In the Wind

So far we are not talking income.

Make a list of all your weekly and monthly income.

Compare what you bring in to what you have to spend out.

If you're paying out more then you bring in, you are in debt, if you're breaking even, you will never get ahead.

If you have money left over, you can start saving.

Let's talk about saving on those expenses.

The gas bill. Because I live in Michigan it can get really high in the winter.

Some people do a budget plan, that means the gas co. averages your yearly bill and you pay the same amount every month.

Example, my sister in law is on the plan, let's say she pays $120 every month.

My bill for July was $32, there is no way I'm forking out extra, I know when it gets colder, my bill will go up.

The money I am not using for gas, goes into the emergency fund and earns interest, not much, but better me then the gas co.

At our house we have the hot water tank, stove, dryer and furnace on gas.

Using these appliances with a little savvy can help out.

Let's start with the water tank, I keep it on the lowest setting, we are in and out shower takers, if you take long hot showers, you are spending more. Cut back just a little and the savings will add up. I love to take long hot soaks so I know sometimes you just need that time to yourself.

Laundry, sometimes, especially for socks ,towels, you need hot water, I don't just wash in cold, most times I use warm,

really depends on what I am washing.

Inspecting your water tank, many times older ones rust out, every 6 months take a peek, if you see a drip, know that a major basement flood is well on it's way .

Also a good idea to have a smoke detector with a carbon monoxide detector on it.

Your Dryer, keep your lint trap clean and the pipes that lead outdoors. Not only will your dryer work more efficiently, you may very well prevent a fire.

Major cause of house fires, smoking, candles, furnace, dryer stove, Christmas trees, poorly maintained electrical wires.

Big Joe your booky, just kidding.

To clean your lint trap, remove lint, you can spray it with lime away to dissolve  soap and fabric softener build up.

To clean your pipe leading out doors, we just unscrew ours and I vacuum it out.

Well, just got a phone call will continue this tomorrow, I got to go.

Time to make a list.

I have a 5 subject notebook, I can get 2 years of data in them. I have 8 of these books.

Quick story, before my son was born we didn't pay much attention, just paid our bills, put money in savings and our retirement funds.

I had credit cards galore and when my son was born went crazy using them. Learned a hard lesson real fast.

I now only have 2.

Here's How I list my monthly expenses, I list them in order by due date, I only list bills that are monthly and  I have a misc . list.

Gas co          $25

Electric co     $180

Cell phone     $ 80

Water           $ 154  These are not real amounts, just examples and I'll tell you why.

Cable/ internet   $ 152

Mort/ Rent        $ 500

car pymt        $ 174

car insurance  $ 220

Grocery         $ 700

credit card1    $230

credit card2    $ 102

Cash out        $ 200  Cash we keep for , gas/lottery/whatever.

Adjust your list to suit you needs, these are not real numbers for my household, it is not my intention to let you in on my finances, just to help you think of something you may not have thought of.

If you add the list, it comes to $2517 this does not include the cash.

Some people get paid every week, some bi-weekly.

according to the list you need $629.25 to go into checking every week.

Because I have past data, I can go look at Sept. 2015 and know what I paid for bills that fluctuate , like gas/elec/water.

I already have September 2016 ready, on my list looking from last year, I see I will be writing checks to my son's HS for various things.

If you have bills, that are not monthly, like license tabs...our birthdays are January and June, so I add them to my list in December and May. It is easy to forget these things, so keep a list you can fall back on.

Being organized is your first priority to yourself. When you see it written you get a higher sense of where your money goes.

Now there are the Misc things, health co/pays dentist co/pays, oops need a water heater, all the little things that come up that you can't really track until they happen.

We have 2 types of Savings, one for emergency and one for long term.

This doesn't happen overnight either you have to work at it.

So many are living check to check, when a bill comes due they have rob Peter to Pay Paul and it doesn't have to be that way.

People get laid off, get hours cut, get sick, hurt, have to care for an elderly parent, all kinds of stuff does and will happen.

Getting your bills under control is first.

My next post will talk about all the bills I listed and some tricks to help you reduce them.

You can't start and emergency savings until you get control of the money eating machines.

I really should have called this creating financial stability, I see so many living check to check and making bad financial decisions.

Hopefully I can help just a little.

First , Do you think about your old age? You are going to get older and Social Security may not be enough to get you through monthly expenses.

Do you have a savings account? I hear so many people say they don't because it doesn't pay much.

That is not the point of saving. If you have no interest in saving your money, stop reading now.

Many of us are here because we love the lottery, if your waiting for a big win, it's time to rethink your priorities.

Have you ever asked yourself, where do I want to be in 10 years?

Do you have goals? Do you have an IRA or 401K, Stocks, bonds or other investment income?

Do you really pay attention to those monthly bills?

Do you really know how much of your money is wasted on impulse buys ?

Are you drowning in loan or credit card debt?

Are you living well beyond your means?

Many households only have 1 or 2 sources of Income....not good.

Creating more then 2 sources of income takes time, doesn't happen over night.

If you are using credit cards as a source of income, you will never get ahead.

Do you know how much it cost you to live last year? Do you know how much it will cost you next year?

Like I said, you will get older, unexpected things happen.

Chew on all these questions, ask yourself if you really want to take the time to track your money, because if you are willing, you are already ahead of the curve.

You can have so much more by being conservative with your cash.

If you are serious, go get a couple pads of paper. My next post will be tracking monthly expenses.

In the mean time, spend the next couple days writing down everything you buy, after a couple days look at that list and ask yourself, Did I really need that crap? If you see things you didn't really need, your ahead .

We are bombarded with ads, people wanting our hard earned cash.

Self control will be a big part of getting and staying ahead.

So our favorite girl ( sarcasm) Hillary wants to raise taxes on the Middle class.

The average for middle class are those making between 50,000 and 250,000.

The nation average is 55,000.

With health care insurance and medical bills going up, food, property tax, everyday goods and services.

Car insurance, home owners insurance, dental insurance, renters insurance, boy do we pay a lot for insurance.

She doesn't say she'll raise taxes on the rich, and she doesn't say what she'll use the taxes for.

Just that the middle class has to pay their fair share.

Mind you 47 % pay no Federal income tax and get child credits, they get nice big tax refunds for money they never paid?

So, I guess many in the income level will be making hard choices.

If you have to stop magazine subscriptions, tell them to thank Hillary.

If you have to return your leased vehicle and become a one car family, remember to have them thank Hillary.

If you have to get rid of cable, or down grade, Remember to tell them to Thank Hillary.

If your like us we have 3 cell phones, thanks to Obama we already got rid of the land line.

So , when you shut a phone off, remember to tell them to thank Hillary.

In fact you can send notes to all your favorite restaurants, tell them you won't be in thanks to Hillary.

Not buying meat, you can tell your butcher to thank Hillary.

Not using your credit card, drop them a line and tell them to thank Hillary, or worse, you now have so much debt you have to file for bankruptcy, let them know they can thank Hillary.

Have to go sign up for food stamps, thank Hillary, and oh oh, another tax increase to cover all the new mouths to feed.

At some time we will reach a saturation point, we will in fact collapse, and at some point even the rich cannot survive, because they don't have a working middle class.