The book itself is a guide on how to host successful, stress-free cocktail parties in under two hours.

The key is to build meaningful connections and grow your network of people.

As I heard someone say:

There is no luck. If you put yourself in interesting situations then you will be in places where amazing things can happen to you.

So if you meet more people and get to truly know them, then you will be involved in many more opportunities and circles than not.

Of course there is a limit to how many REAL connections someone can have but we won’t focus on that part in this article.

Figure out the purpose

You want to throw a party to get to know people, but what is the true reason you want to meet?

Maybe you want to gain some experience in hosting events because you an important event upcoming like a launch party or other gathering.

Getting the reps on hosting parties before the big one will make hosting that big event all the better.

The purpose of hosting a small gathering should be to bring people together to connect in a casual, relaxed setting so that meaninful conversations can happen.

This should be the purpose of your party.

Planning

Because this is a small gathering, it doesn’t require an exorbinant amount of money or planning to

You should be able to have a party with as little as $100 depending on your location.

If possible, you should send out invitations to the party 7–10 days in advance and have it be at a convenient time for the guests (usually a weekday evening).

Set the expectations in the invitation that it will be a small get together and will be some drinks or other food provided.

Have the location be at your home or a comfortable place where conversations can happen between the guests.

Make sure to invite a diverse group of 15–20 people. Mix friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and neighbors to create a dynamic group where people can make new connections.

Plan to have the party last 2 hours and no more.

Party Structure

Not sure how to structure the party? Here’s some tips:

Make sure each person grabs a nametag and fills it out upon arriving.

Have drinks available and have people start socializing.

About 20 minutes into the party, give a “kickoff speech” to welcome everyone and help people relax.

Mention a few guests by name and give introductions (aka icebreakers) and go around the room to have everyone introduce one another.

The NICK method:
N — nametags (let people know who is in the group)
I — Icebreaker or intro (what do you typically have for breakfast)
C — Cocktails or mocktails only (no dinners)
K — Kick them out at the end (2 hours only)

You want to plan for only 2 hours since that is when the conversations will get good. You want to leave your guests wanting more.

Additional Tips

Rotate guests every 30 minutes
- Encourage mingling by gently guiding guests to meet others after 30 minutes. This helps break up cliques and allows everyone to interact with more people.

Follow up with guests after the party with a thank you message or email to everyone who attended.
- Mention something personal from the event to continue building the relationship.

Thank you for reading!

Host Party to Elevate Your Status was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you plan to retire anytime in the future then you will need to start saving or continue to save and invest those funds into an investment account that will grow and beat inflation over time.

Can You Save Just $100 per Month?

So in reality, retirement is not a singular event but a series of MANY events that lead up to finally being financially free enough to spend your time how you choose and not trading your time for money.

If you plan to retire early and not in your 60s or 70s then you should have a few things outlined.

Have a plan for 3–5 years

If you are planning to retire in the next 3–5 years, you should have a plan for what that looks like.

Are you planning to pay off your mortgage? Move somewhere cheaper?

If you don’t already have a budget for your monthly expenses, now is a great time to start one. Either start one on some paper, digitally in a spreadsheet like Google Sheets, or in a dedicated application for budgeting like Monarch Money.

Simple Math That Will Get You to Retirement

Consider what your typical day will look like. Do you want to spend more time with loved ones? When will they be able to spend time with you and how much?

Typically what you do with our time before we retire is somewhat similar to what you will do post retirement.

Do you come home from work and sit on the couch?

You will likely do the same thing but more unless you begin changing your habits.

Consider what big expenses you will have in the next 3–5 years. Have a child who is going to college? Will you pay for it or part of it?

These bigger purchases can set your retirement back a few months so knowing roughly when you need the money will help to know how much longer you need to work.

Have a plan, write it down, and talk with those you trust about it to see if you haven’t accounted for something.

Cash flow

Similar to having a 3–5 year plan, what kind of cash flow do you need each month? What bills do you have monthly, quarterly, annually?

