VikingKing
Banned
For all you ****ers running around pawning **** every other week to buy roach motel rooms and cases of Natty Light; Here are instructions on how not to be a ****ing dumb-ass financially.
http://oafnation.com/2014/11/11/stackin-chips-part-1/
This will be the first of a three part series: How to establish a budget, how to save/savings goals, and finally where to put that money once you have saved it.
We’ve all seen that 18 year-old-kid who used the few dollars he had after boot camp as a down payment on a truck; the truck he can’t afford to put gas in, put new tires on, and he struggles to even make the payments. The dealership told him “you’ll get promoted in no time, this car payment won’t seem like anything in a few short months.” He’s the obvious guy people point to when you think about military guys making poor financial decisions. Oddly enough, nobody points to the guys blowing their payday on clothes, booze, hotels, rental cars, guns, or other vices. The bottom line is this: unless you’re married with a few kids when you enlist, your first enlistment is a golden opportunity to save a good bit of money.
The key to successfully loading up a few stacks of cash for anybody is establishing and understanding your budget. The first thing you need to figure out is “what is my minimum cost to survive with my current bills.” For a kid fresh out of bootcamp the budget should include a cell phone, and any debt you came into the game with. Coming into the military you should have liquidated (sold) anything you had, paid off any car payments, and sold anything else you had laying around that you wouldn’t keep forever. An example of a quick breakdown of your monthly cost might be more complicated if you’ve been in the military for a while. A budget will allow you to see what you need to spend money on, what you need to cut costs on, and what you can spend every month or week on unnecessary items.
The costs of living for individuals will differ greatly. How much you spend can be figured out pretty easily in one month. Here are two options for doing this, Option 1: Put everything you purchase or pay on one credit or debit card. At the end of the month sit down and build your budget based off what you have spent that month. Option 2: Only spend cash, and collect a receipt for every transaction you make, at the end of the month build your budget using those receipts. An example of a monthly budget for a single guy might look like this:
FIXED COSTS Rent: $1000 Utilities: $300 Cable: $100 Internet: $50 Car payment: $250 Insurance: $100 Cell Phone: $100
FIXED TOTAL: $1900
VARIABLE COSTS Groceries: $400 Clothing: $150
Fuel: $200
VARIABLE TOTAL: $750
TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSE: $2650
If your monthly income is greater than your monthly expenses, you’re already a step ahead of most guys I help. If your monthly expenses are greater than your income, you’re in trouble and need to figure out where to cut cost. Do you need to trade that massive truck in for a fuel-sipping car? Do you need to cancel your cable bill? Have you been shopping too much and need to quit? We’ll talk about this more in-depth in part 2.
Now that you have outlined your budget and cut your monthly cost down to make your expenses less than your income, how do you stick to the budget? Most of your “fixed bills” will come out of a checking account automatically, and they should. Training requirements and deployments will make it challenging to keep up with your bills, and having your power turned off when you’re away for a few weeks would really suck. To track the rest of your monthly incidentals such as gas and groceries use cash. A weekly breakdown in your budget will make it easy to figure out how much cash you get to pull out on MONDAY. Pulling that money out on Friday could mean that you spend too much, and have trouble eating through the week. If you pull the cash out Monday you’re less likely to be spending it on stuff you don’t need. Pull out what you NEED for your budget, and make it work for the week. Grocery shopping and meal preps for your breakfasts and lunches will help cut costs on eating out. Waking up just 15 minutes early to make coffee and take to work can save you up to $100 a month alone.
The goal to all of this isn’t saving for that big truck you always wanted, or a new wardrobe. Those goals will come and go. The overarching goal of all this budgeting, tracking, and saving is financial freedom. Meaning, you *generally* have the freedom to buy what you need and want. Living in America means that we have better living conditions than the majority of the world. The goal is that when you’re a bit older, you aren’t making up for the mistakes you made as a kid. After a life full of training and deployments, it’s easy to fall into the cycle of “just got back from Afghanistan, better buy a new truck.” The reality is most of us AREN’T going to get smoked in country, and we can’t live out our lives expecting them to end abruptly. If you look at life as a mission, it’s critical to set yourself up for the future.
