While these rules are quite simple, they are not easy to follow. If you are like most people, it is likely that you have a number of living expenses. While many of these expenses are necessary, most are not. If you make $17,000 per year, you must save a minimum of $5,950. If you make $25,000 per year, you must be able to save at least $8,750. The more you make, the more you should save. If you feel that you are not sure you can do this, I will show you how. The rule about not borrowing more money than you have is very important. If you are like roughly 50% of the American population, you probably have little more than $1000 saved up. This means that you should never take out a loan or borrow money that is in excess of this amount.
If you only have $1,000 saved up, you should not borrow money for cars, expensive televisions, or anything else that is in excess of your net worth, including educational expenses. Some of you who are reading this may disagree about not borrowing money for educational expenses. After all, isn't it worth it to borrow $30,000 to pay for your college education? The answer to this question is no, and there is an entire chapter of this book which is dedicated to how to gain a good education without taking on large amounts of debt. I believe more than many that it is extremely important to get a good education. But I do not believe that you need to borrow $30,000 or more in order to get it. There are many alternative solutions available, and I will show them to you.
If you are using payday loans, you must stop now. You must also cease using your credit card and any other instrument of debt. They will only keep you unhappy and under control. Instead of helping you obtain financial independence, they will keep you from ever obtaining it. I also want you to avoid following the advice of so called financial experts on television and mainstream newspapers when they speak of ways to keep you in debt through mortgages and other loans. Remember at the end of the day, there goal is to make money and not necessarily help you. While there are some good sources of information available, most of them do not have your best interests in mind. The banks and credit card companies who operate in our society are actively interested in the manipulation and domination of the general population. They are working towards building a society that is based on debt, and they have largely succeeded. This keeps them highly profitable and making money is the bottom line, not helping their millions of customers.
The basics of saving money are to stop wasting money on things that don't matter in the long run. While small purchases may seem insignificant today, in the long term, they turn into large amounts. I have worked hard to curb my spending, and I have got rid of all my debt. I owe money to no one, and this means I can put away whatever I bring in. I want to help you achieve the same thing. Any financial expert that tries to show you a "safe way" of borrowing money is trying to manipulate you. There is no safe way to borrow more money than you have. It is risky, and all paths will lead to the same destination, which is poverty. Remember, we are specifically discussing the basics of saving money that can then be invested. In order to get to the stage where you can invest, you must first learn to save. Once I began to study alternative finance, I began to realize that the portrayals in the mass media do not depict an adequate picture or provide sufficient advice on how to succeed financially. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase, and while the poorest segment of our population pays overdraft fees and late fees on bills, the rich get richer.