Welcome together, we're gonna explore our personal finances and figure out how to improve them. Whether you're just getting started in life on your finances, or you may already have a home and a car payment and you're struggling to get credit cards under control. Are you getting a later start in life on saving for retirement, reduce debt increase wealth com is a podcast to educate those to improve personal finances, whether it's eliminating debt, or making smart investments. Mr. Chuck here, here's the continuation of 60 simple things you do for your financial plan from 25 through 60, a continuation from last week's episode 25 shoot for the average bye bye index funds with low fees 26. Don't bother with individual stocks. individual stocks is a fool's game in order to do it. Well, it requires a ton of research and a lot of attention. Well, they just tell you to do stock but not individual stock. So let's say a mutual funds, I guess, by some international investments to spread your risk. Put the rest of your investments in bonds and treasuries. That's called diversification, maybe not treasuries, but least bonds by target date retirement funds within your retirement account. I kind of disagree with that. I think he could do better than those target date retirement funds. But if you don't have a financial advisor, that may be a way to go or for you have through work that maybe you don't want to avoid choices. Number 30. Get every possible dime of employer matching and your 401 K or four three B Yep, I've been saying that forever. If you have a retirement plan offered through work, most likely employers doing some type of match, so make sure you at least putting in the maximum amount that they're gonna match. Number 31 make a meal plan at the start of each week. One busy mistake the busy, busy people make is they don't have a clear path for where their meals are coming from during the week, leaving them to improvise on many weeknights, just kind of improvisation where there are no plans for dinner when you get off work and there are no plans for lunch during the work day usually ends up an extra expense in the form restaurant meals takeout and convenient food. Pretty good point. I never thought of that. a better time planning out meals for the week when you have time during the previous weekend can drastically cut your food expense because you know what you're having for each meal and can easily handle the necessary Preparation. Yes. And yes, you can do that. If you're really struggling to pay down debt, this is a good thing to do. Because before you go to work, you can prep it the night before I put in a slow cooker, such as a roast. And when you get home from work is done in a smells good in the house and you ready to eat and you know, it's all done. But you can't eat a roast every night. I mean, that may be Monday and Wednesdays meal, but now you got Tuesday, Thursday on Friday to think about can always do something on your grill like a brisket on Sunday, smoke it, and then that could be a couple meals through the week. So there's a lot of things you can do there to stretch your meal budget is definitely going to be cheaper to get your food through a grocery store than is at a restaurant number 32 Use your grocery store flyer to assemble that meal plan. So what they're saying is buy stuff on sale 33 don't ever go shopping without a grocery list. So if you know what you're going to prepare for the week, only buy what you need to do those meals. That way you won't lose food to spoilage. Number 34 and nor advertising, we're bombarded with advertising from TV, radio, newspaper. No matter where you go, you're advertising so don't pay attention to advertising. You just got to put it out. And you only need to look for things that you need to buy when you need it. And don't buy it because it's on sale because maybe you don't need it. 35 fine hobbies that don't require an upkeep costs many hobbies Ongoing upkeep costs golf, for example, always requires new balls and more green fees. Good point. Many hobbies require you to constantly buy fresh surprise for making things. Well, it's fine to have some hobbies at work card upkeep try discover once as small upkeeps or none at all. Get into things like geo catching or rock collecting or playing music on instrument your rehab. Okay, 36 try anything and anything that's free in your community. So for entertainment, whatever is going on, you can immunity that's at no cost. Maybe there's a free nature hot hike, where you can learn about different birds or something. If it's free, do it, especially with children, get them outside 37 Don't worry about what other people think. Don't choose a car to impress other people. Don't use clothes to impress people. Don't choose gadgets to impress people why? Because they really won't impress them. The only thing that will impress someone about you is you. Don't try to keep up with the Joneses as the same from my day and age 38 Don't worry about how other people spend their money either. If you see someone driving an expensive car, don't use that as an excuse to feel jealous or tell yourself that you too, need an expensive car. And I always wondered how people could afford some of the cars they were driving, but I never fell into that trap. I guess I was taught that way. Number 39. put in the time to build good, strong lasting relationships. Having a life full of strong personal professional relationships will serve you well in every aspect of your life for the rest of your life. People in your life perfo provide emotional social Professional, spiritual, mental and yes, financial support for almost anything you might want to do. put in the time and build strong relationships by helping others listen to what they're saying offering support and involved with the community. Number 440. Review your financial career in your life once a week. This may be seem overly simple that has brought