Tag Archives: Money

How My Money Perspective Has Changed From My 20s to My 30s – What Would I Do Differently? (If Anything)

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As I reflect about my life and my relationship with money, I would definitely say that my approach to spending, saving, and investing has radically changed over the years. Am I just becoming older and wiser or does the current state of the economy have any impact on my views on money? It can be a combination of things but I do believe that with life experience comes more knowledge. I have always had a passion for building wealth and that is something that has not changed since my 20s but my perspective is definitely different now and there are many ways in which I view money differently than I did a decade ago.

Having Money In My Bank Account Means More Than Spending It – I have always been a rather good money saver but over the years, I have become an even more aggressive saver. Why? As I have aged, it is just more satisfying to have a bigger bank account than to spend money on material goods or going out. I am much more willing to sacrifice my desires and wants now than I was able to in my youth. It comes more natural for me to say no to unnecessary purchases and to just save my money instead. For me personally, it just feels good to have a lot of money stored away in a bank account than to spend it.

Spending Money on Clothes Doesn’t Excite Me Anymore – I have always had a love for fashion and wearing stylish and flattering clothing. That would also mean having the nicest shoes and handbags to go with my outfits. Fast forward to the present moment and I now do not care about clothing like I used to. Over the years, I have accumulated a wonderful wardrobe of classics and staple pieces that still fit and look great year after year. This is why there really is no need to go out and constantly buy new clothes unless it is an item that is worn out and in need of a replacement. I also want to point out a valuable life lesson: No one really cares what you wear more than yourself. So there really is no need to overspend on clothing or feel the need to impress anyone because no one really cares about the clothing you wear. That is not to say that you should totally neglect your self image but to consciously make an effort to be less vain because at the end of the day–no one cares what you wear!

I am Obsessed With My Retirement Savings – When you are in your 20s, you do not really think about retirement enough unless you are taught the importance of compound interest and investing as early as you can. Fortunately, my mother had me open an IRA account at the age of 18 years old. While I was making contributions to my IRA as much as I could at the time (which wasn’t too much), my biggest regret is not making a conscious effort to max out my IRA contribution every single year. When I turned 30 years old, I made the conscious effort to start doing that and have really seen the increase over the years which is very encouraging. This motivates me to keep investing into my retirement and watching it grow over time.

My Time Is More Valuable Than Money – Despite how much I prioritize working and making money, as I have gotten older–I have tried to have more of a balance between my work life and personal life. In other words, I cherish and value having quality time as opposed to working nonstop. Sometimes you have to take the time to say no to work and actually enjoy living your life. I would rather just work less and make more as opposed to feeling like I need to work constantly. In the past, I would push myself to work as much as I can, even if that meant less free time to do the things that I loved. Although I still would consider myself a hard worker, I have toned down the intensity and have made having free time more of a priority over work.

Booking a Vacation Is Worth Every Penny – I have been an avid traveler since my mid to late 20s when I started to make a high enough income to allocate money towards one of my biggest passions in life–international travel. To this day, I still believe that travel is money well spent and something that I would never regret spending because the memories that are created are so worth it. While not everyone might have a love for travel, it is important to find something that you love and allow yourself to spend the money on your desired category of choice with zero regrets. I spent the money on travel then and will continue to spend my hard earned money on travel throughout the course of my lifetime. It can be an expensive hobby but it is one that I will always justify as an essential expense.

Does “Money Buy Happiness?” – If Not, Then What Does?

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Many people hear the expression that “money buys you happiness.” While there is some truth to that in the sense that having the ability to spend it freely and providing financial security are very positive things that many of us strive for in our lifetimes–it does not necessarily guarantee you happiness. There are people who have a lot of money but might not know how to manage it successfully which eventually leaves them in more financial trouble or could bring upon more added stress into their lives. There are also people who have unlimited financial resources who live unfulfilling lives and simply aren’t happy. So what are some other keys to happiness that do not revolve around money? 

Pursuing a Meaningful Career That Adds Value to the World – It is really important to dig deep and determine what you want to do with your life and finding a career path that is spiritually rewarding and brings intrinsic happiness. When I say a “career,” that also can include volunteer work, being a parent, etc. It does not have to tie into a job that brings in an income but really just finding your authentic purpose in your life.

Building Healthy Relationships – People often underestimate the importance of human interaction and developing healthy relationships but it is very beneficial to have good people in your life. Even if you are someone that is introverted and prefer to spend most of your time alone, that does not mean that you should not have zero relationships in your life. It is wise to have a social circle of people who are there to support you and spend your quality time with.  

