365 Days of Prudence

Yes it is the season of the big R. This recession has led more that hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs. And those who still have their jobs are struggling. Yet there are those individuals who are thriving in spite of the recent economic downward spiral. How do they do it?

It takes a combination of a whole lot of effort, some sacrifice, calculated risk and restraint to survive tough economic times. But because of our “I want it now!” attitude, we unintentionally put ourselves in a harmful compromising financial situation, situation where the collateral damages are overwhelming. The good news is that it can be averted.

Whether you’re single, married or married with kids, what I will share to you will work. All you need is 365 days of prudence. Before I tell you why, do you remember the saying “don’t count your chicks until they hatch”? This is what we are going to follow. Again, it will take 365 days of prudence seasoned with whole lot of effort, some sacrifice, calculated risk and restraint to survive through tough economic times.

Let’s begin.

Whether you’re single or part of a family, an open communication is significantly important. The goal to succeed must be communicated as to why it is important. Maybe it’s because you don’t want to die of an anxiety attack. Or maybe you simply want to enjoy time alone or with your family without having to worry about your finances. It could be anything. But everything must be communicated openly to everyone involved otherwise, the “flight plan” will be confusing and you will never get to your “destination” or your goal.

Once everything has been communicated that you want to commit yourself being financially sound, you must make the first step. Credit card debts need to be paid off as soon as possible. The interest rates on those bad plastic cards are slowly killing you! High interest rates are like Trans Fat! They slowly take the life out of you!

Credit card debt must be paid ASAP however, they must be paid AFTER you’ve paid yourself first. By the way, why did you incur credit card debts in the first place? Was it because you began spending more than what you were making? That paradigm MUST shift! This is where we must make some sacrifices and apply restraint on our Wants. Take a look at your credit card bills, 80% of them were used for vacation expenses, a flat screen TV, a game console, clothes, dine-outs and other trivial things. For the next 365 days, you will spend on wants if you cannot immediately afford it in CASH!

Like what companies are doing these days, you too must “trim the fat” of your household budget. They have to be as lean as it can be for the next 365 days. Put yourself in recession mode before the economy does. So say you’re taking home pay is $2,000 a month after taxes, the goal is to try to live on $1,500/month! It can be done! Remember, you MUST TRIM THE FAT! See what has to go. If you’re living in too much house and paying too much rent, scale down. Again, find ways and means to “trim the fat.” I keep saying this, it should’ve been the title of article.

In 365 days, you would have set aside $6,000 if you were able to save $500/month from your take home pay of $2,000/month. And because you were able to bring your monthly expense down to $1,500, the $6,000 that you now were able to save has become your four months worth of savings! That doesn’t sound like a lot but guess what, 365 days of prudence has given you the opportunity to make $6,000 to buffer you through tough economic times.

If you’re one of those people that collect a decent tax return from the US government, what should you do with the money that they refund to you? Keep it! Don’t spend it on anything. Again, the more money you have, the better it is for you to be able to find a good investment opportunity if you have job security.

365 days of prudence should move you further away from living paycheck to paycheck. If you’re on a Salary + Commission pay plan, I would strongly recommend that you live of your salary during the first year of being at your current position. What you are going to do with your commission, you may be wondering. You are going to save it! Then add it to your base pay for year two and that will be your constant pay increase. Here is an example:

Say your base pay is $2,500/month. That equals to $30,000/year. And say you make a boat load of money in commission for the year 2009 which amounts to $120,000. When 2010 comes around, your base salary will still be $2,500/month right? The beauty however is that NOW (2010), you are going to be able to give yourself a pay increase of $10,000/month without any fear of being short because you know for a fact that you’ve already made this money the year before (which was 2009).

Again, save some money for a rainy day. Rainy days do come.

That’s a fact!

Be prepared.