Being good with money

As a frugal person, I want to literally lose my mind when I hear some of the decisions people make at a young age. Not because I have some sense of superiority but how much long-lasting damage these decisions can cause.

I've come across the most guilty pleasure YouTube channel (more on that later) that opened my eyes to the extreme lack of knowledge. I chat to you wonderful readers, and at least to my knowledge most of my closest friends are really doing well financially. So when I came across this channel I almost exploded.

I've also realised that being good with money is a discipline you need to hone and continually improve. As I mentioned we caught ourselves slipping a tad over the past few months regarding credit cards. So today I wanted to tell you about some of the rules we live by to help keep us on the road to FIRE. These tips will hopefully encourage you to get moving or keep going!

Know what the heck is going on

Ok if I can leave you with a single piece of advice. Ok not a single, please take a few more things on board. But this is important. Know where your money goes! I meet people constantly who don't know where there money is.

To give you an example, I literally just ordered a card for a subscription account we created in our shared banking. I wanted to have every single subscription come from one account rather than our main account as it can get quite confusing. Also illustrates I am learning!

Understand where every cent is going. We have accounts for all our expenses, including entertainment, gas, gifts etc. It definitely was tedious setting it up (Thanks wifey) but now we know where every dollar goes.

Pull the frugal lever

Ok, people hate it when you ask them to save money. I am asking you to save money. You don't need Uber Eats on a random Wednesday when you can't afford car payments.

You need to know where your money goes and you need to keep your money. Again, this advice is very frustrating and chances are, if this advice annoys you, you might need to save more 😄.

We definitely have fallen short in this department the last while, however, we have also done an internal financial edit to ensure once again we are saving as much as we should.

You might not be able to save yourself to freedom

I am friends with some business owners who are doing really good for themselves. Some are more risk-averse than others. Some take it slow while others are going go go. I tend to be more cautious as I hate losing money.

So I've seen both ends. The end is your income. You might need to find a skill that gets you paid more. Allows you to open your own business. Or in many cases, you might consider becoming that Uber Driver who drops off the guilty pleasure food on Wednesdays.

You might be making just enough to survive and that is not ideal. Not ideal if you want to get to financial independence. I assume that is your goal reading this blog? Or are you just seeing how we are doing? I see you.

Once an investment always an investment

Ok I joked before but seriously this time. One rule I really live by is once something is an investment keep it there!

That has been one of the most difficult things. Hence why we take out milestone money every x amount invested. I know quite a few people who started investing then they see something come up or they want something a bit more than they want financial independence and boom gone is the investing account.

For us, time and doing with it as you please is worth more than any random trinket or even expensive holiday at this stage.

Cool Things

📺Caleb Hammer YouTube

I mentioned at the start how my mind was blown by people making some of the worst financial decisions I have ever seen. Well, let me introduce you to Caleb Hammer. This man talks (often yells) to people and honestly, these folks are brave for coming on to this show.

He asks them about their lives. Tries to make them understand they need to take ownership of their poor decisions and then he provides a basic budget to help them get on track. Its quite entertaining and rather shocking... Here is one of the episodes :