Tag Archives for " savings "

How to start saving money effectively, Pay yourself first

mins

Do you want more money? Yes of course. Me too! We all do. I want to help teach you how to start saving and get in control of your money. There is an easy way to save.

When people they say that they want a budget it usually means that they want money saved. They want to feel confident and get rid of the stress that is always around money. I want to show you how this works!

Paying yourself is the first step of getting in control of your money.

Most of the investing and money advice books I have encountered always seem to assume one thing that is never specifically mentioned. They assume that we have money to invest. They assume that we are already good at budgeting, managing, and saving our money.

I think that’s why most people make the conclusion that investing is only for the rich. We believe that investing is only for people with extra money to play around with. So what about us commoners who are living paycheck to paycheck?

If you are interested in learning to invest, I highly recommend Quit Like A Millionaire by Kristy Shen. It is the book that inspired me to believe that we can take control of our money situation and finish rich. Her advice is really simple and easy to understand. She makes money management and investing simlpe for noobs like me.

How do we start managing money?!

Saving can be easy if we make it automatic. Set up an automatic transfer to put a small part of your paycheck into your savings every month. If it is automatically saved, you don’t have to worry about it.

With direct deposits of paychecks and all the other payment services, you do have money coming regularly. In order to start saving, we need our money to go into savings regularly.

This is what you do. Take 10% of each paycheck and immediately put it into savings. If you feel that you can’t save 10% maybe try 5% or even just 1% a month. Take a percentage from every check and save it! The key is to save something.

The whole point is to have money saved when you need it. Even if you can only save $20 a month, that’s and extra $240 a year that you didn’t have before! Think of how much you could have in 10 years from now. Or 20!

When you are living paycheck to paycheck, there is always some stress about it. You feel like there is nothing in your account left over for yourself. You feel like all your money goes to everyone but yourself. You feel like you’ll never be in control of your money because you never have any money to control.

If you make the decision to pay yourself first, you will have some money to control. Being in control of $20 a month is way better than being in control of $0 a month! If you want to start controlling your money, pay yourself first.

Getting good at saving is the first step towards being in control of your money. Paying yourself first is the best way that I have found to start saving regularly.

a foolproof budget

This is what paying yourself first looks like. It goes into a savings account before you even get a chance to spend it. The money is automatically saved before you even miss it.

The money that you add to your savings is your money for you to keep. Do not spend this money. This is for savings only. This is about having money for yourself so you won’t ever be broke again.

Paying yourself first will create an automatic budget without you having to worry about it month by month or bill by bill. This takes away all the stress, worry and anxiety about trying to keep whatever few pennies you have left over at the end of the month. Budgeting simply means putting money where you want it to go. And savings is the first place you want it.

Paying yourself before you pay any bills or other expenses puts you in control of your own money. You’ll have the knowledge and assurance that you do actually have some money left over at the end of the month, because you saved it first. You don’t have to rely on searching for scraps in your own bank account after every one else is paid.

We pay ourselves first to ensure that we do have something for ourselves. We will then have the comfort in knowing that we have money left over even after we pay all of our bills.

If you want to loose the game of money, start by spending it all and don’t keep any for yourself. Being broke means always spending. Give all your money to others, waste all your money. Pay all your bills and expenses and since you want to stay broke, do not keep any for yourself. Spend what is left over on junk that you won’t use. Spend what little is left over on things that will start collecting dust in your basement. Most people let their money control them instead of taking control themselves.

Sounds kind of silly doesn't it. But that is how the majority of people operate. They spend everything they have and then wonder why they don’t have any money left.

Create a payment plan that pays yourself. The entire system was built on loans and payment plans for a reason. Paying for mortgages and your Netflix account over time is how the money system works. If we didn’t pay over time, there would be no money ever available for anyone.

Payment over time works for you too, not just the companies that send you bills every month. Payment over time works when you pay yourself.

Cash flow is necessary for survival in any society that operates with money. Payment plans and other structures are in place so we have control of our money. It allows everyone to tell our money where to go.

Your money should be saved automatically before you get a chance to spend it on an eating binge or your next visit to the comic book store.

if you don't save, you'll never have any money

If you want to start keeping your money, and saving effectively, you need to start paying yourself first. Pay yourself with your own money. Stop giving your money away.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can actually save up in just a few months by paying yourself first.

Automation is the key, and the entire point of David Bachs book, the Automatic Millionaire. I didn’t look at this book for a long time because the title threw me off, I thought “oh that’s only for millionaires.” The point of his book is the exactly the opposite. Start small. Make automatic payments to yourself and your investing, then it all grows automatically.

Make automatic savings a thing in your life. Then once you have enough money saved, you can start investing it and making it grow even more for you. Get this book if you are looking for more control over your finances.

When your savings plan and budget is automated, you don’t have to worry about keeping tabs on it. Make the transfer to your savings automated. This is vitally important.

Making your savings automatic is important because if it isn’t put away in a savings account, it will end up getting spent somewhere else. When you need an extra $20 for lunch, or your kids want a new toy, that money goes fast.

The trick is to be able to to both. Save money first, then buy that toy that they are screaming about. If that extra $20 a month is in savings, it won’t get spent the next time you want to drive through for some chicken nuggets.

Don't wait until you have "more money", start saving now

Your savings plan needs to be automated because we always believe that we can save more next month. We delude ourselves into thinking that there will be times in the future when things will be easier. You keep telling yourself that “Things will be better next month, I promise”

We think there will be times in the future when we will have more money to save. The real truth is that this future never comes!

 Waiting for the future is thinking backwards. The only way you will ever have money in the future is if you are saving in the present.

A new emergency always pops up, every month. One month it’s for car repairs, next month, an unexpected doctors visit. But it’s okay. You’ll just save the month after that… Wrong! That month will inevitably bring you a new expense that you didn’t plan for. Every single month for the rest of your life. The cycle is endless.

The only way that you’ll break the cycle is if you save it this month. Save it now!

If people aren’t starting the saving process now, chances are that they’ll never end up saving anything at all. If you are making excuses about how you have to pay for everything else but yourself, you will never be able to keep anything. And yes, they are all excuses.

Money that is saved today is more money that you can enjoy tomorrow.

Automating your savings ensures that your money gets saved today, instead of a fictional future that will never come. Pay yourself first and automate it. This is the only way you will actually have money for yourself in the future.

Paying yourself should always be your most important expense

Your future self, your peace of mind, your control over your money, is the first bill you want to pay every single time.

Why let others decide where your money goes when you have the power to decide before anyone else can? It’s your money! Keep it for yourself first! Make this decision, for yourself. Save for yourself before your money goes to someone else who will gladly keep it for themselves.

Most people believe that they could be rich “Some day”. But we know that some day never comes unless we take action now. We will never see money some day unless we start planning and saving today.

Stop telling yourself that you’ll do better tomorrow because we know that a better tomorrow starts today.

If you want money in your future, you have to start keeping it now. A better future means planning for it in the present.

If action isn’t taken today, you’ll still be just as poor as you were yesterday. 

You’ll never know how to manage money unless you start practicing and learning now. Just like learning anything else in this world, managing money take practice. If you can start practicing on just $20 a month, you’ll become a master money manager in no time.

If you aren’t starting now, you’ll be just as poor next year as you are today. You’ll be just as poor as you are now in ten years down the road. So start now.

The biggest difference between successful people and poor people is knowledge. Poor people act like they know everything and stopped learning in high school. This is why I think there are so many people that make poor adults.

If you want to be in control of your money and have any chance of finishing rich, it is imperative that you educate yourself and grow as a person

High-level characters, people who can manage real life, are always learning everything that they can to create a better life for themselves. Test everything out and don't be afriad to try new things. Find out what works for you and your specific situation.

If you are interested in more books about controlling your money, take a look at some of my book recommendations on budgeting and investing.

I also talk about some books that help with the mindset and philosophy required to take more control of your finances.

Thank You!

Here at gamesmastery.com we want to give our appreciation and support to gamers everywhere. Our mission is to inspire creativity and help everyone enjoy the best life possible.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase with no extra cost to you.

Books That Make Investing Easy

Quit Like a Millionaire

investing made easy!

Now we come to my favorite part of money management! I have finally found books tht tell us exactly what to do when it comes to investing.

 I read Rich Dad Poor Dad a long time ago and it made me angry. The book did not give me clear steps on investing, saving, or actually making money. Rich DadPoor Dad did not meet my expectations. I didn't realize at the time that this was a philosophy or way of thinking type of book.  Robert Kyosaki does teach us some good points. 

Rich Dad tells us to buy assets instead of liabilities, he tells us to invest and make our money work for us instead of working for money. He tells us that the rich use loopholes in the law in order to avoid paying taxes.  

This is all fine advice, but Rich Dad never actually tells us what to do. Rich dad never actually tells us how to invest. What do I do to make my money work for me?! Tell me what those tax loopholes are! If you are curious about the philosophy of money, take a look here. 

Now, years later, after not knowing what to do,  I actually found books that tell us specifically what to do! Make this as easy for us commoners as possible.

Quit like a millionaire by kristy shen

Quit Like a Millionaire

This book is amazing! Buy it right now!  if you only read one book on this list, or anything on nvesting, this is the one. The more I listened to this audio book, the more excited I got. Kristy answered all the questions I had that the Rich dad could not. 

Quit Like A Millionaire teaches us how to get out of debt and start saving. First rule is to always pay yourself first. Pay yourself and your savings accounts before you pay any bills or anything else. The more money you can save now, the more freedom you will have in the future. 

Kristy Shen teaches us an amaizingly simple plan on how to invest and exactly what to invest in. (Index funds, always index funds.) She teaches us an easy step-by-step plan on where to put our money so it can work for us! 

Kristsys' investing plan is wonderful. She helps us with avoiding stock market crashes like what happened in 2008 and the craziness that is going on with Game Stop right now ( January 2021). If we follow her plan, we won't have to deal with anything like the temporary rises and falls that some people constantly freak out about. 

We also learn about the what the tax laws are and the easy way to Leagally avoid paying. We learn how to manage our money with the mindset of avoiding fees and paying least amount of taxes as possible. 

This book tackles the subject of insurance and health care as well. Of course if you are stuck in the U.S. things are a little harder, but still managable. 

The entire goal of Quit Like A Millionaire is to retire early so that you still have the time and energy to live the life you want without wasting your time working for money. what would you do if you didn't have to work every day? What gets you excited about living life? What would you do if you actually had all that time? 

Kristy Shen is an inspiring guru and a very entertaining storyteller. I hope her book inspires you as much as it inspired me!

you need a budget by jesse mecham

you need a budget

Obviously this isn't focusing on investing, but I wanted to add Y.N.A.B. to

You Need A Budget is all about how to organize and save your money in a way that wont stress you out. The basic idea is to plan for every event and bill in advance so expenses don't come up as surprizes. 

A yearly expense I added to my budget is Girl Scout Cookies. I know I will be spending that money every single year, and I'm gonna plan for it!

 This includes anuall bills like buying new tires, or weird and random repairs that we can never expect. We might not expect it but the money we save for it can. This is why everyone tells us to have an emergency fund. We'll never know when we have another health problem or when our basement floods. What we do know is that emergencies will always come up out of nowhere and we need our moeny to be ready for it when it happens.

It is important that we plan our money for the fun things as well as our neccesary expenses. If we plan and save up for somehting fun, we won't feel guilty about spending money on it. If you enjoy buying books and minis for  Dungeons and Dragons every other month, then plan for it! If you want to buy that avacado toast every morning, then put it in your budget!

Jesse Mecham has a chapter in this book all about teaching children how to budget. The earlier we learn how to plan and save, the more time and practice we will have to save. Our relationship with money is engrained in our thoughts and emotions at an early age, we need to help the next generation as much as we can as soon as we can. 

The more good habits we can create, the better life we can have.

You Need A Budget shows us what we should alread know. Dealing with money can be a lot less stressful the more we can plan where our money is going and what our money is doing for us. It i

financial freedom by grant sabatier

Financial Freedom

Financial Freedom is another helpful tome that wants you to retire early with financial independence. Grant helps us figure out how much money we would need in order to retire early. We learn how we can reach that goal in the shortest amount of time as we can.

This book has great investing advice. He tells us exactly what to invest in and how to do it in order to grow our money as fast as possible. 

Grant Sabatier teaches us how to earn more money with the current job and skills that we already have, and how to maximize those results. 

