Savings
The Stock Market For Beginners: How To Save Money For Your Future When The Present Is Already Tough Enough
Sydney Tremayne
How to save money for your future was something I promised last time (before some heavy equipment smashed through all local phone and Internet lines) even if you might think it out of the question.
Now you will also find out what that little black book, the one I handed to the coffee-addicted woman, was all about. If you believe it’d take some kind of magic to help you save, here’s pure magic!
Your first step: get a small notebook that easily fits in a pocket or purse and another for your spouse (if you have one). It can be any color; black was my strange sense of humor!
For one month make a note of every single expense, usually as soon as you pay it so you don’t forget – particularly the small things like the quarter in the parking meter. Ask your spouse to do the same. But promise you will not criticize or laugh at his or her expenses; this must be a willing collaborative effort. No divorces, please!
Not easy to remember
It isn’t easy when we are distracted to remember all the small expenses, particularly if we are with someone else who has our attention, so recap your day with your spouse when you get home. Most of your savings will come from among these insignificant expenses.
It does not matter if you both write down the mortgage or other expenses. Duplicates will be taken care of later.
At the end of the month cross off your lists every essential expense: the roof over your head would be one.
Be careful to write down each item of food and its cost separately. This is essential. Just: “Food, $150,” will not be helpful. Cross off from your list only food you see as essential.
Don’t be too enthusiastic of you will fail
Your original list is now shorter. But don’t try to save the equivalent of the remaining expenses. This is not how to save money. Giving up those things you see as necessary to your lifestyle will soon result in distress and doom a savings plan to complete failure.
Get the pencil working once more and, with full agreement from your partner, decide which of the remaining expenses are significant to your lifestyle. Maybe some food items get added back in, a hobby or sport, movies. You decide: it is your life. Cross off what you want to keep.
This done, you will likely find there is a small list of expenses left. It might include pop, snacks, the “what” is not important. The exercise has shown you have some purchases you have agreed are a waste of money. This is something you have agreed to; it has not been imposed upon you.
Get you bank to help but avoid their investment suggestions
When you are in agreement, cut out those remaining purchases in the following months. At the beginning of the next month save the amount those items were costing. Do it right from your pay check before you even have that money in your hands. Ask your bank to automatically set that amount aside every month. This is how to save money without pain!
It’s easy to go through $6.67 a day. It doesn’t sound important at the time but it’s $200 a month, sufficient for a 25-year-old to retire with more than $1.1 million on a 10% return.
How do you gain 10% or more? Now you have discovered how to save money, keep reading!
The Stock Market for Beginners: No Money for Investing: Is it True?
Sydney Tremayne
“But we have no money for investing! How can we possibly save with all the bills?” That’s a common cry, especially in these times.
All the wishing in the world can’t make you wealthy if you are unable to save. That’s plain logic and for many people that unfortunately is their situation.
So let’s not start right away by demonstrating how to invest successfully; there’s no point if you have no money for investing. Let’s start with where the money comes from and then, if we can overcome this hurdle, we’ll talk in future articles about how to make that money grow carefully, cautiously, and with just one hour of your time each year. The lack of work is no exaggeration.
Want to be sure of retirement savings?
In the process, we’ll find ways to get rid of investment worries, deal with bear markets and defeat our worst enemies: panic, greed and impatience. What I talk about is not for everyone – no single answer ever is – but it is for people who simply want to save with some assurance those savings will grow sufficiently for that dreamed-of retirement.
There is one thing you can be sure of, and can prove to yourself before even investing a single penny: it works and it works well.
Now let’s get back to where the money comes from to begin with. With an income of $30,000 or better – even with bills, bank loans, food, baby formula and housing to be paid for – I might be able to help you.
Visited by a nervous woman
The tale begins when a nervous woman visited my office one lunch hour. She had massive debt and feared she would lose her husband.
During our conversation she told me she bought as many as five or six cups of takeout coffee each working day. I don’t remember the cost each month but it was chunk of change. You do the calculation over 20 working days!
I suggested she should use a Thermos®, a can of her favorite coffee, and make her daily needs before leaving for work. The hundreds of dollars she would save each month could begin to pay off her high-interest credit cards. Meanwhile, she would not suffer caffeine withdrawal.
A little black book
I also gave her a little black book; you’ll hear more about it in the next article in this series. It’s pure magic for people who think they can’t save money for investing!
People in financial difficulty are not the only ones who sometimes need help with their savings plan. A professor and his piano-teacher wife came to see me. After telling me when they wanted to retire and how much they needed, I did a series of calculations of the sort I now show people just like you how to do. When they came back, I told them: “You need to save $600 a month.”
The immediate response was: “Oh, we can’t do that!” I nodded, putting on my understanding face. “Then you need to change your goals.” “But we can’t do that either!” his wife gasped.
Silence while they considered options
We sat in silence for a while, while they considered their options. “Well…if we start to save can we change the amount later?” I assured them they could and then added: “It’s amazing, but by the end of three months you will discover you don’t miss the cash.” I’d seen it often enough.
About four months later, the woman came back. I thought silently as she was shown into my office: “Oops, I guess $600 was too much.” Instead, she gave me a wide smile and said almost breathlessly: “That $600? You were right; we could even save more!” With the greatest pleasure I told her she didn’t need to. “Go out and spend the extra!”
Some years later, they retired with about $960,000 that would grow to well over $1 million. They had also bought a new car for cash and took a cruise to Alaska. From small beginnings, entire lives can be changed.
It’s a lot easier than you think
Most of us fail to recognize how easy and uncomplicated it can be to put money for investing aside. There’s a sure-fire trick to it that I’ll tell you about next time when I reveal how to easily find cash you didn’t realize you had to build for your future.
The Gaffer Wealth System Click the link to see how amazingly easy it is to be a successful investor working only one hour a year. Tremayne’s entertaining multimedia investment course reveals insider secrets bankers will not tell you.