So based on a goverment study, we are spending above our mean on average o.O That’s definitely not a good thing!

Based on the article Americans spend every cent – and more:

Friday morning the government will report on personal income and spending for November. For the last 19 months, the report has shown a negative savings rate. That means American consumers are spending more than they’re taking home after taxes. The savings rate was a negative 0.6 percent in October. In other words, the typical American spent $100.60 for every $100 of take home pay.

But things aren’t as grim as the article says based on Personal Saving Rate is a Misleading Indicator, which has a lot of truth in it:

To calculate the personal saving rate, government statisticians subtract taxes and spending from personal income. Income includes wages, salaries, interest, dividends, rent received, small-business profits, and some government benefits. Excluded are withdrawals from IRAs and 401ks, as well as capital gains. This is inconsistent with how most people measure their private fiscal health.

I think whether the situation is as bad as it sounded at first. We needs to go back to the most basic rule of personal finance, to keep ourselves under control :P Keep it in mind!!

For those who know me, I am a fan of punctuality and would like the same of others. I know there are situations that can keep us from being exactly on time, and that is understandable and acceptable. It just annoys the heck of of me when some people seem to “inherently” lack punctuality.

I think it speaks a lot about that person, that it is a demonstration of good manners. It shows the person’s attention and energy to form their habits. How? Here’s how. From how you plan your time to arrive at an appointment, it shows the way you manage your time, and that you will apply the same methodology to your daily schedule and organization of events. In the end, being to an appointment is equivalent to running late on other things also because of the same planning methodology applied, which is the estimating to be “right on” (“late”) out of habit.

It’s even worse when I hear people say, “oh, I’m always late, it’s just me…” It speaks clearly about the personality. If that’s the case and you even realize it, then why don’t you fix it? Why not make it a habit to be on time? It just goes to show how you are unable to correct your own mistake and improve yourself.

More over, tardiness is like stealing time from other people and time is priceless. So another way to think about this is – Having punctuality or being on time is another form of respect for others.

It is in my nature to avoid those people, once I observe who has the “nature” to be late. I’m talking about some serious tardiness here, like 15 min+ on multiple occasions. For friends, I will provide some suggestions/warnings before any act of distancing myself from them. The way I see this is, why waste my precious time for folks like that? You should consider the same.

I was talking with a friend a few days ago, and on a topic that I cannot recall.
He said something along the line, “Hey, it’s okay to buy/get that, you are not a student anymore.”
To which I respond, “I can still live like a student even if I’m no longer one…”

What is the lesson I’m trying to teach here? I would say it’s one of the more basic rule to controlling your personal finance – you don’t have to spend more because you make more. Here is the most basic rule.

Why is it so important? Let me take my chance to reflect on something came up in conversation with a friend at work, who said, “Things seem to stay the same. I know I’m making more, but I’m also spending more.” The logic is ridiculously simple. You really don’t save more if you are spending more when you make more.

I’m not saying one should be cheap and live like a homeless. I fully believe that there is a certain level of standard of living we should keep to make ourselves content and happy, but we should not justify ourselves to spend twice the money just because we make double (if it ever doubles…) :P Peace~

At some point in life, we have to start taking true responsibility. We have to acknowlege that my world, my life, ME!, is a direct result of my own decisions and thoughts. We have to get the thought planted into our brain…

I, as I exist NOW, is 100% the result of my own decisions.

There, that’s basically all I should need to say today…what? Explanation…arrrr…fine..

As a child, there are a lot of decisions made for us, which are not under our control. But as we grow and become physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially independent, we have to start taking responsibility of ourselves. We are no longer the responsibilities of other people (parents, friends, relatives, bf/gf…). My reality is my responsibility.

I do not blame others for what happened to me.

It’s a bit unfortunate that our current society is built upon blaming others people, just take a look at the judicial system. “My son died of alcohol poisoning in a frat party…I’ll sue his friends…I’ll sue the school…” C’mon, I know it’s a tragedy for the parents, but the kid made his own decision to do what he did and he met his destiny. (yes, that sounds very harsh) And that’s without saying PERHAPS that the parents lack certain discipline/teachings in certain area. I have also witness real life example of someone blaming another for things that happened (actually, not happened) because of his own decisions. Quite sad.

Ok, so that was a very strong example. I understand that the idea is a bit hard to swallow and to get into our system. But I assure you there is a new sense of freedom if you do grasp it :)

Our mind is the strongest power we have. We make decisions on our lives. We choose how we feel. We choose what we think. If we understand that, we can become a much more proactive person and be able to accomplish many things in life! We should not worry about what others think or feel about us, because that’s their decisions to make. All we can do is make the choice to give our best efforts, and the rest will have its flow. What others think cannot dictate our feelings because we are master of our reality.

I’m responsible for my reality and I’m taking control of it.

Combining with awareness, we should…

• be aware when we commit a mistake, realize it’s our responsibility. Then face the result, take corrective actions, and learn from the mistake
• also be aware when we make an improvement because of ourselves. Then recognize ourselves and feel mighty good about it :)

This post provides extra supporting basis for my old post, Love – The Ability.

Spend less than what you make.

A very very simple way to explain this… If we compare two persons, one making $50,000 and spending $45,000 and the other making $100,000 and spending $105,000, who’s going to be better off and has more money?

Now to be able to do that, it means following one or many of the behaviors below:
- don’t spend more than your monthly salary
- tracking your finance (money in-flow an out-flow)
- have a monthly budget
- distinguish wants” and “needs”
- try not to “borrow” from credit cards
- pay off any “bad” debt at high interest rate