- Hi guys, it's Mark.
So as some of you already know
one of my biggest passions is saving money.
By the age of 22, I had to actually managed to save
over a $100,000 cash in my bank account,
and I had a net worth probably three times that,
but it wasn't always this way.
A little over three years before this
I was buried in what felt like crippling debt.
Now I really understand if you're starting
from zero or even in debt, like I was,
it can feel impossible to move forward.
And I'm not here to tell you this is gonna be easy
but with the money saving tips and strategies
I'm going to be sharing with you today
it's certainly possible to get some money saved up.
The only reason I can remember the exact amount
was because at 22, I spent a $100,000.
Hold on with that.
I'll tell you how I spend my a 100K later in the video.
Let's first talk about how I got into debt
and how you can avoid making the same mistakes.
I remember when I'd just turned 18
a friend of a friend agreed to sell me his car.
I didn't have the money at the time
but he convinced me it was a good idea
to take out a credit card, and completely max it out.
I didn't really understand how credit cards work
because they never really covered that in school.
But he told me if I fixed up the car a little bit
I'd be able to sell it for a profit
and pay off the credit card within a month.
And then I wouldn't be paying any interest.
Now being young and a little bit silly,
it seemed like a no brainer to me.
A few days after buying the car, you guessed it,
the engine blew up.
I had been sold a faulty car
and I was left with a large credit card bill
that I had no way of paying back.
Over time this credit card bill started growing
until I fell, it absolutely crippled me.
In that moment I made a promise to myself
that if something sounded too good to be true,
then it probably was.
I remember sitting back on this big old brown couch
and wishing it would just swallow me up.
My credit score was terrible.
My future didn't look great, but I decided
I wasn't gonna let my life be ruled by one mistake.
I wanted to pay off my debts and save lots of money.
And you can unlock exactly how I did it
just by clicking (clicking)
that thumbs-up button.
So first I started tracking all of my money.
Every penny that went in and out
of my bank account I tracked.
I thought my bank account a bit like a ship
with a hole in it.
And it was slowly dragging me down.
I needed to find the holes so that I could fix them
and get my life back on track.
Nowadays, it's even easier to do this.
As you can download a budget management app
like Yolt or Mint.
I'll leave some links in the description below.
Trust me, if you take the time to do this
you will be amazed how much money you're losing
from little expenses you don't really need.
One that's a huge problem now
is all the subscription services.
You know, like your cell phone, Netflix,
and even those mystery boxes we all sign up for.
Now, we sign up for these things
and then we never cancel them.
And every month they leach off our bank accounts
even if we don't use them.
By tracking everything it gives you a much better idea
of your financial situation.
Once you, where your money's going
it's actually much easier to take control of it.
With this information,
I was able to take the next step
and set some targets.
Without a target it's very, very hard to save any money
because as soon as something shiny and new comes along
you end up blowing all your money
and having to restart from zero.
A target gives you a direction and helps you to resist
all those personalized ads on social media
that are trying to separate you from your hard-earned cash.
I first had a year-long vision
which was to be entirely debt-free by the end of the year.
But I knew if I was going to achieve that
I needed to break it down into manageable steps.
When I started working backwards from my vision
and thinking how much I needed to save every month,
every week, or even every day,
everything seemed much more achievable.
I knew that if I hit my savings targets every week
then I would achieve my vision.
These are called process targets
and they're great is they allow you to take small steps
towards a big vision.
The only thing that could stop me now was myself.
So I need to set some rules.
I fully committed to these rules,
and I printed them out and I stuck them
on my bathroom mirror.
Every day I would read them
so that I would stay on track.
It made it a lot easier for me to make the right choices
when I was tempted to give up.
Rule number one was save first and live on
what was left over.
By making my targets more important than my lifestyle
it meant I never had that much money to waste
so I made the most of every penny.
Rule number two was wait 24 hours before buying anything.
Have you ever really got excited about buying something?
And then a few days later that feeling just fades away
and you start to regret what you've bought.
By waiting 24 hours to buy something
you're able to think about it
with a much clearer mind.
Just doing this it saved me so much money,
especially when I nearly bought a jet ski.
My friend had just bought one of these
and was going out every weekend and having a great time.
He gave me a go, and as you can imagine,
I absolutely loved it.
So I decided I'd buy one.
However, I waited 24 hours and decided to just go out
on my friend's for the next four weekends.
I had a great time, but then he decided to sell it.
He said he was bored of it, and he would.
To be honest, I'd enjoyed riding it
but I felt the same.
So by waiting that 24 hours
it saved me a big impulse purchase I would have regretted.
Rule number three was not to fall victim to peer pressure
and lifestyle inflation.
You know, it's so easy to increase your spending
when you start earning a little bit more money
because you wanna impress your friends
and your family.
But if you can resist this
you'll be able to save a lot, lot more.
I actually still shop at the cheapest grocery stores
because I know it's all the same stuff, Just better value.
