Money Week

Good Monday morning to you. I hope you had one Rockin’ weekend. Here in Dallas it was a hot weekend. For us it was also a good weekend, following up on a few days of vacation where my honey and I spent some days riding the motorcycles to the beach and some visits to small towns in Texas for courthouse pictures for her blog. Life is going at a RockStar pace for us. But we have the same challenges most of you do; we still have to deal with the day-to-day items of money to pay bills, money to make these trips possible, money to plan our family fun days on the lake.

I find the more I talk to people that the first focus they have is lack of money. Or else they face some other money-related issue. Yes I have clients who tell me about how they have the money problem of too much, and worry about people who are only interested in them for their money. All in all I wanted to take a week and deal with some money issues that people face. We all have an issue with money and for each of us it is different. I am going to take the next five days to talk about money and specific ways you can improve your money standing and outlook in this life.

Today, I want to talk about keeping your money. When I talk with new clients they usually seem to bring up the fact that they want more money. While I work to teach and help people make the most of their lives where they are at, money is still part of the growth process. We all wish we had more, but before we start the chase for more, we first must plug up the money drains. In life, if you find there is something that you don’t seem to have enough of, usually there is a drain of that very thing in your life. Start looking for those drain holes to plug them up. A few years ago my pastor, John, did a sermon series called “I’m Rich, Now What?” The beginning of the series he told us a true fact. It is that you are in the top 2% of income in the world if you make like $40,000 to $50,000 a year. With the average in the USA being higher than that, we must look at how we keep what we have.

So take a look at your life and see what you really spend your money on. If you find that you do things like spending $100 a week on groceries and then eat out most of the time, also take a look at how much of the food you bought in the grocery store gets thrown out each month. If you are like me, I go on trips where I buy things like Harley t-shirts or coffee mugs. The mugs sit in our kitchenette and never get used. I end up donating over half those shirts because I never wear them. This prompted me to limit my travel purchases.

Take a look at these areas to see what you could do without. Now you may enjoy making a purchase like I listed above and then donating it to a charity each year. When I worked for Starbucks, we had toy drives each year at Christmas, so throughout the year I would buy small toys to put in those toy drives. But if you are having problems keeping money at this time, set some limits on yourself to not spend as much so you can balance your spending.

We all hate that word, “budget,” but if we learn to live below our means we could then get better control of our money. I know I’m writing this now, after we just purchased a new motorcycle. But I cut things out of life to make room for this bike. I’m always looking at ways to cut things from my life. About five years ago I was living on very little money each week. I learned what I had to eat each day; then I learned to spend less on food. Rather than skipping meals to save money, I would eat off the dollar menu at fast food places two times a day to keep my nutrition level and remain healthy. I learned to drink water instead of soft drinks; I learned to not add the super size or up size to special meal deals. I learned to live on less to get what I wanted.

Since buying the new motorcycle I decided to go back to the cheap meals. When eating out I only get cheap food, unless I’m at an event where there is only a high-priced menu. I want to do my part for my partner and me to keep expenses down. After all, many people are going through hard times; two of our kids are facing money troubles and do not have jobs at this time.

So take the idea of looking at how you spend the money you make. See if you can plug up the money drain holes and create more money by spending the money you make responsibly. Take time today to write down ten ways that you can reduce your spending. Then look towards a plan to get you from where you are now to eliminating the spending you see as wasteful. If you have a tip that you use, write it in the comments section today to let others know the places that you found money. After all, we like to find money in places we didn’t know we had it.

I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live the life you always wanted, to love what you do and those you share life with. Let us help you become a RockStar in your world