Are you living paycheck to paycheck?
It's always fun when you go home and see the family and friends you grew up with, it’s often quite humbling and exciting at the same time.
I had a BBQ for some friends and family to introduce them to Arlene (my partner) most of them had never met her in the flesh so I had them all in one place to get to know her. Given the situation my mates took full advantage to tell them about all of my misgivings, embarrassing moments and ex-girlfriends. It then prompted my parents and family to join into the remembrance BBQ.
Well the dirty laundry was aired and to her credit Arlene still loves me. The most interesting bit is looking back at where you come from. You see one of the stories that I had forgotten was that when I was a kid we only had 1 toothbrush for the whole family. It wasn’t that Mum and Dad were against an individual toothbrush it was simply that like most middle class families back then we were cash strapped, now I wouldn’t say poor, we were just an average middle class Australian family in the 70s. We didn’t have a lot but Mum and Dad worked hard living from paycheck to paycheck and sometimes the paycheck didn’t extend to the end of the month.
I remember whilst still at school I was working 2 jobs at McDonalds and then at a Foodstore on weekends that I would hang out to be paid. McDonalds paid weekly and the Foodstore was great because it paid cash at the end of the shift but guaranteed regardless of when I got paid I had spend it by the next paycheck.
I have grown up since McDonalds, I now own a business that pays me a slightly bigger paycheck on a monthly basis and regular dividends as well as money from remortgaging my portfolio. The point is that I still receive a paycheck of sorts but I no longer worry about running out of money or hanging for my next paycheck.
Something changed in my life… I moved from living paycheck to paycheck to living a life by design. “By Design” I mean “My design”
My point is this…
Are you still living paycheck to paycheck? Do you plan your month around how much money you have left in the bank or worse, how much credit you have on your card?
It doesn’t matter if you had to share your toothbrush as a kid, it doesn’t matter if you just got divorced and they took everything. It doesn’t take a huge property portfolio to move away from the paycheck mentality.
Living paycheck to paycheck means you still have not mastered the fundamentals of money. Whenever I feel the need I come back to a book called “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S Classon.
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As the book says –
“If you have not acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths, it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them.”
It couldn’t be simpler than this. You either don’t know the rules or you don’t observe them. So which is it? No excuses, no reasons, nothing just a bare naked this or that answer.
So if you are living paycheck to paycheck then you need to do something different, change something.
The definition of stupidity – Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Let’s get serious, 2007 is 1/12 already over and 2008 will be here soon. If you don’t stake your claim on life now then someone will stake their claim on your life.
It’s not that hard to get out of the paycheck mentality, some simple changes, read a simple book, enlist a mentor and begin your path to taking back your purpose in life.
If you are unsure what I mean by all this then give me a call and we can get the wheels in motion. Make something of 2007.
Live with passion,
Brett Wood
PS. Click here to go through to Amazon.co.uk to purchase “The Richest Man in Babylon”