“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” – Dave Ramsey
For the past months, my wife kept on bugging me to write something on finances. I asked her, ‘Why me?” I know she has the time to write about it. But she insisted that I can share more since I am very particular with expenses and savings. Alright, I finally gave in.
Of course, I cannot share things that I don’t practice. What I’m going to tell you here are from my personal experiences and what I learned from people who teach on finances, like Bo Sanchez and the money maestro, Dave Ramsey.
I was raised in a Filipino-Chinese family. Many thought that Chinese people are “kuripot” (stingy). But I say, we are just being frugal. We believe in saving our hard-earned money. Allow me to share some important thoughts in handling our finances.
- “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” – Dave Ramsey
When I read Dave Ramseys’ book, The Total Money Make Over, that became my battlecry. Actually, that’s the motto of the Total Money Makeover book. He wrote, “It’s my way of reminding you that if you will make sacrifices now that most people aren’t willing to make, later on you will be able to live as those folks will never be able to live.” He was firm to that as it was written at the bottom of each and every page of the book.
- Stop spending everything you make.
Dave Ramsey mentioned a shocking stats from his book, The Total Money Makeover. He said that, “Ninety percent (90%) of people in the american culture buy things they can’t afford.” Buy those big luxury items (the big house, expensive cars and those techie gadgets) after you’re wealthy. Buying those things on credit does not make you rich — it makes you poor.
- Stop buying on impulse and buy to need instead.
I am not an impulsive buyer. My wife sometimes laugh at me when I kept on going back to check on a particular item for the _nth time. Sometimes she teases me, “Mahal, pang-ilang balik na natin to?” (Honey, how many times do we have to come back?). But that’s me. Before I buy something, I used to first ask myself: “Do I need this thing, or I just wanted it?” But now, I raised it up a notch by asking myself: “Will I survive without this thing?” I ended up not spending unecessarily.
- Never take on money loan.
Sometimes, we are tempted to do it since the monthly cashout is so little. But we don’t realize the interest is so big that you can buy other important things. If you are in debt now, get rid of it immediately. You can use a portion of your savings every month to pay off debt or borrow from family or close friends with a minimal interest. That will save you a lot.
- Get rid of those credit cards.
Life is not working for what you bought yesterday. You have to enjoy your earnings today and for tomorrow. Instead of credit card, take a debit card with you. It’s good as cash. Don’t get me wrong, I still use credit cards for daily expenses, but I do not keep a balance by paying it off each month.
- Skip food trips.
After our wedding, Confe and I moved to our small condo unit. It was very tempting to just go down and take whatever we can eat from the chains of restaurants that you can find around. We made a firm decision not to go frequently to Starbucks, convenient breakfasts, lunches and dinners out. What we do is to have our weekly groceries and cook our food at home. Of course, we occasionally go out with family and close friends and can still go to these places.
- Become an investigator.
Watch where every single penny you make goes. If you don’t know where your money is going, you’ll never going to save anything. Confe and I spend time to sit down and plan at the start of every year. We evaluate and write down our dreams and that includes our finances. I also keep receipts of things I purchase and check them when the bill arrives.
- Finally, you have to listen from people who have been there.
I am not joking. And they are not joking, too, when they say they have been there.
Believe them. That’s why I trust Bo Sanchez and Dave Ramsey, because they experienced how to be in a financial struggle and that made them decide to do something. They are teaching and leading people not to be in the same trap where they’ve been before.
There you go. That’s a good start.
-Steve
Source of Inspiration:
I truly love your blog.. Very nice colors & theme. Did you create this web
site yourself? Please reply back as I’m wanting to create my own personal site
and would like to know where you got this from or what the theme is called.
Many thanks!
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.
I’ve been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or
weblog posts on this sort of space . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this web site.
Reading this info So i’m happy to show that I have a very good uncanny feeling I came upon just
what I needed. I so much no doubt will make sure to do not
disregard this website and provides it a look regularly.
Very good article! We are linking to this particularly great content on our website. Keep up the great writing. Roz Dare Beller
Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch because I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
Asking questions are actually fastidious thing if you are not understanding something entirely, except this post provides nice understanding yet. Stace Nelson Orlena
I really like your writing style, great information, thank you for posting :D. Birdie Morrie Ansilme
Having read this I believed it was really informative. I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile! Hyacinthie Myles Farley
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you penning this article plus the rest of the site is really good. Lusa Antonino Hachmann