“Why Am I Always Broke?”

Are you among those people that are always asking themselves, “why am I broke at all time?”

Forget about saving for the future; you don’t even have the money you need for TODAY.

According to a report I recently read about nearly 45% of Americans have NO savings. NONE.

Even though I am privileged enough to be a part of the tiny percentage of Americans that have money saved, I still feel like I am only a few bad breaks away from being broke.

Which is a feeling that kind of sucks.

I can imagine the stress of potentially going completely broke to be absolutely unbearable for those who have much less saved than I do. The thought of losing everything and not being able to provide for your family is a devastating one. And how in the world can a person expect ever to retire when they can’t even get $1,000 into their savings accounts?

Why Are We So Bad With Money?

I understand that everyone’s conditions are not like mine. I comprehend that it is much more challenging for a few of us to set cash aside monthly for savings. That said, there are areas where we can all improve.

If you’re one of the many individuals constantly asking yourself, “why am I broke?” Chances are you are dropping right into one of the 10 pitfalls on the checklist below. Deal with a number of these, and you may find your money troubles begin to disappear.

You Don’t Have a Budget

66% of Americans don’t have a budget.

Even a fundamental one goes a long way in helping assist your buying choices.

How To Fix It:

If you have no idea where to begin, begin with the 50/20/30 guideline.

50% of your take-home goes to housing, food, transport costs, and utility expenses.

20% is sent into savings/paying off debt.

30% is for you.

It’s important to keep in mind that this is based upon your take-home pay. Don’t make budgeting choices on your gross pay (gross being the amount you make BEFORE taxes takes a chunk out of it), or you’re most likely to be sorely dissatisfied when taxes begin coming out, and you question why you still have a hard time to make ends meet.

You Ignore Your Money Problems

Cash issues can cause enormous stress and anxiety, strained relationships, and depression. Negative decisions can get you to where you are, but you significantly worsen them by not getting the help you require in taking on the issue head-on.

You lack the money you need right now? Continue ignoring your money problems and see where you are in a year – it’s a good bet thing will have only gotten worse thanks to your continued refusal to face these problems head-on.

How To Fix It:

Don’t Ignore problems hoping they will go away on their own and don’t be too worried to ask others for help. Put in the time to enlighten yourself. There is absolutely nothing even more eliminating than knowing that you took that first positive step in the best direction.

You Go Out Too Much

The 50/20/30 policy is specifically useful to individuals in this group because those proportions begin to look like 50/0/60 where you’re always maxing out your spending on basics, conserving absolutely nothing, pushing yourself right into financial debt.

Whether it’s eating out, shopping, or gambling, it doesn’t matter. We all have our vices, and it takes discipline/lifestyle adjustments to deal with the root of our overspending problems.

How To Fix It:

Create a monthly budget and stick to it for at least three months. During this time, do no unnecessary spending and see what a difference it makes on your overall cash flow and savings situation.

You Are a Slave To What Others Think

Everyone struggles with this.

Everyone.

That Michael Kors bag you spent way too much on when a $14 Walmart handbag would have done the same thing, or the new iPhone that you just HAD to have – you didn’t buy that for you, you bought it for everyone else to see what you bought.

Society applies enormous pressure to buy items under the belief that you won’t fit in without them. It’s an unbelievably effective marketing tactic. People want to fit in; they’ll go broke trying to.

If somebody was auditing your spending each month, would you be embarrassed by what they saw?

Would the list of huge acquisitions weigh on your principles?

How to Fix It:

Stop obsessing on what every other person else thinks of you and begin focusing on what’s important to you. Your view of cash and the method you invest it in will begin to alter as soon as you start fixing these issues.

You Have Expensive Habits

Alcohol, tobacco, Prada bags, and gambling – they’re all addictive to different degrees.

Let’s take a look at some data:

The average smoker spends over $2,000/year on cigarettes.

The typical adult spends over $500/year on alcohol.

US households spend an average of $162 annually on lottery tickets; for low-income houses, the figure is $289, and for those who earn less than $10,000, it’s $ 597, or around 6% of their annual income.

If you’re working a permanent minimum wage job (or near to it) and question where all of your cash is going?

