grabbing a chunk of the one's earnings BEFORE they are taxed may be a part of the "pay yourself first" concept in your mind. To me -- that's a piece of it all.
A very simple example of the way that I see it:
To get beyond being a wage earner one needs to build up some capital. For example, if you had a million dollars in cash sitting in an account HOW would you change your thinking about earning money? Would you?
Some guy or gal may say "I'm rich!!" and quit their job and start spending the nest egg.
Another person may decide to play it real cool and go to work and tell no one about the cool million.
That person will likely also smile more and start to think about how in the world to get this money working for her /him.
So, the idea is simple.
Ask this: "How can I build a nest egg ASAP??!!"
Okay, so you are making $1000.00 per week and you want to get independent as fast as you can.
You devise a way to live on $2,000.00 per month, or less.
Based on that reality-- you take $2200.00 every month and send it off to a bank account in a city that far enough away that you will not easily go there to get that money.
after that you simple find a way to survive every month on the money that is left over.
After two years you have >$50,000.00 savings.
You started from zero and your job only paid one-thousand per week.
Now you buy a property or something that will ride out inflation and MAY also give you a bit of an additional gain over the years.
Later you buy another property and rent it out.
By paying yourself first you forced this savings upon yourself in order to change your life from a mere wage earner to something else... (perhaps are wage earner that is also a landlord).
By saving one-half of earning each month you have "paid now" so that you can break free by growing some assets. Perhaps you will be able to "play later".
What we are not being taught is not complicated.
Either you can "play now" and "pay later"... or...
with proper guidance and a certain amount of discipline one can learn how to "pay now" in order that s/he may come to be able to "play later".
Building wealth, building real wealth, can be fun to do AND it makes you realize that it is all up to you.
No government or social program, or POTUS or president of any where else needs to be your savior.
No free cellphones.
No Social Security in the future.
No welfare safety net in xx years in the future.
No problem!!
You saved yourself through good habits and a plan.
I remember reading about a guy who used to park his car outside of a coffee house or restaurant with free wifi for customers. As clever as he must have thought he was he got busted in a big way. Forgot the details yet remember the impact of the story: Be very careful if you decide to steal something that is free if 'free' doesn't apply to your methods.
Small, inexpensive apartment with a little garden space, small class B motor home, freedom to travel to visit friends and family and learn about new people and places.
Great post, Darren. I'm a 54-year old female and I can say without hesitation that not having a college degree never held me back. While education is critically important, you can educate yourself through many channels as you pointed out.
In my opinion attributes more important than a college degree are your attitude, ability/willingness to learn, being observant, being open to new opportunities and willing take on roles that feel like a stretch, asking for more responsibility, etc.
As a hiring manager, I did take stock of applicants' formal education because when you don't know the person, that certainly says something about their ability to commit to a goal. But what I looked for during an interview went far beyond the credential; I was looking for aptitude, attitude and fit.
You'd be MUCH better served to pay yourself a car payment and drive your current car as long as it's viable. When you have the cash along with resale of your current car, upgrade. Refuse to chase bigger and better to compete with the Joneses. You can afford a car when you can pay for it, not when you can afford the payments. Payments is proof that you cannot afford it.
Hi Carlos - you provided a very comprehensive and useful list of tips. If readers acted on them, it would be mind-blowing what it would do for their lives let alone their careers!
I post on EscapingDodge.com. In the Cultivate Your Income category there are two topics that take a different, but complimentary, approach on how to improve your income. Those topics are "5 Reasons to Turn Your Job into a Career" and "How Corporate Culture Affects Your Bottom Line."
I came to this post via lifehacker and post this reply there.
Wise bread? Home spun nonsense more like.
If putting 20% down makes for sooner payoff then why not put down more? Repaying over 4 years reduces interest? Then pay over 3. What role for the rate of interest? Not important? Payments less than 10% of disposable income in case of surprise bills or redundancy. Then why not 5%? Costly comprehensive insurance? in the UK it has long been the case that fully comp is often cheaper than lesser cover. Pennypinchers tend to cut other corners too apparently.
