Do you find yourself tired of the same advises and tips over and over again?
Finance shouldn't be that hard, just as math is very easy but most will find it very hard. Finance is more than numbers and bold advises on how to cut your cable or stop dinning out. In reality it really comes down to what you value the most and what you really want to do to achieve that special status or dream life you are willing to get. Most would love to work at a beach resort year round, sure thing looking at the beach side, seeing all those people enjoy their paid vacations while you are just watching them and still working, sure you are getting the same sun, heat and even ocean breeze but at the end of the day is not the same. You will not likely eat as them or do the activities they do simply because you have to work and they already worked and paid for the vacation trip.
What I'm trying to say is that usually we have some mind movies of varies things you consider ideal and you really want to enjoy but you are not really willing to pay the same price they (the others) paid for that. I'm sure dinning out is out of question in my case for 2 reasons:
- I do not eat out that much.
- I reward myself dinning out when I believe I deserve it, usually when I'm happy with my money situation.
So when I heard that I should stop dinning out I laugh just because that doesn't really mean a thing in my daily habits. Do I enjoy a star bucks coffee every day? Nope, not even one a year, in fact I have had 3 coffees at Starbucks in my whole life, is not that I do not want coffee? I pay a very good quality coffee, probably better that Starbucks one, I enjoy 2 or 3 cups a day of coffee, I manually brew it and that doesn't really affects my budget or finance situation.
What's your money situation?
I don't know where you live, how much you earn or what things you should cut to save some money but the truth is that it shouldn't be that hard. No matter how complicated your financial situation might be now, there is just one complete answer that will surely help you get in shape for the long run marathon that it means to grow some funds and be able to invest or do something to be able to increase your source of income in many many many years. So if you were looking for a very short and quick get rich scheme you should stop reading right here, but if you want to build wealth and wealthness specially keep on reading.
Money comes from within you and no I'm not gonna to start talking the neuro-linguistic and coaching speech, I'm not even trying to get close to those topics. No, it is not a pyramid scheme, in fact they is very boring and will not tell you any secret pass over generations to enlighten you or something similar.
What's the boring plan?
I won't start giving you useless tips on how to cut back or how to start a saving plan, the only thing that I will tell you will mostly depend on you and how you handle it will be the key factor for success and even if you fail to achieve it the first time how you handle failure, learn from your mistakes and attempt once more will be the winning plan.
- Think carefully how much you earn, how much you spend, how much goes to different needs, which are no needs, which ones are wants and which things you can live without.
- Try to make those numbers stay and the green side of the equation (spend less than you earn) and then the rest will help you achieve long term goals no matter what they are.
Most of the time attaching to a budget or plan will fail flat because there are different things that will happen and there will be unexpected expenses and so on. Ideally you will start over again and with practice you will overcome that learning phase that can take some months and even few years to master. Once you managed to get past that period and you are able to constantly save some money and hopefully keep up with your monthly expenses you will be able to start paying down debt (I hope you did not happen to get into more debt while adjusting). Freeing more money will greatly impact your finances over time, yeah over years to come, and who said it was going to be quick?
I'm currently just getting out of the adjusting phase and still haven't fully freed myself, but I had built and spend an emergency fund probably 2 or 3 times, but hey I had it! I could go through some hard times without the need to get myself into more debt.
Learn from my mistakes
I have been postponing a talk with my wife on how I am envisioning myself in the future and hopefully as the time comes retiring early. This has been a mistake on my side, there was the inner me that always told me to not worry and keep on going and someday I will be able to convince her. Bu I've been just thinking and thinking how easier if could get to understand exactly where we would head together in terms of financial goals if we happen to know them.
In one hand, we are able to save some money as a couple, pay mortgage, save for vacation and even have some treats here and there. This has been a very good strategy so far and we were able to buy land, build a house and get 2 different lots of land where I'm hoping to build rental properties. So what is the problem with this?
Well, I've been trying to convince her that I can always keep working from home, invest some savings funds creating rental properties that hopefully will generate us extra income and will someday allow me to stop working or at least allow me to work from home at my own pace hopefully trading crypto as a hobby/side hustle, but that might not be aligned with her desired way of spending her days, not that she is not willing to move with me or follow my adventure spirit, but in reality whatever we decide to do has to be align with both points of view given that savings funds are built with both adding to it accordingly.
I will probably be doing a follow up post with a brief long term project plan where I will see how to make it be aligned with both points of view. First step will be to talk about this with her and see how things get moving afterwards.