May 23rd, 2018 Looking Back on my Bank Statements
Yup Joe's and Joette's I am doing another personal post. Earlier today I was listening to The Minority Mindset in the background while working and something hit me. It made me stop what I was doing and look back at my bank statements. I'm talking about bank statements all the way back to 2011. What I saw was scary and that's why I decided to write about it.
Most people would just tell you the thing that hit me but not me. I have to first talk about The Minority Mindset. It's a Youtube channel that helps change the mindset of it's viewers. It gives free financial advice that many people can benefit from. It talks about financial myths and has information about entering the investment or business world. That's the thing, even though I know a lot of the information the way that they explain it helps reteatch me somethings that I may have forgotten. I wish this channel was around when I started working because I would have benefited from the information they provide. That's what hit me, the fact that the average Joe and Joette don't know this type of information. Heck I didn't have any financial knowledge and that was reflected by my bank account.
So what was hidden message in my statements? I was broke and living paycheck to paycheck. In every statement I looked at I had less than two hundred dollars in my account. I somehow ended the month with less money than I started out with. The amount of money I was earning a year during this time period ranged from twenty thousand dollars a year to eighty thousand dollars a year. So income wasn't the cause of my low bank balances. Heck, the first statement I looked at, showed that I had eleven cents in my savings account. I was living well above my means and acting like a typical twenty year old. Forty dollars a week on haircuts and atleast a hundred dollars a day on food and alcohol.
Sounds like I was living the good life except, I was like most Americans. I didn't have enough money to cover a financial setback. I remember moving my barbers car and his car getting hit. The cost of the repairs were over six hundred dollars and my bank account only had forty dollars in it. My barber was very nice, so he gave me a total of 12 HOURS to come up with the money. I hate borrowing money from people, so the only way to pay for the repairs was to hustle. I worked my tail off and ended up making enough money that day to cover the cost of the repairs. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't come up with the money for the repairs. It's a scary situation and you would think that I would learn from the situation, but I didn't.
There's also the time when I got let go of my job of five years. My unemployment was denied and I developed insomnia. I hit what some would call rock bottom and I started selling off my belongings to make ends meet. Let me list off some of the items I sold; My PlayStation 3 with fifteen games, my Canon Ae-1 with four lenses a flash and a grip, my Senheiser HD598s and even my classic 1977 Chevelle Malibu. This was over five years ago but I still remember all of the items I sold because it hurt. I never wanted to be forced to sell the things I loved yet somehow I was still living above my means. I remember working eighty hour work weeks for two months straight and then working two jobs full time in that same year. However, I never held a bank balance of more than four hundred dollars. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I was also drowning in debt.
I had over fifteen thousand dollars in consumer debt and living paycheck to paycheck. If that doesn't scream the American dream, then I don't know what does. My situation was bad and the main reason was because of my lack of financial knowledge. After turning twenty five I realized that I had nothing to claim as my own. I had worked for over twelve years and yet I barely had a dollar to my name and I was deep in debt. The only reason that I was able to change my situation was because I wanted to change. I bought my first financial book because it was on sale on the Google Play Store. The first financial book I bought was The Total Money Make Over by Dave Ramsey. I ended up buying three copies of the book, one digital, one physical and one audio. This book has changed my life and the lives of some of my friends. This book did so much for me that it is my go to book recommendation for someone starting their financial journey.
Now let's come full circle, that's why I love YouTube channels like The Minority Mindset. They offer great financial information for free. Not everyone can afford financial books and YouTube allows them to learn for free. Plus not everyone wants to hear financial advice from an old southern man. Which is why having "millennials" give the same great advice is so amazing because it's relatable. So what's the purpose of this entire post?
The purpose is so you don't end up like me. Don't live pay check to paycheck for most of your life. It's been a little over three years since I decided to change my financial future and I have never been happier. I was even able to not work a job full time for 358 days without stressing about money. If you want more financial knowledge check out Dave Ramsey and/or The Minority Mindset on YouTube. BTW I am in no way endorsed by anyone mentioned in this post. I'm just giving you my honest opinion on them. I back them because their information is good and their mission is in line with my own.
Joe's and Joette's , that's basically it for this post. If you enjoyed this post thanks, if not oh well. Either way feel free to leave me a comment down below. If you want more content, you can subscribe to the Books By Josh Show on ITunes, Google Play Music and Stitcher. If you want more content then that you can check us out on YouTube. To get notified whenever we post make sure you follow us on Twitter or Facebook. If you wish to support the site, the best way is to tell your friends about us. If you want to show more love feel free to subscribe or support us. If that still isn't enough, feel free to become a patreon or buy a signed copy of my book from our store page. All of the links to everything can be found at the bottom of this post and like always...... I'll catch you guys in the next one, see-ya.