Honestly, Are you trying to become rich?
I’ll admit there is more that I could do to try to breach the point where my passive income exceeds my expenses, but I choose not to.
Although I’m frugal, I’m quite sure that I could run an even tighter financial ship!
Below is a quick list of ways that I could improve my chances to become rich:
- I could use budgets and do extreme couponing to whittle my consumption expenses down much lower!
- I could try to get more free stuff via giveaways online. Free stuff is great and believe it or not, it’s out there with some work.
- I could create a budget to identify where my weaknesses are and plan to fix them accordingly!
- I could get another job by working during a second shift period. This would have a huge impact on my savings game since my first job covers all of my living expenses. This means I could pocket almost all of my earnings from the second job.
- I could try to expand my hobby activities into other forms of social media. This could practically double my hobby income.
- I could create a goals spreadsheet to track my saving goals and keep me on track… This is more important than it sounds! Feedback is a great thing!
- I could create an investing goal to track my investments performance. This could help determine if I should start investing more into index ETFs etc…
- I could borrow tools/things from family, neighbors and friends more. Why buy a sidewalk edger when I only use it once a year?
- I could do a better job of reducing my taxes, a Roth IRA is a great vehicle to reduce taxes on dividends from stocks, etc.
- I could do a better job of reducing my gas expenses, treat driving as a real expense instead of just ignoring it.
There are plenty other ways that I could improve my chances of becoming rich some day. Surprisingly, I now realize that I”m only putting in about half the effort that I should be putting into getting rich…
-MR
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I think you are being too hard on yourself considering you are so young and you have zero debt basically.
You have accomplished a great thing. Now you have to decide what you want to do with that money you aren’t spending every month. Life is about balance, and spending every waking moment trying to make money is no fun. Make that money work for you in the background and enjoy the family!
It’s true, it’s all about balance.
there is value to personal time, health & wellness and all else that you do when you are not trying to become rich 🙂
yep a balanced life is a worthy goal too 🙂
How many of those suggestions do you follow? Why not all of them? They are good ideas?
Sadly, I only do 5 of the 10 currently. I’ll work on improving that number though!
I have to admit, half of those in the list I was just brainstorming on how I could help my net worth grow 🙂
meh.
You know us, we’re not trying to get rich any time soon because we like having lives. We’re responsible and we’re doing just fine. Why kill ourselves for something that’s just money? At some point time just becomes way more important. Your kids are going to value seeing their dad when they’re growing up way more than any money you could settle on them once they’re grown.
True, it’s all about balance… I’m only able to do 5 of the 10 above that I’ve identified.
We can all do better. I like your response to Kris. It really is all about balance. I love how you just came up with a bunch of great ideas to become financially independent.
I think it’s about refinement and focus… I wish I had done more of both from the start. Now it will be close for me to get where I want to go (especially now that I have kids). But it is about the ride and not the destination…
It’s good to save money but folks can’t do that all the time. You don’t have to penny-pinch your finances. As long as you follow the big picture of spending less than you make, you will never get into debt and you will be on the path of creating wealth for yourself.
Overall, I’ve played pretty good frugal defense, and decent enough earnings offense.
If I could follow the 10 points I identified above, I think I would life a more balanced life in 5 or so years.
Meh…. If you’re thinking about lots of ways to save or make more money, you’re already on your way. I’ll bet there are other things you haven’t listed but that you unconsciously do (since you’re in a PF frame of mind) that some may look at and say, Wow! that’s pretty good.
Yeah, I guess I’m saying that we can all play a better financial game if we thing about it.
Too often we just take things for granted, not thinking how expensive they can be. Driving an hour to somewhere and another hour back from the location can cost me around $15.00… But I never realize it…
This is a good list, and I have to say, based on reading your blog it seems like you’re doing really well with the fundamentals as it it. It’s good that you’re thinking of ways to get there. Heck, I want to get there too and am thinking of such lists, so I can totally relate!
Be careful with spending too much time on couponing and pinching pennies…I like your additional income type of ideas better (though I’m clearly up for pinching pennies when it doesn’t require extreme effort)
It’s a constant balancing act. If the kids stop me and ask me to play a game or tuck them in at night, that takes first priority! They grow so quickly, as I’m sure you are aware since you have similarly aged kids 🙂
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I agree with squirreler. I think if Rich is a goal, then the focus has to be on your earning potential, not cost cutting. Cost cutting reaches a point of diminishing returns.
I think it’s important to be mindful of spending because it’s easy to spend all your pocket money, but I don’t think that necessarily makes people rich. It’s how they use that money that matters.
Perhaps, but a lot of financial books that are widely respected preach the frugality portion of saving money. Even Buffett is very frugal…
Frugality is like defense, where you the goal is to try to hold onto the money, whereas Earnings is offense and the goal is to score. It really does take both to win the game optimally. This is the reasons that many athletes that earned millions are broke today, because they weren’t frugal and didn’t focus on saving their money properly.
So I respectfully disagree, frugality is very important, if not more important than earnings. The average Joe can’t be a CEO, but they can choose not to buy that proverbial latte every day and instead save that 5 dollar…
I see your point and you’re right. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I wasn’t constantly watching my money. Many dual income families still live paycheck to paycheck. We got an unexpected bonus at work this week and almost everyone had it spent already before the day was up.
Getting the fundamentals right leads to being able to tackle the bigger things. We are doing our best for our family. I still have to get life insurance to make sure my family’s covered but we do really well living frugally and staying within our budget.
sounds like you are doing very well and living very responsible! Live frugal is very admirable, and I have done so for more than a decade! It has has the benefit of being a more green way to live, helping the environment to boot!
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Exactly, There is new hope in the accessibility of a number of choices readily available for you to make more money and becoming rich. Day in and day out, we constantly ask ourselves how to become rich and lead a lavish lifestyle. However we are doubtful if our dreams would ever come true. But the truth is there is a way out and there are many ventures that can turn you into a millionaire provided you are willing to put in that extra effort and are persistent in your endeavor. Whatever means you choose, trust that you know what you want. The clearer you are about what you yearn for, the easier it is to stay focused on the goal. To make money, you must be prepared to take a few risks. You require to risk a lot regardless of the venture you intend to invest in.
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thanks for share such a nice money making tips and ideas keep sharing.
Nice ideas indeed – but working two jobs can drain your energy, don’t you think? Does it pay off to trade such a great percentage of your life for money?