The year is almost about to end. It’s been a great year for me because this year taught me a lot of things about saving and investing. Now, we’ll gonna start a brand new year and I wanna start this year with a good financial planning. It’s exciting for me because for the first time, I’ll just basically do two things with my money; SAVE and INVEST. No more debts, no more splurge spending and more on frugal living. The past 4 years of my life has been centered into paying debts; paying things that won’t give me huge returns in the future. With all my debts behind, I look forward for a future with abundance.
Now, exactly what do I plan to do financially when the year 2016 comes? Here are some things I plan to do;
- Build my emergency fund. I had a bank account opened solely for the purpose of building an emergency fund but there are times that I spend some of the money I save in it and weren’t replaced as soon as I get my salary. This coming year, I plan to putting up at least 10% of my salary every month on that account and I’ll make a pact to myself that I would not spend it unless an immediate EMERGENCY arises. I really need to stick with this plan no matter what happens because I wouldn’t able to build it if I sometimes spend what’s in it.
- Build my splurge account. Yes that’s right because it really can’t be helped. Being frugal doesn’t mean that you’ll literally deprive yourself of the comforts of life. I mean everyone needs to go out and have some fun during weekends or maybe buy something to reward myself. 5-10% of my salary every month is enough to build it. It will also help me control this type of spending because I’ll be only limited to what this account has. So basically, it’s a way of saving more money.
- Increase investing money every month. From 20%, I’ll make it 30% because there are times that I can’t buy the stocks I want because of the limited buying power I accumulate every month. I think that if I want to grow my investments quicker, I should always have enough buying power to take advantage of the market when it’s down. Today’s market is always down and in a sideways movement and I’m glad it is because I had bought stocks trading on buy below prices of Truly Rich Club’s SAM Table. Increasing it to 30% will mean more buying power and more board lot to buy.
- Cut out more on spending. To make this savings happen, I need to balance out my spending habits so that I can follow the minimum percentages I set in my financial planning. This I need to plan out in a more detailed manner because I have so many expenses and will take time to study on how to minimize it.
- Look for other ways to increase cash flow. I’ve been inspired by the stories in the Wealth Strategies newsletter of some Truly Rich Club members who made it successful in the Internet Marketing niche. Now, I’ve been reading more about Internet Marketing and as of now I’m exploring some of the possibilities of making money through the Internet. If I make something out of this journey, it will be directly added to my portfolio to make it grow faster. One thing I learned is that it’s not easy as everyone thinks but that’s the challenge I’m trying to beat.
- Continue writing my investing experiences and new-found wisdom in this blog. I haven’t been writing much because I had many tasks and schedules to meet in my day job. I go home tired and writing an article becomes the least of my priorities since my mind and body is almost dried up already. But anyway, I look forward to sharing more of my experiences and new-found knowledge in the field of stock market investing.
Well that would be my list as of now. What’s yours?
If you’re just starting out just like me 6 months ago, or you’re already an investor who made very bad investment decisions this year, I guess now is the better time to make a definite financial plan before the new year comes.
I now leave you with this random quote I found on google by Denis Waitley.
The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them. Winners can tell you where they are going , what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing their adventure with them.
– Denis Waitley, Human Achievement Expert
Happy saving and investing!