Miss Average versus Miss Above Average

Are you making ends meet financially or lagging behind a little and struggling to take care of all your financial responsibilities? I guess, just making ends meet is what many of us do in our lives; We get paid and spend what we earn, and then some, often resorting to credit to get the things we want.

I recently read a couple of steemit blogs that made me think about this situation. Situation? Maybe opportunity is a more suitable word to use. One offered many great tips on how to save money in life; It outlined things a person could do every day to save. One item was the beverage that individual bought every day, an energy drink was the item I recall. At $5 a throw over 365 days of the year there's $1825 in Red Bull! Even halving that amount would make a massive impact financially. The blog was full of great ideas and I saw it as quite positive.

The other offered what the writer called the best financial tip ever, or some such thing. It essentially said earn more than you spend. It's reasonably sound advice I guess, however I believe the phrase is back to front. I believe in the spend less than you earn credo. There's a difference in the two. Let's investigate a little.

So, Miss Average has a job, a typical job like yours and mine, in an office for instance. Let's say she decides to earn more than she spends. Hmm, here's an issue right away. How does she do so? Ask the boss for another $10,000 a year? Not likely. Let's say, over a year, Miss Average spends $1500 on a coffee at the cafe per day, $2000 shopping on line, $1200 on gym membership, $2000 on brand-name makeup and cosmetics, and $1000 on subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify etc). That's $7700 a year. How does she simply earn more than she makes if she is on a set wage/salary at the office? A second job maybe?

Now take Miss Above Average who works in the same office doing the same job for the same remuneration. She read the first blog I mentioned and decided to curb some of her spending. She found cheaper makeup brands that do the same thing, she gets a small coffee each morning instead of a large, she stopped spending online and only uses cash to buy the same items at the store, (making it hurt more, so she shops less), she cancelled her gym membership and works out at the free gym in the local park, runs and hikes, and cancelled Spotify but retained Netflix. How much do you think she saved? A lot I reckon, but that amount doesn't matter, it's just an example.

You see, "earn more than you spend" doesn't really work; It's just not viable. "Spend less than you earn" certainly does though and we all have areas we can curtail spending. Yep, me included. It's about choices.

I have many clients, some on the poverty line of income, some well above and some so far above they can't even see the line! I was speaking to one some time ago, a few years actually. I asked him what advice he would give someone from a financial-growth perspective and you know what he said? He said..."Spend less than you earn". No surprises there I think.

So, if you're keen on some great tips take a look at the blog the new user @survivecollapse wrote. You can read it here and show him some love if you like what you see.

For me and my wife, Mr and Mrs Average for sure, we think about what we spend. We ask ourselves if there's another alternative, a cheaper option or a way to delay or indeed avoid spending in the first place. We have good jobs, and we have nice things but still, we think about it as one never knows what may be just around the corner. We think we have a good life and the areas we feel could be improved on relate to non-financial things like having more time with our family and little niece @smallsteps which of course actually relates to money as travel would be involved. But you get the idea. Life is not about things. It's not about want want want. Sure you can make it so; There's many banks and financial institutions that would be happy to take your 24% interest on that credit card but is it really worth it? You have to decide I guess.

My point? Well, spending is not always the best way to plan for your future as it's not always possible to simply earn more than you spend. Spending is a habit, wanting is a habit and so is saving. Your choice revolves around what habit you want to embrace.