shopping addiction

What do you want to teach? Just tryna get the whole picture here.

Don't spend more than what you earn or you will be broke your whole life. A simple advice to follow.

Best advice @onioncrafty

You shouldn't feel back for spending money on basic things like food or gas. Those are necessary. A minimalist life is more about knowing where to cut than cutting in everything.

Cainbreck are you are financial advisor? Those are some proffesional tips.

I am an investor and have dedicated the last 4 years of my life to improving my financial intelligence. The benefits have been tremendous and I still keep learning and I will continue learning until I die, that I can promise you.

I killed my student loan in less than 5 years.

To start, you need to create a monthly financial statement.
Get your pay stubs with any income you have over the course of 2 months. Add the gross income and then divide in two if you are doing two months, so you can find what your average monthly income is.

Then add the two months worth of your deductions for federal taxes, state taxes, health and dental insurance, social security and Medicare. Add each category separately, month 1 and month 2, divide in 2 , and you get what you pay on average each month for that category.

Subtract these expenses from your gross income and you get your net income. The net income is listed on your stubs because most pay stubs have this info already calculated for you, but you need to get practice and you need to understand that your taxes, insurance premiums, social security and Medicare are expenses that you pay each and every month.

So your net income is what you have left, to pay your rent, or mortgage, bills, food, gas, etc.

Next, you will have to list all these expenses, including food, clothing, gas, entertainment, whatever you are spending on, car payments, car insurance, everything. Collect all your receipts in the course of 2 months, and list all your expenses. Find out how much you spend monthly on each.

Start subtracting each category of the above listed expenses from your NET income for each month. How much money do you have left after all expenses have been subtracted from your income? That's your cashflow. If it is a negative number, you must cut on your spending, or increase your income, or both. You need cashflow money in order to invest, but also need to learn how to invest. And you need to learn the difference between good and bad debt. I hope this is a helpful start.

Have this little advice right in your mind :

Everytime you are going to buy something, just tell yourself : Do i really need it?

Don't change things that still works.
Don't buy new things that you already have.

Why would you buy the new iphone if your iphone still work?

The advertising markething may touch you too emotionally. It is the role of marketing now, to take consumers by emotions. But do you really need the new product that just came out? no . The old market still or a used one would do the job very well.

I hope i helped you!

Great points, mayermp. You know about the tactic to tape a piece of paper onto your debit or credit card that says "Do I REALLY need this right now???", so every time you pull your card out of your wallet, the first thing you see is that note you wrote to yourself

Microsoft Excel (or just a freeware version of spreadsheet) will do the job.

I know exactly what comes in and what goes out. So I never sorrow about money.

It is very surprising how much money you can save if you look very carefully at your costs.
What about your car? Is the insurance some cheeper somewhere else?
Same for house insurances. What about your internet ,mobile and television subscriptions?
Do you need a television actually?
Do you really read your newspapers and magazines?
Sport school? You can workout at home or outdoors.

Very important: Never ever buy something as a try to raise your rank/status. (Hey, look what I have/wear/look....)

I literally saved hundreds a months just to look carefully what I needed or not.
And that was just because I had to work less because of my own problems (addiction).
Don't waste your time neither. Spend time reading uplifting things, lots of sports/walking/fresh air. Be ready for the next step.

Yeah alex haha thx for the tip xD

Once you save money though, you need to know how to invest. This is the hard part. Saving is easy. You can teach a monkey how to save money. But investing in cash flowing assets is a completely different story. Because, if you let the money sit in the bank, it will lose its value cut to inflation and the fact that your bank pays you almost no interest on your savings. You need to learn to invest. But invest well as opposed to gambling! It is very important to understand that most people who call themselves investors have no clue what they are doing. Those who know what they are doing are the ones who have hired investment coaches to educate them over the course of several months, and then they keep their mentors as they expand their knowledge and portfolios towards that awesome day when they retire in their 30s or 40s, depending on how early they started educating themselves financially. So cutting your unnecessary spending and keeping most of your income is the first step, then find a good mentor or pay a well reputed investment coach (and that is a worthy expense) who will open a whole new horizon for you.

Yeah well explained!