How do I limit spending money?

[deltabeta]

Hey fellas,

I'm 20 and I really want to stop spending money on useless things. Usually I control my spending by aligning myself to minimalistic lifestyle and buying only expensive clothes that last me years. For instance, I have 5 sweaters and 5 shirts. 1 expensive watch (swiss) I was inherited, I dont think I'll buy another one in my lifetime. And these things keep me uninterested in buying other stuff.

How do you guys limit your spending and keep that money idle in saving?

Thanks,
Delta-****ing-beta

 

[Tenacity]

HOW?

- You develop an annual budget in terms of spending that would be divided down into quarterly and monthly budgets.

- When developing the budget, look for ways to live as LESS COSTLY as possible, while still maintaining a quality life. You are 20 so you ought to be focused on living as cheap as possible now so you can save until you get into some sort of stable career.

- Apart of your budget and spending plan, would make sure XYZ percentage is left over to go towards a passive investment account. In terms of investing, you have four different types of passive investors:

* High Risk: You might put it into a balanced fund with most of it in stock indexes with a small amount in bond indexes. You would be 80% stocks and 20% bonds.

* Moderate: You would be about 50% stocks and 50% bonds.

* Conservative: You would be either 100% bonds or 80% bonds and 20% stocks.

* Very Conservative: You wouldn't be in the trading market at all, you would have the money parked in Long Term CDs with FDIC Insurance.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Speaking of living less costly, find a cheap beer you like. This stuff is $14 for a 30-pack:

 

[SeymourCake]

For every paycheck, take 10% of it and deposit it into your savings account.

 

[hanni]

live in an old mini-van. find a way to marry an asian MD, Dentist, engineer, physicist, or computer god. save the 40k per year she gives you (cash, untaxed) for 5 years, along with using your school loans and grants. Get a VA home loan, rent the place out out as 20 weeklly room rentals, and repeat. Once you have 5 such places, you dont have to live in one or manage any of them anymore. You can afford to pay a property management company to check on your in-house managerss., while you kick back on your (clear) 100k per year.

 

[macallik]

Check out the personal finance subreddit. Also, set up a budget with YNAB, check out websites like Personal Capital or Credit Karma to get smarter with your money. There is a big community out there and a lot of websites. You are not alone.

 

[hanni]

depending upon how much you want to spend, you can set up an "irrevocable trust", which you can't get money back out of, before such and such a date, or amount accrued therein. you make payments into it, and the savings thereof is enforced.

 

[LiveFreeX]

I'm 20 and I really want to stop spending money on useless things.

Before you get into making money, go and live for 6 months to a year with very little. Recommend saving up a few thousand dollars, then go down to Mexico and try and make it down there on what you managed to save in 5 months. It helps to solidify your budgeting skills and makes you a better bargain hunter. When I was in my early 20's I used to go down to MX on $3000 for a 6 month stint. I didn't have much furniture in my house, just a bed, couch and a tv but it only cost me $150/month. I found out how to go to a farmer's market and buy food for an entire month for just $70. I learned how to cook for myself and even how to have fun by just exploring the city. Eventually you will even find out how to make money.

Then go back to America and you will have a new appreciation for money, jobs and what you can do. I honestly don't know what other people spend their money on that they are so broke all the time.

I buy only cheap clothes and THEY last me years. I still have all the cheap $5 fake soccer shirts I bought 10 years ago in Brazil. I still have a TON of $1 shirts I bought in China 4 years ago. 'Expensive' does not equal quality, it equals 'stupid'. If you want to find out the difference between expensive and cheap quality clothing get a T-Shirt Press and a Vinyl cutter. Now order a blank tshirt for $1, go rip a brand name logo off the net with photoshop and have the vinyl cutter do its magic. Press the logo onto the shirt (10 minutes) and voila you've just created a $50 t-shirt. Do you know the difference between regular jeans and stone washed? The stone washed have been thrown into a vat of STONES and washed. Instead of paying $10 for jeans you pay $400. Its really important that you go to the parts of the world that manufacture the junk you pay premium dollars for at home, it will open your eyes to the scam that America has been pulling on its people for 50 years.

$14 for a 30-pack of beer which will last you a night, at best a week.

or spend $14 bucks and get into a new hobby that you can re-use with your friends over the entire year. It will make you healthier, happier,, more social, more productive and more competitive in the long run. Beer will make you fat and lazy. Changing your hobbies, habits and bargain hunting will make you happier and richer without ever having to change your job. If you aren't down with University, look for small month to year long educations that you can get that will double or triple your income. There is no need to go to college when fixing cars or driving trucks will bring better money, faster. And if you were smart, you could vacation in Mexico or some other small country, 6 months out of the year on your beer money.