Maximize Your Dollar

1. Read More, watch Less TV

Read more, books teaches you more than TV ever will, unless you’re watching the Science channel. Read books that teach you skills that can help you earn more at work.

2. Sell Your Junk

Everyone has ‘junk’ at home. What you consider junk may be something another person wants. So try auctioning the things that you don’t want or haven’t used in a long time at Ebay. No point in throwing away something when it can earn you a dollar or two.

3.  Be Loyal

If you usually shop at a certain shop or fly a certain airlines, try to stay loyal and enroll in their loyalty programme. Pile up the reward points and used them wisely. I had a friend who forgot that he had close to 300,000 points on his airlines rewards programme and allowed nearly half of it to expire. What’s the point of painstakingly accumulating those points if you’re going to forget about them? Don’t make the same mistake. If you really cant travel or redeem the points, donate them to your loved ones.

4. Buy from a List

When you’re out shopping, go with a list of things to buy and a budget. Cultivate discipline. Stick to you list and our budget and you’ll soon have your life in control.

5. Eat at Home

Eating at home is so much cheaper than eating out. It’s all right to bring friends over and cook for them.  Or ask everyone to bring a dish. You can save a lot.

More tips the next time…

The Best Kept Secret of Financial Success

Pay Yourself First

You may not believe it, and most wont, but paying yourself first is the key to financial freedom!

Ask anyone who had made it rich and they will concur.

I know what you’ll say because I said it myself 10 years ago when my dad told me this. I mumbled something about not having enough money to pay my bills at the end of the month, what more putting aside money which could help lower my credit card balance?

Most books recommend putting aside 10% of your gross monthly salary, which was crazy for me. I decided to put aside what I could and that was 3%. I opened up a savings account and used my Internet Banking facilities to automatically deduct a certain amount every month.

It was tough but I knew I could manage my finances with the 3% deduction. I had to cut down on certain items, like reducing the number of calls I make on my cell phone, changing my driving style (don’t be surprised at how your driving style can affect your car’s petrol consumption), reduced the number of times I went to McDonald’s to grab a bite and so forth.

And what’s the end result? I used up my 3% savings after 8 months. I used it to close my credit card. Now I have one less burden to carry. The result of closing that credit card allowed me to save nearly 10% of my monthly income. I know some of my colleagues save up to 55% of their income. It hurts me to think that their money is working so hard for them while I spend my day paying bills.

But I know I could come out of this huge, mountain of debt.

I am glad to say that putting aside a portion of your monthly income and other means of saving and investing, I managed to clear around RM450,000.00 (USD140625.00) within a relatively short time.

Discipline is the key. Starting is difficult but once you’ve started, you will do well. All I can say to you now is to just start putting aside some money, even RM10 / USD10 per month will help. Seeing money grow helps you to find ways and means to reduce your debt. I know because I speak from experience.