Looking for Tips/Methods for saving and making money

[CasualGuy227Participant 170]

Hey Guys ! Hope you are all doing well and life for the most part is treating you good ?

Ok well Im looking for some advice on looking to try and improve both my financial situation and general situation related to my finances and am looking into ways to expand my finances or just saving them and figured out that some of you older guys here may have some ideas or possible leads to increasing my net worth ( if the the correct term ?) if possible within reason of course.

Ill give a lil bit of current back round without revealing too much (personal privacy and all)

Im currently in my mid 20s with with no kids or girlfriend to worry about paying for.

I have a steady and pretty secure job that pays minimum wage ( UK based) and for the most part can get flexible hours but dont want to work myself to death due to stress with due to the clientele, while doing that im taking some open ended learning courses which will land me in a better position in the fitness industry which is preferred career for now.

I have finished my full time education courses with more or less no debt I have a small student loan but nothing that will damage my savings or current income

I do pay my bills first and have a decent amount of money left over which can be free/spending money depending if any unseen bills pop up.

I dont go out much in the way of expensive places or night clubs and i dress pretty well and clean for the most part on a decent budged which is every now and again so no biggie there and not much of a big name brand kinda guy.

I dont smoke/drink very much but for on occasion/ do drugs e.g weed so pretty much saving there

I do sink alot of my time into gym on a regular basis and a bit of gaming ( which im working to cut down on/or cut out if i need to) which i feel can save a bit more money by not purchasing games much any more for would be a good idea.

I have looked into stocks/ investments but right now do not have a huge idea how a lot of them work in generating income.

I am looking for ways to make “passive income” as well as maybe making money on the side with odd jobs i feel i can maybe do even if i have a limited amount of time.

Minus making all the money i can for later in life and other stuff i wanna do such as trips I just also wanna use this just to become a better and more productive person overall with my life where i can.

Just want to say thanks in advance and sorry for the long read.

Hope you guys can help me out in what ever way you can.

Cheers

– Casual Guy

[SH3LLZParticipant 5569]

From my own experience… here are a few tips.

1. Use an app to automatically save vs the way you spend. I use one called Digit. It puts money aside based on my spending habits. It builds up pretty fast and you can track where your money is going.

2. I just spoke to a guy who flies on a private airline. Older Gent. He suggests opening up an IRA account and let it build over time. Its steady and safe. Individual stocks are for when you have money to play with.

3. AVOID CREDIT CARDS. I unfortunately didnt take my own advice and Im working hard to pay down a balance by the end of the year.

4. That said, DONT HAVE KIDS OR GET A GIRLFRIEND. I again, did both and didnt save like i should have and they are a CONSTANT drain on you finances.

5. AVOID ADDICTIVE TENDENCIES. I love a good c~~~tail, but I know I tend to over indulge. (I dont mind being honest). The Bible says a drunkard and a glutton will come to poverty. Dont try to prove God wrong.

6. Freelance side gigs. If you have a talent you can sell, do it! Someone will see the value and pay you for it.

Just my 2 cents. XD

#ICETHEMOUT
#MANOUT!

#ICETHEMOUT!!! #MANOUT!!! #HIDEYOURWEALTH #VAGINAISWORTHLESS

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

CasualGuy227 wrote:

I have looked into stocks/ investments but right now do not have a huge idea how a lot of them work in generating income.

You seem to have the proper habits that help you avoid getting into financial debt. The suggestions by SH3LLZ are also good. Since you are young, you can use the stock market to advantage. However, it take discipline and a knowledge of reverse psychology. I assume that the UK stock market is similar to the US market and is at new highs. This is the time to NOT buy stocks. If you have index funds in the UK like Vanguard in the US, that would be a great vehicle to save. HOWEVER, avoid getting into any government sponsored IRA or savings vehicle, because when you retire, as I am, the government forces to you to eventually sell it down to ZERO, when in fact, you want to leave it alone. So, keep saving your money, and when the overall market declines, and everyone thinks you are crazy for buying stocks, that is the time to put all that money in a low cost index fund. Do not dollar cost average. I have a method for monitoring the US markets when they are over or under valued, and you need to watch for some means to measure that. As one market expert, Stewart Thomson repeatedly says: “Buy weakness, sell strength.” In other words, buy when the market is down and undervalued. You can sell when it is grossly over valued. If you keep saving and investing only in market bottoms, you will make more money than those who dollar-cost average, or put money in every month. Index funds have the lowest fees and transaction costs so over decades, it will give you another great return.

