🤠 How to Tip Your Financial Scales So That Things Go Your Way

 Day 46:   Paying for Stupid Can Be Heavy

by Edward Smith

20 Aug 2020

Scale Things Back and Reduce Your Weight

If you read my last article entitled:    🤠    How Subscriptions Lock You Out of Your House, you would have read about how subscriptions can add up, block your progress, and keep you from going places.

Not Knowing Is Not a Victimless Crime

Don't be a victim.  Your budget is available and wants to help.   

During my last budget session I undid a two year mistake with my auto club.  I was paying too much and I didn't really understand what I was paying for.   

Then I got my bill for two hundred bucks.  That wasn't acceptable.  It caused me to recoil and to stop what I was doing and look into it.  Turns out, the thing we wanted the auto membership for was covered in the basic plan, and that we were paying extra for extra things that we didn't even use.  

I wanted roadside service.  If my car broke down, someone would show up, and give me a tow, or give me a battery.   That was covered in the basic plan.

The premium plan was actually targeting other snobby things like car rental discounts, hotel perks, and store discounts.  I never shopped in those places, and we never used any of that stuff, so why were we paying for it?    Easy.  It was offered at a slightly higher price then the basic plan, and the details were hidden from plain sight.  

You couldn't see it easily unless you dug into it.  That's how these companies market junk to you.  They define it as "adding value"   They throw things onto your bill as riders, and then raise the price by a few dollars to pay for it.   You're not even getting it for free.  You might as well have signed up for a separate service that only covers the extras.   At least then you'd see it.  

We decided to downgrade our membership.  Awesome idea.

It dropped the price of our annual membership by eighty bucks.  When we crunched the numbers, that meant we had been throwing away 7 bucks a month on something we didn't even use.   That's the same price as the online streaming service I talked about earlier.  

If we had saved that money or invested it we could have over one thousand dollars saved up, and that is just one account.   The same thing could be happening in all of the accounts.  It adds up, and it's making your life harder then it needs to be.   Become informed, and stop the cycle.

Conclusion

Subscription dollars are dangerous because they make you complacent.   Their entire structure is based on doing things automatically without making you think.  Really useful if you're paying for basic things like utilities, but really dangerous if used to pay for the wrong things.

The thing with subscription services, is they get complicated and you don't always know what you're paying for, because the people talking you into getting them don't always go through the fine print with you.   You wouldn't let that happen with a restaurant bill, so why do it here?   

Budgets help you see it all, and they help identify problem areas.  If a number comes in high and you don't like it, challenge it by investigating it.   You might be paying for silly things like prestige.  

Take a second look at what you're paying for.  You might be surprised, and it could save you thousands.  

 

🤠 How Subscriptions Lock You Out of Your House

 Day 45:   Subscription Ignorance is Expensive

by Edward Smith

19 Aug 2020

Subscriptions Add Up

In this article I want to talk about subscriptions.   We all have them.   Some of them are necessary.  

Mortgage payments, electric bills, insurance, water and gas bills.   These things keep your house running.

When used correctly, subscriptions are really useful.   I don't want these things to run out.  I don't want to find out I missed a payment because of some kind of paperwork mistake, or because a letter got lost along with my check.  

Subscriptions make things efficient.  They ensure that things happen like they're supposed to, and that they happen every time.   

Sometimes though subscriptions can get really stupid and mess things up.   Get to know your subscriptions.  Figure out what they're up to.   Here is how.

Subscription Parasites

If you don't already do a budget, you should totally start one today.   You'll be surprised by what you are doing, and where your money goes.   

Subscriptions can turn out to be really expensive when you start putting them next to their friends.   The way they get you, is that they are small and look harmless individually.   

For example, in my house, I subscribe to an online video service.   It's not a big deal.  It only costs about 9 bucks a month.   I've purchased food for more then that.   

When I look at a subscription service in that way, I begin to ignore it because the amount is so small.  Each subscription, though small, works like a brick.  If you pile all of the bricks together, they can start to build into something really big.   

You can't see that unless you have a budget though.   The budget lets you see how all of the bricks stack up together.   Create a budget and get to know your bricks.

Building a Brick Wall Next to My TV

Here is a great example.  I live next to a brick wall that I built out of television service bricks.  That brick wall consists of my internet, my online video streaming service, and my cable television.   

