Hey Everyone, Josh here again for another finance talk! I’m so glad you could join me. Today, we’re going to be talking a bit about investing. The truth is, we all know that for a comfortable retirement, we’re going to have to invest. However, when most of us look at our budgets, we scratch our heads saying, well, I don’t have the money to invest. This generally leads to the next thought, “How am I ever going to retire?”.
Investing Is In Your Budget, You’ve Just Gotta Find The Funds
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with when it comes to helping them properly budget, get out of debt, improve credit scores, ect… All of the services that I provide require me to get an in depth look at the financial profile maintained by my clients. In my 7 years of experience, after helping more than 200 clients, I can only remember a couple of clients that couldn’t afford to invest. By a couple, I literally mean 2! It’s not that we can’t afford to invest, there’s more behind the issue. The truth is, as we go through our normal day to day life, we become somewhat addicted to anything and everything we do regularly. Our one time spending eventually becomes habitual spending, which in turn lends to the inability to do things like get out of debt, improve credit scores, and invest.
It’s Time To Break Free
As human beings, we are bread to become addicted to things we like, love, or that bring drama into our lives. However, these addictions are not necessities. So, if you really want to invest for a better retirement, you’re going to have to break your financial addictions. Here is a quick step by step guide to help with that.
Step #1: Pinpoint The Issue – Most of us are addicted to things that we have absolutely no idea are addicting to us. For instance, I was addicted to Mc. Donalds breakfast burritos. I ate them every weekday morning for a year or two. I didn’t see it as an addiction, I saw it as sustenance. However, when I broke down the cost, I found that those breakfast burritos were costing me about $1,500 per year. I also found out that if I packed myself a breakfast, that would only cost about $400 per year. So, my addiction actually had a net cost of about $1,1000 per year. Ouch! So, I went digging for other minor addictions to see what I could find, and boy did I find them. Your first step is going to be finding what you’re addicted to that’s costing you so much money!
Step #2: Calculate The Cost Of Your Addiction – It wasn’t until I sat down and calculated how much money I was wasting on my addiction that I realized how much of an issue it was. For me, seeing the cost is what finally got me to stop hitting the drive through on weekdays. That could be the same for you. Once you find out what your unnecessary addictions are, figure out how much money the cost you over the course of a year. Knowing the total will help you break free!
Step #3: Make A Promise To Yourself – Unless we’re talking about highly addictive drugs, your addictions are curable with a simple promise to yourself. That promise is that you’re going to stop doing whatever is costing you so much for a minimum of 30 days. 30 is a huge number. In statistics, you need at least 30 samples before you can come up with probable averages. In psychology, you will learn that it takes 30 days to form a non-chemical addiction and 30 days to break it. So, now it’s time to make a promise to yourself that you’re going to start a new trend. That trend is not wasting any more money!
Now That Your Addictions Are Gone, It’s Time To Invest
If you’re like most people, once you kick your bad spending habits, you’ll have hundreds or even a thousand dollars or more peer month of extra funds. Now, it’s time to put those funds to good use. All you need to do now is find your favorite investment platform and get started. I really like Personal Capital for beginner investing. Read my review of them here.