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Moving is up there with divorce and losing a loved one in terms of stress. Too much stress can cause problems with our physical & mental health and relationships while making it difficult to concentrate on what we want to do daily.
If you're considering moving at any time in the foreseeable future, you should be intentional about the entire process, especially the financial aspect.
A lil planning can keep you off the proverbial "injury reserve" of life, allowing you to limit stress and get closer to the reason you're moving in the first place.
Whether starting a new chapter with school or work, moving closer to family, or opening yourself up to inspiration and opportunity, we're trying to get this thing done and get on with our life.
SellerSaves is all about squeezing the juice out of the proverbial orange that is your financial life; let's look at how to get the most out of moving.
Moving is stressful, expensive, and a huge life change.
We already talked about why too much stress is nasty business. Physically transporting your home and life means leaving behind the familiar; making a new environment feel like home can take serious time and effort.
Financially, moves can shake you down in several ways: transportation, furnishing, and switching costs. You have to pay for, organize, and handle dozens of little things within those buckets.
Not to mention, a move could easily run you a few racks.
Somebody has to manage dates, personnel, and decision-making on things that feel risky and could have real, significant impacts on your future self.
We can see why moving is tough.
It's hard to imagine when moving won't be an expensive, stressful endeavor, but with the right game plan, you can limit the stress & expenses while getting a little bread back.
The intentional way will leave you better off in the stress, financial, and happiness buckets.
Knowing what you want before starting can significantly improve your moving experience, like dating and career.
Some of these are advanced tactics and require effort that you might not be in a space to put in right now. That's okay! Figure out your game plan and stick to it!
Here's what you have to nail down:
Clarity on these things will save you money in at least two ways:
You can figure out your values by doing a simple exercise. Take two elements of moving, say driving and lifting your belongings. If you hate driving but don't mind lifting, you might opt to fork over the bread for a moving service that'll pick up and drop off your stuff, but DIY the lifting and save yourself a few bones.
Knowing your goals and what you care about before starting means easier decision-making and a better move.
The do-it-yourself (DIY) spectrum is the range of activities you engage in when you take on tasks yourself rather than hiring someone else to do them. At one end of the spectrum is doing everything yourself, and on the other is hiring everything out.
Doing everything yourself will likely be lighter on your pockets and heavy on time & effort, while outsourcing everything will likely be heavier on your pockets and lighter on your time & effort.
Regardless of how handy or hard you think you are, you probably won't be able to do it all yourself. Remember, you have to balance financial costs and time/effort costs.
So, the decision comes down to what you're willing to put up with and how much you have to spend. To make this decision, you have to ask yourself some questions. How much stuff do you have? How much can you afford to spend? How much time do you have? And how far are you moving?
For example, hiring professionals might be worth it if you have a lot of stuff and are moving a long distance.
If you want to save bread, DIY everything you don't mind doing yourself.
Credit cards are a vehicle to generate money + rewards from your moving expenses.
Credit card rewards are incentives credit card companies offer to encourage folks to use their cards. These rewards can look like cash back, points, miles, or other rewards that can be redeemed for perks or benefits.
They can work for you in at least three ways:
First, credit card offers can help you defray costs through cash back on expenses from select places. Credit card offers are coupons that grant you promotional cash/points back on purchases once added to your card. I typically see joints equivalent to 5% "off" - 40% "off."
For example, you might see something like this:
If I paid $100 for an enterprise rental car, I'd receive 1 point per dollar (base rate for the card) and 5 additional points for the offer.
I'll have to explain point valuation another time, but let's sketch out a few scenarios:
Putting 5% - 10% of an expense back into your pocket isn't a game changer, but it only costs you the time it takes to add an offer to your card. (Financially) free bread.
Next, you can use your card(s) or future card(s) to pay for travel/accommodations. Using points to pay for travel isn't a novel idea, but using them to cover the transportation costs of your move might be. You might think of travel influencers buying lavish, Americanized vacation experiences when you hear about points. However, you can use these points anytime you need to travel.
I'm not telling you something I heard; I used points to save myself hundreds of doll hairs on the disrespectfully expensive rental car I used to move from New York to DC.
Coupons and redeeming points are fine and dandy, but check it out—moving is one of the few times in life you have many necessary, justified expenses on your docket. High, planned spending is the best way to get you to welcome bonuses, the most valuable thing in the credit card game.
I asked the AI, and it said
according to the American Moving and Storage Association, "the average cost of an interstate move is about $4,000, while the average cost of an intrastate move is about $2,000.
The precision of those numbers matters less than their magnitude. I'm gonna give it to you straight, no chaser. Moves cost big bread.
When you're going to drop G's on responsible purchases, you put yourself in a position to earn hundreds back in rewards.
For example, this cold lil piece of metal called the Chase Sapphire Preferred card will give you between $600 - $1000 if you spend $4k in 3 months.
Because you're a mover™️, you're already planning to drop major dollars on movers, transportation, etc. If you subtract that amount from your $4k threshold and add in your regular expenses, you're in there like swimwear.
But Jared, isn't getting credit cards for a move a lil irresponsible?
Not necessarily, bro/sis/friend. Anyone can be a sucka when managing their bread, consciously or unconsciously. But you're at least reading this, so it ain't you!
Think about applying for new cards with sign-up bonuses before spending money on moving expenses, and you'll position yourself for hundreds in rewards.
Moving is expensive and time-consuming, and it's easy to overlook your financial options. DIY as much as possible, and take advantage of credit card offers, redemptions, and welcome bonuses.
Happy moving; don't stress yourself out!
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