Like I mentioned above, having a budget in place will let you know what your cash flow situation looks like and whether you are cash flow positive or negative currently and what that will look like in retirement.

Consider what you will have in Social Security benefits and when you plan to draw on those benefits. These can have a considerable impact on your cash flow so be sure to check on the website.

The United States Social Security Administration | SSA

Consider where your cash flow will come from and how you will access it. Will you sell some investments once or multiple times each month? Are you able to cut back your withdrawals if the market tanks?

Consider your tax rate when you are withdrawing funds and the thresholds where you will pay significantly more in taxes if you withdraw only a few thousand more.

There are some tricks to optimizing your taxes, especially if you plan on retiring before 60. Check out this article on the Roth Ladder strategy.

How the Roth Conversion Ladder Works

And finally, build in some wiggle room for unexpected circumstances and expenses.

Retire to something, not from something

This is my last piece of advice. If you are looking forward to something or building something like a business, a new hobby, or spending more time on your health, instead of simply running away from your job to spend more time sitting on the couch and watching TV, you will be happier and more fullfilled.

From the book The 5am Club, one of the pieces to a great life is finding your Soulset, which is your life’s purpose and finding your meaning.

The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.

If you don’t have explicit plans then you will continue doing what you’ve always done. We are creatures of habit after all and change is hard unless you make a concerted effort.

If you don’t have a plan then you may end up being bored and going back to work at the same or similar job because you don’t know how else to spend your time.

Remember that we don’t get time back and that it is our most precious asset.

Spend it wisely.

Thanks for reading!

Retirement Happens In Small Steps was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are many ways you can manufacture and control your own happiness. In short, focusing on what you can control and making small incremental changes over many days, months, years will do you
more good than trying to make abrupt and unmaintainable changes. If you try to swing for the fences then you will likely fall back down on your butt and back into your original habits.

Focus on Utility

I recently read a great blog article from the Happy Philosopher about the relationship between Utility, Happiness, and Cost of material goods.

Understanding the Relationship Between Utility, Happiness and Cost - The Happy Philosopher

One of the key points is the utility of an item (especially for it’s use in solving a problem) is met well under the maxiumum amount you COULD spend and spending more doesn’t necessarily bring you MORE happiness.

If you followed these general rules for making purchases:

• I maximized utility.
• I optimized happiness.
• I minimized cost.

Then you would generally spend less on items because you aren’t trying to maximize happiness. Which is where a lot of items have insane markups.

Certainly you can make the most effective use of time in evaluating big purchases. If you are fretting over a couple bucks then it’s likely not worth your time and you should just make the purchase and move on.

In line with larger purchases, this certainly includes purchasing a car which seems to be around $30K these days for a decent used car (depending on many factors of course).

If you are considering a new car purchase, consider the steps above but also know that buying a new car is sometimes for others and not for our own needs and desires.

Think about large purchases and avoid relying on hype or rushing into big purchases. After all, car payments are a recurring impact to your finances.

Have an Emergency Fund

So many financial advisors tell you to start with having an emergency fund and saving between 3 and 12 months of expenses. That sounds like a LOT!

Of course, they are SO right!

Having that cushion saved will help you to avoid needing to put unexpected expenses onto a high interest credit card and being in a much worse place. Credit card interest rates can be anywhere from 19% — 29%!

Good luck digging yourself out of that hole if you are short on cash and then need to pay off that additional interest.

Less Stress

Many folks who have saved that emergency fund note being able to stress a lot less about their financial situation and worrying when something will go wrong.

Stress spikes our cortisol levels and leads to a number of health related problems.

Feels like terrible death spiral to me that can be completely avoided.

Build Wealth

Because you have an emergency fund, doesn’t mean you HAVE to put it into a bank account that is earning you nothing.

Find a high yield savings account like Sofi or Synchrony Bank. These are typically variable rates, so do be mindful, but at the time of writing these rates are around 4.6%.

