My first real contribution to help others start the New Year empowered and inspired financially.
I share some tips and tricks I learned around managing money, banking, organizing e-mails, managing paper, and a brief review of my first 3 months investing in cryptocurrency and how I found the money to invest.
This post will most likely be of interest to newbies, and anyone who wants a system for growing financially that is very simpleminded. I have included a reference to a great book that inspired me during my time of recovery. I have no affiliation with the author, nor do I make any commissions from the recommendation.
MY BRIEF 2014 to 2017 STORY:
It has come to my attention that many people who haven't had a concussion wrestle with managing their finances...even if they haven't had a concussion (TBI - traumatic brain injury).
I had no choice but to simplify my life and create a system of money management which worked with my intermittent memory issues!
I would like to recommend an audiobook (or the physical book) entitled "Becoming Rich" by Genevieve Davis. I had to switch to audiobooks because I had impaired reading!** Note, this author annually gives all proceeds of this book to one of her reader's charitable interests. She picks a reader annually. It could be you next year. Seriously, not b.s'ing you. No, I have no affiliation with the author.
The book digs into powerful concepts around attitudes and habits regarding money. I suspect most new crypto-millionaires may lose their net worth over time if they do not address these core universal human issues.
I get paid on a monthly basis. I know some of you get paid every two weeks. You will need to adjust this strategy to your unique circumstances.
TACTIC 1 - Pay your bills within three days of your payday.
Your bank pays you crap for interest but has no problems nailing you with fees.
Do not wait or waste your time paying around "due dates" unless you are a big multinational business shuffling millions of dollars around.
It is impossible if you have impairments like I had to figure that out anyway. If you are paid more frequently than monthly - do what my youngest son does. Keep reading :)
This tactic could save you a lot of money over time.
TACTIC 2 - Specific to USA citizens; but may apply elsewhere; do your banking with a local credit union. They have lower fee's, better security; they don't put holds on your funds the way most banks do. My big name bank in the USA (about two decades ago.) I caught them re-ordering my transactions in the middle of the night to ensure overdrafts, if possible. That along with putting holds on deposits was the last straw for me after their takeover of Washington Mutual.
TACTIC 2.a - have your bank and financial institutions e-mail you deposits, and things. This is how I caught my bank cooking their books.
Use the 800+ dollars a year saved to buy your favorite cryptocurrencies!
My credit union allowed me to set up a secured line of credit years ago which is now unsecured.
It serves as overdraft protection for all my accounts.
I know that is not a big deal. What is a big deal? I am not charged a dime for automatic transfers to protect my checking account(s).
Check with your bank to see if they have a similar option. Keep shopping around until you find a credit union that takes care of it's members.
Most places will charge you $5.00+ fee for transferring money automatically.
Do you have older family members? This may apply to them if they set up their banking say 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Many people have overdraft protection setup that transfers money from a savings account. The bank rakes in fees.
Why pay any fees at all if you don't have to? If you are paying fees like this, fix it and fund your crypto/other investing ideas.
TACTIC 2.b - you can sometimes set up your bank account to 'not overdraft', that can stop those $30+ fees. Get paid, drop $20 in your wallet (or 10, or 5) and don't spend it. Grow it until you have $100 or more dollars cash. It may take a few months.
If you are out of funds, have your bank "decline" your purchases. Better than $30+ fees per overdraft. I noticed some banks will stop charging you fee's after say 3 or 5 overdrafts per day.
How f'n nice of them. All they are doing is lending you money, what is the interest rate on a $2.00 purchase with a $30 service fee? This crap should be illegal.
TACTIC 3 - Organize your financial life by using e-mail receipts and by creating yearly and monthly folders in your e-mail.
You can get e-mail receipts for just about everything today. Take advantage of it, save a tree, dump the paper receipts that fade over time and can even become unusable for tax purposes. Aka cheap ink.
As I am writing this tomorrow is January 1, 2018. I created a 2018 folder with subfolders beginning with January.
Example: 12 - Jan - 2018,
When I get towards the end of January 2018, I will create a new subfolder called: 11 - Feb - 2018, etc.
I process most of my incoming email with a smartphone. This makes this process fast and easy.
As the year progresses the number prefix decrease which put the newest month at the top. I can prefix with "0" (zero) if I want to add anything special to 2018 at the top, or a "Z" to drop labels/folders/categories to the bottom.
Why yes you can use this prefix technique for all of your digital filings to automatically sort things. Play with this, you'll like it. 0 -, 1 -, 2 -, 0 - 0 - etc. If you don't understand, it's ok. It's not for you.
When receipts come in; file them accordingly.
At the end of the month, review your spending.
Clean up your automatic payments
If you have a concussion have someone help you review receipts compared to previous months...to make sure you are not making duplicate purchases! Hopefully, you'll relinquish accounting and spending to a responsible person in your household! (yes, another lesson learned the hard way.)