[jimbob15217Participant 491]

Just my opinion: DON’T CHANGE A THING AND BE PATIENT. If you don’t have a wife and kids, the money will pile up as you continue in life. Your work should offer you more responsibilities as you go and with it will come knowledge, experience and an increased capacity to earn. But you’ll have to hustle—overtime, double employment and/or private training clients.

Right now–if I’m reading your post right–you’re not set up for stock investments; you’re best off deferring that for the time being in favor of aggressive savings.

The opportunity will come. In your case, it may be buying into your own gym or setting up a strong profitable schedule of training clients. If you’re handy–and only if you’re handy–you can buy a two-apartment building, live in one and lease the other.

The main thing, as others have said, don’t jeopardize the chances you have by living recklessly, marriage and kids or crazy money schemes. You’ll be surprised how well you can live when you live inside your means and go your own way.

[Nomad82Participant 612]

jimbob15217 wrote:

Just my opinion: DON’T CHANGE A THING AND BE PATIENT. If you don’t have a wife and kids, the money will pile up as you continue in life.

This right here. Once you have a decent chunk for an IRA or an IRA CD, plant that seed. Digit is a great app, and acorns is pretty good too. These are small investments, however they are separate accounts for saving, or you can withdrawl if you find yourself in a jam. Don’t just let your income sit in checking.

Achieve Individual Greatness!

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

Beware of putting any amount of money other than the minimum in any employer or government sponsored IRA, 401(k) or whatever the UK may have. The reason is that you do not control the money, even though you might be putting the majority of it in the plan. They don’t usually allow you immediate access to it, and may make you pay back withdrawals. Forget the tax incentive. Governments change the rules and you may end up paying more tax later. With an independent low cost index fund, YOU control the money and can withdraw it without a hassle. As I said before, later in life, they force you to liquidate an IRA, 401(k) or whatever, when you instead should be wanting to let it alone.

[BritGHOWParticipant 2566]

Mid 20s minimum wage full time puts you in the ~£15k/yr range, doesn’t sound much but at the same time you’re not getting shafted for masses of income tax and national insurance.

Anything south of Birmingham you’re going to be struggling to keep your cost of living to 1/3 your income but that’s not essential this early on. Long term look to get into the position where you’re spending no more than 1/3 of your take home pay on the cost of living (rent/mortgage, bills, transport, food, clothing etc.)

The key thing is that you pay your bills first and have money left over, you do that and then some so more power to you. Some of that money needs to be saved, key word being some, not saving at all is bad but just as bad is saving every penny and never spending anything on yourself. Ideally look at a 50:50 split up to a max spend of 1/3 of your income and save the rest.

Depending on how much you can afford to “lose” set up a standing order for that amount to transfer to a savings account on payday, the rest is your play money to do with what you will, however at the end of the month take everything you have left and add that to the savings as well, soon stacks up.

Pay in
cost of living out
savings out
self spending
anything left save
pay in
…

Any bonuses you get likewise split them up, save half and treat yourself with the rest

Another one for stacking up, get yourself a coin jar and every time you go shopping and have shrapnel left over put it in the jar, doesn’t take long to amass a bagful and at £1-20 a time again soon stacks up.

How much is the gym membership and how much do you use it? do you have the option to work out or do other fitness activities at home? are you close enough to your place of work to cycle to work? lots of potential for saving money here depending on your situation.

Specific ideas, first and foremost get an ISA, if you’re neither a homeowner nor likely to inherit any time soon consider the lifetime variant. Tax free savings may sound silly with interest rates so low when you’re barely earning enough to pay income tax however when you do get that better job the more money you have shielded from the taxman the better.

Credit cards aren’t strictly Satan’s spawn as long as you’re sensible with them, a decent cashback card paid in full every month can make you money from everyday spending paid for by the irresponsibles who don’t clear their balances.

Once you have >6 months wages saved, then start looking at more “exotic” options (investments and the like) but keep it simple.

[Anonymous 43]

lol. walk retail parking lots, fast food drive ins and carwashes looking for dropped coins. Ride a bike, get a clip on light and aim it at the ground. Some nights I found $2 or $3.

[StealthParticipant 5330]

1. Spend as little money as possible and save the rest in a bank account or CD until you have six to twelve months of expenses.
2. Read and follow “The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing.”
3. Remember us when you retire early.