I personally put a couple months of expenses into a high yield savings account and then have additional in a taxable brokerage account invested in broad market index funds (VTI).

Don’t feel like you have to save thousands of dollars every month to make any progress. Start with what you can afford and then experiment with increasing that savings rate over time.

It’s much more important and critical to get started today with $10 or $20 instead of waiting to accumulate hundreds or thousands to open your account.

START TODAY!

If you have windfalls or unexpected money come in, stash them away in your emergency fund. This is also a great strategy to growing your wealth over time.

How much do I REALLY need?

This truly depends on your individual (financial) situation and what would happen to you (and your family) if you lost your source of income or a disaster happened. That’s why it’s called an “emergency fund” and “personal finance” after all.

For me, having 6 months of base expenses makes me comfortable enough.

• $15K in High Yield Savings account
• The rest in Index funds that I could sell if I needed to.

Consider starting to work towards saving 3–6 months of base expenses and then evaluate what you need.

Here is an emergency fund calculator where you can plug in your rent / mortgage, food costs, etc. to get an idea of what you spend.

Emergency Fund Calculator: How Much Should You Save? | SoFi

If you have no idea what you spend, probably best to start budgetting and figuring that out.

Find Free Activities That Bring True Joy

Let’s face it, having money by itself doesn’t bring you inherent joy and happiness. The best things and most memorable moments are not usually when you bought something (maybe a house? there could be exceptions).

Here are a few activities you can do for free to bring joy and reduce those pesky cortisol levels that we talked about earlier.

• Walking outside or hiking

Getting out in nature and seeing the beauty is quite relaxing and beneficial to your health and happiness. This doesn’t have to be anything spectacular, waking up early to walk around you neighborhood is enough to make a difference.

• Talking with loved ones or close friends

I love talking with people about “What they are excited about”. There are so many hobbies and activities folks are planning or working on that the question alone can lead to long and inspiring conversations.
Our time on this earth is limited so why not spend it with those that we love and enjoy conversing with?

• Read books from the library

They say that some of the most successful people in the world are avid readers. Why not do that reading for free instead of accumulating mountains of books that you will need to move or sell later?

Conclusion

Using some of these techniques and understanding can make a significant impact on your happiness and they are all within your control to change today!

Have any other hacks or ideas for manufacturing your own happiness?

Thanks for reading!

How to Manufacture Your Own Happiness was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This FOMO spending is keeping you broke friend!

According to a survey conducted by Harris Poll, 40% of Millennials and Gen Z felt financially squeezed because of
“excessive spending on non-essentials”.

Almost 46% of people who said their spending was out of control blamed FOMO spending.

That means completely avoidable expenses are putting people in precarious financial situations. Situations that are of their own doing because they don’t want to miss out.

But that doesn’t have to be you.

You can do something different.

What to do instead

You need to interrupt the psychological triggers that get you to open up your wallet and spend money on something you don’t need.

Put it on a list

One method I use is to put it on a list for at least 72 hours.

I have found that if I truly need something and it is not an impulse purchase, I will still want it after a decent waiting period.

If 72 hours isn’t enough for you to get rid of the FOMO rush of purchasing something, then experiment with longer periods of time.

Borrow it

This may not be an option for some items but why not just borrow the item from your friend or using another way.

In this way you get to use it but not pay to own it and upkeep it.

Win — Win!

Conclusion

If nothing else, I hope that you can see a pattern of behavior in excessive spending and ways to get in front of your impulses to avoid financial turmoil.

Thanks for reading!

How To Avoid FOMO Spending was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’ve talked previously about the dual impact that cutting expenses and then saving that amount can have on your net worth and your ability to retire early.

Simple Math That Will Get You to Retirement

But what could saving just $100 per month and investing that into a conservative low cost ETF or index fund yield over something like 20 years?

You might be surprised by the results. I certainly was and it made me rethink spending that extra $100 on something that I may not end up using.

