Foundations First
Before you can start saving for financial independence, you need to set the foundation. Financial independence does not come to those searching for the American pseudo-dream of more riches, more status symbols, and frankly, more STUFF. The fact of the matter is, increasing your income does not help if you have unruly spending habits. Trust me, I would know.
I have gone through more jobs than you can imagine. Always trying to side-hustle my way through life, I have been a tutor for high-school kids, a Jamba Juice trainor and employee, a visuals specialist who makes the mannequins look pretty in the windows of Banana Republic stores, a full-time dental assistant, a librarian, a dentist, a writer, a dog-walker, and a bread baker. I have lived more lives than you can imagine through my jobs. I always thought, if I could earn just a little bit more, then I would be able to save money and work my way towards freedom. But it never worked!
I am a dentist by trade, and there are a few observations that I would like to share. A majority of my colleagues are medical professionals who make more than decent money. You would think that these individuals would be swimming in that money. However, many of my colleagues are swimming in debt. They spend their hard-earned dollars the minute they get paid, on frivolities and status symbols that make them appear rich, but that also keep them working for forty years until it is time to retire and die. I see people with good jobs have mental breakdowns and panic attacks when life throws them a curve ball, such as a medical emergency or a car repair. They struggle because their credit cards are maxed out, and they have no money to address the issue. Conversely, I see patients at the dental office who work in construction, or plumbing, or painting, and who have no credit history yet are capable of addressing the issue of a broken tooth that same day without breaking a sweat.
Lifestyle creep is a very common occurrence that befalls many people who make six figures or more. In fact, a statistic states that of everyone who has ever won the lottery, only 5% of them stay rich. The rest have blown through their money and are now back to where they were prior to their winnings, or even worse off.
In my case, I juggled three jobs in undergrad AND graduated in three years to save money on tuition, but still went to happy hour every Friday night and shopped at Banana Republic on my “lunch break”. No wonder I was always in debt.
The truth of the matter is, most Americans don’t know how to budget! We aren’t taught to save money. Instead, we are fed reasons to spend. We are shown things we can attain. We are promised a life of ease and comfort and convenience through the things and services that we buy. We are taught to identify “good deals”, which essentially promote spending even more money on things we don’t really need. Before we can reap the benefits of increasing income, we need to learn how to control where our money goes.
Address that which is in your control
If you are like most people, you are probably working for or with someone else. Unless you are an entrepreneur or self-employed, it may be difficult to increase your income. Getting a raise or getting hired for a different, more well-paid position depends on the employer. Which means you cannot immediately increase your income until you get to that point in your career. But budgeting can start RIGHT NOW. It does not depend on other people promoting you, but rather, it simply depends on you being ready and willing to begin the process. Your budget is already in your control. Care to get started?
Mastering A Budget Takes Up Less Time and Effort than Increasing Your Income
If anyone ever tells you that mastering your budget is hard work, don’t listen to them! In this course, I will walk you through how to make budgeting simple. On the flip side, increasing your income requires putting in more effort at work, networking, and/or looking for new jobs. If you want to increase your income doing side hustles, that requires even more work and takes time away from your personal life. And if you want to increase your income by creating your own business, imagine how much extra effort that will be!
In contrast, once budgeting is set up, it is a recurring process that continually saves you money over time. The time it takes to set up a budget is way less than the time you put into creating a side-hustle. So it’s nice to start with the budget first in order to save money right away without taking away from your personal life.
UP NEXT: CREATING THE RIGHT MINDSET
