One of the greatest challenges for most real estate professionals is creating a savings and retirement plan. Most agents live commission check to commission check simply because they don't have a strategy for reducing expenses. If you would like to actually retire with some money in the bank, a "money diet" just may be what the doctor ordered. While cutting back isn't always fun, living on $800-$1300 per month from Social Security is a lot more difficult than making a few fundamental changes right now. If you would like to create an additional $5,000-10,000 this year, here are a few simple tips to get you there.

1. Small amounts add up to big amounts over time. Do you treat yourself to a cup of gourmet coffee five days a week? If so, the annual cost (assuming $3.00 per cup on the coffee) is $720.00.

SAVE $600.00 per year by making your own cup of coffee at the office or bringing a thermos from home.

2. Most people in the real estate are so busy they don't have time to prepare meals. Of course, this means we're grabbing fast food, eating out often, or paying premium prices for prepared food that is ready to serve. For example, if you grab a quick lunch five days a week at the local fast food joint—the average price is $7.00. Over a one year period, your lunches cost $1680. If you and your spouse enjoy eating out twice a week and your average meal costs $30.00, this turns out to be $240 per month or $2880 year.

SAVE: $1000 per year by packing your own lunch or having a microwave meal from the grocery store.

SAVE: an additional $1000 per year by eating out once a week instead of twice a week.

SAVE: If you're a bigger spender (you like your meals with a good bottle of wine) save an additional $2500 per year. (If your average meal is $100 twice a week and you reduce your nights out by 50% by having that same bottle of wine with a great meal at home, your savings is an additional $2500 per year).

3. Buy in bulk. If you haven't joined one of the "club" discount stores such as Sam's or Costco, the savings can be huge. I used to drive 40 miles to the nearest Sam's to load up on six months of cleaning supplies, paper products, computer disks, and other household and business products. Buying in bulk usually saved me about 30% in hard cash and it saved me a lot more "shopping time" by not having to run to the market every time I needed soap or computer supplies.

SAVE: Up to $2000 per year by purchasing business supplies, personal supplies, and grocery items in bulk.

4. Let's face it—most people in our business love beautiful clothes. Just be smart about where and when you buy them. I recently found a pair of Italian shoes I absolutely had to have—I just wasn't willing to pay the price. By waiting 6 weeks, I purchased the shoes at 60% off the retail price. My husband needed a new suit and we were looking at one of the big outlet malls-he found a beautiful Armani suit for 70% off the retail price. The savings on these two items: $2000.

Save: Up to $2000 per year (40% of a $5000 clothing budget) by shopping sales and outlet malls.

5. Pay cash, write a check, use American Express, or any other form of payment that won't let you carry a balance. The average American has $7,000 in credit card debt. (I suspect the number is even higher for those of us in the real estate industry). The typical credit card is at 18% interest. If you don't have the cash, you don't buy it.

Save: $1260 in credit card fees by using cash, a debit card, or American Express (assumes you are an "Average American" with $7000 in debt.)

6. Use email—not the U.S. Mail

Postage is going up again—37 cents per letter. This will increase the average postcard price to over 50 cents per card. To create a huge savings in mailing costs as well as time spent in preparing the pieces, determine how many of your prospects would be open to receiving an email newsletter rather than receiving print pieces. For example, if you mail 250 pieces per month (3000 pieces per year) the cost is approximately $3000 in production costs.

Save: $1500 by converting at least 50% of your current mailing list to email.

Total amount saved from today's Money Diet Tips: $9360.00

To learn more about how to save money, an excellent resource is:

The Million Dollar Car and the $250,000 Pizza by Allyson Lewis. Lewis shows you how smart dollars saved today can reap thousands of future dollars tomorrow.