Loving Self to the Fullest – You might already hear this all the time (especially in this blog 😉 ) but you need to love yourself! If you are not in a place where you feel that you love yourself, then you need to determine ways to get to that place. This could mean finding a better job, getting out of a bad relationship that is preventing you from thriving, or pursuing new hobbies that bring you joy. It is a necessity to find and learn ways to love yourself to ensure you are bringing happiness into your life. 

Lifestyle Inflation – What It Is and Can It Be Avoided?

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It is hard to understand how someone with a high income could be living paycheck to paycheck but it is more common in today’s society than ever before. While there is no denying that high levels of inflation can be a culprit, there is also a phenomenon known as lifestyle inflation which is making it even harder for people to save money. An example of lifestyle inflation could be when a person gets a work bonus or a new job with an increased salary, then this person feels more justified to buy luxury goods or spend more money than ever before. While it is good to treat yourself and spend your hard earned money, it is still really important to prioritize investing and saving as much money as you can because you not only need it for your future but you also might need it for an unexpected emergency.

In your youth, it is very easy to fall into this lifestyle inflation trap because maybe you want to own a fancy car or dress in designer clothing. If you can afford it right now, you might be thinking: Why not? Again, there is nothing wrong with treating yourself but this cannot be an ongoing habit or this is going to lead to a lack of savings and potential debt. The right mindset to have is asking yourself, how do I build my net worth? If you place your focus on building wealth over time, then it will become easier for you to resist overspending on things that you truly do not need. As you get older, it will probably become a more conscious decision to save for retirement or to find investment opportunities rather than overspending. 

The best way to avoid lifestyle inflation is to first shift your mindset as I mentioned previously. For me personally, my mind is more focused on seeing more money in my savings and investment accounts than in my closet because I am a practical person with an understanding that excessive material goods really is not a necessity nor is it really making my life that much better in the long run. Whereas in my youth, I cared very much about having new and stylish clothing including designer labels. Once you have made a mindset change, then the next step is to develop the right habits to support your beliefs. In this case, that would mean to allocate your money towards necessities only and to commit to your financial goals. It can take time to develop the right habits but as long as you start implementing them, then your habits eventually become much more automatic. 

How to Teach Your Children to Become Financially Independent

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One of the greatest spiritual gifts that you can give to your children is teaching them how to be financially independent. Many parents seem to believe that they are doing their children a favor by giving them everything that they can provide them and by paying for all their expenses. Even if parents have an abundance of wealth, it is still wiser to teach their children how to earn their own money and not to consistently receive financial handouts. In the long run, when children are given free stuff all the time without having to work for it, this creates entitled, spoiled, helpless, and lazy adult children. In order to break this cycle and to prevent this from happening, as a parent, it is important to teach financial independence from the start. This might require some tough love on your part but it will ultimately ensure that you raise children who become self sufficient and financially secure adults who are not dependent on mommy and daddy’s bank account. This is a positive thing and should not be seen as a selfish act as you are forcing your children to grow up, preparing them for the realities of the real world, and building their self worth that they are fully capable of doing this themselves. So where do you begin? The short answer is–as early as possible! There are also some other tips that I would recommend.

Encourage Your Children to Work and Earn Their Own Money – As soon as they can get their working papers, encourage your children to go out in the real world and get a job. Even if the job is not glamorous or high paying, it is still better to push your kids to work and make their own money as opposed to just supplying them with your credit card or money whenever they want something. They are going to eventually need to find a career path but in the meantime, it is smart to have them gain some work experience which will build their work ethic.

Make Them Pay for Everything – I know this might be tough to enforce if your children do not have a steady job or source of income yet but it is essential to make your children pay for everything from the start. Then they will not rely on you for every little thing and expect free handouts. Is your child at an age to drive a car? Do not give them a free car–have them work for it! In addition, they should pay for their car insurance, gas, and the maintenance costs. If you tell them that they need to pay for these things, they will figure it out. This might mean working a job after school or saving strategically but these are great skills to possess. You want your children to be doing these things. It might take them more time to buy the things that they desire but that’s okay. You want to teach your children to know how to pay for things and put in the work that is necessary to earn everything.

Be Okay Saying No When Your Children Ask for Material Objects – It is understandable that your children are going to constantly be asking you for new stuff. It is important to establish what are actual needs versus wants. Oftentimes, the items are not necessities in which it is okay to say no. If the child wants something badly enough, it is a good idea to teach them the benefits of saving any money that they receive or earn to eventually buy the item themselves because it will always be more valuable when it is earned as opposed to being given things for free. It is also good to say no so that the child learns to appreciate what they have as opposed to becoming materialistic and acquiring too many unnecessary possessions.

