UnF*** Your Finances

How I unf***ed my finances with a certain tool & ideology

Your bank account is on a diet. And it's starving.

Perhaps you don’t have $60,000 in cash at your disposal, but every sum has small beginnings. Actually according to Forbes in this article, the majority doesn’t have $1000 at their disposal in their savings.

This makes sense as wages are roughly staying the same, yet prices are skyrocketing. Consumer price index or the CPI is inflation experienced by you, the consumer. How much more you are paying for products, last report was stated at 2.5% according the the Bureau of Labor Statistics article. This is considered pretty good in inverse relation where we we’re in 2022 when the FOMC or the Federal Open Market Committee raised rates to combat inflation. The thing is, that number does not include everything including outliers.

How many times have you seen something that was $2.33 that now cost $4.24? It may not seem like much but that is 55% increase which is NOT 2.5% LOL. Not only that but there is also less product (Shrinkflation think of the bag of chips that is now full of air). So now you’re paying more for less. How is one supposed to get ahead in this economy? Simple, but not easy.

Finances have direct correlation to a diet. If you know how to diet, you know how to save money. Calories are your money! Make more money than you consume and you will be in surplus. Eat less calories than you burn and you are in a deficit. I plan to dive deeper…

Start, Give, Get: Cut Your B.S.

Start cooking around 90% of your meals at home. Make triple the amount you need in one sitting, then meal prep the rest. Yes, you will save money directly, but also you may even get more healthy which means less doctor visits and less missed days of work. Your body & mind will work more efficiently.

Give yourself drinking money on the 1st of the month, call it $100 and spend no more. You can spend it all in one night or spread it out. Doesn’t matter. What is more important, nights out with the boys or building a financial future? Maybe even have a house party to stretch the dollar. “Optimally” you’d stop drinking, but maybe you’re not as extreme as me.

Get a gym membership (I know this costs money). This can act as a “keystone habit". Go to the gym, be around motivated people, get a little sore, get a little jacked. Put your energy into yourself. You’ll feel good and the more time you spend there, the less time you will spend thinking about ulterior stuff like drinking or bullshitting at home. You may even get more opportunity. The facts have shown that the more fit someone is, the more opportunities they get. Its not fair, but it is reality. People will view you in a different light, and also the endorphins are nice.

If you have gotten this far and have stopped reading, even doing the above will improve your life as it has improved my dramatically.

Philosophy X Analytics = ?

Greatness, I guess. One of my favorite books on my philosophy of money is THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON. It is a tried & true story of a man that became, well the richest man in Babylon. How did he do it? ALOT of trial and error and we can learn from the stories in that book. Many people of great wealth still recommend this to people. You already have all the tools (even if you don’t know it) now you just need the philosophy.

“May the gods bless thee with great liberality, my good friend… Yet it appears they have been so generous thou needest not to labor, i rejoice with thy in good fortune. Much more i would even share it with thee”

-Kobbi the musician in The Richest Man In Babylon

The musician was begging for money from a character named Bansir who was not rich, yet he was sitting his “fat, muscular body” upon the wall. (Those weren’t my words so don’t cancel me). He then tells the musician, “If I did have two shekels, to no one could I lend them to”.. The man was broke, yet well fed, yet tired, yet sitting upon a wall. What does that tell you in links in what I said earlier? To then Kobbi the musician replies, “Thou hast not one shekel in thy purse, yet sit like a statue upon a wall! Why not complete a chariot…” For one, this is going to take work, so renew your energy because it is time to work. How are you between 25-45 years old and burnt out already? We’re just getting started.

7 Cures for a Lean Purse AKA Being Broke

1. Start fattening thy purse aka that bank account. The government taxes you on your check, then when you spend your money then when you die, Netflix takes your money… You get where I am going. Before anybody takes your money, YOU TAKE THAT. Every dollar you earn a minimum of 10% of that $1.00 goes to safety. Its yours to keep. Put it in safe investments, a high yield saving account, whatever. There are optimal ways to protect yourself against inflation and such, but that isn’t in the scope of this writing. Number one keep at least 10% of everything you earn before paying anybody else.

2. Control thy expenditures aka don’t spend money like an idiot. If you “cant afford” to keep 10% of what you earn, what does that tell you ? It would tell me I need to lower my expenditures. Cut that Netflix bill, cut down on eating out so much, etc. Whatever your vices are, take an honest assessment of yourself and budget. Give yourself limits. Your future and your kids futures depend on this, depend on you to be disciplined and make change.

