Pay day is my favorite day. Don’t let your hard earned money slip away!

In the military just as in the corporate world we are basically paid twice a month.  The 1st and the 15th.  As a previous pizza delivery driver those days were the best to make money on.  Some drivers would just only work on those days because tips are better because people are paid.  Now I am going to talk about saving your hard earning pay day money.  Creating some type of budget if it be in your head or in a planner book.  You need to know what you can and can not spend because if you don’t how much free money you can have to spend you will end up with nothing left to save until your next check.  Many people live paycheck to paycheck.  It has even happened to me when I was very young.  At a certain point I just understood the meaning of money and the bigger vision of keeping more of it would get me ahead in the future.  Try to save at least 25% of your income.  Currently I earn around $3000/m after taxes.  Not a lot for living in Hawaii, but enough to be about to save at least 35% or $1000/m to invest with.  My ideal thinking is to invest everything I can into stock market options.  At some point I am going to be very right.  I have been actively studying the stock market for over 10 years and just recently stock options for the past 2 years.  I’ve learned a lot and I’m starting to trade smarter from doing mistakes I’ve already been taught not to do.  I can’t say I am much of a rebel, but everyone at some point is a child and you are going to get spanked hard by one play or another to teach you a big lesson.  Sometimes loosing so much money in the market can be a very huge motivating push that can help you go from rags to riches. 

Now back to pay day.  If you are going to be better off the next month you need to have it in the bank.  Call it saving for an emergency or cushion money or even money you are willing to give up for a bigger vision of your future.  Yes, I have lost money in the market.  I’m working on making my losses small and my profits larger.  For every person that is loosing money there is someone or some investment firm making it and I want to become that person that profits.  I know what you are thinking.  No way I want to loose money in the stock market and you are right.  You need to study and have conviction about when you trade know absolutely your trade is going to work.  If you don’t feel the stock market is your veichle for future cash flow then consider saving around $5000 and buying a condo or small house (getting 100% loan financed only paying closing costs).  I bought a small home and receive $725/m rental income from it with a $653 mortgage.  Not much rental income but owning it pays off HUGE with my yearly taxes receiving more paid out money and I can say I own something. 

I hear many people say they want to take some money from their paycheck and invest it in bank deposits and bonds.  Personally I just don’t think you make enough for your money just sitting there, but if you don’t believe in a little more risk creates a much bigger return then do it.  I just hope I can motivate a person to save money.  Everybody just seems to spend it all then they think I’m rich because I don’t spend mine.  It’s choice, you’ve got it and so do I so use it and think long-term with a short-term money management style to create more choices for you and your family long-term.

 Here’s a story of my parents.  I remember as a child listening to WHRO 90.3’s 5 P.M. wall street radio broadcast of the Dow Jones Industrial Averages and Nasdaq Monday through Friday.  My parents would invest $50 a month into 1 local company every month and did this for years.  12 years later with around $8,000 saved from buying 1 to 2 stocks to equal $50/m now they have the choice to help them buy their dream home, a new car, help pay for college, use for medical, or just keep investing.  This is the power of saving and investing even as little as $50/month.  My parents never made much money probably together less than $30,000 a year having 4 children.  We lived in a small town-home, ate crockpot soups, rice, and simple meals rarely getting fastfood or deliveried pizzas and really never going out to a resturant.  We sacrificed a lot of luxuries, but I feel as a family we were happy.  Christmas was never expensive because we always found it fun to buy a million gifts from the dollar store.  Sure it sounds ghetto?  It isn’t.  My parents made an attempt to buy us each at least one nice gift whether it be some new clothes, a bike, or something we needed not necessarly something we wanted.

 Remember a small sacrifice to start saving your money can pay off big when you need it most so start now.