Hard Truth:
Your financial future is up to you and only you. What are you going to do about yours?
The decisions you make today will have a lasting impact on your future.
Do you want to have pleasure now, or later?
The purchases and spending habits you make now, will have a lasting impact in your future financial health. Going to college, debt. Buying a new car, debt. Going on that nice vacation, debt. Debt, debt, debt. For most people, debt surrounds us like a shark swimming around its prey in the ocean.
The consumer economy is great in all, but at what cost? You try and keep up with the Jones’, show off to your friends and go completely broke? As products get more expensive like cars, phones and even shoes, rather than pay for the product in full, we are sucked into these low payment plans and car leases. By thinking we can afford these expensive items, we have these “low” monthly payments. These payments make it appear, affordable, when, it is just a way to keep us adding more debt and having this linger around us for longer and longer.
Purpose of the Budget:
To keep you on track!
STOP EVERYTHING. I want you to look at your budget.
ADD UP all your monthly payment subscriptions from your nice and shiny phone, to Netflix, Disney+, you NAME IT.
YOU WILL BE SHOCKED at how much you are sucked into these payments. Yeah, that new latest and greatest phone seems cheap per month, just like that new car lease. Except, you are stuck in this perpetual payment to these companies and lenders. Right when you pay off that phone, a new one comes out. You end up purchasing that new latest and greatest phone, and the cycle of phone payments continues, just like all cycle of debt payments.
I am all for having nice things, but when we are not focused on our financial goals and on a budget, we forget how easy it is to get financially sucked into these affordable monthly payments.
Don’t have your possessions own you!
I want us all to have the ability to purchase that nice car, the new phone etc., but without giving us stress over the dollars it will cost us and the debt…
I want us to make purchases without having second thoughts the next day.
Regret of purchases has happened too many times for me! I buy something on impulse only to realize I do not really like it, let alone need it!
Is it a want or a need?
End of the day, what are you willing to sacrifice today, so that you can achieve your financial goals? I have friends who eat Top Ramen and hoard their money, so they can travel and others who go out to the fanciest restaurants because they enjoy nice food.
If you have serious goals like paying off student loans or building up a retirement nest egg, you need to realize your decisions come down to wants and needs. Do you need a new car, or do you just want it? Can you repair the current car, or find another cheap alternative? Do you need the newest phone, or does yours still work perfectly fine?
By saving your money and delaying nonessential purchases today, you do not have to worry about wasted money in the future.
How many times have you purchased something and got bored of it within a few weeks or months? I have! Maybe a new game came out and you buy it for $60, but after you play it and finish the game you are bored. Can you sell it? HAHA good luck with getting barely anything. Same goes for a new phone! I can’t tell you how many times my phone broke, and I had to get a new phone, only to realize the next version of the phone came out a month later. Did I care? Of course! But end of the day its just a phone! I would rather delay my pleasure and have the older model phone and invest the amount I could of spent!
Focus:
All the choices you make today will have a lasting impact on your future. Saving even a few dollars now will compound over many years and have a massive impact on YOUR future.
We are a consumer economy where we like to buy the latest and greatest, but what is the cost of this materialism? If you are on a strict budget and getting out of debt, then its not the time to keep buying a new pair of shoes every month. You need to become focused on your priorities. If you are wanting to save and travel on a beautiful vacation, you need to be focused on your goal and not go out to eat all the time.
The decisions you make today will have a last impact in your financial future. For example, if you want to retire early, you need to pay off your debt and grow your assets. How do you grow your assets? Investing consistently over many years. Is investing risky? Sure! But not investing is even more risky.
Do you want to have pleasure now or later?
Are you willing to make some short term sacrifices today, and reap the rewards later in your financial future?
I want to travel the world and do whatever I want without being tied down to anything financially. My financial future if financial freedom.
I am personally willing to sacrifice short term pleasures of always getting the new shoes, clothes and phones and rather save that money and invest it. I think most importantly, you can invest while paying down debt. You can invest while having fun money and splurging on a nice vacation.
Investing – The Long Game:
As Albert Einstein once said, “Compound interest is the eight wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn’t…pay’s it.” The power of long term investing is mind boggling!
Even if you simply saved $250 a month for 18 years in a 529 account for a kid, that added up to over $54,000! This logic applies if you were to save for your retirement!
This is pure saving! This not including ANY appreciation from compound interest!!! WOAH! Talk about a little goes a long way! If you considered a 7% annually return on your money, over 18 years you would have over $105,229, of which $54,000 would be contributions and $51,229 in interest and appreciation.
Talk about something so simple, and would make a lasting impact in your child’s future education. Starting small and having time on your side will give you the biggest financial advantage. Please note this is purely an illustrative example and not investment advice.
Check it out yourself: https://www.calculator.net/investment-calculator.html
Try out the investment calculator to see how you are doing and how a little, can grow a lot long term!
Happy investing! Remember, if you can resist or better balance some short term consumer pleasure now, you can reap massive future rewards that your future self will thank you for many times over!
Your financial future is up to you and only you. What are you going to do about yours?
Until next time!
Zach
