Money Management…

As I posted about, I have a friend who made $35K last year. Dude’s in a better financial situation than me, and I made 4x that!

Listening to him was ridiculously inspirational. He has thousands of dollars saved up, budgets for EVERYTHING (he puts away $100 every month for $1200 in Christmas gifts, budgets for a new car every 5 years, a new computer every 3, etc.), and has it figured out that thanks to his saving (he’s been doing it since 16), if he continues with what he’s putting in now, he’ll have in the double-digit millions when it comes time to retire.

(He’s going to be putting more in once he gets his degree, but that’s the minimum.)

My friend doesn’t scrimp at all… he wears a $500 watch, bought a new car, and does whatever he wants – just budgets accordingly.

I know, I know… I don’t believe in “retiring” either (my whole life is a retirement!), and of course I’m not okay with making $35K in a year.But the point is… to have all that stuff worked out… insane.

I know I’m not the only one who could use a little money management assistance, so I figured I’d make this post.

(Actually, I know a millionaire who still has tons of debt… he’s been paying the minimum on his cards and never got them paid off.)

A while ago I started a bunch of bank accounts a la T. Harv Eker. I put some money away in them, but didn’t follow it to the “tee” like I’m going to do now.T. Harv says to make 7 accounts. First you put away 25% if you’re a business owner for taxes, and then you do:

Necessities (50% of your income goes here)

Education (10%)

Long Term Spending (10%)

Short Term (10%)

Give Back (10%)

Financial Freedom Account (10%)

He says even if you have debt, create the accounts and use the “necessities” fund to pay the credit card bills. Obviously if your income won’t work out where you can save 50%, then do the best you can possibly do, but just get the process in motion.

Like I said, I started these accounts a while ago (just didn’t follow them to the tee) and I already have $3,000 saved up for my Financial Freedom Account that I completely forgot about.(I set up an account with ING Direct and then have them automatically deduct every month from my checking account.)

Another thing to remember is to call your credit card companies. I just discovered Citibank raised my APR on two of my cards by 20% (I had been just blindly paying the bills every month… awesome). I called them to ask about it and they immediately lowered it again.Bank Of America, same sort of thing… they were charging me late fees because I was paying too EARLY. I called and they put $160 back.I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided that I need to track most things or else I lose control. Forcing myself to look at this stuff is going to help me pay off my debt that much quicker (I don’t want to just pay it off whole right now because I’d rather travel – but I always make at least a little more than the minimum payments).

Anyway… hope that helps someone. :)