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Submitted by Kathleen Green
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What exactly do I mean by this?
If you use up your entire salary every month without putting some of it away for yourself, you’ll never create financial wealth and freedom and have the life we all so much desire.
By paying yourself first you FIRST save some of your salary that you earn every month and then live on the rest!
Now I know that for some this is easier said than done. Most of us don’t start paying ourselves first when we, as young people, get into the working world earning our first few bucks. Being happy about our first salaries, we don’t think or worry much about what will come at a later stage in our lives.
By the time most of us finally realize that we have to do something to sustain ourselves and to maintain our standard of living even after our working life, a lot of debt has, more often than not, accumulated already and many are too busy paying off these debts every month with the result that most people don’t have enough left to save.
Now I’m not talking about debts like mortgages on your house or similar debts to that effect. I’m talking about these silly little consumer debts or unexpected debts and bills that get dropped into our mail box from time to time.
Now there’s a neat little trick that I have applied to pay debts and still have money left for myself. And my bank account has never been in the red ever since!
So here’s how you can deal with debt:
Never use everything that you may have left at the end of the month to pay off debts!
First, it’s an economic rule that you should never spend more than you take in. But should the situation occur that one day you will get the one or other bill that will overdraw your account,
you can do the following:
Arrange with your creditor to pay the debt/bill in installments. Even if you have the money, you don’t have to tell him this. It’s none of his business anyway. But you have to indicate that you are willing to pay up, it’s just that you don’t have the entire amount right now. If you are showing you willingness to pay, 99% of all times I have experienced that a creditor will agree in getting his money in installments.
I’ll give you a practical example:
A few years ago I got a bill of 1800 Deutsche Mark (DM). Back then we didn’t have the Euro yet. Although I had the money in another account, I said “no way”!
After all my expenses were covered there were about DM800 left in my checking account.
Using all this to pay the DM 1800 in 3 installments would have left me with nothing for myself at the end of the month. So I said that I couldn’t come up with everything at once and if it was ok if I payed in installments of DM200 per month. It was no problem at all and I was still left with DM600 for myself at the end of the month. Money that I was able to use for myself and my investments.
So basically it was a win-win-situation because my creditor got what he was asking for and I had money left for myself. No one got hurt and everyone was satisfied.
Now some might argue: “but what about the interest charged”? Nope! Most don’t even charge interest. They just want their money! That’s all they’re concerned about. And if they know that they are getting it, even just by installments, they’ll leave you alone.
Dealing with debt in this way might not be everyone’s cup of tea. What works for me doesn’t have to work for you. But it’s just an idea that I wanted to share with you that works perfectly for me.
Bottom line is, start saving and investing as early as possible and save at least 10 to 15% of your income if you can. You’ll be well on your way to accumulating wealth.
Even if you can’t afford 10 or 15%, put away at least something! How did Robert Allen, author of the bestseller “Multiple Streams of Income” put it in the first chapter? He said: “Financial Freedom on a Dollar a Day”. Don’t believe it?! Read the book!
All the best!
Ricky Schmidt
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