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Earning More Than I Spend
By Jay | November 30, 2007
I remember when Friday night meant hitting a bar with some friends for a few beers, or going to a party, or leaving for a trip. Guess it’s a sign of the new century that instead of going out this Friday night, I’m sitting at my laptop, writing a blog entry. But I’m older now, and I’m avoiding spending money unnecessarily. Amazing that at my age, earning the money I do, I worry more about what I spend on fun than I did 25 years ago.
My tightness with money though has been paying off. I was doing my finances earlier and saw that I have less debt and more savings now than I did on January 15 of this year. And this is before my year-end bonus. Sounds like a simple thing to achieve, but it is a real milestone for me. As my longer-time readers know I’ve built up quite a bit of debt over the years, and I think this is the first year in the past 10 or so that I have spent less than I earned. My feeling of deprivation aren’t because I don’t have money, they’re because I’m saving money, not spending it. And this is a very good thing!
Part of building the life I want to have is learning how to manage and allocate my resources, especially money and time, to maximum effect. I have not been good at this in my life. I was never a straight-A student (too rebellious), and I’ve never been particularly career oriented. I’ve also been abysmal at managing my money. But seeing the progress I am making now is inspiring me to tighten the financial screws even further next year, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about learning something new, taking up a new hobby, something that would make me grow and that would open up new opportunities and adventures. I’ve learned to read and speak 4 languages — German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Portuguese is the only one I’m conversant in now; the others are pretty rusty. I’d like to freshen up these language skills, and even start learning a new language: Chinese.
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Topics: Budget |