****TACTIC** 4 - *Inspired by the audiobook"Becoming Rich" by Genevieve Davis.**** Create bank savings accounts for special and or important things.
Link your accounts so you can transfer funds between accounts.
Example: I have accounts set up for: giving, emergency reserves, fun, big goal type purchases.
When money comes in, I allocate a % (I round up) and transfer to each account. Start at 1% for each account the amount is not as significant as forming the habit. A big goal would be 10% per account.
You can automate this. I prefer to do it manually to remind me of what I am doing and to tell my subconscious mind - "Hey, look, he's doing it again, he can afford this! Wow, look at that account grow!"
Get and listen to the book for understanding why, and details for deploying the percentages. Create an account for investing.
I know a guy (my youngest son) who created accounts for "rent" and "cell phone" because he gets paid every other week. (Brilliant)
MY BRIEF CRYPTOCURRENCY STORY:
When I wanted to start buying cryptocurrencies I began with a buy and hold strategy and I had no money - aka - budget.
I went through my last three months of receipts to see how I was spending money. I made some changes, canceled some subscriptions.
I even decided to stop eating out and buying coffee (((BAM))) in a month I had a few hundred dollars set aside for my new venture!
I know, embarrassingly meager.
I cleaned up my finances.
I created space for it.
I set up my crypto accounts, security, etc. a month before I had any money to put in them. Lame, I know. But I suspect other people out there may find some inspiration around this.
I've had a concussion, give me a break! (laugh)
Moving forward, I had a small budget for mining contracts (while they were available - laugh), and then began acquisitions like BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP...over the next few months.
My first BTC purchase was before the great FORK that they canceled in October 2017. I bought at the top, and it promptly dropped like 30+% a day later, but it is now up over 100%.
I had no idea what "buy the dip" really meant. What a dip was! I learned the hard way! But I had a budget for it and I believe in the revolution that is happening.
The next month I got some overtime hours and holiday pay!
I set that all aside for my new cryptocurrency venture.
Month 2, I was able to invest more, and Month 3, even more (not as much as I'd like), but I had some gains which I re-invested in XRP on December 8, 2017. That was a stunning home run. All the currencies have at least doubled. XRP, I'm watching it exceed 800%.
I'm now enrolled in Udemy classes teaching me things about trading, dips, buy and hold, and ICO's. Instead of studying tonight, I'm writing this to help you. Yes, you, the person reading this. We need more good people like you to win in the financial areas of life!
MEANDERING NOTES:
I developed these financial strategies over the last couple of years.
I wasted a ton of money because I didn't have these things in place and I was not able to "think" straight.
I will confess - I tapped my accounts for reserves, big purchases, and fun in favor of putting those funds into cryptocurrencies. Yes, I have to rebuild them now from scratch. But all those funds have tripled so far and I am enthusiastic about what is next!
GIVING HELPING OTHERS - CHARITY - OUTSOURCING YOUR PROTESTS
I have been able to help various causes I believe in, including gofundme stuff by friends, family and causes that I come across. I can "outsource" my protest by sending monthly contributions to organizations like "Amnesty International."
Before creating this kind of process for myself, I never quite had enough money to give as I'd like.
When I need to raise money for something, I simply create space for at my financial institution. BAM, it grows until mission accomplished.
I have spreadsheets, but it's a pain in the butt keeping them up to date. But I still sometimes throw one together to review my plans. I gave up on various financial software packages. I've been anal retentive most of my life, and I just couldn't keep up with automation that was too automated and having to fix entries and categories. YUCK.
Someday I will be able to hire an accountant again.
What is funny, I had it ALL together during Y2K. Everything was properly filed! I used a great program called "Paper Tiger." If you are a business and need to manage paper, I can recommend that system.
THE SIMPLIFIED BOX FILING SYSTEM:
I didn't need that system. All I needed was a box that I put things in that automatically organized itself by date. As you put things into a box, it is automatically organized by date.
If something is important; make a note in a spreadsheet or a notebook dedicated to the item/date reference. Each year, get a new box.
This has been my life for the last few years. Simple. (Note: label the box - if you can remember to - laugh!)
FINAL WORD:
Thank you for reading this. If it helped or inspired you, then like it, share it, send others to it.
I'll get the hang of making things prettier around here. I know a year from now I will not like how this post flows, or it's format. Thank you for putting up with me around being new.
I do know, the ideas here saved my sanity over the past few years. I hope you are able to take away an idea or two.
As I wrap up, I feel the fatigue setting in. I know that I strayed off topic a bit here and there. I just know a lot of people who I think could benefit from it.
Best regards to you, brightest of blessings moving forward!
- David "Dancing Tree" Nelson
Read my IntroduceYourself 1st post to learn about what the whole "DavidDancingTree" is about.
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