STOP Buying Crap

This is your first step to accumulating wealth.  I went to my basement last week and I saw boxes and bags of crap!!  All that crap, cost money.  And it’s just sitting there!.  My garage, same problem.
So let me define crap.  Useless stuff you do NOT NEED/WANT!

Let’s look at how much we can spend, annually on crap:
·       Two six packs of beer/week -$625
·       Daily cup Starbucks Coffee $1095
·       Music Subscription $120
·       Four drinks at a bar/week -$2500
·       Cable/Satellite TV with premium channels- $1200
·       LotteryTickets – $500
·       Buying lunch five days per week- $1800
·       Movie Tickets for two- $600
·       Tools you will NEVER use-$500. {some of the crap in my basement}
·       Gym Membership, you NEVER use – $1200
·       Interest payments on your credit cards- $2,000

Ok, you get the picture.  I am not telling you to stop spending money on all or any of the above.  I am saying, if you want to accumulate wealth, you need one thing and that one thing is MONEY/SAVINGS.
You are going to have to become something your parents might have told you for years!   A SAVER.

Here is your assignment.
1.      Keep track of what you spend for at least one month.  You can find spreadsheets using Google or write your expenses down on paper. Just keep track.  Mark everything as either a NEED or CRAP.  Your rent is a Need.  Buying comic books (I love comic books), CRAP.
2.      Add up your Monthly Need vs. Crap Cost.
3.      Decide what CRAP expenses you will give up.
4.      Deposit the amount of money you decided to save, to your savings account.  Say what?  You do not have a savings account.  No problem.  If you have a checking account, that bank will happily open you a savings account.
5.      Make your weekly (or how often you get paid) deposits automatically into your savings account.

One of my crap expenses was buying lunch at work.  Rather than buying lunch, I began to bring my lunch from home which saved me an average of $3/day. So over 30 years, I saved about $22,000.  What if I started making automatic deposits of these funds into an S&P 500 Index fund? Assuming an average 8% return, that $3/day savings equals about $90,000 at the end of 30 years.  {NOT A TYPO}. This is how YOU and I accumulate wealth.

Now the question is, how much of your hard earned money are you willing to save to build your wealth?

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DISCLAIMER

I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger, with a NC State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.  

I started my first business at ~13 years of age. I am a successful investor in equities and real estate and happy to share my personal finance and investment lessons learned with you. However, I am NOT a licensed financial advisor.  Please do not construe my suggestions on this blog, as recommendations for your personal situation.  For individual finance advice please seek your own licensed CPA or financial advisors.