1. Put away half of your paycheck before you even consider spending it – I recall reading rich dad, poor dad and one of the recommendations in the book was to pay yourself first, and I decided to take that to heart. Before every paycheck I’d put 50% of my income away to be invested.
2. Get addicted to watch the number tick up – there is no greater pleasure then being able to say you have $1,000 on hand ready to spend it at a moments notice. It gives me a surge of confidence because I’m in such a grand spot in life compared to where I was just six months ago.
3. High interest savings accounts are Kings, I didn’t factor this in but I have another grand in precious metals, and in order to buy what I wanted to buy I had to have money saved up. There were a few ways to accomplish this – long story short the best way in my opinion is a high interest savings account. It allows you to transfer money quick. What I use is Varo, but I’m not going to advertise on this post.
4. Don’t ever talk about money with people – Most people do not care about your advice on money. I have a net worth of $2,500 and am only 19. They will disregard my opinion every time, even if it’s mathematically correct.
5. Get a credit card ASAP! The cash back is literally free money – the rule I live by with credit is never use credit if you don’t have money in the bank. For example: say you want a gallon of milk for $2, but you have $1 in your bank. Treat the credit card as if you only have $1 on it. Discover is my brand of choice. I had no credit going into this so I had to get a secured credit card, the good news is that I’ll get my $200 deposit back eventually.
Those are my five tips, things that I’ve learned. I’m not a financial expert, so don’t treat me as one. These are just things I do In my everyday life. When I get to $10,000 I’ll make a part 2 to this list.
Ricky J. Smith 