Buying your first home? It's hard — but worth it.
Making the leap from renting to owning takes work, dedication, and consistency with your money. The result: your very own place to settle down and build memories in. Yay!
If you're thinking about buying, there are a few things you should do to prepare. These dead-simple tips will help you save money, cut out unnecessary bills, improve your credit, and more.
Cancel your car insurance
We've got bad news. You could be wasting $600 every year on overpriced, second-rate car insurance. And you should probably cancel your existing insurance right now, because there's something much better.
This new tool from FinanceBuzz can tell you if you're overpaying for your car insurance in just a few clicks. We match drivers with companies that report saving drivers up to $600 or more per year when they save! Each driver’s savings will vary by driving history and how many discounts you’re eligible for. And once you try it out, you'll never have to look for affordable insurance again because we find you the lowest rates that other companies can't match.
Oh, and it's also free. And come on — you can't tell us you don't want to save up to $600. To find out if you're losing up to $600 or more a year, just enter your zip code here, answer a few questions and see if you're overpaying. It takes less than 2 minutes.
See if you're overpaying
Cancel unwanted subscriptions and trim up to $720 from your bills
As a homeowner, you'll have more bills than ever before. This makes it easy for unwanted subscriptions to slip by. Companies pull money from your bank account or charge your credit card every month and you pay it, sometimes unknowingly.
Rocket Money can help you cancel subscriptions and lower bills. The best part: you never need to pick up the phone. Their expert negotiators can call the cable company and phone company on your behalf to help lower your bills. They'll also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions and put that money back in your bank account where it belongs.
Rocket Money has already helped save its members over $50,000,000 on their bills without much time and effort.
Download Rocket Money now
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Can earn stock-back (like cash-back) on purchases1 <p>Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk and investments may lose value. Holdings and performance are hypothetical.
Stash Banking services provided by Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. The Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® is issued by Stride Bank pursuant to license from Mastercard International. Mastercard and the circles design are registered trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated. Any earned stock rewards will be held in your Stash Invest account. Investment products and services provided by Stash Investments LLC, not Stride Bank, and are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value. In order for a user to be eligible for a Stash banking account, they must also have opened a taxable brokerage account on Stash.</p> 2 <p>Stash Banking services provided by Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. The Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® is issued by Stride Bank pursuant to license from Mastercard International. Mastercard and the circles design are registered trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated. Any earned stock rewards will be held in your Stash Invest account. Investment products and services provided by Stash Investments LLC, not Stride Bank, and are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value. In order for a user to be eligible for a Stash banking account, they must also have opened a taxable brokerage account on Stash.</p>
<p>All rewards earned through use of the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® will be fulfilled by Stash Investments LLC. You will bear the standard fees and expenses reflected in the pricing of the investments that you earn, plus fees for various ancillary services charged by Stash. In order to earn stock in the program, the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard must be used to make a qualifying purchase. What doesn’t count: Cash withdrawals, money orders, prepaid cards, and P2P payment. If you make a qualifying purchase at a merchant that is not publicly traded or otherwise available on Stash, you will receive a stock reward in an ETF or other investment of your choice from a list of companies available on Stash. 1% Stock-Back® rewards are subject to <a href="https://lp.stash.com/stride-stash-stock-back-rewards-terms-and-conditions/">terms and conditions</a>. Stock rewards that are paid to participating customers via the Stash Stock Back program, are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value. Stash reserves the right to amend this program and the terms and conditions thereof and/or cancel this program at any time, for any reason, upon notice to you. See <a href="https://lp.stash.com/stride-stash-stock-back-rewards-terms-and-conditions/">terms and conditions</a> for more details.</p>
Offers automatic rebalancing on Smart Portfolios3 <p class="">Stash has full authority to manage a “Smart Portfolio,” a discretionary managed account. Diversification and asset allocation do not guarantee a profit, nor do they eliminate the risk of loss of principal. Stash does not guarantee any level of performance or that any client will avoid losses in their account.<br></p>
Includes banking with no overdraft or minimum balance fees
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FinanceBuzz doesn’t invest its money with this provider, but they are our referral partner. We get paid by them only if you click to them from our website and take a qualifying action (for example, opening an account.)
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