Ok, maybe not rich, but doing these 5 things today will save you a ton of money and over time will put a significant amount of money back in your pocket.

Know your credit score: How can knowing your credit score save you money? Simple, having a good credit score means that you will get the best rate on any loan you are looking to take out. This can mean the difference of hundreds of dollars per month. If there are things in your credit score that are hurting your score, you need to know about them so that you can get them fixed. If you are going to choose a service to give you your score, make sure that they use the FICO score as this is what most of your creditors use.

Increase your Returns: Do you have most of your money sitting in a low interest checking account? Shop around and look for a higher rate. For example, a checking account with HSBC recently paid over a 5% interest rate. That could mean as much as a 500% increase over your current return.

Lower your credit card rate: Do you think you are paying too much interest on your credit card? Do you know the easiest way to lower your rate? Pick up the phone, call your credit card company and ask them to lower your rate. It is really that easy. A recent study showed that 9 out of 10 customers had their rates lowered when the credit card company felt that they would leave them and go to a different company. It never hurts to ask.

Add to your 401(k): If your company offers a 401k, you should be putting as much money into that fund as possible. Not only is the money that you put into that fund pre-tax money, but many companies will match the money you put in up to a certain level. So for example, let’s say you put $200 a month into your fund. Your company will match that $200 per month, so that you are actually putting $400 a month into the fund. As an added bonus, you don’t have to pay taxes on the $200 until you take the money out years down the line. By that point you have hopefully made a lot more on your investment.

Stop paying late fees: Have you ever forgot to pay your credit card bill and got hit with one of those enormous late fees? A couple of those a year can really hurt your finances. Most companies now offer online reminders of when you bills are coming due and you can even automatically pay your bill online. It takes about 5 minutes to sign up and then a friendly reminder will be delivered to your email about 10 days before your bill is due.

All total, these five steps will take you about a half an hour to set up, but they can pay you back many, many times over. Always be on the lookout for ways you can save money and then look to invest that money back into something else.

Frank Vandy has trained hundreds of men and women and gotten real-world results. Learn the truth about weight loss diets by going to http://weight–loss–diets.com

[tags]debt elimination, debt reduction, creating wealth, saving money[/tags]