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Summary
- Be like a squirrel during good times. Save the acorns. Figure out what the acorns are. When do you know what money is coming in, maybe even some large quantities of money, you will know what you can save. Put the dollar amount on those acorns so you know how much you can save for all the different things you’re trying to save for.
- Get to the point where you have six months of savings. What would it cost you to live for six months, not extravagantly, but just live in case something happened to your job, or something happened to your house or your car?
- Figure out your Noodle Budget. That means what’s the bare minimum you need to live. For example, if something really catastrophic happens in your life, how much money would you have to make to cover you just eating the bare minimum food, doing the bare minimum things?
- Decide when you are spending, whether you need it, love it, want it, or like it. Then make sure that you only buy the things that you really need, or that you really love. Don’t buy the stuff you just like, or you just want, or you’re going to end up with a whole house full of stuff that you end up throwing out. Then you’re going to feel really sad about it.
- Automate your savings, both for your emergency funds and your savings for your dreams and other things you want to get. Is it a new car? Is it a new trip? Start making those savings automatic. And even if you can’t save enough money to get those things, at least you are putting some things in those funds.
Challenge
- Let’s do a little bit of dreaming, come up with the list of the savings accounts you want to have. Again, emergency savings comes first. That’s the hard one to get. It’s a lot of money, but it’s the one that’s going to let you sleep at night. It’s the one that’s going to keep you from worrying all the time. Then think about the other things. Are there trips you want to save for, are there items that you want to save for. But start coming up with that list so that you understand how much money it’s going to take to get your dreams. This is about honesty, and once we know what we want, it’ll be easier for us to attain it, even if it takes small steps.
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