May post size limit
Moving this section here:
Quick guidesE -> S -> B + I Path:
<For future edit>
E + I Path:
For salaries with 100k/mo and up:
There's too much room here actually, so it's very easy:
Set aside some cash for savings (do this monthly, the
first thing you should do to your income is place the
set amount directly to a savings account)
Set aside another % to your investment.
Then the rest will for your living and for lifestyle(!)
(I believe in being frugal, but I don't it should deprive
you from enjoying a decent life)
For salaries between 50k-100k/mo:
(You should also read the cautionary remark on 20k-50k/mo)
Set aside at least 10k to a savings account each month.
Choose carefully when getting into investments.
NEVER EVER EVER ask the opinion of people who never
had those investments, and ask people who had experience.
If they failed, ask them what made them fail. If they gained
ask them how it happened.
Failures to me are good news, 'cause it lets you know the
pitfalls of the investments, and you can avoid those accordingly.
People's natural reactions is to stay away from investments
that they hear even one remote failure.
To the greedy me, that's "Oh good, less competition, I can
get a bigger piece of the pie."
To the reasonable me, "The pie is too big for everyone, just
tell them their missing their chance."
Everything has a failure. It's up to you how to interpret them.
But to me, someone saying, "oh this mutual fund is going up
up and up, alot of us are getting good gains"... to me... that's
bad news, I might have missed the boat, but still I try to study
the investment.
For salaries between 20k-50k/mo:
This is, in my opinion, in the Philippines setting, the hardest.
Even harder than salaries below 20k.
Why? Money is funny:
- if we have a little of it, we whine and becoming problematic
- if we suddenly have a lot of it, "yaman yamanan", we splurge,
and forget about how we struggled, if we struggled before.
Just read through the budget step again.
Discipline is hardest when temptation is ever-present.
Having cash on hand, and credit cards to boot, will make you
spend, often times more than you actually earn.
Once that step is learned, just put the cash in your savings
and investment. (or for funding your business)
For salaries below 20k/mo:
This is the range where you usually have no choices.
Actually, I'll tell you, don't give yourself any choices.
Remove all doodads, things that don't add to your monetary
value.
Minimize your fixed costs etc.
And just put in a certain amount each month to savings.
IMHO, 20k and below salaries are perfect for MLM and direct
selling opportunities.
If you've ever played Cashflow 101, the game made by
Robert Kiyosaki, you'll understand what I'm saying. But
here is what I mean: MLM is low cost, yet the potentials are
huge.
If you want to go straight for a traditional business, should
things go wrong, you'll need extra capital, or you'll lose
your business. 20k and below salaries can't support that
(well for some types of businesses it is possible, but most
of the time, no)
MLM & direct selling on the hand are ever present. They
are always there, and once you are in, you can earn if
you want to.
As to sidelines at this amount, I don't really recommend
any other:
- e-loading is wasteful, takes time away from you, too much
capital for too little profit. and you don't consider the extra
phone, extra charging, (extra radiation
)
but most important, you don't learn anything in this business.
- trinkets and homemade stuff --> +1 for these since
there are no fixed costs, and you will learn how to sell
and market
- another job --> if you can handle the extra time and effort
then go, but do so not to support expenses that are
not important, but to grow your savings and investments
or to put up capital.