about counting transformation in my life. Once a week I spent an hour reviewing the week that's gone by as well as thinking ahead to the week test calm and my long term goals. So I guess he looks back to see how well he didn't prepare and his meals and how he is doing and meeting his goals. I say once a week or every pay period, so you get paid twice. So Every two weeks and review that every two weeks 41 never play the lottery. All right thing you're doing is throwing your money away. It's a true waste of money as same thing as going to a casino. The only person that wins at a casino is the casino. They were they wouldn't be in business. Number 42 find meaningful things to spend your spare time on. So a hobby, something you can do take care of your yard, things like that. Something that doesn't really cost you money, but things that don't look as taken care of yard as a chore that has to be done. Look at as a hobby, something you enjoy doing. That's what I do. Doing a garden, planting flowers 43 start a side business doing the things you always wanted to do. Work on the side. Do Things you want it to do whatever it is. And then if you can make money from it, that's good. If you don't make money from it, then I guess it's a hobby 44 watch less television. average american watches five hour television a day, if you can just take half that time apply it to other life and reaching activities. Not only will you build a better life for yourself, probably one in which your earning potential is significantly increased. It feel better to and have fewer mental material desires. And if you watch less TV and get less advertising, and you got time to maybe improve your education on your career, or other things that could help you down the road. Number 45. Use the 10 second rule. Whenever you're tempted to splurge on something cheap, simply hold it in your hand for 10 seconds and ask yourself honestly whether you need it or not. After Try to think of reasons why you shouldn't buy this item. Will it really help you towards your goals where you really gain enough value out of it to make it worth the cost? usually just 10 seconds are convinced you don't really need the item. And if something still passes the test Feel free to buy it. Well then we got the 30 day rule if it's something more expensive. For more expensive item, you can draw a line between cheap and expensive where you please simply wait 30 days at your first serious impulse before buying the expense item. Provide is not central or emergency need. use that time to do a little research to make sure you actually want to use the item and give it time to sit there and see if the desire dies down you'll find on more often than not you won't want the item after 30 days and also gives you time to find it at a better price. May I say at Number 47. Shop first at low end stores whether you're shopping choose to make first run at low end discount grocers this store, secondhand store and so on. Sure, it's unlikely to be able to pick up everything you want there. But if you just knock a few items off your list at a bargain basement prices, then it's going to lower your overall spending by a notable amount. For example, I use all the as first run grocery store when I have a big list, as there are several items I'll buy there before I go do their stores. Well, that's a good point. Number 48. cut back on convenient foods. Convenient excuse me any foods that's partly or wholly assembled or prepared for you to eat at home or virtually always overpriced, and they usually incredibly unhealthy. You pay for the convenience of these foods but not the quality of the ingredients or the bank. For the buck, a lot of truth to that 49 cut back on drinking smoking soda and other addictive habits. Well, that's a good point. any substance you feel compelled to consume that doesn't feel it that Terry need is not only an unnecessary expense of draining your wallet, but likely damage your health as well as your Fenian alcohol addition smoking soda coffee, do you find it difficult to function without the things? Are you spending money constantly on things? Are you nodding your head? Yes, even reluctantly, it's a sure sign you need to cut back on habit. I drink one cup of coffee a day. I don't hardly drink any soda. I don't smoke, use smoke cigars. I don't do that anymore. And I only have alcohol maybe one beer a month if that. So yeah, I really cut back on those habits. Easier said than done. I'll give you that number 50 make meals in advance on the weekends. I think we already covered this but they're going over again, valuable things you can do on the weekend system. Make some meals in advance for the coming week or two and store them in the freezer. For example, you might make a batch of brisket, burritos so that you have quick tasty, healthy, inexpensive brisket. breakfast for the coming weeks. You might make a quart quadruple batch of lasagna eating one dinner on Sunday and sticking the other three in the freezer. Now we're coming into common sense 51 use LED light bulbs. If you're still using the old incandescent light bulbs if you still have some of those because you can't buy them anymore. They suck up the most energy switch to led they use the less energy I'm still using the for us and why Bought because they were the lesser energy user before LED and I hadn't gone out yet so I'll replace them when they burn out. And I do have one LED light bulb it's three years old, it's on a timer so it gets used every day. More in the winter than in the summer because I cut the hours back in the summer because it's daylight longer. But I've already got three years out of it. So that's pretty good lasting bulb and it hardly uses any electricity. Number 50. To price compare the grocery options in your area and choose the inexpensive one. I have found that grocery stores lead with loss items meaning they are advertised by certain leader product