You Know Less Than You Need to Know
I do not have a simple fix for that!
My hope is that you will not make the same unknowing mistakes that I made when I was much younger. I made enough mistakes that it took me years to recover. My family had to do without things and suffered some hardships, while I tried to put some sanity back into my money management.
My children took a long time before they were willing to talk to me about financial matters. I had learned a lot from making mistakes. I suggest you not try to learn that way!
Now, I have grandchildren just getting started on their own. There is more hope for them if they come to me for advice. I hope they will listen to a grandpa who can afford to buy them gifts!
Shiny Things and Fun Times!
When I was young, there was not as many platforms for advertising. We had TV, dominated by cigarette and gas station ads. Radio had a lot of local store ads. Newspapers had the classifieds. Billboards and the occasional Burma Shave series of roadside signs were entertaining on our road trips. From the book, verse by the side of the road, by Frank Rowsome, Jr., Don’t Take/ A Curve/ At 60 Per/ We Hate to Lose/ A Customer/ Burma Shave.
More recently, we have added the internet, email, social media, and texting.
Every day, we are bombarded by advertising. So many shiny things are available with an instant payment and overnight delivery!
Then, there are the fun times to be had like ball games, the races, theme parks, concerts, options for eating out, and casinos with live entertainment and gambling.
The ads promote your options as though you deserve what they offer. Perhaps, you do. However, can you afford to do it?
Life Gets Real—Will You?
Because of my own mistakes, I often wish I had a button that I could push that would make my children and grandchildren feel pain when they try to pull out their credit card to buy something they cannot afford, as of today!
It might make them think a little longer or remind them of the pain they may suffer from lack of sleep worrying over how they will get that credit card paid off, including all the interest incurred from making only the minimum payments.
I know that if you had suffered the same anguish I did that you would not wish that on your own children. So, please, try to build a better mindset for money that will bring enough respect from your children that they would seek your advice for their major financial decisions.
Check The Box
The key to building a better mindset for money is to plan and use a budget, to make sure your spending stays within your income level.
Give your income a purpose. Take care of your needs and your family’s needs. You will eat better. That I can assure you.
Know what you have and what needs to be paid. Putting that on paper or on a computer screen gives a sobering picture. We have limits based on our income and assets (savings and investments).
Each month, you will have a growing satisfaction with being able to check off all the boxes on payments due and obligations met!
It is a worthy habit to meet all your obligations and be able to put money into savings for the unusual and infrequent expenses and provide for retirement investments.
Learn What You Need to Know
A good thing to remember about a budget is that it is a learning process. You will rarely do it right the first time.
I suggest you start with what you think you know about your income and spending—your financial world. As you go through about three months of watching your income fall short of covering your expenses, you will start to learn some very important information.
Now, a few details will bring some reality to light. Save receipts. Set up categories based on your budget line items. Total your receipts at the end of the month. All of them!
You will find that your spending is out of control. Groceries and eating out will be about twice what you might guess they were.
Do NOT cry! This is an opportunity to learn. Hope is not lost. This is a chance to identify something you can consciously control and manage into a lower cost next month!
Knowledge Is Powerful
As you probably noticed while working on your budget and subsequent realities, that when and how often you get paid has a dramatic effect on your spending ability.
The flow of cash—when it comes in defines when it can go out!
As the “Keeper of the Budget” (you look good with that title!), you must be very aware of when your cash comes in and what your level of cash is, at any time. Yes, I think you should check your bank balance daily or no less than weekly.
You and your family are no less important than any company you work for. Without controlling their cash flow, they will die. Then, the workers will be let go. Yes, even you. Cash flow is that important to learn.
How will you live if you fail to learn to control your flow of cash?
Be in the know. Fill yourself with knowledge and you will be knowledge-able!