If there's one thing you shouldn't do when you're getting lost with your financial responsibilities is be afraid to ask for help. You can find professional help, but then you'll be paying for the services and we don't want that. Instead, find a friend or family member that has their finances in order and will offer free advice. Whether you are helping out your friend or you are the friend being helped, being organized with this process is key.
What should you do to get organized?
Keep it simple. Gather all the information on your monthly income and monthly bills. The best way to see this information is to print off bank statements from the previous 3-4 months. Most bank statements should total up what you put in and total up what you take out. Obviously you want to have more going in than going out.
What to do with this information?
Essentially what you would like to do here is find out what you are spending your money on. By seeing how you spend your money you can begin to chop away at your expense side of the statement. This will give you direction. If you are seeing Taco Bell or McDonald's listed on your statement multiple times you should know exactly what to do. If not, read one of my previous articles The Urge To Splurge. This article breaks down just how much a value meal can cost you. For example, if you are eating out every day for lunch at 6 bucks a day, that's 30 bucks a week, 120 bucks a month and 1,560 a year. In this case you would want to start getting into the world of cooking and have fun making lunches to take to work. Is this for you? If it is then we just figured out one way to minimize your expenses.
Once you are done going through your statement you will need to come up with a plan as to how much you are going to allow yourself to spend each week on random purchases. Mine is 5 bucks, trust me it took a long time to get where I am with my spending. Saving has become an addiction for me, more like a game to see how much money I can save. I have fun watching my account grow and I think once people set goals for themselves they could enjoy doing this as well.
Lastly, the question I get when talking about this is "What kind of life can you live when all you do is save your money?" My response is when you're in the hole you need to put your nose to the grind and take care of business before you can start having fun. I was once in the hole $25,000 with a business that didn't work out, I took a job in a machine shop where I could work unlimited hours and 7 days a week. The job was so boring, but like a lot of people I worked with, I did what I had to do. After two years of acting like a zombie I got free of the $25,000 burden and I could focus on building a savings account for my wife and I.
In summary, think about what you need to accomplish to get yourself where you want to be. Get yourself organized, know what you are spending, set up your goals and don't ever feel like you can't ask for help.
Follow along so we can learn new ways to save and please comment with your favorite saver story.
Happy Savings!
Dustin
No comments:
Post a Comment