Image courtesy of Lacking Focus
Ever since I was 15 I’ve been coming up with ways to make money. For some reason, I’ve always had the internal belief that I’m going to be very successful when it comes to finances. At 19, having a lot of money isn’t as important to me now as it was to my old egotistical self, but I still want to be comfortable.
There are definitely areas of personal finance that I could improve upon, but I think some of the fundamentals I’ve stuck to have kept me in a relatively good position compared to others my age. Hopefully, despite my youth, I’ll be able to share something here that you can apply to your own situation.
6 Things I’ve Learned
Before we start, I want to say the obligatory: I am by no means a financial advisor so my words shouldn’t be taken as fact. However, hopefully you’ll see these, often common sense, ideas as beneficial to your own wealth generation and apply them where relevant.
1) Keep Doing What You’ve Done, Keep Getting the Same Results
It amazes me how many people can moan about the likes of living from paycheck to paycheck and make absolutely no change to their spending habits month after month. As the saying goes, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results you’ve always gotten.
This applies to many areas of life but especially to finances. If you’re in debt then the simple solution is this: earn more money than you spend, or, spend less money then you earn. If you want to start saving money and you haven’t been doing so previously, you’ll obviously need to cut back your spending habits.
2) The Most Expensive Items are Rarely Necessary
Although you may be thinking “but I don’t go for the expensive items anyway”, I’m speaking as someone who isn’t yet twenty years old. I’m sure you can all relate to your youth (or you may be there now) where everyone wants the best MP3 player, the coolest phone and the most impressive car.
For me, it was turntables. I got into DJ’ing over 2 years ago and instantly knew I had to buy Technics 1210’s, they are the best in the industry and retail at around $1200 brand new. Even though I was 16 and playing only to my friends in my bedroom, I thought they were a must. I ended up saving my money for almost a year to afford them, but I eventually got my hands on a pair.
These days, I’m much wiser as to where my money goes, I don’t need the latest iPhone and my laptop is 4 years old. If it isn’t broke (and still fairly optimal), don’t fix it.
3) Showing Off is the Highest Form of Ego and Lowest Form of ‘Cool’
If you can afford to show off with your cash then great, but it doesn’t mean you have to. Teenagers especially like to show people how much money they have, and this was further pushed into my reality when watching ‘My Sweet 16th’ — the TV show where millionaires spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just to throw their daughters a birthday party.
Often though, the sad case is that people who really don’t have the cash spend what they have in order to look better in the eyes of others. Sometimes it is to fit in and appear cool, other times it’s just about the ego. If you’re spending money just to look good to others then that is a low form of fulfilment and the relationships you gain aren’t going to be of much substance.
An old friend of mine from high school used to be very popular until he started talking about how expensive his watch was, how much money he earned and which car he was going to buy. People started seeing him for what he really was. People aren’t interested in your false self, there’s nothing for them to connect with.
4) Rash Spending Will Catch Up to You
I registered my own limited company when I was 17 so that I could legally start offering internet marketing services. When I decided I wanted to start a company I just quickly Googled “Register a company online” and went with the first service I found. The price was only $50 to set-up a company which I didn’t think was bad at the time.
My haste led me to missing the $300 charge after a year which was explained in the terms of service (I guess you should read them sometimes). Needless to say, since that incident I’m much more careful about what I sign up for and where I’m spending my money. If something is worth buying, it’s worth the time to make sure you are getting the best deal for your money and that there won’t be any nasty extras like I found myself with.
5) Actually Spend Time to Look at Your Income / Outgoings
This is probably one of the most common bits of advice you’ll see on finance related articles, but let’s be honest - who actually does this? I know personally this is something I had never really wanted to do, mostly due to the time and effort it would take.
However, I’ve started taking a more responsible attitude to my dealings, especially regarding outgoings. In fact, now that I work from home full-time this is even more important to me as I need to make sure that my income is matching my targets. Even if it’s just for one month, or if you find that too challenging, just one week, actually take the time to record where your money is going and where it is coming from.
The most important thing you should look for are any unnecessary expenditures you are making; you might surprise yourself and see a few things you can cut back on.
6) If You Must Take Risks, Take Affordable Ones
This might be a rare occurrence, but it’s likely that there will be times when you need to take risks in order to reap some potential rewards. This might be in the form of an investment, an idea you would like to take into production or even just some fun gambling.
As the point states, if you have to take a risk, make sure it’s an affordable one. By that I mean consider the worst possible scenario. Ideally, the worst possible scenario is going to leave you in a situation that isn’t financially abundant, but one that is at least financially stable. As any sensible gambler will tell you, “Don’t bet more than you’re willing to lose”.
Glen Allsopp writes on the subject of Personal Development at PluginID. His aim is to awaken, inspire and motivate readers into seeing they can be who they want to be and live the life they want to live.
In his movie debut, Ambition to Meaning, Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to shift from ambition to meaning and find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world.
“I’ m more proud of this film than of anything I’ve ever done before.” – Wayne Dyer
Visit AmbitionToMeaning.com to watch the trailer and music videos or to order the DVD.
