While listening to the radio today, I heard a person talk about how serious he is in teaching his kids to save money as he feels that everything in life revolves around it. He would give them a lecture to no end if they decided to buy items such as toys just for the heck of it. While learning to save is definitely a way on how I have maintained a financially stable lifestyle, I’ve honestly never had to feel guilty about buying expensive items or spending a lot for others because I have the habit of only spending what I have.

For example, like many other people I have a credit card. Most people use a credit card to make purchases on items because they do not yet have enough funds to buy the product. Since they know that payday is around the corner, they could easily pay off the credit card afterwards and this way they can get the product today. While that would be an ideal scenario, as we all know in most cases it’s often that the card holder makes purchase that costs a lot more money than they have and so they opt for some form of monthly payment which results in fees such as interest payments. For myself, I personally use a credit card as simply another form of payment. If I was to buy a $3000 HDTV with my credit card, it’s not because I don’t have that much funds in the bank, but rather I do not want to bring that much cash to the store. This habit has helped me to avoid financial debt as I don’t have to worry about paying off any loans.

I also personally don’t consider incoming income as my current pool of funds to buy items as it is not officially in my pocket. In a lot of cases, this is also a reason on why at the end of the day we see so many high paid individuals who seem just as broke as many people with low wage jobs. Let’s say that a person makes about $35,000 a year with an approximate payout of about $2916.67 a month. What a person would do most of the time is that they would then preplan their monthly purchases based on that payout. First off, housing and groceries are at the top of the list so let’s pretend that they spend $1000 a month for all of it.

They then decide that it would be great to buy that new car with monthly payments of about $900 a month. So far, it looks like they still have about $1016.67 a month to spare. With all that, they could easily afford that new cell phone with an unlimited calling plan and let’s add some entertainment features to the house with things such as cable and a high speed Internet connection which will all add about another $150 a month. With $866.67 left, we could easily just put it into the savings account right? Unfortunately, we did not include items such as the gas and insurance that one would have to buy for the car or the occasional impulse shopping and recreational activities. It’s easy to see one can spend more than they have regardless of how much you make.

If this was me in this scenario, I personally wouldn’t buy items such as the cell phone unless I already have the funds in my pocket. For example, if the cell phone bill costs $45 a month and I intended to keep it for a year, I wouldn’t enroll into it unless I had $540 in the bank. Many people say that I am crazy and that there is no way they could accumulate that much money at once to buy things like a new car, but if that is the case then I have to ask “Is the car completely necessary?”. For example, is public transportation or car pooling out of the question? While there are many people who can definitely manage their finances by relying on future income to make payments on loans or debts, I personally find that only spending what you have to be a great way to manage your finances.

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Today I was talking to a friend who mentioned to me that one of his friend was actively pursuing some sort of business opportunity with a company called “Lifewave” and wondered if I knew anything about it. Based on company literatures, they sell “Energy Enhancer Patches” which contains its “Lifewave technology”. To be brief, it is supposed to send signals to the cells in your body to increase functions such as fat burning properties. I then got to review the business opportunity aspect of this company and to get started you first begin by purchasing a “business centre” that can cost up to $379.95.

Afterwards, you receive compensation based on a point system that you accumulate through retail sales of these patches or sponsoring others to do the same. In short, the compensation plan is a multi-leveled structured plan. One of my personal pet peeves are apparent “gurus” out there who are quick to condemn everything other than business’s that they are personally affiliated with, so I am not here to classify this as a legitimate opportunity or a scam. Most people that are reading this are probably adults and are old enough to make decisions for themselves, so instead I will just mention about some points that I have learnt over the years about these kinds of opportunities/companies.

Whenever you are approached about an opportunity such as this, always try to look at the products/services first. Many times, like what happened to my friend’s buddy, people look at a business opportunity and instantly become mesmerized on how much money they can make if they buy into the business right away as they are fed “The Dream” of being financially free. Ask yourself, would you honestly use these products yourself at that price if there was no potential financial gain attached to it? Does the company have a good track record?

Another factor is that these types of business’s encourage you to sponsor others to also invest in the business so that they can then do what you are doing. In this case, the investment to start can cost up to $379.95. Before going on a rampage and telling everyone you know about it, are you willing to openly tell them that they may lose money in this? From all the stories and real life events I have seen, these types of business’s can easily tear apart relationships if one is not fully up-front about the possibilities.

Would I sign up with this company? Personally I wouldn’t because I have no first hand experience with the product and in my opinion if this was truly a revolutionary product, I should have read about this a long time ago on the news. Granted that there are times where people invest in a company based on promises to then see the company mature into a powerhouse, but even then it’s the products and services that are the highlights on why you should buy into the company rather than concentrating on how rich you can get quickly. From my personal experience, every type of business requires a lot of hard work and dedication to succeed. Do something that you truly believe in and don’t let the thought of fast money blind you into making rash decisions.

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I’ll admit, I’m a big fan of the show “The Apprentice” as a lot of the events that happen around the show are genuinely real situations that I have often seen and experienced both as an employee and a business owner. One thing that really stuck out was how it was mentioned that you must be willing to take risks to be successful. I personally agree strongly that one must be prepared to take risks as in order to be an innovator and a leader you must be willing to venture and explore various options to enable yourself to achieve your goals. Also, in my opinion it’s not just about taking risks, but rather taking calculated risks.

