7 ms·
This is the bottom line I agree with. I too am currently a member of the school of thought "Expand instead of budget". To the extent that I never save any money
by r2dnb 10y ago
This is the bottom line I agree with. I too am currently a member of the school of thought "Expand instead of budget". To the extent that I never save any money, I always invest it (in my business, in productivity tools etc...), and I live on a rolling personal operating capital.
Yet I definitely feel that accounting might be useful. Not to save money in order to make money (this whole notion actually makes me uncomfortable), but to optimize my spending.
I find myself buying too much crap (around $100 in McDonalds a month, etc...)
I'm also considering putting a few thousands dollars aside in a saving account. It won't be more than 2 months of living expenses.
Mmh... Actually thinking about it, I think that I've been doing accounting for a very long time without naming it - and realizing it. For example, I have rules to manage my personal operating capital, and I can tell precisely at which income level and how I will start to work on growing my cash reserves.
My advice would be:
-Invest everything while you are netting less than 10k a month, and be hungry to expand as if the devil was after you. The younger you are, the more aggressive you have to be. If you are under 30, don't even think of taking vacations.
- at the 10k point, you need to mind your expenses, and build cash reserves because investments to reach the next level will require down payments. At the same time, you need to keep growing your revenue at a faster pace.
-When you reach the next stage, your finances have reached a point where no anonymous from the internet can help you.
- barrkel 10y agoIf you are under 30, don't even think of taking vacations Don't waste all your youth on work.
- restalis 10y agoExactly my thought too. When are we supposed to indulge ourselves with vacations? When we'll loose the ability to enjoy anything?
- r2dnb 10y agoPlease see my explanations in the thread above
- chadscira 10y agoThats crazy! I'm a firm believer of finding something you love doing (that also can make money), and doing it as much as you can. But at the same time enjoy your life... Meet people, take vacations, travel! As time goes on hopefully you have built up a unique arsenal of skills, knowledge, and connections. BUT please enjoy this process because it's your life...
- frostburg 10y agoMaybe it's my european prospective or something, but this "less than two months of expenses in savings, no vacations" approach strikes me as inexplicable and horrible. Do you think that you're really at your most productive while not taking vacations for years?
- r2dnb 10y agoThanks for your honest feedback, what I really meant was : you don't need this 4 days vacation in a mansion in spain for 1200eu+ if you are under 30 and don't enjoy financial freedom yet. One more thing is that the reason I say "30" is that I believe that you owe time to your wife and kids and while I think it is important to take the opportunity which is youth, I also think it is not good to be obsessed by making it big all your life. There's a time to try hard, and a time to try moderately. And finally, I regularly do nothing for 2-5 days, sometimes up to 10-12 and just take some fresh air when I think I need some rest and wouldn't be productive enough in front of my screen. So it is actually much more balanced than it seems - and perhaps than what I communicated. The bottom line of this balance is : take the hit now. I love free time and recreation more than all those who told me that I worked too much, this is what they never understood. And this is why I prefered to take the hit a few months to free myself for the rest of my life.
- hx87 10y ago> 4 days vacation in a mansion in spain for 1200eu+ I must say, you have a rather odd idea of what a "vacation" means.
- Kluny 10y ago> you don't need this 4 days vacation in a mansion in spain for 1200eu+ if you are under 30 and don't enjoy financial freedom yet. Why would anyone do that? It sounds awful.
- VLM 10y agoUSA vacations tend to be pretty stressful to travel to and from and horribly overpriced "tourist trap" type stuff. Turn money into status signalling posts on social media meets bean counters trying to maximize their profit. Its a very old movie series but the "National Lampoon" vacation movies very thinly satirize the actual experience of an American style vacation... that's why they're considered funny. Its possible to take a euro style vacation, but extremely rare. Also your friends and family will tear into you, lobsters in a bucket style grabbing one trying to escape, unless you do the selfies at the tourist trap thing. "What you relaxed and had fun instead of stood in line for three hours to take a low quality picture? You totally wasted that once in a lifetime vacation."
- nommm-nommm 10y ago> If you are under 30, don't even think of taking vacations Terrible advice.
- r2dnb 10y agoPlease see my explanations in the thread above
- nommm-nommm 10y agoI did read it, still awful advice (unless you don't like vacations, which many people don't)