Sometimes it's easier to save than to earn.

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(Edited)



We are all here to earn and to learn.




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We are all involved in crypto for a common reason. To earn millions of dollars and buy lambo's.

Unfortunately that is never going to happen for most of this people in this space.

So we can settle for option two. Earning a few extra dollars that will set us up nicely for the month.

I often write about similar subjects to this and how all of the little things add up over time to make huge gains. Especially in crypto where you can compound small gains over time to make larger ones.

It's one of my favorite subjects and how i live my best crypto life.

Unfortunately i can't translate those options to real life as it is so much harder to invest and to make returns on cash quickly and with flexibility.

So in real life i try to flip it around.



Instead of making money, I save money.



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Nothing major but it's a good idea to take a step back form time to time and look at your habits. Sometimes we don't even notice bad ones building up until something happens.

I love watching some of those money savings shows on tv where the host takes a a family with no money and bad habits but manages to turn it all around with a few simple changes.

  • Budget.
  • Plan.
  • Cut out excessive spending.
  • Shop for the week.
  • Manage your entertainment.
  • Save.

Works every time.

Now we are fairly good in this house but it's easy to let small things build up.

Simple things can save a lot of money. We are going to get a smart box for the tv which costs $200 up front and $100 a year from now on.

When we looked at both of our accounts it turns out that we have,

  • A tv package.
  • 2 netflix.
  • Now tv,
  • Amazon Prime
  • Without even any sports channels. They would be an extra $70 a month on top.

By getting in this box we will have a bill of $300 for the year plus keeping netflix for the other room and our parents to use makes $480 for the year.

As it stands we are paying almost $1000 between all of the accounts which would be a huge saving of $500 each year and have even better options from it.

I takes a lot of work to earn $500 the old fashioned way.

We did the same with our shopping habits the month before as we were throwing out too much food which after 13 years in retail is a pet peeve of mine. I have a very big dislike for waste. Especially avoidable waste so we came up with a plan for the week and have cut out 90% of our food waste. Now it all gets used except for the odd piece of fruit that doesn't last.

Again it was small steps like planning our meals for the week and buying fruit singly for the ones that were getting thrown out. Doing a bit shop at the weekend with a small top up in the local shop for a few basics.

Saving money and cutting out waste in the same breath. As with everything. Over the course of a year this will add up to hundreds of dollars.

Next up will be the household bills.
We will sit down and see where we can do better and save ourselves a fortune. at this rate the mortgage will be paid off years earlier than scheduled form some simple changes.

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11 comments
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how all of the little things add up over time to make huge gains

Definitely my strategy. Now I have more time this year I am going to sit down and make some changes similar to what you are doing. Great post and food for thought.

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I’m very frugal in my spending so I can relate a lot. Hopefully your plans work out.

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This is fascinating, I was JUST telling someone (well a whole group of people) that I prefer to make money than save :)

There's probably a full post in this, but in brief ...

  • We have a fixed amount of time, but we can prioritize how we spend that time
  • Our day-job for many of us will be pretty "stable" but that also means won't have much opportunity for growth (heck, my wages haven't kept pace with cost of living rise)
  • What we spend on is fairly inflexible after a point (we need food, shelter, power, etc)

In the context of a family or individual, cutting out Avacado toast will never get you into a Lambo, or into your own home for that matter. People just say that to make people with less money feel like it is a moral failing rather than society that puts them there.

When I made the statement about earning more, it was to our volunteer maker space.

Since the pandemic, we have been not making as much revenue to keep the space open. Other members wanted to cut costs or increase fees.

The problem as I see it is once you cut "optional" costs you are left with things you shouldn't cut. For our Maker Space, we need to be careful about the experience of being a member, cutting toilet paper and soap wouldn't be great.

If instead of cutting costs you grow your income there is no ceiling and you find a lot of your costs are tiny compared to the value. I built a former boss his slide deck this weekend in Keynote for $200 USD. It's something I can do quickly, he trusts me, and I could buy a lot of Avacado toast for that ;)

With the maker space, cutting the cleaning service would save $xxx but who is going to do it then? All volunteers ... and who wants to spend time in a place with filthy toilets? Instead, I suggested we remind folks that the space is still open and we try to attract back some of the people who left - their membership is worth way more than what we would save by cost-cutting.

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All those steps indeed do help.
And money saved is money that you don’t have to earn.

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The only way to be a squirrel and find extra nuts. You will be shocked at how one can save just on the every day things. We got rid of the tv box over 2 years ago and watch tv online through the smart tv. This is not hard and you are more clued up than me with this stuff. All the sport is available for free if you look and set the tv up correctly. Tv just get cyberflix and cinema loaded up and those give you what is aired today around the world plus more.

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Take half the money you save and put it into a compound daily calculator.

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I don't spend that much so I don't really have too much of an issue saving. The problem is that I waste quite a bit of time when that could be used to do a side hustle like being here on HIVE.

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Great post man, a big one to highlight for some people as well would be to reduce debt, with an eventual goal of removing it altogether - I am not talking about a mortgage or a car loan here - they are OK, so long as you are meeting those monthly pay downs and little by little reducing the principle that you owe. Reduce principle and make occasional pay downs too, as the quicker that principle reduces, the less interest you pay, simples :)

The main debt I am talking about here is credit card debt with it's often very high interest rates. My wife and I insist that the bank caps our credit cards at €500 max, so that they can never spiral, and we only use them when we have to (car rental, forgot ATM card etc) - that works pretty well. Those who allow €10K, €20K etc credit card debt to build up will be paying lots of high interest and only slowly reducing the debt and possibly even increasing it if they continue buying stuff on the card. It is very tempting, but is terrible for the household finances.

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