My rules of thumb for car ownership: Pay cash, if you've got it, if you haven't think again whether you need a car at all. If you must then, match the rate of repayment to the rate of depreciation. Pay off a fast depreciater quicker than a slow; you never want to be in negative equity. If you lose your job you can sell the car.
Never take dealer finance, especially leases. Get a personal loan in advance; if you have to sell the car early you won't have to be obliged to pay early settlement fees. But more importantly, presentinmg yourself as a cash buyer gives you power to haggle. Use it. Use it hard. The biggest expense in motoring is depreciation. Almost all initial depreciation is the dealer mark up. The more you haggle the lower depreciation. So if you do nothing else, HAGGLE.
" My mother thinking she wasn't going to be able to pay for groceries wasn't a fun little waste of time. It wasn't just on the site, it was presented in the daily newsletter. Yeah - people are literally starving out there. HILARIOUS."
Wow, you let your mother starve then have the nerve to come and blame a writers innocent piece of fun on WB for this? I do feel sorry for your mother at this point, but not because she mistook this for a real news article.
I am trying to get laid off. I think I earned the severance with my service and my job doesn't deserve my honest hard work. I am already doing most of the things in the list, but more of a jerk I became, more the managerial I sound. If you are unhappy and want to leave your job, why not to collect the severance pay. If your manager is a douchebag and you want out, enjoy the payback time and have some fun pissing off the asshole who made you consider leaving the company.
My rule of thumb is that I will clean really thoroughly and cook well the first time I'm hosting specific people, and after that when we hang out I try to clean the bathroom/kitchen some but don't worry about the rest of the house as much and cook something simple but yummy. I think that having a spotless home/gourmet food can put a high expectation and pressure on other women, and while I tend to be a perfectionist I'm trying to let go a little more. I heard a great idea from my aunt that "entertaining" (spotless house, amazing food) is very different from "hospitality" (people-focused, and you welcome people into your real life). This helps me understand my priorities in different settings, and while there is a time for each type of hostessing I'm not worried about killing myself to always entertain when what I usually want is fun time with friends!
I don't disagree, but I would say that your deliberate practice should (once you've made some progress on the basics) include many of the skills you mention (poor lie, poor conditions, etc.). It is entirely possible to practice those skills—and probably easier outside the circumstances of a real game.
But there's another issue: the difference between being an expert player and a great player.
An expert player, I'd say, is someone who has mastered every stroke, every club, every lie, who can read the green and the wind, etc.
But a great player has an additional set of skills. A great player can win the big points and doesn't choke. A great player can make a mistake and not get flustered. A great player can watch his opponent his a great shot and then step up and hit his own great shot.
I don't know if developing that set of capabilities is amenable to deliberate practice or not.
I do know that every field has its experts who are not great players. There are tennis players whose stroke is perfect for every shot, but whose rankings are in the mid-20s rather than number 1. Ditto for golfers. There are musicians who play every note perfectly, but whose performances never draw large crowds (but the small crowds they draw often include a lot of other musicians who are there to admire the player's skill).
Sometimes there are great players who are not expert players. But sooner or later they meet someone with the qualities that make for a great player who has also put in enough hours of deliberate practice to become an expert player.
Great list here. You know, I should have made a list like this for myself. There are so many things that I end up thinking of last minute, right before I file my taxes.
I'll probably be headed back here next year! Thanks!
Personally, I think that working a second job is the best way to bring home more money. You could even start a side business that could turn into a full-time income! Wouldn't that be great?
Good tips here, I just enjoy sharing what worked for me. :)
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, my grandfather . . . need I say more?
I completely agree that you don't need a college degree to succeed. Education certainly helps you out, but it's what you learn while you're in college – not the degree – that's beneficial (in many cases).