The cable costs about 10 dollars, the streaming service costs about nine, and the internet costs another eighty five.   That basically means I pay over one hundred dollars for things that don't even put food on the table and they almost cost as much as the food I really need.

Worse. I don't really understand them well, because they get presented to me as a package.  

In order to get the basic thing I want, I have to add on options, and those options can be for things I might not really want.  I pay for them though.

Even when I do understand a package, the option doesn't look ideal.  It gets presented with other options, and those other options are marketed to look more attractive.   

For instance with my streaming service I could have another five dollars added on.  If I do that I can have DVD discs sent to my house.   I don't really need to do that, but it's only a couple of dollars so why not?  I often forget that I added them on, and I usually don't even use them.  The company makes free money and doesn't even do any extra work for it.  Not a bad deal for them.

With my cable, I could have extra channels added on for a small nominal fee.  With the internet, I could have a faster internet connection.  Just a few dollars.   That's doesn't look scary.  All of these extra dollars start to add up though.   I have to pay them, and they start to get expensive if I keep trying to have the best of everything.   Prestige will make you poor.  

Try scaling things back.  It can make your life easier to manage.

   

Want to Know How We Scaled Things Back?   Check Out My Next Article

🤠 How to Keep Yourself Safe on a Saturday Night

 Day 44:   Stick To Your Plan

by Edward Smith

18 Aug 2020

Achieve Your Goals by Becoming a Goalie

In this article I want to acknowledge that sticking to a plan is hard to do.  It's not that you can't do it.  You can.  It's that you might not want to do it all of the time.     

Goal setting can be like being a soccer goalie.   When you start out a game, you are fresh and awake.  Ready to go.  Alert.   Being a goalie can be exhausting.  The other players are relentless.  You can't let your guard down.  You have to lunge.  You have to jump.  You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to defend your goal.   

If you don't, people will score.  That's kind of how the game works.  It doesn't matter if the shot happens at the beginning of the game or at the end of the game.   A point is still a point no matter when it happens, and that point could cost you the entire game.   

Goal setting works the same way.  One false move, and kaput.   So what do you do about it?

The Morning You Relies Upon the Evening You

I'm like a goalie.  In the morning, I wake up refreshed and motivated.  I'm eager to attack my goal.  I'll write things down, set up a plan, and even describe how it has to go in detail.   

For instance I might decide that this month I'm going to stay on budget with my beer buying.  I'll bust out my calculator.  I'll determine how many weeks there are in the month, and then I'll divvy up my money between the weeks.   Easy.  Problem solved.    

That is until my evening me wakes up.   My evening me works the night hours as a professional saboteur.

Restricted Minds Just Want to Have Fun

Here is how things go wrong in my head.  

I'm good for several hours.  Sometimes all the way through lunch and into the late afternoon.  I'm a man of integrity.  Nothing tempts me.  Nothing stops me.

After that, something starts to falter and go the wrong way.  I begin to envision myself having fun in inappropriate ways.  I stop caring about the consequences.   I begin to rationalize bad things.  I become okay with being bad.   Soccer balls shoot past me.  The other team starts to win.  I'm not doing my job.

It's like my brain gets tired of having to be responsible all of the time.   Nobody else has to follow the rules.  How come I do?  My brain starts screaming unfair!  It revolts.  It doesn't want to do it anymore.  Enough is enough.  

Party time!  

These party's are a bad idea though.   I can't afford them.   I need a chaperone.   I have to jump in and run interference.  This is how I do it.   

Party Like It's 1996!

When I get over my head, and find myself wanting to do something stupid with money because I'm bored, I know it's time to slow the whole thing down and scale things back.  When I'm bored, the worst thing I can do at the moment is to spend more money on entertainment.  

Truth is, I hate myself in the morning when I do it, and I usually don't even enjoy it like I expect to.  

Major buyer's remorse dude!  

My high school me was smarter.   

Once upon a time I lived at home with my parents.  I had a car, but I didn't have a lot of money for gas.  I didn't drink.  I wasn't able to go out every weekend, because I didn't have the money or permission to do it.  I survived on less and I still had a lot of fun.   Maybe more fun then I do now. 

Friends helped make this work.

Friends Make You Better

Some of my best memories are with my friends.   We worked hard to make the weekends amazing.  We were selective, and we planned things out.   It was a team effort.   

