In the financial world we live in today getting ahead is hard from rising costs
to stagnating wages every day is a battle unfortunately a lot of people are
bringing a knife to this gun fight and are acting as their own worst enemy by
succumbing to certain detrimental habits of which three are the most precarious
if you're feeling like getting ahead with your money is unnecessarily
difficult right now then make sure you're not making any of the mistakes
that i'm about to get into mistake number one chasing quick wins whether
you realize it or not building wealth is a war of attrition those who can stay in
the game the longest win and those who suffer from short-sightedness lose it's
really that simple if you don't believe me take jeff bezos as an example no one
expected an internet-based business that sold books to turn into one of the most
transformative businesses the world has ever seen but here we are however we
only got to this point because jeff bezos had a vision and was willing to
invest decades of his life into making his dream a reality notice what word i
just used there decades not a week not a couple of months or even a year decades
now i am no jeff bezos but i know that in my own pursuit for more wealth the
longer i remain consistent in my efforts the more success i have enjoyed in fact
two situations come to mind when i think about how playing the long game has
helped me win in my own financial journey the first pertains to my journey
through post-secondary education you see while most people have the goal of
getting in and out of college as quickly as possible i never got that memo and
spent roughly seven years pursuing my own academic pursuits for instance
instead of getting a four-year degree like most of my peers i went to college
got a diploma did a bachelor's and a master's degree and obtained my cpa and
cia designation now i'm not saying this to brag being a student after 25 isn't
exactly going to score you points to the ladies or your mom who you're probably
still living with if you take this route i'm merely saying this because hanging
in there to win long term when everyone else quits early has allowed me to now
have a distinct advantage compared to my peers while my friends struggle to get
it promoted or even get a job in many cases i've never had that problem
because my educational background the truth is that while others sought out
the path of least resistance by getting in and out of school as quickly as
possible i was thinking long term and as such pursued more education than most
people i can say that even though that educational path took years off my life
literally and metaphorically i've been able to bear more fruit than my peers as
a result my second foray into playing the long game to win financially
pertains to my youtube journey you may or may not know that i started this
channel back in 2019 after seeing a ton of youtube channels blow up and make
tens of thousands of dollars a month which of course prompted me to follow
suit as such i started a three-year and counting grind on what i would say is by
far the hardest platform to grow on i'll admit that i wanted to quit about a
hundred times during that first year there were only so many times you can
stomach seeing a video you worked on for 10 hours get four total views thanks mom
and dad fortunately i'm more stubborn than i am why so i kept at it and now
the channel makes me over a hundred thousand dollars a year which i teach
others how to do the same in my course six figure tuber honestly if three years
ago you'd have told me where i'd be at today i honestly wouldn't have believed
you but here we are if you've been following these two stories closely you
realize the common theme winning takes time unfortunately we live in a world
where we want everything now if you ask me this has been perpetuated by the
world of instant food instant messaging and same day delivery that we live in
today simply put we aren't set up to cultivate the trade of patience sadly
this needed now mentality is the first common trait most if not all broke
people have they want quick wins in their investments or they want to become
rich by next year from my own experience and the experiences of those around me
what comes quick goes quick or never comes at all for instance look at how
many people tried to strike rich with dogecoin or gamestop stock sure some
people did make off like bandits if they got in early however most people ended
up buying well above the normalized price putting their portfolio in the red
for perpetuity now you may be wondering why broke people gravitate to quick win
situations and i think it boils down to two main reasons first broke people want
quick wins because they simply can't afford to play the long game if they
don't make money right away then whatever endeavor they are taking on
won't be feasible for them i see this all the time with my youtube clients
those who can afford to take things slow end up seeing the most results but those
who are hoping that youtube will be their be-all and end-all to their
financial problems burn out fast and never see a penny back from their
efforts in my own youtube journey i didn't make a single cent for over two
years and if i was going to go for quick wins i would have never gotten to where
i am today however it takes money to afford to have this long-term mindset
which is if you ask me the biggest problem broke people have the second
reason broke people like quick wins is that quick wins are all they know given
that they are already broke they probably only ever made short-term
decisions up until this point in their life this could be choosing to spend
every last time from their paychecks to passing on post-secondary education or
simply spending every non-working hour they have binge watching netflix i will
leave this first mistake at this nothing worth having comes easy and a little bit
of patience goes a long way especially when it comes to your money mistake
number two over rewarding themselves do you remember when you used to bring home
your straight-a report card and your mom would treat you to extra gaming time or
your favorite dessert well i don't because i wasn't a straight-a student
but i am sure some other students were making their moms proud with their marks
and were being handsomely rewarded for their efforts needless to say for most
people when we achieve good things in life we are rewarded for it for instance
if you lose 50 pounds you'll probably gain the praise of everyone around you