Customer service for this card sucks. You can't change your address over the phone (due to "security" reasons--you have to write in ON the envelope you mail your payment in--somehow more secure!) and they are only open standard bank hours and never on weekends or Federal holidays. And since it's based in Arkansas, the operators will have accents, which might be a problem for some. Oddly, I was able to cancel my card over the phone, so I am finally rid of this mess. I pay my balance off monthly, so I am not in need of a low APR card with all these barriers.
I love that you put "avoid the use of credit" in this article. Personally, I don't own a credit card, because I realize that the system is designed to have my rely on debt and thereafter pay interest. Sure, there are those who can spend responsibly, but for the rest of us (most of us, dare I say), the best route is to go with a debit card.
We pay cash, and keep it for as long as possible. I at least try to make it to $2000 a year, not including maintenance. For instance, our current vehicle was $28k, I've had it for 9 years and hope to keep it for 5 more years. Making the cost about $2000 a year.
I also check with insurance companies to see if it has a high propensity for theft making the insurance higher. Another factor in deciding on vehicles is the property tax issue and how fast the car depreciates.
I have friends that don't judge me by my home. I am the daughter of a father who was in the Navy. We had to have the house pin neat. It took me a long time to relax my housekeeping standards to a point that the family could take without driving them crazy.
Now, we have a happy medium. When we have company, everyone pitches in and it gets pin neat. In between, it is reasonably clean and picked up.
My discount dental plan just saved me more than my ex-husband's reputable, big-name dental insurance plan did for my 15-year-old son's braces. We found a strongly recommended orthodontist who would accept both the dental insurance and my Careington discount dental plan. The dental insurance plan paid a $1,000 maximum orthodontic benefit. But my Careington discount dental plan saved me an additional $1,300...$300 more than the insurance benefit! We are extremely pleased with the office and the orthodontist who participates on the Careington plan (the orthodontist and his staff are fans of discount plans, too), and I am especially happy that I was able to use my discount plan to save so much on something my son needs. And this is just one real-life example of how a discount plan really can make a difference, with or without insurance!
Seems a few ideas tossed around by professional plumbers, electricians and fix it guys may be the ultimate answer. If your toilet is running over, hey you have a problem. The idea is for all these tradesmen to band together and when pricing a job one of their questions is, "Are you a doctor, veterinarian, dentist or attorney?" In the event the answer is "Yes" their normal rates go up 1000%.
I have some doc friends in South America. They make normal wages just like the blue collar workers. I dont ascribe to this "Walk on water" self proclaimed philosophy that is harbored in the heads of most of our domestic professional docs, dentists, etc.
Some of my doc pals in South America make around $15,000 in US dollars per year. Dentists as well. I would strongly suspect the dental health in many cities in South America is much better than in the states. No, its not the currency exchange numbers, it is the reality that no professional services are worth what the American way sees it as being worth. It is, quite simply, unethical profiteering. So, if you are one of these professionals and your toilet is running over one day, it just may cost you over $10,000. to get it fixed!
I'm not sure I agree with the term "expert" in this case. Deliberate practice is important, I agree. But in order to claim expertise, one must also have experience applying the skills in varying contexts. If I want to learn to play golf, of course I must commit to deliberate practice with each club at the driving range. But, that will only get me so far.
To become an expert, I must also log hours on the links, playing rounds of golf. Dealing with a poor lie, handling poor conditions, recovering from an errant drive, and the unpredictability that only applying the skills in context provide will take the person toward "expert."
In short, while I agree that deliberate practice is a critical step, it seems to me that you are asserting it is THE critical step. My experience is that, if anything, the experience is what distinguishes the true expert from the skilled novice.
grabbing a chunk of the one's earnings BEFORE they are taxed may be a part of the "pay yourself first" concept in your mind. To me -- that's a piece of it all.
