what is up guys so today I'm gonna cover something that people keep asking me
about people say that they want to start full-time RVing but they just don't
understand how they're in debt just they just don't have the money and they don't
really know how they can get started so today I want to talk about the seven
steps that I took to save twenty thousand dollars over the course of one
year so over the course of one year I saved twenty thousand dollars and it's
not like I was making an absurd amount of money I was in E-4 in the Air Force
at the time so you can look that up and see how much they make per year it's not
very much but I was still able to do it by following these seven steps the first
step is to educate yourself educate yourself about money it's a topic that a
lot of people don't want to talk about because they feel uncomfortable with
money but let me tell you you will have a lot easier time saving if you
understand money and you are not scared of money so if you're the books that I
recommend to get you started to get you into that financial mindset are Rich Dad
Poor Dad the richest man in Babylon Think and Grow Rich which is probably my
favorite book that I've ever read wealth of nations there's just tons of books do
your do your research start with some of those and you will understand and be
able to handle your money in absolutely no time so the second step is to
understand where you are right now now the way you're gonna do this is it's
pretty simple you just track your spending so go to your bank account if
you don't have a bank account set up and you can't track it that way just start
writing down everything you spend your money on right now for the next 30 days
and that will give you a really good idea of where your money is going each
month the third step is to set up automatic withdrawals so I set up mine I
set up a twenty percent of my income withdraw on the 1st and 15th of each
month because I set up this withdraw is automatic withdrawal
I didn't even see the money leave my account I don't I didn't I don't see it
ever so if I never see it if it just automatically goes into a separate
account you can't spend it so you'll go to look at your bank account and say you
have 800 dollars in your bank account right now you wouldn't even you wouldn't
even notice the $200 that's missing when you look at a look at your bank account
and you say I have $800 I can only spend $100 because that's all the money that I
have if it's automatically taken out each time you get paid then it's out of
sight out of mind this step is one that will save you tons of money out of the
twenty thousand dollars that I saved at minimum five thousand dollars of it came
from just this just setting aside 20% at the get-go as soon as I get my paycheck
so I can't even touch it this is extremely important you have to
pay yourself first and when you read books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and the
richest man in Babylon they go they stress that through the entire book step
four is to separate your play money from the rest of your money now how you're
gonna do this is you are gonna have multiple separate accounts now this is
key when you are trying to set up a budget or plan or whatever you're trying
to do if you're trying to save money setting up separate bank accounts is a
very key thing to do now I personally have two saving accounts two investment
accounts and a checking account and my checking account is where I keep the
money that I am able to spend the automatic withdrawal that 20% that was
going straight into my investment account that's where I invest in just
low-cost index funds that just simply ride the market they average the market
they're about a 7 to 10% per year yield and they're just that's a it's a really
good investment to have now step number five is to cut out excess spending this
is where a lot of minimalism comes in not buying crap you don't need now I
take minimalism a little bit differently I do live in an RV so it's it's pretty
minimalistic but I don't completely deprive myself I'd like to have some
luxuries I don't take it to the extreme but only keeping items that are either
tools or bring you joy at this current point in time not in the past at this
current point in time is what I consider to be minimalism another way that I
personally cut excess spending was I really stopped drinking and I also quit
smoking I put all of that money directly into savings rather than destroying my
body and one of the other big huge expenses that most Americans just spend
a ridiculous amount of money on every year is eating out so I completely cut
eating out out I still did it every once in a while if I was like with a bunch of
friends or something like that but just pack your lunch if you work in an office
eat breakfast breakfast before you go so you don't have to grab anything on the
way and just cook cook dinner it's not that hard number six is to use apps and
technology there's tons of apps that roundup the dollar amount that you spent
and invest that change into an investment account or a savings account
and now there's also even credit cards I saw a fidelity credit card and I'm not
affiliated with fidelity by any means but I saw a fidelity credit card that
has 2% cash back but they put that 2% cash back straight into a fidelity
investment account and I thought that was really cool it just shows the
companies are out there trying to help you out a little bit and trying to get
you to invest it's it's so important to invest your money at an early age so
that you can retire at some point in your life and finally step 7 is to
eliminate your current debt so many people sit on their debt and they only
put the minimum payment towards it and they have their debt for the entirety of
the lifetime of the loan that is insane that's literally the opposite of
investing that is the company investing in you knowing that you're not gonna pay
the debt off before it's time the faster you pay off a loan the less
interest you pay on that loan and so many Americans pay thousands of dollars
in interest on loans every year I seriously don't think I can stress this
enough pay off your debt before your loan is up in the long run you'll just
save yourself thousands just thousands of dollars every dollar you pay off
early is saving you money and interest over the long and it's saving you
probably two dollars in the long run when I had student loan debt I was
paying $56 a month and 40 of that was going towards
interest and 16 was going towards the loan itself so when I took a large chunk
of my savings and paid off that debt I was literally saving myself thousands of
dollars in the long run thousands of dollars so think about that and really
try to eliminate your debt as soon as possible and do everything you can to
stay out of that those are my seven steps that saved me twenty thousand
dollars in one year on a very small income in the first place if you really
put in the effort and you really educate yourself because that is the key self
education is the key when it comes to money
nothing will beat that if you educate yourself in the long run you will save
and you will get yourself out of that and you will be able to do whatever it
is that you want in this world because financial independence is extremely
important I preach it all the time but I just I see so many people who have to
work or who are even our viewers who have to work camper they won't be able
to survive a lot of older people who are retired still have to work while their
RVing which is unfortunate it's unfortunate that nobody taught them that
nobody showed them and that they never got a chance to learn but now that it's
2017 you have no excuses the Internet's out there you have
everything at your fingertips so do yourself a huge favor and learn about
money if I can do it you can too and I hope you learned something from this
video if you did give it a thumbs up it's greatly appreciate
subscribe to the channel I do videos talking about money every once in a
while how to make money on the road and things things of that nature and just
how to save I think that's all I've got for today guys until next time I'll see
you later