Save money live better is a mantra we like at the LLP. Financial freedom starts with saving because you need to raise capital to invest it later. This page and the articles here are all about the best ways to save your sweet cash.
Saving is buying your freedom
We think about saving as buying back our free time in the future. When you say it like that, it just seems like one of the most important things you can do each day! Every dollar we put aside is two dollars we don’t have to earn in the future (because of tax!). This helps us mentally prioritise saving over many other things like ….consuming!
We also pay ourself first. We put away our savings each week, and live off the rest. It’s a way to save and budget at the same time.
Saving your money sounds simple but the truth is it takes discipline and practice. Saving also involves the delicate art of delayed gratification.
The delicate art of delayed gratification
Personally, I’ve been called ‘tight’ a few times by friends and family :). But if we really drilled in to what the people around me spend in a year and what I spend, they’d probably find I was just buying different things. I was buying investment properties, stocks and DIY renovation tools instead of expensive first homes, new cars, mani-pedis, wardrobes full of handbags, and wine subscriptions.
Delayed gratification is something I have never had a problem practicing because I don’t really care what other people think of me. I’ve never felt the urge to keep up with the Joneses. My freedom has always been more important to me than that. If you want to save your money, it might just help to start thinking along these lines.
Resisting the retail urge
One thing we do know about saving is that it’s harder to stay on track now than it has ever been. Especially since the world went crazy in 2020. Retail therapy is just a mouse click away. All of the friction to online retail has been removed with credit cards, social media apps scraping your google searches and taunting you on your social feeds, and with services like Afterpay.
The urge for some consumer retail therapy is real when you’re locked down and bored out of your mind! We get it! But it’s about habit and mindset. Habits that control your immediate environment and a mindset that focusses on your financial priorities. Remove temptation from view or remove yourself from temptation! Either will work 🙂
How much to save for financial freedom
The truth is everyone has their own truth about saving – what works and doesn’t can be very personal. For some, financial freedom is about extreme frugality – cutting living costs back to the bare bone so you can save, save, save. For others, budgeting in this way can be a bit like dieting – if you feel like you are depriving yourself, then it probably won’t work. Which means saving for investment is more steady as you go. Only you can weigh up what is important to you and what’s not. But if you want to know the numbers, well here you are:
Saving 10% to 20% of your income is not enough to reach financial freedom. You need to be in the 30% + ball park (and actively investing) to feel like you are getting somewhere and to start seeing the results.
THE LLP
You can reach this rate either though cutting back on your spending or earning more – ideally both!
If want to work out the actual savings numbers to get your to financial freedom check out the calculator we link to here.
Feel free to jump into our Fat Stacks blog if you want to read about what we do and have done to grow our income, although many of these will focus on Decentralised Finance passive income options!
Once you’ve saved enough of your income and built up some capital you have to work out what to do with it. Hopefully that’s why you’re here reading our blog. If so, the next strategy – investing – is just for you!
Saving your sweet cash
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