A very simple example of the way that I see it:
To get beyond being a wage earner one needs to build up some capital. For example, if you had a million dollars in cash sitting in an account HOW would you change your thinking about earning money? Would you?
Some guy or gal may say "I'm rich!!" and quit their job and start spending the nest egg.
Another person may decide to play it real cool and go to work and tell no one about the cool million.
That person will likely also smile more and start to think about how in the world to get this money working for her /him.
So, the idea is simple.
Ask this: "How can I build a nest egg ASAP??!!"
Okay, so you are making $1000.00 per week and you want to get independent as fast as you can.
You devise a way to live on $2,000.00 per month, or less.
Based on that reality-- you take $2200.00 every month and send it off to a bank account in a city that far enough away that you will not easily go there to get that money.
after that you simple find a way to survive every month on the money that is left over.
After two years you have >$50,000.00 savings.
You started from zero and your job only paid one-thousand per week.
Now you buy a property or something that will ride out inflation and MAY also give you a bit of an additional gain over the years.
Later you buy another property and rent it out.
By paying yourself first you forced this savings upon yourself in order to change your life from a mere wage earner to something else... (perhaps are wage earner that is also a landlord).
By saving one-half of earning each month you have "paid now" so that you can break free by growing some assets. Perhaps you will be able to "play later".
What we are not being taught is not complicated.
Either you can "play now" and "pay later"... or...
with proper guidance and a certain amount of discipline one can learn how to "pay now" in order that s/he may come to be able to "play later".
Building wealth, building real wealth, can be fun to do AND it makes you realize that it is all up to you.
No government or social program, or POTUS or president of any where else needs to be your savior.
No free cellphones.
No Social Security in the future.
No welfare safety net in xx years in the future.
No problem!!
You saved yourself through good habits and a plan.
I remember reading about a guy who used to park his car outside of a coffee house or restaurant with free wifi for customers. As clever as he must have thought he was he got busted in a big way. Forgot the details yet remember the impact of the story: Be very careful if you decide to steal something that is free if 'free' doesn't apply to your methods.
Small, inexpensive apartment with a little garden space, small class B motor home, freedom to travel to visit friends and family and learn about new people and places.
Great post, Darren. I'm a 54-year old female and I can say without hesitation that not having a college degree never held me back. While education is critically important, you can educate yourself through many channels as you pointed out.
In my opinion attributes more important than a college degree are your attitude, ability/willingness to learn, being observant, being open to new opportunities and willing take on roles that feel like a stretch, asking for more responsibility, etc.
As a hiring manager, I did take stock of applicants' formal education because when you don't know the person, that certainly says something about their ability to commit to a goal. But what I looked for during an interview went far beyond the credential; I was looking for aptitude, attitude and fit.
Ree - I blog at EscapingDodge.com
You'd be MUCH better served to pay yourself a car payment and drive your current car as long as it's viable. When you have the cash along with resale of your current car, upgrade. Refuse to chase bigger and better to compete with the Joneses. You can afford a car when you can pay for it, not when you can afford the payments. Payments is proof that you cannot afford it.
Hi Carlos - you provided a very comprehensive and useful list of tips. If readers acted on them, it would be mind-blowing what it would do for their lives let alone their careers!
I post on EscapingDodge.com. In the Cultivate Your Income category there are two topics that take a different, but complimentary, approach on how to improve your income. Those topics are "5 Reasons to Turn Your Job into a Career" and "How Corporate Culture Affects Your Bottom Line."
Thanks for the useful content,
Ree
I came to this post via lifehacker and post this reply there.
Wise bread? Home spun nonsense more like.
If putting 20% down makes for sooner payoff then why not put down more? Repaying over 4 years reduces interest? Then pay over 3. What role for the rate of interest? Not important? Payments less than 10% of disposable income in case of surprise bills or redundancy. Then why not 5%? Costly comprehensive insurance? in the UK it has long been the case that fully comp is often cheaper than lesser cover. Pennypinchers tend to cut other corners too apparently.
