{"id":1699,"date":"2016-03-24T10:34:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T10:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2016-03-24T10:34:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T10:34:13","slug":"the-best-advice-i-ignored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylessonslearned.co\/?p=1699","title":{"rendered":"The Best Advice I Ignored"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever hear “pay yourself first” as a strategy to save money?<\/p>\n

I never understood that. How much was I supposed to pay myself? If I paid myself $50, did that mean I could spend the rest?<\/p>\n

Here’s what I did instead:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First cover the “needs”: I figured out my monthly fixed expenses (rent, utilities, insurance, etc), and totaled them up. I then subtracted it from my monthly after-tax<\/strong> income. (In the beginning, this was depressing.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The\u00a0net balance\u00a0became my available funds for discretionary purchases…my wants<\/strong> vs my needs.\u00a0 I kept a monthly list of the wants I bought…just so I’d be more mindful of what I was spending my money on.\u00a0\u00a0But my biggest want was to save as much money as I could because my anchor value <\/a>is to be independent. I did this over\u00a0the past 20\u00a0years. Slowly, the money grew.<\/p>\n

    The benefits I got from it?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. When I spent money on a want, I really really wanted it.<\/li>\n
    2. I got used to always living on less than what I made<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Here’s the thing: when you do this as a way of life, it doesn’t feel intrusive, or depriving. It just feels like you’re being responsible.<\/p>\n

      Is it easy? No. Is it fun? No. Does it give you choices in the future? Absolutely<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Ever hear “pay yourself first” as a strategy to save money? I never understood that. How much was I supposed to pay myself? If I paid myself $50, did that mean I could spend the rest? Here’s what I did instead:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Best Advice I Ignored - 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\/?p=1699\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Advice I Ignored - My Lessons Learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever hear “pay yourself first” as a strategy to save money? 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