Saving $100 a month

For a good chunk of people, saving $100 per month may be one of the easiest things they’ve done all year.

If you don’t have a budgeting app like YNAB or EveryDollar, then it’s about time you started tracking your money. Most people don’t realize how much they are spending each and every month on frivolous items or on subscriptions they don’t even use.

Once you have a budgeting app to give you true insights into where your money is going, you can prioritize where you might cut first. For me, I LOVE going out to eat and it was simple to not go out to eat as much and save well over $100 per month.

For some people it may be more difficult to save that first $100 because all your money is going to housing (aka rent), food (groceries, no cheating by including going out to eat), and other basic needs.

If this is you, then you need to figure out how you can increase your income. Maybe it is picking up a side hustle at first, maybe it is learning to code and going to a boot camp, but you need to have a base level that you can meet your basic needs to then start cutting from.

If you don’t have extra money because you have a mountain of credit card debt, then prioritize paying off that high interest credit card debt first because the interest charges will FAR exceed any investment gains you could get anywhere else (unless of course you know the next winning lottery numbers)

I won’t go into detail about how to claw yourself out of crippling debt but do everything you can to get yourself to a net worth of $0 and not be in that high interest debt.

Compound Interest

Now that you have that extra bit of money, let’s talk about how you can grow it using Compound Interest.

In simple terms, compound interest is when you earn interest on your interest.

It starts small but over time it builds like a snowball rolling down a massive mountain that continues to build and build on itself.

You can earn compound interest in any account that pays you for keeping your money there. This could be as simple as keeping it in a high yield savings account (I wouldn’t recommend this unless you need the money in the next 3–6 months).

You could also invest in real estate by buying a property (good luck finding a property for $100!), or buying REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust, https://www.reit.com/what-reit). You certainly could do either of these but not what I would recommend to get you started.

What I would recommend though, is stashing that extra dough into a low cost ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) or index fund (VTSAX or VTI).

Both of these track against the stock market as a whole and will automatically add / remove companies so there is little / nothing for you to do to continue to get the best returns you can.

What does low cost mean?

Low cost means the fund charges you as little fees as possible.

With any index or ETF you will get charged some percentage, typically when you sell the fund.

This amount can range anywhere from 1% to 0.03%.

1%, that’s nothing right?

Over time this can add up to a LOT of money. Be mindful of what your expense ratio is on any given ETF / index fund (check your 401k accounts too!) and ensure you are getting as low as possible.

Why an ETF or Index fund?

By investing in the broader stock market, you are automatically diversified and your investment won’t go to zero (technically this IS possible but we have bigger issues if this truly happens).

These funds allow you to be fairly hands off with your investing and just continue to pump money into them and forget about them until much later when they will be compounding and doubling about every 9 years (link to rule of 72).

How much will $100 per month turn into?

Now that we have established you can save $100 per month AND you are going to invest that extra money into an investment account into an Index Fund or ETF.

How much is this going to turn into?

In 20 years, you will have $55,380.45 at 8% annual returns.

Not too shabby for saving just $100 extra per month!

From the graph you can see that you will invest $24,100 but with the magic of compound interest, that amount increases exponentially.

More than double the amount you stashed away.

Conclusion

What do you think? Can you begin to start changing your life and having a real impact on your future by saving just $100 per month?

Thanks for reading!

Can You Save Just $100 per Month? was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you need to start saving more into your savings or retirement accounts, starting a side hustle or making some extra money is a potential solution. Especially if you truly and just making ends meet.

But most folks tend to go out to eat, overspend on Amazon splurges, and buy that extra treat that they really don’t need right now.

What is a No Spend Challenge?

This is a period of time where you stop spending money on anything other than what you absolutely need to live.

Create a list of items and services you consider essential. Then review that list to REALLY question whether you value those items / services and could do without them for a period of time.

It is truly up to you how much of a “challenge” you want this to be and how much you’d like to cut back. After all, that’s why it is called a challange.