译文:
19岁学到的关于金融的6件事
Image courtesy of Lacking Focus
从我15岁起，我就有很多赚钱的点子。由于某些原因，我一直坚信着，我在金融领域将会大有作为。有没有很多的钱，以前自负的我觉得很重要，但是19岁的时候，便觉得不重要了，但是我仍然希望过上舒适的生活。
在个人金融领域，我的确还有提高的空间，但是，我已拥有的一些基础金融知识的能力，足以让我在同龄人当中脱颖而出。尽管我还年轻，但是我希望能够与你们一起分享一些你们可以用的上的东西。
我学到的六件事
我们开始之前，我先声明：我并不是一个金融专家，所以我的言语并不都精准。然而，如果你幸运地看到这些话，一般来说，这些想法对你的个人资产都是有益的，而且可以运用到相关的地方。
1) 坚持做你已做的事情，坚持达到的效果
许多人会抱怨呻吟为了像除了薪水还是薪水这样的事情，这让我觉得很惊讶，而且每个月的消费习惯完全没有改变。俗话说，如果你能一直坚持你已经做的事情，并且总能达到一样的效果，那么你就成功了。
这句话适用于很多这情况，唯独在金融这一方面就不行。如果你正在负债，那么简单的解决方法就是：赚的钱要比你花的钱多，或者，花的钱要比你赚的少。要是你想开始攒钱，之前又没这样做过，很显然，你必须要减少自己的消费需求。
2) 最昂贵的东西一般是不必需的
尽管你可能会认为“但我绝不会买贵的东西”，我是以一个还没满20岁的人的身份说的。我很确定你还记得年轻的时候，或许你现在正年轻，你会想要最好的MP3，最酷的电话和最引人注目的小车。
对我来说，它就是转台。我喜欢DJ’ing已经不止2年了，然后我立即就不得不买工艺1210’s，它们是行业里最优秀的产品，零售价大约在1200美元。尽管我那时只有16岁，只在房间里与我的朋友玩，我觉得这是必然的。为了购买这些产品，我差不多一年都没存钱了。但最后我还是帮上了自己的忙。
这些天，对于我的钱的去向，我变的更了解了。我不需要最新的iPhone，我的笔记本电脑也有四年的历史了。只要它没被损坏，而且还运行正常，就不需要修理。
3) 显摆是自我的最高级形式，耍酷的最低级形式
如果你支付得起显摆的代价，那不错，但是这不意味你必须得这样。青少年尤其喜欢向别人炫耀他们多有钱，这就进一步的推动了现实，当我看电视节目“我美好的16岁”，这部影片讲述百万富翁花费成千上百的美元为他们的女儿过生日的故事。
尽管人们常常为了在别人眼里呈现更好的形象，明明没有那么多钱，也会花很多钱。有时，这样的做法勉强过得去，甚至还会很酷，但大多时候，这只是为了表现自我。如果你花钱的目的就是为了看上去比别人好，但这仅是满足的最低级形式，你所获得的关系并不会有太大的意义。
我的高中时候老朋友非常受欢迎，因为他常与别人谈论他的手表有多贵，他能赚多少钱，还有他要买哪部车。人们开始关注他本来的样子。人们不会关注虚假的你，因为这跟他们一点关系都没有。
4) 你会花钱太快
我17岁的时候，注册了自己的有限公司，这样我就可以在网上合法的提供市场服务了。我一决定想要开公司，就马上在谷歌搜索“在网上注册公司”，接着我找到了第一份服务工作。成立一所公司只花了50美元，那时，我并不觉得这样不妥。
由于急躁，一年之后，我马上就损失了一项定价300美元的服务定单（我猜你应该有时会阅读这方面信息）。不用说，自上次事故之后，对于签约，我变得更加小心，尤其是在需要用钱的时候。如果某些东西值得去购买，那么你就该花些时间好好考虑，合理安排金钱的使用，这样你就不会出现像我那样糟糕的情况了。
5) 实际上该花时间管理你的收入/开支
这恐怕是你在金融文章上最常见到建议之一了，但是老实说——谁会真的这样做呢？就我个人认为，我绝对不会想要去这样做，主要是因为这会费时还会浪费精力。
然而，我已经开始用更负责的态度对待我的决定，尤其是开支这一方面。事实上，我现在全部的时间都用在工作上，工作比什么都重要，因为我要确保收支平衡。即使只有一个月，或者你觉得这样太富有挑战性了，只用一个星期，事实上，花时间记录下你的收支情况。
最重要的事情就是：你必须找出不必要的花费；你会感到惊讶，并且发现其实有些花费是可以省去的。
6) 如果你必须冒险，那就挑一个你付得起的风险
也许这样的情况不常出现，但有时，为了收获一些潜在的报酬，你可能也需要冒冒风险。这是一种投资的形式，一个你可以创造生产的想法，甚至可以说一场有趣的赌博。
正如观点所述，如果你不得不冒险，那么你必须要确保你可以承担起风险。我的意思是，应该考虑最坏的结果。从理想上说，最坏的结果可能就是你会处于资金不充裕的境地，但至少财政还算稳定。正如每个明智的赌博者说的那样，“赌的钱不要比输的钱多”。
加仑·阿伦苏在PluginID写了一部关于关注个人发展的书。他的目的是唤醒，鼓励和激发读者，让他们知道他们可以成为自己想要成为的人，过着自己想要过的生活。
电影《从野心到价值》一登场，我们还在期待从野心转变成价值，发现我们对世界特殊贡献的意图的时候，维特·戴尔开始探测他下半生的精神之旅了。
“比起我之前做过的所有的事情，我最为这部电影自豪。”——维特·戴尔
访问AmbitionToMeaning.com观看预告片和音乐视频或者订购DVD。