3. Make thy gold multiply aka COMPOUND THAT SHIT! So now you’re saving your 10% minimum right? Now your spending less than you ever had. Now its time to make it compound. You’re still saving that 10% which is small at face value, but now your 10% is making you 4% then that 4% is contributing to your 10% then more 4%. If your money was babies, you’d have grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren making you money. You babies making you more babies. 10 years later, its a wrap. It will surprise you to see how fast it compounds. It is truly amazing.

4. Guard thy treasures from loss aka if its too good to be true, it probably is. You built this nest egg up, now you have power. Now you can swing your dick so to speak (even if you’re female it is totally metaphorical). Your homie has this new NFT scheme idea, he says you gonna make 10000% and be rich. Nah. protect that bag. There will be a time and place for risk but not with the bag. Make sure it is secure. Stock accounts have a guarantee against loss of theft as well as banks in savings accounts up to a certain number like $250,000 or some sort. Look, talk to a financial advisor, they can guide you the right way. Just make sure your money is protected and don’t blow it on something speculative… They aren’t making anymore land which leads me to the next cure.

5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment aka own a home. You dont need to be a real estate guru, but owning your home is one of those hacks that isn’t a hack. It is roots that provide psychological grounding of safety to live, to play to provide a place to rest and like I said, they aren’t making more of it. Your equity can lay there and generate so now your babies are making even more babies. This is something to spend that 10% on.

6. Insure a future income aka we are going to get old one day, so prepare for it. I remember being 22 years old yelling out my sunroof, “I’m never getting fu****** old”… Well that was a damn lie lol. This means either a 401k, IRA, stocks and bonds that will pay you through dividends and yields. Personally, I never plan to retire but when I do reach the golden age of 75 years old, it would be nice to not worry about money. How many people do you know that are older, broke and put stress on the ones they love simply because they have no choice. Set yourself up for the future, it is coming.

7. Increase thy ability to earn aka build valuable skills! A great man once said, “McDonalds will pay you $5.00 an hour to work there, they’ll pay you $5.50 if you whistle while you did it.” Ok i might have chopped that up to a paraphrase but that great man was Jim Rohn one of the greatest to do it. If you don’t know about him, do your homework on’em. Whatever you do build skills in it, stack them. Become valuable, smile while you do it, kill it. The better you are, the more leverage you have to earn more. Learn more, earn more and that doesn’t mean only scholastic. Read books on psychology, how to talk to people, how to work more efficiently on your job. If they refuse to pay more, hey you can always start your own thing, especially since now you’ve been saving that 10% now you have some leverage.

That Was Half the Book

The book THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON has many stories that engrave these things into you and I recommend you read all of it. There is the laws of gold & such as well which I wont go over, but I will tell you how I have implemented it into my life.

Build Your Own Blend Off The Book

An all-out obliteration is not a good idea, just like dropping your calories to 800 is not a good idea. It is simply not sustainable. The plan you create needs to be flexible, yet sustainable. I dont live like a monk and not spend money. My problem was I would get anxiety when I had to spend money and to a lower level I still do, but you have to allow yourself to breath like flaming a fire.

In the book one of the characters takes his 10% of his income which is his to keep and multiply. He also dedicated 20% of his income to his debts. He had a family, therefore he made it work with 70% of his income then one day… Those debts were gone and that gold he saved up and compounded had grown. He went in the jungle and came out with a chinchilla coat.

I started off in debt. I started off with no savings. This is exactly how I started. 10% to my safe investments, 20% to my debts. You must trust the process, it really is simple as outlined above, but simple does not imply easy. After I paid off my debts, I started taking more than 10% as mine to keep because the habits stuck. I can be happy without many of the superficial things I thought I needed.

If I Were You (And I’m Not)

If i were you, i’d pick one of two methods to payoff my debts, either the snowball method or avalanche. One allows you to save more money than the other and the other provides you with motivation to keep going. Which route you pick will depend on an overall assessment of yourself. Experian has a great article on how to apply both, view that here. None the less, the rules above do not change.

After you pick a method you can create an excel sheet or find one online that will help you track your goals. What gets measured gets improved is the plain truth. If you cannot find one, feel free to message me. I wouldn’t mind making one for people as it is quite easy (I have my own, its just not very glamorous, I am all about function).

Take into consideration I am not a financial advisor therefore this is not financial advice. Some of us have legit reasoning why we cant do things. Just ask yourself, are you truly one of those people or is your subconscious mind putting roadblocks in front of you? Is your ego helping you or hurting you? How much does your financial future matter to you?