Next, make a “Do Not Spend” list of items you will avoid spending money on:
- Eating out (coffee shops, fast food, takeout, alcohol)
- Entertainment (movies, books, concerts, streaming services)
- Gifts
- Home decor and furnishings
- Hobbies
- Personal care items and services

Helpful tips:
- Try meal prepping so you aren’t stuck every night trying to scavenge your dinner for you or your family
- unsubscribe from memberships
- when you get an urge to buy something, add it to a post-challenge wish list (this is a good long term technique to see if you ACTUALLY want / need an item)
- Mark every day off as successful on a physical calendar
- spend more time outside doing free stuff (hiking, exercising, visit museums)

What’s the point?

Great question! Really the point is to be intentional about where you are spending your hard earned money.

From the book “Your Money or Your Life”, its pretty easy to fritter away thousands upon thousands of dollars over the course of a few years without realizing what you are doing.

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Fully Revised and Updated for 2018

You should be able to look back over the last several years and have confidence you used your money wisely and also saved appropriately.

At least 1 in 5 Americans have no retirement savings.

You can do better and plan for your future and not regret your decisions later in life.

Conclusion

Going through a No Spend Challenge can enable you to truly see what you are spending all your money on and evaluate whether that’s still how you want to spend money.

If you go through the challenge or have some helpful tips for others then share them in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

The 30 day No Spend Challenge was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I recently read through the book 5AM Club by Robin Sharma and the general premise of the book is to wake up early and use that extra hour or two to change your life, focus on what is important (e.g. health, learning, mindset, soulset), and become more intentional in what you do each and every day.

The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.

So how could an extra hour or two make ANY difference?

Well, it IS up to you to do the work and make the change. BUT think of how many times you or someone you know has complained about “not having enough time”. Maybe it’s for themselves, maybe it’s for their loved ones, or some other goals.

Making time and being intentional in how you use the first hours of your day can make a huge difference.

Here are some ideas from the book:

Sharpen your Focus and Productivity

The early hours of each day are incredibly quiet and distraction-free. By tackling important tasks in the morning, you leverage your peak mental clarity, accomplishing more in less time.

To get the benefit from this time, make sure you turn off your phone or other devices and truly focus on what you want to accomplish.

Always wanted to start a blog? Start writing in the morning.

Interested in making a career change? Research what it would take and begin learning and making the changes.

Want to start your own side hustle or business? Do that early in the morning and it will build over time.

1. Addiction to devices are a distraction
2. Excuses breed no genius
3. All change is hard at first
4. You must do what others don’t do
5. When you feel like surrendering, keep going

Habit Stacking

The 5 AM Club routine encourages a powerful practice called “habit stacking.” By linking positive habits together (exercise, meditation, planning), you create a momentum that carries you throughout the day.

Investing continually in your mindset, heartset, soulset, and healthset will allow you to achieve what you had previously thought impossible.

You can hack your mind to install good routines by creating good habits.

If you rely solely on your motivation then you will not be consistent. Establishing habits wil help yo make real life changes.

Getting Started

Change takes time and it WILL suck at first waking up earlier.

But the more you do it, the easier it will be and the more you will enjoy the benefits you reap.

Start Small

Don’t try to jump straight to 5 AM. Gradually adjust your wake-up time by 15-minute increments.

Find Your Morning Magic

Experiment with different activities during your Victory Hour. Maybe it’s journaling, reading, or learning a new skill.

The book talks about the 20/20/20 formula:

• intense exercise
• reflection & solitude
• growth / learning

Use whatever makes sense to you.

Prioritize Sleep

You can’t conquer the morning if you’re exhausted. Ensure you’re getting 7–8 hours of quality sleep each night.

Conclusion

The 5 AM Club isn’t a magic bullet for wealth, but it’s a powerful tool for creating the habits and mindset that can propel you towards financial success.

Don’t live the same week over and over. Too many people do this and die at 30 and are buried at 80. Make a change and own your morning, elevate your life.

