Make every penny count
You work very hard for your money, no doubt about it. But even before month end (or at month beginning), most of it is gone and you are left feeling bewildered, befuddled and bemused. And all you can say is “where did it go?” You can probably account for rent/ mortgage and utilities, but what about the rest?
According to Suze Ormann, the author of The Courage to Be Rich, ” we work .. forty hours or more a week, and once we’re set loose from the workplace, we go shopping. We buy food and clothes and stuff, and then we say we just don’t know where the money went. But if we value money over things, over the items it can buy, then we would know exactly where our money went.”
She describes how you can stop the “horrible drip drip sound” of money leaking out of your bank account.
“If you are not on course to getting rich but want to be, you have to change course; it’s that simple. To choose rich:
. Make every dollar count
. Erase those bad habits that make money
vaporize into nothingness
. Distinguish between necessity and luxury
. Choose your luxuries very, very carefully.
. Basically, you’re not rich because, in simple little ways, you throw away money. Consider these money wasters submitted by Ms Dunleavey, financial writer at Money Magazine:
1. Stuff you can’t live without
Life in the 21st century is so hectic we’ve convinced ourselves that we absolutely must have all kinds of gadgets and services to “make life easier” – for which we pay a mind-boggling number of access fees, download fees, activation fees, subscription fees and usage fees. Does call forwarding “make life easier?” Does your Internet-enabled, interplanetary, supersonic cell phone-pager-communicator? Or do they just “cost more money?” And who uses call forwarding anyway?
2. The package ‘deal’
The extra services on things like your phone can add up too. So consider – do you really need that extra phone line, call waiting, call forwarding, three way calling, automatic callback, caller ID, selective call rejection, call trace, automatic busy redial, priority ring, and selective call forwarding?
4. Refusing free money
Whatever your employer gives you, by way of matching retirement funds, a flexible spending account or free annual checkups – take it! It’s a waste of money not to.
More money wasters…
. Do you buy books that you know you’re going to read just once? Could you go to the library or buy them second hand instead?
. How extravagantly does your garden grow? How about starting plants from seed or asking friends for plant cuttings?
. Designer underwear – luxury or necessity?
. How often do your need a new car? Could it be less often?
. Do you routinely take your clothing to the dry cleaner when all it needs is a pressing you could do yourself?
. How much do you truly spend on convenience foods, gourmet takeout, restaurants, and entertaining? Might there be a way to trim a few thousand dollars a year here and there?
. Do you have an electronic personal organiser? Has it gotten you organised? Do you even use it?
. How many CDs do you have that you never listen to?
According to the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), money wasters take the form of:
. non-comparison shopping
. having several intimate relationships
. not using energy saving bulbs and not conserving on electricity
. not making a list when they go shopping
. reckless use of their cell phone. Calls on the cell should be monitored to make the phone card last longer.
So take a good look at your spending patterns. Be honest, be brave, be strong. Even adopting two or three of the changes presented can translate into a extra few thousand dollars each month.