-Fish
http://oafnation.com/2014/11/11/stackin-chips-part-1/
This will be the first of a three part series: How to establish a budget, how to save/savings goals, and finally where to put that money once you have saved it.
We’ve all seen that 18 year-old-kid who used the few dollars he had after boot camp as a down payment on a truck; the truck he can’t afford to put gas in, put new tires on, and he struggles to even make the payments. The dealership told him “you’ll get promoted in no time, this car payment won’t seem like anything in a few short months.” He’s the obvious guy people point to when you think about military guys making poor financial decisions. Oddly enough, nobody points to the guys blowing their payday on clothes, booze, hotels, rental cars, guns, or other vices. The bottom line is this: unless you’re married with a few kids when you enlist, your first enlistment is a golden opportunity to save a good bit of money.
The key to successfully loading up a few stacks of cash for anybody is establishing and understanding your budget. The first thing you need to figure out is “what is my minimum cost to survive with my current bills.” For a kid fresh out of bootcamp the budget should include a cell phone, and any debt you came into the game with. Coming into the military you should have liquidated (sold) anything you had, paid off any car payments, and sold anything else you had laying around that you wouldn’t keep forever. An example of a quick breakdown of your monthly cost might be more complicated if you’ve been in the military for a while. A budget will allow you to see what you need to spend money on, what you need to cut costs on, and what you can spend every month or week on unnecessary items.
The costs of living for individuals will differ greatly. How much you spend can be figured out pretty easily in one month. Here are two options for doing this, Option 1: Put everything you purchase or pay on one credit or debit card. At the end of the month sit down and build your budget based off what you have spent that month. Option 2: Only spend cash, and collect a receipt for every transaction you make, at the end of the month build your budget using those receipts. An example of a monthly budget for a single guy might look like this:
FIXED COSTS Rent: $1000 Utilities: $300 Cable: $100 Internet: $50 Car payment: $250 Insurance: $100 Cell Phone: $100
FIXED TOTAL: $1900
VARIABLE COSTS Groceries: $400 Clothing: $150
Fuel: $200
VARIABLE TOTAL: $750
TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSE: $2650
If your monthly income is greater than your monthly expenses, you’re already a step ahead of most guys I help. If your monthly expenses are greater than your income, you’re in trouble and need to figure out where to cut cost. Do you need to trade that massive truck in for a fuel-sipping car? Do you need to cancel your cable bill? Have you been shopping too much and need to quit? We’ll talk about this more in-depth in part 2.
Now that you have outlined your budget and cut your monthly cost down to make your expenses less than your income, how do you stick to the budget? Most of your “fixed bills” will come out of a checking account automatically, and they should. Training requirements and deployments will make it challenging to keep up with your bills, and having your power turned off when you’re away for a few weeks would really suck. To track the rest of your monthly incidentals such as gas and groceries use cash. A weekly breakdown in your budget will make it easy to figure out how much cash you get to pull out on MONDAY. Pulling that money out on Friday could mean that you spend too much, and have trouble eating through the week. If you pull the cash out Monday you’re less likely to be spending it on stuff you don’t need. Pull out what you NEED for your budget, and make it work for the week. Grocery shopping and meal preps for your breakfasts and lunches will help cut costs on eating out. Waking up just 15 minutes early to make coffee and take to work can save you up to $100 a month alone.
The goal to all of this isn’t saving for that big truck you always wanted, or a new wardrobe. Those goals will come and go. The overarching goal of all this budgeting, tracking, and saving is financial freedom. Meaning, you *generally* have the freedom to buy what you need and want. Living in America means that we have better living conditions than the majority of the world. The goal is that when you’re a bit older, you aren’t making up for the mistakes you made as a kid. After a life full of training and deployments, it’s easy to fall into the cycle of “just got back from Afghanistan, better buy a new truck.” The reality is most of us AREN’T going to get smoked in country, and we can’t live out our lives expecting them to end abruptly. If you look at life as a mission, it’s critical to set yourself up for the future.
-Fish