My rules of thumb for car ownership: Pay cash, if you've got it, if you haven't think again whether you need a car at all. If you must then, match the rate of repayment to the rate of depreciation. Pay off a fast depreciater quicker than a slow; you never want to be in negative equity. If you lose your job you can sell the car.
Never take dealer finance, especially leases. Get a personal loan in advance; if you have to sell the car early you won't have to be obliged to pay early settlement fees. But more importantly, presentinmg yourself as a cash buyer gives you power to haggle. Use it. Use it hard. The biggest expense in motoring is depreciation. Almost all initial depreciation is the dealer mark up. The more you haggle the lower depreciation. So if you do nothing else, HAGGLE.
" My mother thinking she wasn't going to be able to pay for groceries wasn't a fun little waste of time. It wasn't just on the site, it was presented in the daily newsletter. Yeah - people are literally starving out there. HILARIOUS."
Wow, you let your mother starve then have the nerve to come and blame a writers innocent piece of fun on WB for this? I do feel sorry for your mother at this point, but not because she mistook this for a real news article.
Great ideas! How about having just a dessert party - root beer floats or ice cream sundaes? Super easy, everyone loves it, and it doesn't cost a lot.
I am trying to get laid off. I think I earned the severance with my service and my job doesn't deserve my honest hard work. I am already doing most of the things in the list, but more of a jerk I became, more the managerial I sound. If you are unhappy and want to leave your job, why not to collect the severance pay. If your manager is a douchebag and you want out, enjoy the payback time and have some fun pissing off the asshole who made you consider leaving the company.
My rule of thumb is that I will clean really thoroughly and cook well the first time I'm hosting specific people, and after that when we hang out I try to clean the bathroom/kitchen some but don't worry about the rest of the house as much and cook something simple but yummy. I think that having a spotless home/gourmet food can put a high expectation and pressure on other women, and while I tend to be a perfectionist I'm trying to let go a little more. I heard a great idea from my aunt that "entertaining" (spotless house, amazing food) is very different from "hospitality" (people-focused, and you welcome people into your real life). This helps me understand my priorities in different settings, and while there is a time for each type of hostessing I'm not worried about killing myself to always entertain when what I usually want is fun time with friends!
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates arere two notable names without degrees that I first thought of as well.
Thanks for sharing John!
I don't disagree, but I would say that your deliberate practice should (once you've made some progress on the basics) include many of the skills you mention (poor lie, poor conditions, etc.). It is entirely possible to practice those skills—and probably easier outside the circumstances of a real game.
But there's another issue: the difference between being an expert player and a great player.
An expert player, I'd say, is someone who has mastered every stroke, every club, every lie, who can read the green and the wind, etc.
But a great player has an additional set of skills. A great player can win the big points and doesn't choke. A great player can make a mistake and not get flustered. A great player can watch his opponent his a great shot and then step up and hit his own great shot.
I don't know if developing that set of capabilities is amenable to deliberate practice or not.
I do know that every field has its experts who are not great players. There are tennis players whose stroke is perfect for every shot, but whose rankings are in the mid-20s rather than number 1. Ditto for golfers. There are musicians who play every note perfectly, but whose performances never draw large crowds (but the small crowds they draw often include a lot of other musicians who are there to admire the player's skill).
Sometimes there are great players who are not expert players. But sooner or later they meet someone with the qualities that make for a great player who has also put in enough hours of deliberate practice to become an expert player.
Great list here. You know, I should have made a list like this for myself. There are so many things that I end up thinking of last minute, right before I file my taxes.
I'll probably be headed back here next year! Thanks!
Personally, I think that working a second job is the best way to bring home more money. You could even start a side business that could turn into a full-time income! Wouldn't that be great?
Good tips here, I just enjoy sharing what worked for me. :)
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, my grandfather . . . need I say more?