The next step was to start paying off
all my high interest debts.
I had lots of different debts.
some from friends and families.
and others from credit cards.
And as balanced as it may sound
I needed to prioritize the highest interest debt first,
which was the credit cards.
As they were actually costing me more money
and also destroy my credit score.
There was really no point having money in a savings account
paying one to 2% interest
if I was still paying down a loan
that was charging me 20+ % by paying that off
that was like getting a 20% return on the stock market,
which is pretty spectacular.
So if you have debts and money in savings,
then pay them down.
That's what I would do.
It's the best guarantee return you're ever likely to get.
So I stopped using my credit cards
and I set up automatic payments
so that I wouldn't be late paying back any of my bills
the faster I could pay these debts off the better.
And then I could be using my credit cards responsibly
to build my credit score.
In order to do this I had to master the next step,
which is living frugally.
But Mark, I don't wanna live off coupons.
Well, lots of people think that being frugal
means you have to cut back on everything
including the things you love to do
but I don't think that's true
unless what you love is going out shopping
and spending hundreds of dollars in the shopping mall.
I think you'll be just fine.
It's all about looking for alternatives
that'll cost you a little bit less.
So I sat down and planned out how I could adapt
in different ways in my life to cut down on food costs.
So I started cooking at home instead of going out.
I was able to make meals last two or three days,
which was great.
I reduced my monthly bills by turning off the lights
and the heating when I didn't need them on.
This may seem like something really small
but it all added up, especially back then.
For my travel I considered a few option.
I could use public transport,
which is a lot cheaper than a car, but it wasn't practical
in my situation because I needed to be able to get to work,
and there wasn't a bus stop nearby.
I needed to find the best option possible.
So I started car hacking.
I would buy a car once it lost most of its value,
I'd drive it around for a while
and then sell it for the exact amount that I bought it for,
and sometimes even more.
So effectively the cars I drove were free.
The only cost was fuel, how cool is that?
When I went shopping, I stopped falling for the branding.
It's easy to think that a product is better
because the packaging looks nice
but actually it's usually just the same thing.
You just end up paying extra for the fancy box.
Next time you're in Walmart buying paracetamol
check the PL number on the back of the box.
I looked the other day and the branded cold and flu tablets
and Walmart's own brand cold and flu tablets
both had the same pill number.
This means they were both made in the same factory
but it had a $3 difference.
This is just one example
of how we're being scammed by the branding.
I don't know about you, but every now and again
I get the urge to spend a little bit of money on myself
as a bit of a treat, but I actually try and trick myself
into buying assets rather than liabilities.
Good example of these are Rolex watches
and stocks and shares.
By the way Webull are giving away three free stocks.
If you wanna check it out, I'll leave a link
in the description below.
But just going back on my spending
would have taken me too long
as I needed to take the next step
which was increasing my income.
Most people that I've met are very good
at either saving, or they're very good at earning,
but to be truly wealthy, you need to be good at both.
I'm sure you've heard the stories
about famous athletes that have been paid millions
over the years only to go broke a few years later
because I can't control their spending.
Their lifestyle inflation is out of control,
and when their career ends and the money dries up
they just can't adjust their lifestyle to the lower income.
I started multiple side hustles like flipping cars
and teaching people to fly radio control models.
For instead of just using this money to go and have fun,
I saved a 100% of it.
This wasn't easy, but I knew,
that I could use this money to escape my nine to five job
by building more income streams.
This was the investment step.
I knew that this was the only way to dramatically
multiply my money.
Once I had 15K saved up
I got a 30 year mortgage on a small apartment.
I initially moved in, but I quickly realized
that this was a bad idea
as I bought a liability
that was gonna drain money from me every month,
making it nearly impossible to save.
I had to turn this into an asset.
So I decided to rent it out,
and I moved in with my girlfriend.
The rent was paying off the mortgage
and also giving me a bit of extra money left over
which I continue to save.
I then used that cash
and my apartment as leverage to get a business loan.
I was turned down a few times
but I eventually managed to get one.
It was definitely hard going back
into debt after finally getting out of it.
But this time was different, it was good debt.
I was investing in myself and I had a plan
for that debt to put money in my pocket
and not take it away.
I started my shop and within a year
I'd paid the full debt back and was debt free once again.
This really taught me that debt isn't always bad.
And if used correctly, like with a mortgage
and a business loan
then it can really help build your net worth.
My money in the bank account started to quickly build up
to over a $100,000.
And I knew I had to do something with it
to continue growing my net worth.
The only reason I can remember the exact amount
that I had 22 was because I spent
a $100,000 on my next piece of real estate,
which was actually my childhood home.
That might sound like a big deposit, and it was 50% in fact.
This probably wouldn't be something that I'd advise now
but it was great at the time
because mortgages were really expensive,
as interest was very, very high.
This kept the monthly payments low.
So I was still able to continue to save.
So I'm gonna leave the next video right there
but don't click on it just yet.
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