BECOMING SUCCESSFUL
Although it is quite reasonable for you to be charitable before all your needs are met, you can make a bigger difference in the world once you can spend less time worrying about caring for yourself and your family.
When you start out, it is not surprising that it is very difficult to satisfy your basic needs for survival. We will start out assuming you have very little, but what we will assume that you have is:
- A willingness to work hard. (at least in the beginning)
- A willingness to to take responsibility for your life.
- A willingness to live beneath your means. This means spending less than what you earn.
- A realization that others have been successful…so can you.
We won’t tell you what to do…but we will tell you how to do it.
I started out poor (like every young person), and now I am not. Because of this, i want to give something back and someday I hope you will make the same decision.
What Is Successful?
Too many people use money to describe being successful. It is much more than that.
These needs have to be satisfied:
- Physical Needs like: air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep
- Safety Needs: order, predictability, and control in their lives.
- Love and Belonging Needs: need for interpersonal relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group.
- Esteem Needs like: self-worth, accomplishment, and respect.
- Self Actualization Needs like: the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, personal growth, and peak experiences.
for this section, we will try to fulfill the first two. The remainder will be addressed as we get closer to making your charitable donations work….
Things They Should Have Taught You In School But Probably Didn’t….
High schools have gotten better about this over the last 50 years, but many still neglect teaching about these things..
1. Keeping in Contact. ✅
People will need to be able to contact you. There are two primary forms of contact you need to get setup.
- Cell Phone
Having a dependable and inexpensive cell phone is important when you are starting out.
- Email Address
Email is useful for being able to send and receive things between you and banks, employers, and others. You will need a somewhat professional email address rather than a whimsical address you might have used in the past like HotRebelBunny67@gmail.com.
2. Getting a Job ✅
‘Job employment‘ is different than a ‘Career employment‘. You get a ‘job’ so that you can make a ‘career’.
3. Taxes
Although there are numerous forms of taxes the best way to think of them is that they represent how well you are doing!
4. Checking Accounts
A checking account at a bank is an important first business relationship to establish. From here you will be able to develop loans, credit cards, and even some investments.
5. Credit Cards
Credit Cards are used to smooth the bumps in your financial road. They should be paid off every month, although in the beginning some emergencies mean that might not always be possible.
6. Loans
Loans let you buy things that you need today, even though you have not yet saved up to buy them. It is best to save up for large expenditures and have those savings EARN interest rather than take a loan where you PAY interest.
7. Credit Ratings
Prompt payments on credit cards, loans, and merchant accounts are recorded at credit bureaus like Experian. These credit ratings will determine IF you get a loan and how good of a rate you will get.
8. Insurance
The purpose of Insurance is to protect you from catastrophic financial happenings. You will need it for your car, your home (Apartment or House) and possibly even protection against your own behaviors through and Umbrella Policy.
9. Budgeting
To be successful, you need to monitor your finances. A budget helps you to do this.
10. Apartments
Starting out you will get an apartment before you buy a house. You will certainly need a room mate or two to make the budgeting numbers work (see ‘budgeting’ above).
11. Utilities
An apartment or house needs utilities. These are the monthly expenses like Heat, Electric, Water and Internet service.
12. Cars
Yes, you could ride a bus to go where you need to, a car offered the best flexibility.
13. Investing
Although you will store some money in the bank, investing will earn additional money without you having to work.
14. Picking a Career
A career is different from a job. Careers last for decades and jobs last for years. You will want to pick the career that pays the most and pays back your education the most quickly….and….most importantly offends you least.
15. How to Buy a House
Although you start with an apartment, buying a house earns something called equity. Equity is the value of something you own that you could sell. You don’t get this with an apartment. As with an apartment, you could have room mates to reduce your monthly costs.
16. Retirement
When you are young most people can not see the value in planning for retirement as it seems to be a long way off. In fact, this is the best time to invest, since time will do most of the work for you!