It would be very easy for me to say for example that I will simply take $1000 , throw it into some kind of venture and see what happens. While you can say that is taking a risk, in my opinion that would be very similar to playing the lottery where it’s a risk relying heavily on luck. Instead, taking a calculated risk means that you should have a plan and vision on how you are going to be successful while recognizing the types of sacrifices that will be necessary for you to do so. While there are still chances that you may fail, at least you have increased your odds by taking an active role in trying to mold out your own future. While many people will often ridicule you in taking such risks, just remember that if you did your research on a topic and it sounds like something that could work in which you would have no objections of, have the courage to take that next step. You’ll never know how far you can go unless you try.

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Often enough, I would meet people who seem to have it all under control in terms of finance. With their high paid executive jobs or their established business, it was like a non stop cash flow. However, one thing that they never seemed to have enough of is time to do other things in life. Similarly, I remember when I was working virtually every day to no end as I got used to falling into a routine as it satisfied my current financial needs. Eventually, I started thinking about my future and how if I complained that I don’t have enough time to do things now, imagine how it will be when I go into the next phase of my life such as starting a family.

While reading about stories of other financially successful individuals, the one’s that seemed to be able to take the vacations when they want and arrange schedules to suit their needs are one’s who have learned to leverage their time. For example, a manager of a store would most often need to achieve certain sales numbers and he or she does this through the efforts of everyone below them. This was a revelation for me as I realized that I to must find a way to leverage my time if I was to ever be able to do the things that I really want to in life. One of the first things that I did was that I made my money work for me.

I started up my Internet site and I began to utilize my marketing skills to generate traffic which then translated into income through methods such as running various affiliate programs. Basically, I leveraged my time through my site as it was like my personal employee who was working 24/7 to help promote my products and services. While there are many other ways to create an income stream, your time is valuable and leveraging your time to accomplish this is a great way to ensure that you will always have time for other things in life.

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Today while browsing around some video game forums, a user on a message board posted up details about his desperate need for money and how he went to Electronics Boutique to sell of some of his games for cash. To clarify about his situation, he mentioned that he hasn’t eaten for about three days because of the lack of funds. He made this list of what he sold and how much money he received from Electronics Boutique:

Otogi (Xbox) = $3.20
Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets (Xbox) = $1.60
Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) = $1.60
Cubivore (Gamecube) = $1.60
Max Payne 2 (Xbox) = $1.60
Silent Hill 2 (Xbox) = $1.60
Resident Evil 0 (Gamecube) = $2.40
Splinter Cell (Xbox) = $0.60
Def Jam Vendetta (Gamecube) = $2.40
Katamari Damacy (Playstation 2) = $8.00
Swing Away Golf (Playstation 2) = $0.45
Blinx (Xbox) = $0.60
Whiplash (Xbox) = $1.60
Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox) = $0.40
Grabbed By The Ghoulies (Xbox) = $1.60
Fatal Frame (Xbox) = $4.00
Bloody Roar (Gamecube) = $1.60
Morrowind (Xbox) = $1.60
Zelda Bonus Disc (Gamecube) = $4.00
Pokemon Colosseum (Gamecube) = $13.60
Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc (Gamecube) = $0.80
Metroid Fusion (Gameboy Advance) = $3.20
Golden Sun 2 (Gameboy Advance) = $2.40
Mario Golf (Gameboy Advance) = $8.00
Wario Ware (Gameboy Advance) = $3.20
Wario Land 4 (Gameboy Advance) = $1.60
Tactics Ogre (Gameboy Advance) = $4.00
Mace Griffin (Xbox) = $0.60
Xbox dvd playback kit = $8.00
Hot Shots Golf 3 (Playstation 2) = $1.60
Swingerz Golf (Gamecube) = $0.80
Capcom vs SNK2 (Xbox) = $4.80
Kingdom Hearts (Playstation 2) = $4.80
Broken Xbox = $24.00
GBA-SP system = $24.00

In total, he made $145.85 from his trade-in. Now if you don’t shop for games that much, then you are probably not too surprised about these figures. However, if you frequently play games you know just how bad this person got taken advantage of as one could of easily received four times as much funds by selling it through different channels. The only thing on the list that I think is kind of understandable for the price is the broken XBOX system. Imagine a used car dealer paying you $500 for a car that is only about a year old and works perfectly fine. I’ve personally never been in a situation where I needed to sell off my possessions in a desperate attempt to get money, so in that sense I can’t really say that I know how he felt and that he should of done this or that instead. However, there are times where I felt that I could not accomplish something alone and that’s when you have to reach out to others for help.

In this case for example, I’m surprised that he didn’t first approach friends, family or even colleagues for assistance as I’m sure there would of been someone that would be willing to help. This situation also reminds me of many times where when I am trying to help someone financially, their pride would often get in the way and they would refuse to be helped as they don’t want to feel like some kind of charity case. In my opinion, one shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed to receive assistants when needed. For example, if you had a broken leg and required crutches or a helping aid of some sort to help you recover, why wouldn’t you use it? What good does trying to walk without it and risk injuring yourself even more do? While the ability to live independently is a great accomplishment, it would be a pretty boring place if we didn’t have others to share our experiences with. With the right people, it’s amazing how much more you can accomplish with the aid of others.

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