Living Within Your Means - A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom

By Jennifer Raschig

Struggling to make ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck? There is hope! Discover how you can experience financial freedom. Learn to identify your true needs, understand your real expenses and create a plan that will allow you to get ahead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365912481

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Living Within Your Means - A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom

Living Within Your Means: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom

Copyright Information

Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Raschig

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2017

Print edition ISBN 978-1-387-06691-9

E-book edition ISBN 978-1-365-91248-1

More Than Organizing

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Jefferson, WI 53549

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Dedication

Special thanks to my mother, Linda, for forcing me to think outside the box, and to my husband, Dan, for being a great cheerleader! And, of course, the best children ever - Blake and Logan, for sacrificing many nights without their mom.

Preface

George and Sally

Sally had trouble holding down a job. There was always something that prevented her from staying - whether she got fired or she decided that the work was too hard or boring. Plus, Sally often wanted things to show for her hard work. She would spontaneously purchase new cell phones, laptops, or the newest fitness device to reward herself for working. Eventually, Sally decided to go back to school to earn her degree, but she couldn’t possible work at the same time.

George, Sally’s husband, had a steady job that paid less than $50,000 a year. The work wasn’t terribly interesting, but he knew he had to stick with it. Being a bit more realistic about their financial situation, he tried to cut corners where he could. He had a hard time telling Sally that they really couldn’t afford all the stuff she was buying. George eventually took on a second job to make ends meet.

Still, with only George working and Sally not cutting her spending at all, their debt overwhelmed them. While they were making most of their minimum payments on their credit cards, sometimes they missed a month on one so they could pay another. Sally felt like they would never get out of the vicious cycle unless they filed bankruptcy. Of course, George argued that they wouldn’t be in this situation if Sally could just stop spending money and go back to work. But just as he could not tell Sally no when she wanted to buy, he eventually gave in to the bankruptcy.

Now, George and Sally only had their mortgage payment and their car payment. After paying those, they had quite a bit leftover that had previously gone to credit cards. Sally caught on to that quickly and started buying again. This time, they weren’t going in to debt because creditors wouldn’t give them any credit, but they weren’t getting ahead either.

Does this sound familiar? Unfortunately, it does for far too many people. I hope you picked this book up before you got to this point - but if not, that’s ok. This book is meant to give you hope, to help you dig out of the hole and eventually get ahead.

What is Living Within Your Means?

Introduction

To be successful with this guide, you need to understand what the concept of living within your means truly requires. In essence, living within your means is creating a lifestyle that allows you to, at the very least, have your needs met without going into debt. In basic terms, you can live on the money coming in to your bank account every month. When you think about that concept, what do you need to do differently to accomplish it? If you follow this guide, in the end, you could be living debt-free and maybe even pulling ahead.

The key, of course, is being able to follow the guide. If you are married, or in a relationship and you share financial resources, you must follow this guide as a team. Ultimately, if you and your partner are not on the same financial terms, you will have conflict when trying to carry out many of the tasks outlined in these pages. To put this in perspective - if you go out and buy a $1200 computer and don’t consult them, will they be upset? If the answer is anything other than no, you will have conflict. If you haven’t pulled them in already, now is the time. Talk to them about this book and how you are trying to improve your lives together and the need for them to be involved. You may meet some resistance. Finances are frequently a touchy subject. If you think you might have some difficulty in approaching your partner about this, try taking the stance of planning for your future together. Painting a picture of a bright future puts a positive spin on what you’re trying to do (and it is beneficial for your relationship)! If you don’t take the time to work through the resistance, you may not be able to implement some of the changes recommended. Your partner may feel hurt, resentful, or angry if you begin cutting expenses in areas they aren’t comfortable with. This is an important point and you need to take sufficient time to ensure your partner is on board.

Needs vs. Wants

Now, when we break down the concept of living within your means, we’re left with two major components: 1. Have your needs met, and 2. Don’t go into debt. While some debt may not be considered bad, when you are learning to live only on the income you currently have, you will get in the habit of spending money only on something you could pay cash for.

Needs can mean different things to different people. My definition is housing, food, and sufficient transportation. Within each of those categories are individual items that we would most likely consider a necessity. Take housing, for example. Whether you live in an apartment, condo, or house, there are certain other expenses that go along with that. Utilities, such as electricity and water, and insurance are a couple examples of other expenses associated with your residence.

Some things, like meeting obligations of already existing debt, may seem like a need - and in the long run, your financial situation will be much better and easier to navigate if you meet that commitment. However, you can LIVE without paying that debt if you had to. Your definition of a need may be different, and that’s ok. But keep my definition in mind as you move through the exercises.

In the fast-paced society we live in, where information is immediately available, we get accustomed to having what we want, when we want it - usually right now. It’s sometimes difficult to delay purchasing, especially if we have a credit card with an available balance. The advent of online shopping with fast shipping only feeds the spending monster inside some of us. We must train ourselves to resist immediate gratification. This may be the hardest part of living within your means. You may slip up occasionally as you move toward financial freedom. Don’t let that stop you from your goal. Acknowledge your mistake and get back on track.

When considering a purchase, think about the categories of needs or