Teach Them the Benefits of Both Saving and Investing Their Money – Most children are not wise enough to think about the long term effects of their everyday habits. That is why it is natural that they want to spend money to satisfy their need for instant gratification. However, if they were aware of the benefits of compound interest over time and/or the value of saving money for an emergency fund, they would be be more inclined to start saving and investing at a young age. It is up to you as a parent to teach your children financial literacy, especially considering that this is not a subject that is taught in most schools. The best way to teach this is through example and during their younger years so that they can start making the right financial decisions from the start.

Don’t Let Your Adult Children Live at Home for Free – I know this sounds harsh but adults should learn to become adults. That means taking on responsibilities such as moving out of their parents’ house, paying their own bills, managing their personal finances, etc. When you let your adult children live at home for free, they tend to become freeloaders who have no motivation to work or do anything. Do you blame them? Why work when they don’t need to?! It is for this reason that you should encourage your children to move out and learn how to navigate adulthood on their own. Aside from financial lessons, there are so many other life lessons that are gained from living independently such as becoming more responsible and self sufficient. If you allow them to live at home still, maybe consider having them buy their own groceries, contribute towards utilities, pay rent, and/or do extra chores around the house. This might encourage them to want to move out or at the very least teach them that living at home comes with a cost.

3 Ways to Avoid Living Paycheck to Paycheck

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It is hard escaping news headlines that a higher percentage of people are living paycheck to paycheck, even people who have a high annual salary. There are many contributing factors that are causing this including the rate in which inflation has increased over the past year. Aside from that, when people make more money, they also tend to spend more because they feel they deserve it or that they are comfortable enough to spend more while saving at the same time. No matter how much money you are making, it is essential to make money management a top priority. This will allow for yourself to be in a better financial position in the long run and ensure that you won’t be living paycheck to paycheck. Like most things in life, it is never too late to start and develop the right habits to get you on the right financial track.

Set Up Automatic Payments Into Your Savings Account – Whatever amount you can comfortably afford, determine a set amount that will automatically get deducted once a week and then you do not touch the money. This is a quick way to build savings without really thinking about it. If you are more disciplined, you can manually put the money into your savings every week and change up the amounts as needed depending on how much extra that you have left over. Every dollar counts so any little bit that you can put towards your savings is better than nothing!

Reduce Consumption and Eliminate Non-essentials – I recently wrote about how reducing consumption is a great way to save money. This could really range from anything from using less energy/gas to eating less at a restaurant so you have a second meal to take home at a later time. There are so many ways in which you could reduce what you consume each day. It is also smart to examine your monthly subscriptions and other services/products that you currently have and then eliminate the ones that you do not really need. Do you pay for cable or a gym membership that you never use? Then this might be the time to cancel these services altogether so that you can allocate the money into your savings and/or investments.

Track Every Dollar That You Spend – If you follow my blog, you probably have read me talk about this consistently but it is important to track your expenses everyday. This helps you stay accountable with your financial decisions and can also serve as a tool for analyzing your money habits. Did you notice that you spent more money on non-essentials last month? Then you can strive to reduce your spending the following month. The only way you can truly track this is by actually taking the time to record all your expenses in order to stay focused both on spending less while maximizing your daily savings. If you can do both of these things at the same time then you will find that you will not be living paycheck to paycheck anymore.

How to Save Hundreds of Dollars – A Money Saving Tip That Many People Overlook

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When people talk about saving money, people think of the basic things such as cutting back on how often you go out to eat and/or pick up a coffee, shop when there are sales, focus on just buying your daily necessities, and one that many people dread to hear–create a monthly budget. While these are all great starting points when it comes to saving your money and things that I agree will help you save more money from month to month, there is something that people often overlook and never really talk about but it comes down to your consumption of your resources. The good thing is, this can apply to many things in your everyday life and it is never too late to start!

Think about it, if you used a smaller amount of your daily goods, you would not need to replenish them as often. This could include basic items such as your skincare products, shampoo, makeup, etc. If you used just a little lesser of an amount of these items or perhaps they are items that you use sparingly, then they would last you for a much longer time meaning that you wouldn’t need to buy them as frequently.

While I would agree that going out to eat can be costly, you can still treat yourself to a nice meal but that does not mean that you need to go overboard and buy an appetizer, main course, drink, a dessert, and etc. Maybe just getting a light appetizer and a drink is enough where you feel satisfied. Another thought is to get a meal that provides a large quantity and plan to only eat half of it so that you have the other half to take home which would provide you a second meal. This way, you paid for one meal but it will last for two meals.