It wasn't always extravagant.   We saved up and did meaningful things.  We'd hit special coffee houses.   We'd play cards.  We would walk together and talk.  We might bust out a box of dominoes or a good board game.  

We went to the mall.  Sometimes we cooked at the house, or we would watch a scary movie together.  Sharing time can be inexpensive.  That doesn't mean it's not extremely valuable.   

Conclusion   

You don't need a fancy budget to have a good time.   Call up your friends. Go to the beach.  Play football.   Walk in a park.   Go fishing.  Hike.  Carpool.   Drive around town.  Listen to music.   Go on a road trip.  Learn something together.

Your distracted you, is a better version of you, when it comes to completing goals.  It doesn't have time to get off track, because it's already busy doing something.   Friends also work as a great support network. You can bring them up to speed on how things are going, they care about it, and can give you honest feedback.   

Don't do things alone.   Pick up the phone!   Call a friend, and make the weekend great! 

   

    

      

🤠 How a Grocery List Keeps You From Starving Later

Day 43:   You Need Food, Not a Feud

by Edward Smith

17 Aug 2020

Shop In a Way That Doesn't Get You Dropped

Groceries are by far, one of the most expensive line items on my household's budget.  Not gas.  Not electricity.   Groceries.

In my house we constantly buy and eat food.   Probably too much, but that's a conversation for another day.   That doesn't mean I just accept it though.  I want to keep my house running correctly so I have to protect myself.   

I do that in a couple of ways.  I shop at different places, and I carry a grocery list.   Here is how I shop for groceries.

A Tale of Two Grocery Stores   

I go grocery shopping at least once per week, and when I go, I hit two different grocery stores.  

One is a value store, that specializes in the basic stuff like sugar, flour, butter, bread, things like that.  It's not fancy.  I'm not emotionally attached to it.   The prices are right.   I usually get what I need.  Sometimes the quality can suck.   It's not perfect, but it's a great place to start.   I keep my expectations low, but I still go.          

After I hit the value store, I then shop at a higher end grocery store.   I'm picky about certain things like vegetables.  That's why I shop there.   At this store, I find higher quality options.   Those options come with a higher price tag though, so you have to be careful when you shop there.       

 

That's why I carry a grocery list.   It works like impulse insurance.   It keeps you from buying extraneous nonsense.   Bring one, and keep yourself safe.  If you don't, your emotions will take over, and you'll break your bank.   Your emotions can't handle that kind of pressure.  Leave your emotions at home.  Bring a list instead.

Become an Emotionless, Lethal, Grocery Assassin

Grocery lists work like a dossier.   Like a dossier, grocery lists contain vital information about a potential target.  There is no guessing.  The instructions are clear.  You focus, and ignore the other distractions.   

The job comes first.  

First you look at your list. You pick your target.   You watch, and wait.   When the target makes an appearance, you rush in and take it out.   Clean.  No mistakes.    

After your initial target is taken out, you mark off the target and move onto the next target in line.  Every target is systematically eliminated one after another.  Ruthless efficiency.   

That's how my grocery list works.  I have my list, I get what is on the list, and I leave.   Nothing else happens.  There are rules in place, that I follow.  When I follow them, things work like I expect them to, and that's what I want.   My grocery list makes me reliable, and my budget benefits from that reliability.

Intelligence Meeting

All good field agents receive Intel from a highly skilled group of people working behind the scenes.  These people look into everything before a job ever begins.  They get a lay of the land.  They figure out all of the details, before anything ever happens.  They provide a tactical advantage. 

In my house, my intelligence comes from a spreadsheet.   

This is how it works.   Every week, I pull up a free online spreadsheet.   I use google docs, but you can use whatever works for you.  On this spreadsheet I've recorded the names and prices for every item ahead of time that I've ever purchased at the store.   These are things that I feel deserve a second chance.   I browse for what I want, see the prices and start creating my list.  

At the beginning, I look at my spreadsheet, pick an item, and then I walk around the house to see if I have it or need it.  If I want it, I write it down.   If I can get by without it, I skip it.   I then tally everything up.  Since I can see the prices, I can figure out how much everything will cost.   I do this before I ever put the keys into my car.   

If I come in high, I adjust the list and scrub some things off.  If I come in low, I know I'm either safe, or that I have some wiggle room.  If there is enough wiggle room I might add a small treat for the kids.  The idea here, is if the list doesn't show it, I don't buy it.   This helps me to put blinders on while I'm walking at the store, and keeps me honest.