This books gives us great advice on how to plan and start a small business or side hustle to make even more money. It isn't as hard as you think. 

This book also talks in depth about simple real estate investing that other investing books don't really talk about. 

Financial Freedom is great for creating the habits we need in order to create a more fullfilling and better life. We should try to focus on a life of happiness and abundance. That means spending time on what we want instead of what an uncaring boss wants from us. 

Life gets easier when we get better at it. 

All of these books that I have talked about so far can teach us amazing things. But knowledge is useless untill we act on it. We have to work on our life in order to make it the best one possible. 

Test everything out and don't be afriad to try new things. Find out what works for you and your specific situation. 

Thank You!

Here at gamesmastery.com we want to give our appreciation and support to gamers everywhere. Our mission is to inspire creativity and help everyone enjoy the best life possible.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase with no extra cost to you.

3 Books That Will Help you Earn and Keep Your Money

Secrets of the millionaire mind

Now it's time to think about the Philosophy of money. I know it can be scary and stressful. I've ignored my debt and money problems for most of my life. Money has always been scary for me. I've ignored bills and wasted my money and time on a lot of stupid stuff. I am finally trying to take care of my money issues and yes it is a lot of work. 

I think I have found the right books in order to create a good financial plan. Money is one of the most important aspect of our lives. The better we are with money, the better our lives can become. If you want a happy and successful life, getting educated and in control of your money situation is a nessecity. 

The more money we have, the more time and freedom we can have. I am all about freedom.

Before we get to an actual financial plan, I want to reccomend some books about the philosophy and our ways of thinking that surround money. Dealing with money is a major cause of stress and anxiety. The more we can understand our feelings about finances, the more control we can have over them. 

Remember that we can read all of the books and feel better about ourselfs for being smart. But if we don't take action and put that information to use, all of our knowledge is wasted. 

If you are looking for Ideas about building a business or a side hustle click here.

Rich habits by thomas c. corley 

Rich habits book cover

This is a great little book with some great big ideas. It's really short so you can read it in an hour. Rich habits talk about 10 things we can do that can make a huge difference in our lives. 

The book challenges us to follow these habits for 30 days. You'll see a drastic improvement if you do.  

The habit that hit me the hardest was number 6.  I will live each and every day in moderation. Unsuccessful people have little control over their lives they have wild swings in their moods which lead to strained relationships, strained health, and strained finances. I have never realized how important this is, and now I am aware of toxic behavior everywhere. 

Rich habits is not specifically about money. The idea is to create a richer life for yourself while creating a better future. Within each habit, Corley talks about the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people. Successful people work hard to create good habits that ensure and easier and mor fullfilling life. 

Rich Habits teaches us that successful people take responsibility for every aspect of their lives and strive to make it better. 

the richest man in babylon by george s clason

Richest man in babylon book cover

This book is a fictional tale in which each chapter teaches a lesson about handling and saving money. Everyone wants a fat purse full of gold. But not everyone knows how to make their money grow. 

This one is another very quick read. It contains a multitude of insights for saving and handling money. Readers will learn why it is so important to work with integrity and responsibility. You won't get very far if nobody trusts you, because no one will work with you.

The Richest Man in Babylon reinforces the mindset and princibles required to earn and keep your gold. If you don't learn to manage the money that you have, you will never be able to earn more. 

I enjoyed this book because it read like a fiction novel, very fun and easy to read. The lessons are simple but profound. 

secrtes of the millionaire mind by t. harv eker

Secrets of the millionaire mind

This is last on the list about the psycology of success and finance. Eker is blunt with his teachings and information. He lays out the thought process toward thinking and acting in a way that will help you succed. Are you begining to see a pattern in philosophy here? 

I learned that if you want to be rich, you can't have any negative feelings toward the rich. You can never become what you despise. 

Anyone who tries to tell you that money isn't important is broke. If we don't take the time to learn about and control money, it will contol us. 

We learn in here more specific ways that the rich and successful people think and act differently. Rich people understand that the more you can get your money to work for you, the less youw ill have to work. If you want to become more successful please pay close attention to Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

I do have one complaint about this book, Eker continues to advertise his millionaire mind training workshop throughout this book. But we can't let that distract us from the amazing advice and help that this book offers. If you want to complain about this, then you can continue being broke. 

