Manage Your Money Like a CEO by Studying This One Number

CEOs know money. That’s why they make so much of it.

Every company’s CEO keeps an eagle eye on one number — the bottom line. Add up your revenue, subtract your expenses, and you’ve got your bottom line. Ultimately, it’s the only number that matters.

So many of us get a little sloppy about the bottom line. We earn what we earn, and we spend a little too much, and before you know it, we’re in debt. Deep in debt.

But that CEO in the corner office who pulls in $15 million a year? That person is laser-focused on the bottom line. Obsessed with it. Always looking for ways to improve it.

Here are six ways you can improve your bottom line — just like a CEO:

1. Stop Paying Your Credit Card Company

Credit card debt will put a hurting on your bottom line like nothing else. And the truth is, your credit card company doesn’t really care. It’s just getting rich by ripping you off with high interest rates. But a website called AmOne wants to help.

If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.

The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 3.49% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.

AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

It takes two minutes to see if you qualify for up to $50,000 online. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you with phone calls.

2. Get Paid Every Time You Buy Groceries

There are some things you just have to buy. CEOs would call these operating expenses. For the rest of us, that means things like grocery shopping — which will always be one of your biggest expenses. Shouldn’t you have something to show for it?

A free app called Fetch Rewards will reward you with gift cards just for buying toilet paper and more than 250 other items at the grocery store.

Here’s how it works: After you’ve downloaded the app, just take a picture of your receipt showing you purchased an item from one of the brands listed in Fetch. For your efforts, you’ll earn gift cards to places like Amazon or Walmart.

You can download the free Fetch Rewards app here to start getting free gift cards. Over a million people already have, so they must be onto something…

3. Make Sure You’re Not Overpaying

Here’s another way to bump up your bottom line: Stop overpaying for things.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an alert when you’re shopping online at Target and are about to overpay? That’s what this free service does.

Just add it to your browser for free, and before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, eBay and others to see if your item is available for cheaper. Plus, you can get coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even see the item’s price history.

Let’s say you’re shopping for a new TV, and you assume you’ve found the best price. Here’s when you’ll get a pop up letting you know if that exact TV is available elsewhere for cheaper. If there are any available coupon codes, they’ll also automatically be applied to your order.

In the last year, this has saved people $160 million.

You can get started in just a few clicks to see if you’re overpaying online.

4. Knock $540/Year From Your Car Insurance in Minutes

Your bottom line is kind of like a moving target. CEOs are never satisfied; they’re always looking for new ways to cut expenses and make sure they’re not overpaying. And you can be the same way. For example, when’s the last time you checked car insurance prices?

You should shop your options every six months or so — it could save you some serious money. Let’s be real, though. It’s probably not the first thing you think about when you wake up. But it doesn’t have to be.

A website called Insure makes it super easy to compare car insurance prices. All you have to do is enter your ZIP code and your age, and it’ll show you your options — and even discounts in your area.

Using Insure, people have saved an average of $540 a year.

Yup. That could be $500 back in your pocket just for taking a few minutes to look at your options.

5. Add $225 to Your Wallet Just for Watching the News

The best way to boost your bottom line? Diversify your revenue streams. CEOs know this. But you don’t need to be in the c-suite to find new ways to make extra money. You could do this by just watching the news.

Yep. This is a historic time for news, and we’re all constantly refreshing for the latest updates. Research companies want to pay you to keep watching. You could add up to $225 a month to your pocket by signing up for a free account with InboxDollars. They’ll present you with short news clips to choose from every day, then ask you a few questions about them.

You just have to answer honestly, and InboxDollars will continue to pay you every month. This might sound too good to be true, but it’s already paid its users more than $56 million.

It takes about one minute to sign up, and start getting paid to watch the news.

6. See if You Can Get More Money From This Company

If there’s a way to get extra cash back into your budget, you better believe CEOs have considered it. You can adopt that same mindset. Here’s the deal: If you’re not using Aspiration’s debit card, you’re missing out on extra cash. And who doesn’t want extra cash right now?

Yep. A debit card called Aspiration gives you up to a 5% back every time you swipe.

Need to buy groceries? Extra cash.

Need to fill up the tank? Bam. Even more extra cash.

You were going to buy these things anyway — why not get this extra money in the process?

Enter your email address here, and link your bank account to see how much extra cash you can get with your free Aspiration account.

CEOs will tell you to keep an eye on the bottom line. If you follow these six tips, you can make a real difference in yours.

Watch and see.

Mike Brassfield (mike@thepennyhoarder.com) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He’s not a CEO, but he knows about the bottom line.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.