{"id":3318,"date":"2025-05-07T16:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T16:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?page_id=3318"},"modified":"2025-05-08T23:20:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:20:55","slug":"personal-profitability","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?page_id=3318","title":{"rendered":"Personal Profitability"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Lessons Learned about Personal Profitability<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be maniacal about saving: every dollar you save will grow because of compounding. <\/strong>Use tools like Albert or an expense diary to help you.<\/li>\n
  2. Make sure your basic needs are taken care of: s<\/strong>helter, food, safety, health before you spend on nice to haves.<\/li>\n
  3. Understand \u201cnice to haves\u201d might be never.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Understand expensive debt is the enemy:<\/strong> don\u2019t add to it, and figure out how to pay it down over time.<\/li>\n
  5. Open a separate bank account <\/strong>that\u2019s your \u201cwhen I don\u2019t need to work fund\u201d and every pay day, transfer money into it\u2026$100, $50. The amount is less important than making sure it\u2019s a habit.<\/li>\n
  6. Create an emergency fund<\/strong>. Not to be touched except when you absolutely need it. My rule of thumb is the number of months to find a new job times a month\u2019s worth of expenses.<\/li>\n
  7. Pay attention to what\u2019s going on with your accounts …especially outflows: <\/strong>as Oprah says \u201cwrite your own checks.\u201d<\/li>\n
  8. If you have a family, make sure they are protected<\/strong>: insurance, will, trust, power of attorney. It\u2019s not pleasant, but it\u2019s necessary.<\/li>\n
  9. Know your spending triggers:<\/strong> internet shopping, gourmet grocery stores, anything that makes you spend and either avoid or return what you don\u2019t love.<\/li>\n
  10. Educate yourself on investments<\/strong>: know what an IRA is, a brokerage account, dividends, interest, mutual funds…the basics. Not knowing isn\u2019t a good excuse.<\/li>\n
  11. Move from savings to investing<\/strong>: Once you\u2019ve built up some savings and funded your emergency fund, start looking at the best way to grow your wealth: 401K? IRA? Brokerage account?<\/li>\n
  12. Once you\u2019ve identified your investing strategy, keep saving to fund your investments.<\/strong> It\u2019s not about just paying the bills anymore…you\u2019re saving in order to stop working\/not need to work.<\/li>\n
  13. Keep the spending belt tight:<\/strong> through the years, you\u2019re hopefully making more money, but if you keep your expenses down, you\u2019ll save even more.<\/li>\n
  14. Protect yourself from the catastrophic event:<\/strong> job loss\/medical expenses with too much debt and no emergency fund happens more than you think.<\/li>\n
  15. Be super vigilante about your job security<\/strong>: be the \u201cgo to person\u201d in your group, raise your hand, work hard. Watch for warning signs: getting layered, not involved in important events, no exposure to senior people, going multiple years without a promotion or raise.<\/li>\n
  16. Be honest about what you can afford:<\/strong> a huge mortage, big car payments, private school tuition…if you didn\u2019t have the income to cover those obligations comfortably, don\u2019t start. It\u2019s much harder to stop than to delay starting.<\/li>\n
  17. Keep your personal finances personal. <\/strong>Money is still one of the most difficult things to talk about….mostly because it will affect how others view you. Better to keep quiet.<\/li>\n
  18. Neither a lender or borrower be<\/strong>: if you lend, don\u2019t expect it back. It\u2019s a gift.<\/li>\n
  19. Have a plan b<\/strong>. If the worst happened, what would you do? Do you have someone you could go to? Would you need money? Do you have lines of credit? I once went through an analysis with someone and he realized he could only go for two months if he lost his job.<\/li>\n
  20. Know what works for you:<\/strong> there are people who remember numbers easily. I need to write everything down, so I do…every month, I reconcile where I am in terms of savings\/investments, loans, expenses and income.<\/li>\n
  21. Gordon Gekko<\/strong> was right: don\u2019t get personal about stocks. My worst decisions were when I was aggravated with company performance. Yup, that includes Amazon.<\/li>\n
  22. Slow and steady wins the race<\/strong>: it\u2019s not about big hail mary passes…it\u2019s about slowly building up your wealth. Think about how much better of you are now compared to 5 years ago.<\/li>\n
  23. Cash is king<\/strong>: yes, it earns next to nothing. But it\u2019s great when the market drops 700 points.<\/li>\n
  24. Understand what your risk tolerance is:<\/strong> mine is pretty low. Other people will invest on margin, have a variable rate mortgage…it all depends on what you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/li>\n
  25. DIY is underrated<\/strong>: why pay someone else for something you can do reasonably well yourself? I know someone who pays a person to clean the grill for $200 every year<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Interested in learning more about Personal Profitability? Send me a comment to contact me about learning about my journey and what tools might be helpful to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My Lessons Learned about Personal Profitability Be maniacal about saving: every dollar you save will grow because of compounding. Use tools like Albert or an expense diary to help you. Make sure your basic needs are taken care of: shelter, food, safety, health before you spend on nice to haves. Understand \u201cnice to haves\u201d might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3318","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nPersonal Profitability - My Lessons Learned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?page_id=3318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Personal Profitability - My Lessons Learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Lessons Learned about Personal Profitability Be maniacal about saving: every dollar you save will grow because of compounding. Use tools like Albert or an expense diary to help you. 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