Yahoo the other day had a great article on top money rules.
- Pay Yourself First. Many people (I hope you are included in this) budget their money every month. A certain percentage or amount goes towards housing, food, entertainment, bills and so on. And also what many people do is just throw whatever is left over to savings and retirement. However, what you should be doing is putting money towards savings and retirement FIRST.
- Paying yourself first helps you budget better since you know how much you have left.
- I should be paying myself first, but I am not. Hopefully I can change this once I feel more comfortable in my situation.
- I definitely watch what I buy and I’m very critical of myself afterwards if I bought something that I don’t need.
What are your top money rules?
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mindful spending – yep – that is something I need to practice 😉
Money money!!! My parents pay for the most. But when I do make my own, I always put some aside and try to get what I necessarily need. xo Emma
Paying yourself first……got to do that. How can you build wealth if all you do is pay others
I plan our budget around our savings MOST of the time. I try to keep a balance… I also try to focus on being grateful for what I have… It keeps my "wants" in check!
I'm great about paying myself first for retirement, but I've been doing that since my first job so it's habit by now. I'm still working on the paying attention to my budget and doing better on the mindful spending part. 🙂
I have been planning for retirement since the first day of my first job 🙂 I'm a little bit of an OCD planner, which sometimes can be a good thing. My top money rule is if I need it, I'll buy it. If I don't, I won't. I also try to limit myself to spending my fun money only on weekends. This stops me from stopping for fast food or impulse shopping during the week.
These are great rules!!I'd say my number one, all-time money rule is to not spend money on things I don't care about, so that I CAN spend money on things I DO care about. So, for instance, I bring my lunch to work every day. Not just because it's a frugal thing, but because I don't really care about lunch, whether it's PB&J or something I picked up. But I totally bought an iPad 2 as soon as they came out. Why? Because I wanted one, and I'd planned to buy one. Everyone has different priorities when it comes to spending, I just like to make sure that I have my priorities in check, so that I'm not wasting money on things that I don't consider to be a priority.
I'm the same way as you MW. I usually eat alone in my office (I work at a small company and everyone eats at a different time), so I don't see the point in spending a ton of money on food when I would just be enjoying it by myself. I'm fine with just bringing a sandwich, chips, leftovers, or whatever (as long as it tastes good of course, I'm not going to bring crap). That way I can spend my money on something that I actually want.
I am sort of the opposite. Although hubby and I both do large 401(k) contributions and he has a good company stock plan. I do have "fun" money which usually amounts to 20 to 40 bucks of cash. With that I buy my guilty pleasures — thrift store finds, small pieces of jewelry, doughnuts. But we are not extravagant. At the end of the month, I have hubby tell us how much we have left over in the checking account and the excess goes into savings. In doing so, we can make extra payments on the line of credit, the trailer payment, etc. I do still try not to buy buy buy. And I've had to learn to let go and not be critical if my hubby brings home expensive bakery brownies every week. But we still manage to save!
Make sure you spend less than you earn. Always put some away into savings.
Give yourself a week to think about big/unusual purchases. It will give you time to reflect if you REALLY need that which you're trying to buy and research it. Or you may end up forgetting about it (in which case, you didnt need to buy it in the first place).
I'm definitely good about paying myself first for retirement savings. I do need to be a bit better about it with short-term savings. We have a pretty hefty amount set aside, at least compared to most people our age, but my husband and I both have stuff we want to get done around the house, like fencing in our back yard. Plus we'll need a new car within the next year or so. I really want to pay cash for the fence and have a really big downpayment on the car, so I finally reinstated automatic transfers from my paycheck to help with that goal.But I'd add that not depriving yourself is important. I guess this goes under the "mindful spending" umbrella, but small treats here and there can help you from feeling deprived and going hog-wild when you can't take it anymore. 😉
Mine is and probably always will be. Spend less than you earn. I am guilty though of not paying myself first, technically. I do have a small portion taken out for retirement before I get paid but other than that, I usually take care of my bills first then do whatever I want with the leftovers(usually saved). This works for me for some reason though.