Some ways to save money are hard. You can save car expenses or bus fares by walking to work. You can save lots by quitting smoking -- which isn't the easiest thing for most smokers to do. You can save by brown-bagging your lunches instead of enjoying meals at restaurants.

Fortunately, there are some relatively easy ways to save, too. Here's one: Consider consolidating your brokerage accounts under one roof, especially if you don't have vast sums invested.

For example, Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCH) recently announced a commission cut from $19.95 to $12.95 per trade. That's for its retail clients with total household assets of $50,000 to $1 million invested through Schwab (or those who trade between 9 and 30 times per year). Think about it this way: If you make six trades per year and pay $19.95 each time, that's $119.70. Do so for $12.95 a pop, and the total is $77.70, $42 less. You might not be able to take advantage of the rate cut if you have $40,000 in one Schwab account and $20,000 in an account at TD Waterhouse (a unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD)). But by moving all your accounts to one home, you may save.

At E*Trade (NYSE:ET), you'll find yourself slapped with a hefty quarterly account service fee of $40 (yearly total: $160!) if you don't meet one of admittedly many conditions. One condition is if the account is worth at least $10,000 and another is if all your E*Trade accounts total $20,000 or more. Again, for some people, moving accounts to one brokerage can make sense.

Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) charges an account maintenance fee of $15 per quarter, or $60 per year. That's far from insignificant, but it's waived if you have a minimum of $2,000 invested or four trades in six months. I learned this at our Broker Comparison Table, which features info on some brokerages that support your friend the Fool. It's also clear there that a little time comparing brokerages can save you money in other ways. One firm, for example, charges $35 in IRA custodian fees per year per account, while another charges nothing for that service. Shop around, Fool.

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Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.