to get you to go to the store and they may sell it for less than they pay for it. That's the get you in the store. They hope that you buy other things that they make more money on. Let's see saying here. If you buy regular stuff milk bread eggs, make a short list of 10 or 15 items do you buy fairly frequently at grocery store, visit different grocery stores over the course of your next several groceries, shopping, note the price of these, then add them up, you'll save money in the long run by shopping at whichever store has the lowest total on these items, however, is a good thing to check every year to the store to tend to evolve their pricing schemes, the new competitors enter the market, I'm saying is every week that's gonna change every two weeks that's gonna change. It's never ending. I stick with the store I like the best and I just keep going to the same store. Do what you need to do. If you're really looking to save money then every week to Go through three different grocery stores and buy it at the best price you can find it but don't drive back and forth multiple times, then you waste the money on gas and wear and tear on your cart. Number 53 when you have a problem trying to fix it yourself. A lot of things in your home you can fix yourself leaky faucet, a toilet that continually runs probably needs a new plunger in there. You can go this door and refix it don't call somebody that those are generally easy fixes. water leak running toilet. You can go online YouTube and learn how to fix about everything nowadays. So he could do a lot even small electrical stuff, wiring, whatever 34 keep up with your car maintenance. do regular oil changes. I used to do my own URL changes but they're getting so cheap everybody else doing them. I just go I don't mess with the name. anymore 55 keep your tires properly inflated, you should check that at least once a month make sure you have because not only is low air and tires gonna get your worst fuel mileage is going to wear out to tire faster 56 cancel your unused memberships and subscriptions I've already covered that. And earlier episodes it's part of setting up and creating a budget and reviewing your budget 57 eat leftovers and brown bag your lunches. Use your leftovers the very next day lunches makes a lot of sense I used to do that. truck driver you can't do that too much because I'm gone for two or three days. No way to keep it or reheat it. 58 use public transportation especially if can help you eliminate a car. Also, if you're paying the park if you're working it down downtown area you know pay in the park. time you add up the cost of a car, the maintenance on the car and the parking, it's going to be cheaper to take public transportation. I know it's not convenient and may not run the hours you want it to run, but that's the price you pay to say money and to reduce your debt got to cut back on everything. Number 59. Share your dream and your mistakes with your partner if you're married, make sure they know what you want to do in life, and what spending mistakes or things you've done that maybe wasn't such a good idea. And number 60 remember, this stuff will never make you happy. Happiness comes from within all the stuff the world won't buy you happy but if you're happy inside, it doesn't take too much of anything to bring you joy. Never, ever buy into the idea that owning something will make you happier than you are right now because it won't. The only way money can help by is by reducing your stress and eventually improving your life options. through improved financial security can only get there by being smart with your money. Final thoughts. These rules aren't hard and fast, ultimatums designed to run your life but little tools you can use to put yourself on better financial, professional and personal track. Feel free to pick and choose among them and find the ones that work for you. And each of these can improve one's situation if you can and try to apply a lot of them your life the more positive direction you have, the faster your whole life will transform in a good way. So financial planning is keeping track of and control of your money. Money coming in money going out. If you follow rule number one, spend less than what you earn. You pretty much have to to all those other rules to achieve that. Imagine he didn't mention that. So you don't want to be the person to go on out. I lost all my money. What happened? If you're saying that if that's happened in your life, that means you didn't have a personal plan, financial plan. You weren't prepared, financially prepared, mentally prepared, it all goes together. If you're wondering what all this has to do with reducing your debt. It all goes together. If you don't have a personal financial plan, if you don't have goals set up, written down would be perfect. furred, so you don't forget what they are, and review them. Once a year at least, you're never gonna be able to achieve your goal of reducing your debt. It all has to do with managing your money, which has to do with managing your spending. We're bum bombarded with advertising, want you to buy everything in the world. If you watch TV, listen to the radio, read newspaper, go online, wherever you are, you're bombarded with advertising. And only thing they want is your money. They want to get into your pocketbook at everybody else's goal. Your goal is to keep that pocketbook closed. It may sound like you're being cheap, but you're not. You're just set yourself To have a better overall life and to achieve the things that you want to achieve, not what others want to achieve. Keep that in mind. That's the end of another episode. I hope you found it useful. And a few you'd like to share this episode with your friends, please do so. I'm open for any suggestions for improvement or for information that you would like to talk about in future episodes. 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