Thanks for reading!

Can Waking Up Early Make You Rich? was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why Would Banks Pay Me to Open an Account?

Great question! Generally speaking, most people don’t go around switching banks every day so there needs to be incentives to do so.

Banks want you to let them hang onto your money so that they can then lend out that money in the form of mortgages, car loans, and other personal loans, where they make money off of said money.

So to get you to take action and actually update your direct deposit or go to a completely new location to deposit your hard earned money, banks provide incentives.

Some examples are giving you certain dollar amounts when you open an account and direct deposit X dollars into the account within Y number of days.

It’s important to read the fine print to make sure you are maximizing your reward for opening a new account.

The Steps

At the time of this article, Sofi will grant you up to $300 for opening an account and depositing at least $5000 in the first 30 days of account opening.

Open a Bank Account Online Today | SoFi

If you deposit at least 1000 then you will be granted $50.

It takes a bit of time for the bonus to land in your account, usually about about 5 or so business days after the grace period.

To summarize the steps:
- open bank account with new bank
- update direct deposit to go into new bank account
 — feel free to move the direct deposit back to your original bank account via a transfer
- wait for grace period to end
- receive cash bonus

Check out this link from NerdWallet on different bank accounts:

Standout Online Checking Accounts - NerdWallet

Make sure you check on any fees or limits before opening any account.

Conclusion

Opening new bank accounts to receive cash bonuses is an easy way you can make some extra cash on the side instead of spinning up an entirely new side hustle that may take MANY hours of your life before you see a profit.
Another option of making some extra money is to use Travel Rewards, which I will cover in a future article.

Thanks for reading!

Make Easy Money Opening Bank Accounts was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Start Investing Early and Consistently

When I got my first job out of college I contributed a sizable portion of my income to my 401k (I think it was something like 6% to 8%). This was fine for awhile but I didn’t know WHY I was actually doing it.

My dad had instructed me to save early and to add a good percentage into my 401k but he didn’t explain the reasoning behind it.

So when it came time to buy something large (for me this was a house), then I had no reason NOT to reduce the amount I was contributing to my 401k. In fact, I felt BAD for contributing so much into an illiquid account.

I made the mistake of actually withdrawing money out of my 401k ($10k) and paying a penalty on the amount (this ended up being thousands of dollars).

This was one of the worst financial mistakes I have made in my life and there were so many other ways I could have come up with the $10k.

Taking a loan against the investments, borrowing money from my parents, etc.

Now that I understand the power of compound interest, the longer you have your money in the market, the less you need to invest.

If you haven’t played around with a compound interest calculator then you truly haven’t realized the amazing power of wealth building.

Here’s one from NerdWallet that is pretty easy to use:

Compound Interest Calculator - NerdWallet

Instead of feeling shame or questioning how much you should be saving each month, you can automate and put together budgets so you don’t feel guilty about spending.

I recently read “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi on this topic and he goes over a step by step guide on automating your finances so you can build wealth over time.

I wish I had read this book earlier in life.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. Just a 6-Week Program That Works (Second Edition)

Keep Your Spending Low (Avoid Lifestyle Creep)

In our culture we hear the phrase “Keeping Up With the Joneses” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses) frequently and warnings of continuously and frivolously spending to reward ourselves or have an appearance to others on our place in society.

This spending is truly pointless and aligning your spending to what you truly value can have dramatic effects on your well being.

After reading this article from Mr. Money Mustache on how controlling your spending can have an outsized impact on your retirement age, my mind was blown.

The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement

Essentially, your retirement age depends on your savings rate, as a percentage of your take-home pay:
- if you spend 100%, you will never retire
- if you spend 0%, you are already retired
- if you save 64%, you can retire in under 11 years
- if you save 50%, you can retire in under 16 years

If you can cut frivolous spending out of your life / budget then you can retire much earlier than you think.

If I had known about this earlier in life I’d have skipped having multiple cars that I didn’t need and avoided spending on hobbies that weren’t as important to me.