 

Conclusion

You know you have to eat.  You know you're going to need to get some more food.   Why not have a support team in place to ensure it goes like you want it to?   Grocery lists keep you on track.  

Grocery stores want to take all of your money.  They spend a ton of money on research to ensure you buy things.   Do you want to try to defend yourself with your will power alone?   Your will power is weak.   It's flabby, and it doesn't want to behave.   

Give that flab a back bone.    Put some structure into your life.  Grocery lists help you to stand tall.  You go in, you focus in on what you came for, you walk out and nobody gets hurt.  

That's how you want it to go.   Make it happen.  Bring a grocery list.

🤠 How Paying Off A House is Like Getting your Cat a Full Time Job

Day 42:   Put Your Cat to Work!

by Edward Smith

16 Aug 2020

Your House Payment Keeps You Over Employed

If you read my last article entitled:   🤠    How Financial Freedom Tastes Like a Yummy Burger Franchise.   You would have learned how house payments can buy you ownership over your future self, and how you get to run things your way.  

In this article, learn how paying off a house, brings in so much extra income, it's like your pet went out and got itself a full time job.  It's time for work Muffy!   Get gone!

Life Disclaimer:  Houses Cost Money

My house payment currently sits at  $2,413 per month.  That means that people in my household have to work for other people and earn enough money to take home at least $28,956 bucks a year, not including taxes, government program fees, or whatever else that gets taken away before we see the money hit the bank.    

According to the website

 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/mw-consolidated

The average minimum wage for a person per state averages at around 8 to 12 dollars an hour.   

You can argue for or against that number.   Point here it isn't a fortune.  

If I was at the low end I'd make eight bucks an hour.  I'd probably work 40 hours a week (if not more).   I'd take home about 85% of that and would end up at about $14,144 a year (8 X 40 = 320 X 52 = 16,640 X .85 = 14,144).   

This means that if my wife and I were both working in minimum wage jobs and our house payment was what it is currently, it would take both of us working 40 hours a week to earn what it takes to pay off our house each year.  

That means nothing goes wrong.  No job losses.   It also doesn't account for food or any other expenses.   Might be time to find a second or third job.   

By paying off our house, we get to keep about $1,814 of that every month (or $21,768 of that).   It's like me and my cat both got jobs at the local burger place and that money flows into the house budget to pay down our other bills.  Things become easier.

Looking at it another way, it's like we bought off $21,768 of the work my wife has to earn every year.  She could downgrade jobs and we'd be living the same way as we do now.   Or if we both lost our jobs, it would take a lower paying job to normalize things again. 

A Decade Worth of Dreaming

 

My dream took ten years to get to where it is today, but things are really starting to pop and happen now.  I can see it.   It's starting to get really exciting.

Ten years ago I decided to pay down my house aggressively as a way to buy my household's financial freedom.  I didn't want to pay house payments because they keep us in bondage to a creditor.  

I knew that if we could stop having to pay for a house, we wouldn't need to make as much, and we could get back on track quicker with less.   That doesn't include retirement.  Retirement puts this into overdrive.

At some point, our retirement investments will make what we spend.  We'll hit a day where everything cancels out.   At that point, our jobs become optional.   We get to choose what we do after that.  We can work.   We can both stay home.   

Nobody else gets to decide what happens to us.  We don't have to ask permission.  We paid the price.   The machine is self sufficient.  We can walk away and let it do it's job.   

Conclusion

I love the idea of gaining financial freedom. 

I also think if you can become self sufficient with your money, it makes you a better person in the long run. Instead of doing things out of desperation and out of necessity, you get to follow your heart. 

When my wife and I get to this point, we'll get to serve others selflessly without distraction.  When you remove the paycheck from the formula, you get to just be yourself, exactly as you really are. 

No more games, no more shackles. No more show. 

Sounds clean. Sounds honest. I like the sound of it.   That's my dream.   

Is your dream better?   Go make it happen.  Prove it.   

I'm doing it.      

I want to see what you can do.   

I bet your dream is incredible.  I can't wait to see it.

