4 clever finance tips from online creators

It’s so hard to make sense of money. One second, you’re intent on saving; the next, you’ve somehow blown through an entire paycheck.

The internet’s chock full of folks offering financial advice. And the information can be helpful. It can also be dangerous since not everyone has your best interests in mind. The best advice about financial advice is to be careful who you trust.

Mashable previously listed some of the savvy TikTok finance accounts that appear to have their audience’s best interests in mind. But with the internet overflowing with financial tips, we also thought it’d be helpful to share some of the better advice we’ve seen. Here are four of the most useful money suggestions:

1. Negotiate your big expenses

This is a major tenant of Vivian Tu, also known as @YourRichBFF. Medical bills, the price of your car, your home purchase — try to get the number down, Tu advises. Getting a discount on a big bill has a much bigger, immediate effect than, say, cutting back on groceries.

“It’s pretty normal to be able to say, ‘I got my home $50,000 under asking,'” Tu recently told Yahoo. “Do you know how many lattes you need to not drink to save $50,000? Just put on your big boy or big girl pants for 10 seconds, have that uncomfortable conversation, and really, really work on negotiating.”

One of Tu’s videos discussing negotiating medical bills has racked up more than 2 million views.

2. Build an emergency fund before doing anything else

Stuff happens. Being ready for that stuff really matters. Tori Dunlap of @herfirst100k recommends building up three months of living expenses in a high yield savings account before even paying off debt. Her reasoning is that it helps prevent you from going into further debt during an emergency and it’ll help you mentally to have something saved for a rainy day.

3. Keep an impulse list

Michela Allocca runs the TikTok account @BreakYourBudget which primarily focuses on helping folks create and keep a budget. Allocca noted they keep a list of things they’d like to impulse buy, which they return to at a later date. That helps you determine if you actually want or need something.

4. Loud budgeting

It can be awkward to tell friends “no” because you want to keep to your budget. TikTok creator Lukas Battle coined the idea of “loud budgeting” where you openly state you want to avoid purchasing something because of the cost.

“It’s not, ‘I don’t have enough.’ It’s, ‘I don’t want to spend,'” Battle said in a viral TikTok.

It’s a somewhat radical idea that you can be more open about money and be frank about what is worth your hard-earned dollar.

The idea behind all these tips, really, is to be more mindful about money. Taking care of your finances can feel so unwieldy and impossible, but the best advice makes it more manageable.