There is one chapter here that talks about creating a budget and I wish it was more in depth. I have followed what it says and I already feel a little more in control of my money. 

In the next post I want to talk about great books that teach us about actual finances and budgeting. 

Thank You!

Here at gamesmastery.com we want to give our appreciation and support to gamers everywhere. Our mission is to inspire creativity and help everyone enjoy the best life possible.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase with no extra cost to you.

3 Books That Will Build Your Business

E-Myth book

why am I writing book reviews on a site for dungeon masters?

I originally got this idea on new years eve going into 2021. I was talking with my amazingly smart and beautiful friends when at least 3 of them were talking about trying to start their businesses. I asked them if they were willing to listen to my ranting about all of the books I have read.  Instead of ranting, I'm gonna write about it.

Alright nerds, listen up. It's time to get our asses in gear and start making some money. I've read a few books over the years and I want to share my insights. This list will be part of an ongoing series that is part book review and part life planning. The goal is to reccomend books with a (somewhat) short description.

Every book I mention on this site is highly reccomended and has helped me a lot in my current journey. I want to help everyone live the best life possible. I want to help people make some money and hopefully retire early. 

I have recently realised that life isn't going to end very soon. I'm not going to die early. And even after some mismanaged plagues (I'm looking at you 'merica), the world isn't going to end. There won't be an apocalypse in my life time. We're here for a long time, so lets make our future something worthwhile, something worth living for. 

The 4-hour work week by tim ferriss

4-hour work week

Youv'e probably heard about this one and thought "No way! working only 4 hours is impossible." That is what I thought too, and I put off reading this for a long time. I gave this book a second chance after it was reccomended by the amazing youtube channel Charisma on Command.

This is the first book that taught me that it is possible to create a business on your own terms. And it can be a viable option. Stop working for others when your precious time could be your own. 

Tim Ferriss lays out a great plan for finding a simple business that could work for whatever your gaols are. After reading this, I hope your goals will become loftier. 

This books goes into detail about getting out of the office and working remotely. Tim preaches the 80/20 priciple for maximixing your time in order to be free to do what you want to do. Inactivity and being stuck in a 9-5 job is not the goal, doing what excites you and having the time to do it is the goal. 

The 4-hour Work Week gives us a solid plan for automating a business that can fund us and free up our time. 

I put this book first on the list for a reason. It was the first time I thought that I could actually acomplish something in life that I actually wanted to do! like write, and try to inspire people. This was the first time I realised that an early retirement could be possible.

Side Hustle by chris guillebeau

side hustle book

This definitly the simplest and the easiest to use business building book that I have read.  The chapters are designed for you to work on one simple task each day so you can launch your business or side hustle within the course of just one month!

The steps are easy to follow. Any noob can benifit greatly from this one. You are well on your way to making a real life business, now make sure you have a real life way to get paid for it.

I love Side Hustle, this book spells out the specific things you need to do to build a hustle from scratch while also telling inspiring stories. This can be another great foundation for all of your ventures. 

Chirs has a good number of books and I reccomend them all. 

The E-myth revisited by Michael gerber

E-Myth book

The E-Myth is straightforward in a different way than side hustle. The E-Myths major point is that we should be working on our business instead of working in your business. What is the point of making a busness, if you have basically created another 9-5 job for yourself. We are supposed to be freeing up our time instead of becoming just another employee at a dead end job.

Even if your goal is to create a fully automated business,  the E-Myth teaches some great philosophy and insights we can apply as we build a business or a side hustle. This book talks about the stages of growth in a business and what to do to survive to the nest stage. 

Gerber teaches the difference between a technician, a mangaer, and an entreprenuer. And how an owner needs to deal with these 3 personalities in themselves and their business. Most businesses fail because a technician take over and stops the entrepenuer from moving forward.

If you follow what The E-Myth has to teach, your side hustle and your life will become more focused and meaningful. Successful people work on their lives, not just in their lives.


Thank You!

Here at gamesmastery.com we want to give our appreciation and support to gamers everywhere. Our mission is to inspire creativity and help everyone enjoy the best life possible.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase with no extra cost to you.