🤠 How Financial Freedom Tastes Like a Yummy Burger Franchise

Day 41:   Dream Burger Ready!   Order Up!

by Edward Smith

15 Aug 2020

Financial Freedom Sounds Tasty

If you read my last article entitled  🤠    How It Feels to See A Dream Take Physical Form, you will have read about how I chose to become self sufficient so I could remove the burden of a paycheck, and so that I could work where I wanted to work because I wanted to.   In this article, learn why doing this is important, and why it's kind of like opening a fast food franchise.

Running a Burger Franchise is a Dream!

I think of financial freedom like I think fast food franchise ownership would work.   I haven't opened a franchise before, but I read things and I have an imagination.   So this is how I imagine it would go.   

In my fantasy, when you first start out, you are completely reliant on the whims of your parent company.   You sign a contract with them, they build your building for you, per the company's blue prints and design.   

They send you all of your supplies including the product and the product packaging.   They tell you how to advertise and they give you all of the fliers and posters that you need to do it.   They kind of own you.   

You start off like an employee, but you're better then a normal employee.   You got this contract, and this contract promises you things will get better.  As you work, you begin to gain more and more  ownership over your place.   You're making them money, so in return they're making you into the boss of your own place.

Work For Other People, but Save Up For Yourself

Saving up to eventually own my own burger franchise, was similar to how I saw all of my old jobs, when I used to work for other people.   By saving money, and paying down the house early, it was like my wife and I were slowly purchasing a part of our salary back from the man.  

When you buy back enough of your own salary and can use it however you want, it's like your cat got a job.  The man keeps coming, but you got more money, and you owe him less and less.   That's when you know you're starting to take things back.

 

Want to take it back and get your cat a job?      

Purrfect! 

Read my next article and find out how.  

🤠 How It Feels to See A Dream Take Physical Form

Day 40:   From Brain to Physical Plane

by Edward Smith

14 Aug 2020

My Dream Was & Is to Be In Charge 

If you read my last article entitled  🤠    How To Keep Yourself Safe From Brain Ghosts, you would have read about how dreams are your why.  They keep those pesky brain ghosts away.  In this article, find out what my dream was and why it mattered to me.

Ten years ago, I decided that working for other people can be both good and dangerous, depending on how you manage things in the background.     

Be Grateful and Respectful

Before I continue though.  Let me get something straight.

Working for another person is honorable and good.   It connects you to those around you, you get to use their resources to help make society better, and they in turn help you out by paying you a paycheck. 

I understand that.   Every job I've ever had has been a blessing.   Without those jobs, I'd have nothing.  I wouldn't be able to think ahead or plan for future things.  Jobs let you build yourself up.   

This is important.  Never bite the hand that feeds you.   Appreciate your employer and work hard for them.   They took a bunch of risk when they hired you.  

Show people you were worth it.    Do a good job for them.  Show them you have character and integrity.  Don't forget those that helped lift you up.

Be Realistic!

On the other hand, work alone is not going to solve all of your real world problems.   Nobody ever said it would.   

Your situation could be better, but it is up to you to make it work out that way.  Employers are not you.   They are not infallible, and sometimes they have to let people go.   

It could happen because you do something, or it could happen because the employer has no other choice and it's not your fault.   Either way, you now are cut loose, and you have to face things on your own.   You better have a plan in place.  

 

Layoffs Happen!

I read the news, and job layoffs happen.  

When they happen, I pray that the poor people being laid off, have a plan in place to keep themselves out of harm's way.  Relying on an employer completely is naive and is a form of short term thinking.   Don't make assumptions!

Just because you have a job today, doesn't mean you will have a job tomorrow.  

Make a backup plan.

If you get laid off, and you have no plan, that layoff becomes super serious quick.  I'm not interested in experiencing that moment.   Doesn't sound fun.  I'm no victim.   So here is what I did.

Dreaming My Have To's Into Want To's

I decided, I wanted to have more control over what happened.  I decided it would be up to me to do something about it.   

My dream was to turn my job from a have to, to a want to.  Here is how it worked.  I asked myself a series of questions.  

If I came to work tomorrow and my employer stopped giving me money starting today, would it matter?   Could I show up to work tomorrow for free and make it all work?   Would the money stuff already be good?      

That was my dream.   Buy out my employer's paycheck.   Become self sufficient.  Work where I want to work, when I want to work, for whatever it pays and not worry about it.      

Want to Know Why I Did That?  Read My Next Article.