Do You Want a Future?
What kind of a question is that?
There are a lot of young people, that I see, that are living for the moment with little thought for the future. Perhaps, they see how depressed or selfish their parents are over what few assets they have and working a job they hate. It is hard to look beyond others, especially, your parents or grandparents, who are not having a satisfying financial life.
Your well-being does not seem to have a good long-range picture when you see your older family members struggling to survive.
However, you are here, reading about how to build a better mindset for money than your parents or your grandparents or any other person you call family that has not given you a clear picture about how to make your financial life go better.
Your Future Is Up to You!
You have the power to control how you react to or manage yourself in the environment you have inherited.
Just because your parents could not afford a house in a high-income neighborhood, where they have more bathrooms than bedrooms, does not mean that you cannot evolve to that possibility if that is your goal.
Knowledge, not intimidation, will give you the power to overcome any difficulties on your way to a better future.
Desperate people do not see a future being possible. They try to hide or seek dominance in their current conditions, surrounded by other desperate people. Without seeking knowledge, they will slip on the floor of ignorance and only hurt themselves and the ones they love.
I say you have a great chance to evade desperation and to find a better future for yourself and to build a better mindset for money.
You might even be able to help your desperate family get out of their situation, either by example or by moving them away from any bad influences!
Your Decisions Build Your Future
Your income creates the funds to pay for living expenses. How you decide what your living expenses will be greatly defines your financial future.
If you can learn to delay decisions, with financial consequences, until you make time to research what and how much to buy and at what price, then you can make your decisions from a position of strength. If you can give saving and investing a priority over spending, you will build a better financial future.
Making decisions based on the emotions of those around you, or your own, will put you in a weakened position with limited time and access to what you really need.
Will you be the leader of yourself? In your family, will you try to influence with knowledge and planning?
There are those who will run from being responsible. Will you? It takes courage to be confident. Build the right kind of knowledge and you will build your self-confidence and make courageous decisions.
Though we often do not listen to our parents, one thing my dad told me did stick. He said to have the courage to admit when you are wrong and take the punishment and go on. Here is hoping for you and I make very few mistakes!
Learn Not to Make Mistakes
That sounds easy. Though, we will have plenty of opportunities to make mistakes, especially when it comes to spending money.
Why is that? People like to tell you how to spend your money, especially when it helps them!
TV and radio ads try to influence your spending decisions. Have you ever thought I did not know I needed that?
Furniture stores, electronic stores, and grocery stores are great for getting you to buy things by putting them on sale. Did you really plan to buy that item during this holiday? I know it was on sale, but did you budget to spend that, now?
Decide Before You Buy
You will avoid a lot of buying (spending) mistakes by deciding in your mind, first, if you have that purchase provided for in your budget plan, before you pull out your debit card and put that item in your cart. Timing is very important.
There are very few people willing to admit they made a buying mistake and to return the item to the store for a refund. A refund will allow you to buy something you really needed that you might have had to forgo longer than you wanted due to that impulse purchase.
Building a budget makes us pause and consider what we have on-hand, what we have coming in, and what we have available to spend. Then, as we consider what we really need before we can get what we want, we can allocate reasonable amounts and face our limitations. Having limits is the hard part. However, that is why we make long-range goals, to get to where we can afford more of our wants.
“A Penny Saved”
The value of a penny has changed. When I was a boy, a long-long time ago, I could get two cents for an empty glass pop bottle. After cashing in three pop bottles, I could get a nickel candy bar, the same size of the one you pay a dollar for today. Did I say that was a long time ago?
My goal is to see you build a good mindset for money. And saving is a huge part of that mindset. Paying yourself first is not selfish. You will be in a better place to help others and your family. Your savings will be the lifeline to financial independence.
Even though it takes more pennies to buy things that were very cheap by today’s standards, the value of saving is as valuable as earning.
Add to Income Add to Savings
Your income may vary. However, building your value on the job by adding skills and related knowledge will translate to better income over time. Then, your savings opportunities will grow, too.
You can look at saving two ways. First, you schedule saving by paying yourself first with each paycheck before you pay your bills. Second, you can reward yourself by putting spending delays and buying at less than what you budgeted (planned) to spend. Then, put those savings into your savings account for your future!
Suze Orman, an experienced, professional financial advisor, gave a real-life example in her book, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, of a client who lived on a modest income of about $35,000 per year, yet still managed to save a considerable amount for retirement and an emergency fund. When asked how they did it on such a modest salary, they simply said they had the contributions taken out before they saw their net pay and lived on what was left. They worked with what was left and let the investments grow for retirement. Now, that is spending for the future!