Don’t overlook the obvious when it comes to saving money
Saving money should be your first priority, even before making it. If you don’t save any money in your daily expenses then what will you invest? Spend less, save more should be your holy mantra of investing. But don’t take that too far. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a position where you need to spend a little money, such as when you are buying gifts for other people. There are a lot of ways to buy gifts for people but one of the coolest deals, in my book, is the deferred gift.
Take Amazon.com as a retail outlet, for example. If you go there right now and search for something you want to buy, chances are pretty good you’ll find some sweet deals. That is because Amazon often lowers the prices on items to entice people to buy them. So what you can do is buy an Amazon gift card (tying up a little bit of money) and then use that to purchase those low-priced deals when they come through.
There are Websites that explain where to buy Amazon gift cards but they don’t tell you why you should buy them. And here is the important thing about Amazon gift cards: of all the gift cards you can buy, these are the cards with the most flexibility in their buying power thanks to Amazon’s random price reductions and the Amazon Prime program. If you don’t think you have enough money to buy something on Amazon today, wait a few weeks or months and you may find it available at a more affordable price.
When it comes to investing money you need good resources for saving and managing your money. One of the best resources is putting your money where you cannot spend it except on things you need or when they become available at better prices. The Amazon gift card program is a convenient way for Amazon to get your money before it parts with any merchandise. They can invest that money and earn interest on it or use it to build up their business. Meanwhile, you can wait for those great loss leader deals that Amazon uses to bring in new sales.
Everyone wins with the Amazon gift card program if you learn to use it wisely. Do a little research and try to find out if the items you are interested in ever go on sale. I sometimes find mentions on social media or in Web forums where people say what they bought the items for. You can sometimes also buy “used” merchandise at steep discounts.
Amazon is all about cash flow. If you manage your cash flow carefully you can get more bang for your buck without having to tie up a lot of money. You may not be able to buy those gifts at the last moment for the best price, but if you buy them at the right moment and hang on to them you’ll save a lot of money and still come out looking like a very generous person.