Another reason I chose to write was to help others get a grip on their financial life. Having control over your financial life will help you get rid of some uncertainty and stress in your daily life. Although life is unpredictable and spontaneous at times and can leave you feeling or thinking that everything might be out of your control, take a deep breath and keep calm, focus on your plan. If you don't have a plan right now its okay, that's something you can work on in the near future. At least you are aware of it and can take action.
Failing to plan is planning to fail, so with these writings we will help you build a mindset of preparedness by giving you knowledge and wisdom about your finances and help you get a plan in order.
These writings will in essence be a financials 101 class. No matter where you are in life it is never too late to learn and grow.
It’s very sad that our public school system and society in general does not place importance of learning about financial literacy as much as it does on sports or fashion and others things that bring sensationalist feelings and instant gratification . Instead people are encouraged to be materialistic, and to continue to be great consumers who will continue spending their hard earned money with the big corporations. As a young adult I was a part of this system of living paycheck to paycheck despite being told by my parents to live within my means.
I remember when I first started working, the minimum wage was $7.25, working part time I would save all my paychecks and only spend the tip money I made. From a years worth of part-time working I was able to save a little over $3000 and all the money was spent in one day for two airplane tickets for me and my mother. I was in high school at the time so I did not have many expenses and it was my way of showing love and appreciation for my mother. I learned a very important lesson that day. Which was it takes a long time and lots of effort to save money, however spending it takes no time.
At the jobs I took on afterwards I found it difficult to save money, I noticed that most of my money was going to food and transportation and bills that were always going up. Whatever was left over I spent on the weekends and I was back to zero. I did not come up with a plan to reduce my expenses or increase my income so that I can save more money. Eventually being able to buy a house and a car in order to improve the quality of life and have more opportunities . I believe at that time I needed a lifestyle adjustment so that I would use my money wisely.
When I finally did pay attention to my expenses and started setting up a budget, I noticed that most of my money is spent on food. This is when I became aware of my financials. Now the correct thing would be to problem solve and figure out a solution to better use my resources so that I can achieve more with my money. The solutions I came up with after some analyzing was to reduce my cost by preparing meals and eating at home more often. This option did have its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were better healthy clean eating. The disadvantages were that I needed to spend time meal prepping and cooking.
Now that we have examined this small example we can use the same or similar steps in order to get positive results. Each and every person has their own set of preferences and to be more aware and spend some time thinking would help find a effective solution. I encourage you to be creative because that might be a Home-Run factor for you.
One final point I would like to make is to remember that money is a resource just like your time, and in different situations you might value one over the other. So its important to be aware of the situation and your options so that you could make the best option. Also be kind to your self because sometimes we might make the wrong choice and we end up getting a learning opportunity from the situation.
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