The One Rule That Helped Me Become Good With Money
And man, was I bad.
Money was always an issue for me. Or, shall I say, being able to manage money was always a problem for me.
I would always blame my income, rather than my spending habits.
But no matter how many promotions and pay rises I received, I always found myself in the same spot.
I’d read countless books and blogs on managing finances. I’d created beautiful looking budget trackers and downloaded every app under the sun. An incredible looking spreadsheet should solve everything right? I mean, it’s colour cooridinated in a pastel rainbow, damn it.
Unfortunately, these types of solutions only addressed the flesh-wound. In order to fix the problem long-term, I had to delve deeper.
And then I stumbled upon a piece of information that stuck. It changed everything for me in terms of my mind-set towards money.
Drum roll, please.
“If you can’t properly manage $1000, you can’t manage $10,000.”
So simple, but so accurate.
It clicked — if I didn’t have the ability to control my money now, making more wouldn’t help.
In the past 5 years, I’ve had three promotions and four pay-rises. Before realising the importance of the above mentality, I wasn’t saving more money with each payrise. Instead, I changed my lifestyle according to my income.
I made more, but damn, I spent more.
It’s the same reason why people who win the lottery end up bankrupt in a few years.
Person A may earn twice the amount as Person B, but if Person B is able to live within their means when Person A cannot, you can guess which one will be better off in the long run.
With that said, obviously having more money is going to make things easier (money doesn’t buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in my Ferrari — you know the drill).
But the things is, if you don’t know how to manage what you have, you’ll never be able to manage what you get.
Learn to live within your means. Always spend less than what you earn. Track your spending. Work out what you need (like actually, really need), and save the rest.
Try not to spend your money on trivial things, just because you can.
Treat yourself occasionally (life is short), but remember that setting yourself up is just as important.
How you spend and save your money can have a profound impact on your life, so try and think long-term benefits instead of short-term highs.
Manage what you’ve got, so you can manage what you get!
