I was in a meeting the other day with a group of women and when we talked about saving money, most replied ‘what savings? we barely have the minimum to live’ and honestly I was shocked. Then I thought about it carefully and realised that nobody taught us anything about saving from a young age. I remember my mum saying ‘Marianna you need to save your money instead of traveling’ but my dad was always like ‘Go live your adventures and I’m here’. I admit that I relied on his word as I knew that our generation had the ‘luxury’ to be raised in families that saved for them, making us feel comfortable enough to not give attention to this matter.
Now in my 30s I realise the importance of savings and I’m here to highlight it and give some tips through my experience. I know it is a hard time, as the price of goods, petrol, living has gone up but I believe there are also endless opportunities to create your dream life if you want it bad enough. Meaning you are not lazy and you are open to new ideas and experiences. I am not a millionaire but I am a single mother that has an income probably better than 80% of my friends, so how do I do it?
Manifest your income first
I normally have a notebook and write down my current income and the income I want to have in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. And is working, somehow magically these numbers go up and everytime I check my notebook I’m happy to see that I get what manifest.
Another thing I do that helps my manifestation is that I repeat these mantras often to help me stay the course about how I will use these money:
-Saving money will save your life.
-Saving money will give you the means to help more people you want instead of begging for money from sponsors.
-Saving money will get you the dream life you always wanted: a small house farm, a few chickens and many flowers and trees.
You see where I’m going? Im visualising what I can have by saving my money. And because I wish GOOD, good comes to me as well. You can call it vibes, Karma, energy. All things can work for you, when your intention is good and pure.
Prioritize spending MUCH less than your earnings
Before even starting to save money, work on your mindset on spending money. Do you really need that bag you can’t really afford to play it cool with your ladies? I don’t think so. The experts say to buy something think first: If your income e.g. is 2000 euros you can’t afford going on a holiday for 4000 euros. What you can do though is save 4000 euros first and then do that trip. We often do the opposite, we book the holiday and then we run around to cover the expenses with a credit card. Please stop this. Build the mindset: If i can afford sth x3, then I can really buy it. Personally i don’t buy expensive clothes (I prefer vintage, second-hand or local brands that I can help), but I spend money on traveling and equipment for my work – the key here is be patient, shop on discount dates, check offers online, make collaborations and be smart about your decisions.
Start saving early by setting a financial goal
You know that you can learn how to save money from the age of 6, right? when you go to school your parents might give you 5-10 euros per week and there is a magic box where you can save the half of it. At least, this is how we did it in the past. So my question is, why when we become adults we stop this ritual? Let me show you some maths. Imagine this: from the age of 18 you start saving 100 euros per month until the age of 25. That’s 7 years x 12 months = 84×100= 8400. Hold on that. Now you are 25 let’s say you get a decent job and you can save more until you are 35. That’s another 10 years x 12 months =120 x 200 = 24,000. And with being so generous, we’ve saved over 32K. Now imagine with a very good salary between 35 to 55 which are the golden years of employment according to studies you manage to save 20 years x 12 months= 240 x 400 = 96,000. See where i’m getting at? Simply state how much savings you want, divide by in how many years you want them and then divide them by 12 months to see how much you need to save. Let’s make an example: I want 100,000 EUR in savings in 10 years. 100,000/10=10000/12= 833.33 per month . Even if you can’t save these money at this very moment, now you have a clear vision of what you need to do to have an additional income and make possible these savings for the next 10 years. The recipe is here and you have to cook it. It’s just simple maths, consistency and patience.
Pay yourself first
What I learned from my mistakes is that wherever I was getting paid, the first thing to do was always to pay my bills, utilities etc and by the 15th of each month I was drained with no idea what to do. This magically stopped when I read this advice to pay myself first. I felt I deserved money, money was good, money could help me. So my relationship with money changed. I attracted more money and after paying myself first for a few months, I could save as well. You are in control so go on and pay yourself first, the rest will follow.
Women are underpaid because they are shy to ask what they are worth
I’m a feminist in a good and powerful way. Whenever I hear about inequality between men and women something inside starts burning and to stop that fire I realised that i just need to empower the women and not offend men anymore. My friends come to me for a piece of advice when they have any men-problems related to work or personal matters. Once a friend told me she found out she was getting paid way less than her male colleague and the amount of work and title was the same. I empowered her to understand her worth and ask more money to her next annual work evaluation where you get to speak with your managers and HR for your performance and issues you may face. She went with full confidence, not even mentioning what she found out, explaining that after two years of employment, proven record of achievements and sales she felt like she deserved an X amount of money. The managers happily gave her the raise and she came back to me happy but surprised. She didn’t expect it. Now if you need to remember sth out of this please write this somewhere: ‘If you don’t ask, how will you receive?’. ASK WHAT YOU WANT ALWAYS TO GET AN ANSWER, even if that answer is no, even if you are scared.
Invest
I’m not an expert in investing, I’m a newbie in this industry but you know what? I’m sooo curious. I want to learn how to invest so I can save all these money to use them in a better way, not for becoming rich. I hear about Cryptocurrencies, stocks, index funds, gold, business, start-ups and real estate and though I have no idea where to begin I believe investing in something that makes you passionate is the key here. For example I don’t want to invest in gold as I have it connected with all the slave labor that is happening behind closed curtains. Even when i invest I need to be something good, sth honest, sth kind, sth helpful. If you read this now and you have any suggestion please leave a comment below.
Have a minimum of 3 different baskets of income
Being a single mum definitely taught me how important is to have a roof over your head, food on the table, cashflow for the expenses, doctors etc. I really like to be independent and I always had the spirit of entrepreneurship that is why i don’t rely on a single income but have build multiple ways to be financially ok. These uncertain times have shown us that we are not safe in one job. And at the same time, in 2023 you get plenty opportunities to work online or from home in digital marketing, finance, technology and IT industry. I always remember my Chinese boss saying: ‘I always like to play. Business is a game. Never play one game. Play as many games as you can. Lay your eggs in many baskets, even very different ones. If one basket falls and the eggs break, you still have so many others to eat.’ Take this piece of advice from a millionaire man and start the journey of saving by expanding your income streams.
Stop the excuses and begin learning
In this modern world, teenagers with a Youtube channel can become millionaires in a night and a 50 year old man who has been working his ass off hasn’t seen such amounts of money in his entire lifetime. As you can understand, saving cannot be done easily by traditional methods anymore. What we can do is adjust, the magic word I always like to use. ADJUST in this era by learning new skills. There are websites online that offer courses as little as 15 euros that can make you more than 3000 euros per month if used correctly – Check Udemy, Masterclass, Coursera, Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, Alison, Domestika – there’s something for everyone. Next time someone tells you ‘what savings? we barely have the minimum to live’ you can now say ‘stop the excuses, begin learning and move forward. The world is full of possibilities if we stop blaming everyone but ourselves and finally decide to step out of our comfort zone.’
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Cheers,
Marianna xoxo
AIMERLAVIE 