John Lett (Lessons) (Book Sessions)
I call all of this part of my “$5, half-an-hour, and red potatoes” lifestyle. (I say red potatoes because I believe they are a bit healthier than your standard baking potato.)
If you’re paying down a debt, not earning as much as you’d like to, saving for a house, saving for a trip or the like, some minor adjustments in your day can really accelerate your plans. It’s nice to do this without tying up or risking the money.
We are often taught to be ashamed to seem tight or chintzy, but little lifestyle adjustments can buy you additional freedoms.
What I have seen, if you’re in the stock market for the long haul, it is claimed that you’ll average 10% gross annual returns. Sometimes you can reach this 10% yourself without having to punt up or risk your money in investments. The $5 part is to make a few minute comparisons throughout your day to save about $5.
If you bake potatoes and eat a few in lieu of having a lunch out, you’ll save about $9. If you spend a few more minutes comparing items and save $5 throughout your day, you’re really rolling! Assuming you make even just $10 an hour and work half an hour longer each day, that is $19 made or saved per working day. If you work the standard approximate 250 days per year, that is $4,750 gross saved, which could be a very nice vacation by most standards. You can also sometimes pocket between $150-200 by signing up for credit cards and utilizing a certain amount within 90 days (my referral link to Chase for such an offer, which I gladly participated in in 2016 and gained the $150 from ordinary, daily purchases plus quarterly categories that give back up to 5% on qualified purchases).
At the present norm of having a 4% annual return on a CD/certificate of deposit, term deposit, one would have to have $118,750 in a CD to get the same return, or about $47,500 invested in the stock market, not considering any dividend potential. With the average bank interest savings rate at around 0.25%, you would have to have $1.9 million sitting in the bank to create this $4,750 – minor habits can turn things around a lot!
If you have over a million dollars invested in the stock market, the challenge is steeper, because it would be hard to save $100,000 a year in lifestyle adjustments, but working this extra half an hour a day would take you a good, long way towards that assuming that you have earned significant enough to sock away $1 million – at $100 an hour you would still earn an additional $12,500 a year this way. The more time that you are engaged in some kind of work, the less time there is to spend money in most circumstances (unless it requires more maintenance of vehicles, clothing), so further savings may ensue.
These are just a few thoughts to make minor adjustments pay off, turning not-very-much into something.
Tarotworldtour 