"Once you’ve taken care of the basics, there’s very little in this world for which your life is worth deferring." -David Hansson. "It’s not when women are mean or nasty that anything is out of the ordinary. It’s when they are NICE to you that you have to be on high alert..." -Jackinov.

[HermitParticipant 1121]

Learn to create a budget. Tracking your spending is job number one. You cannot know where the money drains are until you figure out where every pound is going. Once you’ve tracked your spending for a month, you’ll easily see the where leaks are and plug them, and then figure out where you can save. Budget!

I don't hate women. I just feel better when they're not around.

[Handsome VicParticipant 1613]

Hi CasualGuy

It sounds like you have already developed good habits to control spending, earn and save money.

Plus you have received some good advice here.

Sounds to me like you would do well to generally keep doing what you are doing. Improve your earning potential and control expenses.

You mentioned you are in a minimum wage job, but working to improve your education to move into the field where you want to work. Good!

In terms of investing. If you want to invest, you need to LEARN and do RESEARCH.

Get some investing books from the library (free), or research from internet.

Learn a bit about the indexes (S&P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ) and what types of companies are listed on what index.

Learn what a mutual fund is, and an ETF. (Mutual funds can be more convenient/easier to invest small amounts —- but they do tend to collect higher fees).

Watch out for fees! Learn how a mutual fund and an ETF charge fees. (Very Important!)

Learn what terms like P/E, debt/equity ratio and dividend yield mean. These will help you determine whether an investment is fairly priced.

Learn what some blue chip stocks are, and some “dividend aristocrat” stocks. This will get you started on evaluating companies as investments.

Learn about how to open a brokerage account, and how it charges its fees to you.

Learn about diversification (stocks, real estate, fixed income, cash) and think about what mix is appropriate for you.

That should get you started.

Final suggestions: invest slowly. No need to go all in at once. Pay consumer debt (credit cards etc) before deploying money to investing.

Be prepared for ups and downs. Think about how you would handle a decline in the value of your investment. Would you sell? Buy more? Do nothing? Nothing is guaranteed to go up in a straight line.

Hope that is helpful…

I'm going my own way. Maybe I'll see you there.

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

If you do pursue stocks, there are online surveys to give you an idea of your risk tolerance. There is no use trying to invest in stocks that do not coincide with that tolerance. If you are conservative, there are blue chip stocks that can be bought for a dividend or you can buy a low cost index fund. If you are extremely risk tolerant, you can research technology or other specialty areas where you may lose money on most purchases, but one or two right ones will wipe out the losses. Whatever you do if you choose this area, be sure it fits your personality and risk tolerance.

[Anonymous 3]

My advice: pay yourself first. That is the most simple and effective way.
That means: on pay day, put all money that you will probably not need into your savings. Transfer the money to savings account ant then forget about it. (if you cannot do that with 200$ monthly at minimum, you either don’t earn enough or live far beyond than what you can afford. )

Second advice is to streamline your life: set your goals, and write them down. And modify your stuff according to that, sell what you don’t need or throw it away, clean up all the mess. And don’t buy stuff. I prefer to put 1000$++ to saving each month instead of buying fancy smartphone, spending to girlfriend, holiday travel, car, credit cards, and whatever expesive stuff. S~~~, some people spend a lot travelling abroad on holiday, and they don’t know, how good wallpapers can they photo in the nature around their city, if they have a good bike and some old second hand DSLR camera in the backpack. And I’m freaked out, when colleagues (one married with children, the other is blue pilled with girlfriend) are talking about their situations on not having enough money. And they don’t make much less then me I guess. The only difference is, that I can live on 200-300$ a month as a MGTOW single guy plus the rent of the tiny apartment is another 200$. No mortgage, no bank loans, freedom. If I had to or wanted to, I could move to another part of the country next month, nothing keeps me glued down to this city, (except a few family members but they have telephone).

For the stocks, I have burned myself with it. No one knows the future, and stock investment or trading is not for everyone. Even if it’s less than a minute to buy stock, it is a lot of time (maybe another full time job to be honest, if you have time for that) to know what and when to buy or what is about the global economy. Anything I bought back in 2011, went downhill. Even if the economy of my country had nothing to do with the crisis or american mortgage stuff in general, investors freaked out and sold everything and all the stocks also here went downhill and no one saw where is the rock bottom. And took years to recover, but no one knew then, if it will ever recover. And I just went back to god old cash and investing in my own carrier. At least I have control over that one.

[CasualGuy227Participant 170]

Thanks guys for all the advice so far, Ill do some looking into some of the ideas and weight them up see what will work form me and so on.

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