They say that it takes a lot of work for $100 to become $110; however, for $100 million to become $110 million, it is almost inevitable. Money makes money, and the biggest bottleneck, for a lot of people, seems to be getting ahold of that initial capital.
With that in mind and in order to help you out, here are the top five money-saving tips you could use to help you get to your initial capital.
1. Live slightly below your means
The main reason why you don’t have excess cash is probably because you’re living slightly beyond your means. Now, we acknowledge that there are some people in dire financial straits, and for them, investing is out of the question, at least until they sort out some of their looming financial priorities (we’ll discuss this in the next segment).
At the same time, a lot of people feel like they want to live in the moment. Everyone knows that you live only once, so denying yourself these little luxuries seems like a bad call. The thing is that you need to make a short-term sacrifice for a long-term benefit. It’s like skipping that one party because you have an important exam early tomorrow. Does it feel good? No, but it’s definitely the right call.
Most importantly, we don’t suggest that you go live in a barrel like a Greek philosopher. What we’re suggesting is that you merely adjust and tweak some of your habits. Grab one less coffee outside per week. Home-cook one more meal per week. When buying a new car, pick something that’s a year older than you would under normal circumstances. You know, that sort of thing.
If you really can’t show that much restraint, it might be a good idea to automate your savings. Reserve a part of your funds as soon as you get the money and make ends meet with the rest.
2. Repay your high-interest debt
The first thing you need to learn is the difference between assets and liabilities. Assets are financial tools that make you money, while liabilities cost you on a regular basis. Since you can’t eliminate the majority of them, your best bet would be to learn how to reduce the cost of your liabilities.
One of the biggest liabilities in most people’s finances is their debt repayments. Some of these debts have particularly high-interest rates, which means that they end up siphoning a lot of your money while providing no value whatsoever.
In order to handle this effectively, you must start by auditing all your debt. How much do you owe, and how many loans is this across? Sometimes, it’s better to focus on the smallest loan since you have a chance to pay it off first.
It’s always a good idea to consolidate your loan. First of all, you can use this opportunity to reduce the amount of interest that you’re paying. Second, you can simplify your job by getting a single loan to focus on instead of several.
This way, by reducing your biggest liability, you’ll find yourself in a position where you have excess cash every month. Some of this cash should go toward your investment capital.
3. Start investing right away
Money has that bad habit of always slipping through your fingers. Who can blame you? Despite your best efforts, can no budgeting effort ever be 100% accurate? There are always some emergency expenses and miscalculations. Sometimes, you just forget that there’s a unique expense coming up the next month (like a close friend’s birthday or an anniversary).
Also, we live in a consumerist society where you’re bombarded with new things to buy every hour of every day. Every time you click on your Instagram icon, you see a new gadget or a piece of apparel that you never thought of before but now desperately need.
All of this was just a very complex way of saying that if you don’t invest that money right away, you’ll spend it on something you don’t need.
The thing is that you can start investing with far less than you think. For instance, when buying cryptocurrencies, you have the privilege of buying new coins, which are risky but quite inexpensive.
(Source: https://www.techopedia.com/cryptocurrency/new)
Even when it comes to major tokens like BTC and ETH, you have a choice to buy fractions of tokens. Just think about it: the only reason to wait to get a specific amount before investing is a psychological one.
4. Find another job or a gig
The biggest challenge to finding a new job was always the fact that you needed something that will allow you to keep doing your day job. In other words, you needed something flexible. Fortunately, in the modern day and age, with the help of remote work, you can find something like this without trouble.
Another thing worth discussing here is the concept of finding gigs. These are remote jobs that are usually limited to a single commission or the duration of a single project. In other words, they’re even less committal, which makes them perfect for people who are unsure if they will be able to handle increased workload in the long run.
Now, there’s one massive disadvantage to this, which is the fact that you don’t have unlimited time or energy. At one point, you’ll reach the cap of what you can earn. If you need more, the best bet is to look toward passive income. Speaking of which…
5. Create a passive stream of income
The reason why this tip may sound pretentious or out of touch to some is that they have a very narrow understanding of what an asset-generating passive income is. The first thing they think of is a rental home, and since they don’t have enough money to buy one, they immediately dismiss the idea.
Sure, rental properties are an amazing passive stream of revenue, but what about stocks that pay dividends? They’re much cheaper, and while they return less, they’re proportionally a decent revenue stream.
What about IP royalties? You can write a story, upload it on KDPR, and collect royalties perpetually. The same goes for the video you upload to your YouTube channel if it gets monetized. Just think about it: every time you get recommended a random video from 12 years ago, a person is making money for content they produced more than a decade ago.
Monetizing your blog is another great idea. Sure, creating content for a blog, finding collaborators and guest posters, and overall blog maintenance is active work, but so is property management. When you monetize and get some advertisers, you’ll start earning passive income. Not to mention partners and sponsored content.
The first thing you have to do is make up your mind
As long as you’re willing to move past the procrastination and actually start executing your plans, nothing will stop you. Today, you have so many tools and options that are either available for free or for a very manageable fee. Whether or not you make something out of it is totally up to you.
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