When you are home, do you pay attention to the energy that you are consuming? If you are not using a light, then shut it off. The same also goes with your water usage where you can control how much you are using. If you do not really watch much TV, maybe it is a good idea to cancel your cable package or reduce it so that you just have the basic channels. In other words, there is no need to pay for more than what you need.

While many of us rely on cars to get to work, there are still ways to cut back on your gas costs. Maybe when you run your daily errands, try to coordinate it where the locations are within a closer distance to each other so that you are making fewer trips. If there are scenarios where you can carpool with someone, then you should. There are definitely little ways in which you could reduce your gas usage which could save you extra money each month.

At the end of the day, making the conscious effort to conserve your resources could literally save you hundreds of dollars in a month and within the course of the year! While it might take some discipline on your end, if you actually take the time to pay attention to how you use your resources and cut back on the areas that you could, you would be amazed with how you are are able to get more bang for your buck on your daily expenses. Even if you have financial stability or you are in a good financial place in your life, who doesn’t want to expand their savings even more and accumulate more wealth? Some of the wealthiest people who you know are wealthy because they know the secret of cutting back on their spending and already have applied these habits in order to increase their wealth. Again, if you can save more, why not? 😉

A Great Money Quote to Share – “Making Money Is Action…”

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I stumbled across this from a YouTube comment and looked it up to find that it is an actual quote. I thought it was valuable enough to share with my readers and something that I also agree with. In order to attract financial abundance, it is important to actually take action by going out there and working for it! Unfortunately for most people, money doesn’t just fall from the sky or land in people’s bank accounts for no reason. Often people complain that they are broke and if this is the case, then it is time to dig deep and find ways to take action to change this. This might mean that it is time to change careers or find multiple streams of income. There are unlimited opportunities in this world to make money and many that do not even require a professional degree. In other words, you do not always need a formal education in order to make a living and ultimately it all starts with taking action.

While generating an income is important, having the right habits and behaviors to ensure that you are saving what you can and not overspending is equally essential and oftentimes even more so. Meaning that no matter what you are starting with, you have the ability to control the way in which you spend your money and you can actually build up a good savings, even if you are not making a lot of money at the present moment. The best ways to go about this is to track your spending so you can examine exactly where your money is going, set savings goals to keep in order to stay hyper focused, and make a conscious effort to not spend beyond your means which might mean cutting back in certain spending areas in your life.

While the last saying in the image above is labeled as “growing” money, I would say another word that can work in place of it besides growing is investing. I would agree that this does take extra knowledge and research in order to find ways to invest your money in order for it to grow over time. While many people think for today, when it comes to your money, you need to think about your future many years down the line to ensure that you have money during all stages of your life which also means your retirement years. Even if that seems very far away from now, you still should start investing at a young age so that your money continues to grow abundantly.

How to Cut Spending Without Feeling Deprived

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I haven’t really written a financial related blog in quite some time and I feel that while this is always a topic of interest, proper money management is also a much needed life skill. As important as it is to amp up your salary or to find multiple streams of income, someone can make all the money in the world and not know how to manage it or overspend it where they do not have much money at all. That is why it is beneficial to know how and when to cut spending but to do so without feeling deprived so that you can still live your life in abundance.

Which leads me to the point that although it sounds like an oxymoron to preach about having an abundant life but then you have to cut back on spending money, the truth is that you can actually do both at the same time. For one, it is important to be thankful for what you currently have because practicing gratitude actually attracts more abundance into your life. Also consider that if you are happy with what you have, you will likely be spending less money on things that are not a true necessity which is a good thing because that means that you will be spending less money on things that you do not need.

Everyone has different areas in their lives that they are willing to spend more money on and things that they do not care about or prioritize as much. I would suggest establishing what areas that you can cut back on and the ones that you are willing to splurge on. For example, for me personally, I think it is a waste of money to buy lunch all the time or to purchase coffee daily so I do not spend much money on these items as I prefer to save the money and make my food and coffee at home. On the other hand, I know that there are people who find it to be quite enjoyable to buy their lunch and/or coffee on a daily basis because it is a luxury to them and just makes their lives more convenient. My point is, what I might label as a “waste of money” might be something that is very valuable to another individual so that is why I said that everyone needs to determine what they like to splurge on and then what areas that they can save their money on. This way you will have a balanced approach to your spending where you can have the things that you really care about but then you can also save money as well by cutting back on the things that are not essential to you personally.