Small steps to lighten my financial load!

Some of the books I’ve read on achieving millionaire status discuss the habits of those who actually earn and keep that much money (aside from those who win it, inherit it or make it quickly through good stock deals).  The books talk about those who scrimp and save, watch every penny and eliminate things that are just unnecessary.   So last night while doing my best Cinderella impression at the pot shrubbery station called our kitchen sink,,,I thought a lot about material things that me and the family just didn’t need.  My wife had already cancelled several of the wine clubs months ago and last week she cancelled the kids magazines they had been getting (like National Geographic for Kids), but I knew I wanted to go further with simplifying our lives and downsizing bills.  Thinking through what I really needed as I scrubbed and scrubbed, I decided I really didn’t need or want most of the magazine subscriptions we had,,,,,and I’ve let them run out,,,,purposefully tearing up the renewal bills and celebrating every small victory.

The other thing I’ve stopped doing and asked my wife to stop doing is any sort of auto renewal on anything.  To do this, you need to put a credit card down on most things,,,,like AAA, some insurances, magazines and lots of other conveniences.  STOP.  Before you know it,,,,you’ll look at your bills and wonder where all your money is going and what’s getting paid.  I did this several months ago and finally found everything that’s on auto-renewal.  My wife jokes that I’m the last person in the world to write checks for all of our bills, but I like the simplicity of knowing what I’m paying and for what time period.  This is what those millionaire books made a point of,,,,,people who knew what they were paying and decided on every cent were more likely to save that money than those who paid without much thought.  The latest book I’m reading takes this to an extreme that I can’t do.  It’s whole premise is the “worth” of your time on this earth and how much of your time and effort you’re willing to trade for every single dollar you earn in any job.  Pretty neat premise that’s opened my eyes to several things.  I started with simply steps,,,,like the ones above: tearing up renewal bills, eliminating wine clubs and auto-pay bills where possible, closely monitoring our non-food shopping to decide if what we buy is worth my time, eliminating Sirius XM and looking closely at what can fit on the boat and what will be trashed in storage.

These are small steps, but lead to overall savings if you can eliminate more and more or just not renew things like Sirius and magazine subscriptions.  Try it, you might not notice what you’re missing!