Spend on Experiences, not Items

This about what you will look back on as you grow old. Will you think back to all the cars you bought or the houses you lived in or the toys you bought yourself?

Probably not.

More than likely you will look back on all the family vacations, trips outside of the country, get togethers with friends on the weekends, and other memories shared with family and friends.

Certainly we don’t have to be misers in life, hoarding our wealth so we can retire earlier and simply “make it to retirement”.

Life is meant to be enjoyed and you don’t need to spend exorbinant amounts of money to truly enjoy it.

I recently read the book “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins on making sure you get the most out of your money that you earn throughout your life.

Typically spending goes down as you age since you are able to do less and less physically. So why wait until your later years (if you even get to those years), before enjoying your small amount of time on this planet and making real memories?

Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life

I wish I had prioritized some experiences earlier in life but I intend to make sure I have experiences with my kids throughout every phase of their life.

You don’t ever get those times / memories / opportunities back.

Conclusion

Information is power and having this information as soon as possible in life can set you up for a life of success and pure joy. I wish I had known about this information earlier in life but I am glad I know it now.
Hopefully you can take this information and make changes in your own life to avoid some hardships and live life to the fullest!

Thanks for reading!

Financial Advice I Wish I Had When I Was Younger was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I have recently been considering getting a camera and one of the first places I searched was Facebook Marketplace and eBay.

The camera I want is the Canon EOS Mark M50 II, which brand new costs at least $600.

The price on eBay is from $380 to $430 depending on included accessories and quality of the item.

That’s $170 I could save by just getting it used!

New Items Bias

If you can save so much money buying secondhand or used items, why do people prefer to buy new ones more often?

Quality and Condition Bias

For many people, they believe that new items are of higher quality and they are in better condition.

While the condition aspect can be quite true, if you find a lightly used or open box item, you pretty much get the same “brand new” item.

In a world of people buying too much, they often can’t even use the items they do purchase. Which allows you to save some money.

Convenience

Buying a new item is usually much easier than finding and researching the item used.

You go into a store or to an online retailer, make your purchase, and you are on your way.

But how much did that convenience cost you, and was it worth it?

Dopamine of Purchasing New

Many people get a surge of dopamine when they purchase that new item in a store or online.

They are out with their friends at the mall or a store and it feels good to show off and get something you want in front of your friend group or family.

Unfortunately, this typically results in buyers remorse later when you think about how much money you just spent.

This can also be a hard habit to curb and spiral some into debilitating credit card debt.

I like to add items I want onto a list for at least 72 hours and if I still think I want it, I will search for a used version if possible, or make the purchase.
This allows me to avoid just making a purchase and getting that dopamine rush and avoid a lot of buyers remorse.

Warranties

New items come with warranties and certainly this should really be considered when making some large purchases (e.g. household appliances).

But think about how many times you have ACTUALLY had to use a warranty. It’s probably pretty rare.

Used items can still come with warranties, so you don’t always lose out when purchasing used items.

Getting additional insurance coverage from a store is also a scam and is really just extra money being made off of the consumer.

If an item fails outside of the manufacturer warranty, how big of a deal is it to just buy another or different brand that will last longer?

Used / Free Items Create Less Worry

Consider how you would feel if you got a door ding on your brand new BMW car.

You would be PISSED about it, likely think about it most of your day and immediately try to figure out what you can do to fix it.

Now think about a door ding on a 10 year old Honda Civic that already has a couple scratches on the door from the previous owner.

The level of anxiety you feel about an item’s wear and tear is much greater when you purchased the item new.

If you can find used or free items that fit your need, you will have less stress when they inevitably wear out or get damaged.

Conclusion

I will fully admit that you should buy certain items new, especially when you need the item quickly (although there are some exceptions still).
Whenever possible though, find those deals on used items and give them a longer life instead of them ending up in a landfill.

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Why NOT Buy More Used Items? was originally published in Wealthy Mindset on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.