if you have a child you'll have your house filling up with baby gifts we've
been conditioned to connect our positive results to rewards and while this could
mean a cute outfit for your newborn it could also mean putting yourself into
dire financial straights and i'll explain why that is now you see as
humans we rarely like to do things that don't yield results like i just said in
the last example we wouldn't diet if it didn't lead to looking better in the
mirror alternatively we wouldn't be clocking into our jobs every day if we
weren't collecting a paycheck every two weeks simply put we need rewards to
prompt certain behaviors now when used responsibly rewards are a very powerful
behavioral tool but when they're taken to the extreme they can literally
[ __ ] any chance you have of getting ahead financially one prime example of
this is what's known as lifestyle inflation or lifestyle creep this
financial phenomenon takes place when someone's standard of living or
lifestyle costs rise as they make more income for example when you're making
fifty thousand dollars a year you are living in a one bedroom apartment and
taking the bus to work over time as your income has risen you now have a single
home to yourself and drive a brand new car it's this simple principle of more
money and more money out and feeling like you should be constantly rewarding
yourself for your career or your income advancements unfortunately though this
mindset is a one-way ticket to perpetual penary and will plague you regardless of
the size of your paychecks in fact a recent study by the company's payments
and lending club found that 53 percent of millennials making over a hundred
thousand dollars a year we're living paycheck to paycheck which goes to show
that making a decent income isn't a foolproof strategy for living a good
financial life so how do we solve this overspending issue it comes down to one
word balance i'm happy to announce that you can have your take needed to when it
comes to making and enjoying your money here's the approach i share with people
who want to avoid this plague that is lifestyle inflation whenever you see a
rise in your income use the 10 rule this 10 rule implies that you can spend up to
10 of your increase in income any way you want here's an example of how this
would work in practice let's say you get a promotion at work that increases your
income from 50 000 to 60 000 a year your total increase in income is 10 000 which
means that when employing the 10 rule you can spend up to a thousand dollars
guilt-free this rule takes into account the fact that the increase in income is
before tax and still leads you to saving and hopefully investing the majority of
this extra money while still enjoying some of the fruits of your labor in the
short term in case you were wondering this rule can also be applied to any
increases in income from raises promotions windfalls or any additional
streams of income you may have the main goal here is to use the bulk of your
income to progress financially in the long term while keeping your motivation
high in the present by enjoying some short-term gratification as well mistake
number three being financially blind have you ever heard the saying you can't
see the forest for the trees well for 29 years of my life which is the entirety
of it so far i thought the saying went you can't see the forest from the trees
which to me made no sense because i mean the force is right in front of you so
just open your damn eyes now i can't be one to judge because obviously i
couldn't even get the saying right for many years but when it came to realize
the essence of the saying it really opened my eyes to one of the biggest
issues broke people experience on a day-to-day basis if you're unfamiliar
the saying can't see the forest for the trees means that you're so involved in a
situation that you can't see the bigger picture this is the experience that most
broke people are in when it comes to their finances you see the life of
someone who struggles financially is based on perpetual cycle of what i call
the double a matrix action and anxiety for one they are always in a constant
state of action which typically comes in the form of work most broke individuals
work two or more jobs because their income and spending habits require them
to remain constantly busy then there's anxiety when they aren't working they're
worried about maintaining those income streams that are barely allowing them to
get by hence the double a matrix that many broke people find themselves in
unfortunately when you're in the double a matrix you're so consumed with what's
right in front of you such as completing your work shift or not being overwhelmed
by your emotions that you can't see the bigger picture this bigger picture is
your financial roadmap most broke people are so focused on the street names and
traffic lights instead of seeing the grander city map and this is holding
them back tremendously now i'll be the first to admit that when you're always
one missed paycheck away from losing your house or being evicted it's not
easy to see life from a zoomed out perspective however it's vital to do so
if you want to avoid being broke forever this is why no matter what financial
state you're in it's imperative to take time to review your finances on a
regular basis i call them money dates mainly because i can actually tell my
friends that i go on dates when they ask how my dating life is going but you
should be allocating time every week to reviewing your current financial
position by doing so you can assess whether that debt balance that's been
hanging over your head is actually going down or whether your efforts to cut out
expensive coffees is working or whether you've just replaced that expense with
going out to eat more instead alternatively you can determine if your
current income plan of working three jobs at minimum wage is going to allow
you to live the lifestyle you want when your life priorities shift as you age
all these financial and overall life decisions can only be tackled when you
make time to assess your situation tweak things as needed and ensure that you
remain on the right path to achieving all of your financial goals fortunately
if you can avoid chasing quick wins can manage your spending and ensure that you
make deliberate financial decisions being financially destitute doesn't have
to be a reality you have to partake in hey it looks like youtube thinks this
next video is the one that will change your financial life forever give it a
watch and let's see if they're right