I completely agree that you don't need a college degree to succeed. Education certainly helps you out, but it's what you learn while you're in college – not the degree – that's beneficial (in many cases).
Thanks for the article!
Customer service for this card sucks. You can't change your address over the phone (due to "security" reasons--you have to write in ON the envelope you mail your payment in--somehow more secure!) and they are only open standard bank hours and never on weekends or Federal holidays. And since it's based in Arkansas, the operators will have accents, which might be a problem for some. Oddly, I was able to cancel my card over the phone, so I am finally rid of this mess. I pay my balance off monthly, so I am not in need of a low APR card with all these barriers.
I love that you put "avoid the use of credit" in this article. Personally, I don't own a credit card, because I realize that the system is designed to have my rely on debt and thereafter pay interest. Sure, there are those who can spend responsibly, but for the rest of us (most of us, dare I say), the best route is to go with a debit card.
Thanks for the article!
We pay cash, and keep it for as long as possible. I at least try to make it to $2000 a year, not including maintenance. For instance, our current vehicle was $28k, I've had it for 9 years and hope to keep it for 5 more years. Making the cost about $2000 a year.
I also check with insurance companies to see if it has a high propensity for theft making the insurance higher. Another factor in deciding on vehicles is the property tax issue and how fast the car depreciates.
I have friends that don't judge me by my home. I am the daughter of a father who was in the Navy. We had to have the house pin neat. It took me a long time to relax my housekeeping standards to a point that the family could take without driving them crazy.
Now, we have a happy medium. When we have company, everyone pitches in and it gets pin neat. In between, it is reasonably clean and picked up.
My discount dental plan just saved me more than my ex-husband's reputable, big-name dental insurance plan did for my 15-year-old son's braces. We found a strongly recommended orthodontist who would accept both the dental insurance and my Careington discount dental plan. The dental insurance plan paid a $1,000 maximum orthodontic benefit. But my Careington discount dental plan saved me an additional $1,300...$300 more than the insurance benefit! We are extremely pleased with the office and the orthodontist who participates on the Careington plan (the orthodontist and his staff are fans of discount plans, too), and I am especially happy that I was able to use my discount plan to save so much on something my son needs. And this is just one real-life example of how a discount plan really can make a difference, with or without insurance!
Seems a few ideas tossed around by professional plumbers, electricians and fix it guys may be the ultimate answer. If your toilet is running over, hey you have a problem. The idea is for all these tradesmen to band together and when pricing a job one of their questions is, "Are you a doctor, veterinarian, dentist or attorney?" In the event the answer is "Yes" their normal rates go up 1000%.
I have some doc friends in South America. They make normal wages just like the blue collar workers. I dont ascribe to this "Walk on water" self proclaimed philosophy that is harbored in the heads of most of our domestic professional docs, dentists, etc.
Some of my doc pals in South America make around $15,000 in US dollars per year. Dentists as well. I would strongly suspect the dental health in many cities in South America is much better than in the states. No, its not the currency exchange numbers, it is the reality that no professional services are worth what the American way sees it as being worth. It is, quite simply, unethical profiteering. So, if you are one of these professionals and your toilet is running over one day, it just may cost you over $10,000. to get it fixed!
To buy a farm.
instead of using credit cards, you can use debit cards. you don't need to worry about paying interest.
I'm not sure I agree with the term "expert" in this case. Deliberate practice is important, I agree. But in order to claim expertise, one must also have experience applying the skills in varying contexts. If I want to learn to play golf, of course I must commit to deliberate practice with each club at the driving range. But, that will only get me so far.
To become an expert, I must also log hours on the links, playing rounds of golf. Dealing with a poor lie, handling poor conditions, recovering from an errant drive, and the unpredictability that only applying the skills in context provide will take the person toward "expert."
In short, while I agree that deliberate practice is a critical step, it seems to me that you are asserting it is THE critical step. My experience is that, if anything, the experience is what distinguishes the true expert from the skilled novice.