and eCommerce store setup is built in.

Using your money to make more money is simply fun. 

Much more fun than a grande latte. So stop spending, start saving, and start dreaming your dream today!

Next Posts:

7 Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget

How Much Should you Save Each Month?

7 Tips for Guilt-free Shopping

How to Start a Blog