The sad truth is that people in that situation, where the money is already tight, are also more likely to spend the little money they do have on useless junk like lottery tickets. It’s enough to drive you bonkers thinking about it; the upper-middle-class only spend $162/year on lottery tickets while the lowest income people in the U.S. Spend nearly $600/year on it.

How to Fix It:

Once more, it’s time to review your priorities and determine what’s truly important to you. If you’re suffering from a dependency of any kind, it’s time to consider what options you have available to you to deal with them and, ideally, make them a thing of the past.

You Stopped Learning

Every study ever before released confirms that generally, the more education you full, the more that income grows.

According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, over a 40-year profession, a worker with a bachelor’s will make $1 million greater than a worker with just a secondary school diploma.

That being said, a degree in many fields of study isn’t worth its weight in paper.

How to Fix It:

Could going back to school double, triple, or perhaps quadruple your pay? Do your research first and see if there’s a high paying career that you could be entering into in just a few years if you get the right degree.

You Overlook The Power of Interest

So you were young and stupid and maxed out a credit card due to the fact that you were hopeless. Not an unusual occurrence, but that single decision can have an enduring influence.

Certain missing out on a settlement decreases your credit score, making it more challenging to obtain a car loan or that mortgage you’ve wished for.

But that’s not the only problem – it’s the crushing interest that you really did not take into consideration. If you send in simply the monthly minimum (usually 2% of the balance owed) on a bank card with a $5,000 equilibrium and also 15% rates of interest, it will take 32 years to get clear the financial debt, and you will pay nearly $8,000 in the rate of interest on the original $5,000 balance.

32 years.

How to Fix It:

Stop making the minimum payments on your financial debts. Find a way to pay them off as quickly as possible before the interest ends up doubling the amount of money you spent in the first place.

You Invest Too Much Of Your Time On Useless Things

Everybody needs some downtime to collect themselves, loosen up, and refocus. However, there is a distinction between all that and being a lazy person.

How much time do you spend watching Netflix? Scrolling through Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube?

Is there a better way you could be spending your time?

How to Fix It:

Quit asking yourself, “why am I broke?” and cross the Rubicon already. You don’t need to make it your life’s work to get rich, but if you require cash now due to the fact that you’re falling behind, chances are you’re wasting your time on time-wasting useless hobbies.

This isn’t to say that you can never play video-games again, just that you need to get serious about time management before it is too late.

You Don’t Have a Side Hustle

If you’re having a hard time making ends meet and you have no means to up your pay at your day job/no promotion on the horizon, then you need a side hustle.

Not every little thing available will be suitable for you and your needs, but I assure you that you’ll find something that is perfect for you if you look.

Side hustles enabled me to supplement my take-home income by thousands each month to the point that I was able to quit my day job and spend my time the way I want to. Side hustles are my number one recommended the FIRST STEP to financial freedom.

They are the first step in that they won’t make you rich overnight, but they will open the doors to your money-making potential and make you realize that you can do things on your own without begging a boss to give you a raise every six months just to keep up with your house payments.

How to Fix It:

If you’re thinking, “I do not have time for all this – I need cash fast!” then you, my friend, should get on your side hustle grind. Try this checklist of ways to make extra money and take a look a this for tips on how to make money online. If you’re specifically interested in creating an income online, check out this online startup resource system.

Final Thoughts

Kanye West once wrote;

“Having money’s not everything, not having it is.”

When you’re broke being broke is, unfortunately, everything. When you’re struggling to pay rent, running out of food, and have no financial safety net of any kind it can be hard to think about anything else. Being broke can become a mental prison while making you feel like you’re under house arrest.

Once you have money, you have the privilege to not have to worry about money anymore, you’re not worried about being evicted or where your next meal will come from. You now have a kind of freedom that is both mental and lifestyle based since with money you can go out and do things. It’s a shame that this is the way things are but there no use pretending things are different.

If you need some fast cash check out this blog post on quick ways to make a few extra bucks, please note it’s not ways to get rich quick that’s just some ways to make some extra money each day to help out a little bit. If you’re looking for ways to build a business you could consider looking into starting a blog, it may sound ‘old hat’ but it works for us here at Great Plan Ray and can likely work for you, learn more about that here.

Sign up for our email list for more financial and business information below: