![]() ![]() Only Put Money on Your Credit Card if You Can Afford to Pay it off Each MonthĬredit cards aren’t inherently bad, theoretically. Smarten up and quit tipping the doorman hundred-dollar bills. Dumb purchases can get rid of $100,000 real quick. Here are some more good questions: How long will it last? Is it going to put you in debt? Is the value you will get out of it over its lifetime worth the cost? Who knew that getting smart with money was a diet plan? You’ll find you eat better, spend less on food, and might even lose weight. Really focus this kind of thinking on food buying. How badly? How will this thing impact me? Before buying anything over $50, ask yourself if you really need it. So here is where you need a bit of discipline. That sort of impulse buying was constrained in my poor old days by having zero money to spend, something like why people didn’t use to be so fat. I see something I want, and I don’t think too hard about whether I should buy it. And even better, you’ll have a pretty good idea where it’s going that it doesn’t have to. It won’t kill most of you.ĭo this for a couple of paycheck periods, and you’ll know where you’re money’s going. If you run out of money in the “groceries” envelope, then no more groceries. No credit cards, no checks, no Venmo, no Paypal. Now only go spend what you have in the envelope. Rearrange the cash until your necessities are covered. If you’re out of cash and still have empty envelopes, like “gas” is empty, that’s not okay since no money, no gas, no work. I always ran out of cash before I ran out of ideas on where to spend it. ![]() Keep going until you run out of envelopes (and can’t think of any more things you spend on) or you run out of cash. Get the “gas” envelope and then take an educated guess on what you spend on gas that paycheck period. Stick about what you think you spend between paychecks on each thing you have an envelope for. On each envelope, write in big letters one of the things you know you spend money on, like “gas.” Like “eating out.” Like “groceries.” You get the idea. Scrooge, watching every nickel and counting every dime. ![]() Truth be told, that is not all that much fun since it requires you suddenly become as anal as Mr. The Trick to Tracking Your Spendingīefore you can figure out how to control your money, you first need to understand where it’s going.įinancial advisors will tell you that you have to make a budget and track both your income and your expenses. ![]()
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