Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's Tuesday. That means Mansa Musa is on the phone with me. And Mansa, you struck a nerve with me when I asked with today's subject would be. And you say spending less than you earn. Help us out Lord. And Mansa.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah, listen. Spending less than you make is one of the keys to being successful and strong financially. Financial strength starts with spending less than you bring in. You want to create a gap, what we're going to call a margin between income and expenses. Now why does margin matter?
Emergency hurt less when you have room in your budget.
Instead of it being a disaster, it merely becomes an inconvenience margin that you save, invest and get out of debt. The other thing is real wealth is quiet. It's what you keep, not what you show.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Okay, come on now.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: When trouble shows up, it's generally because of what we call lifestyle creep. Income goes up, your spending goes right up with it. Trying to look successful instead of building success, trying to keep up with the Joneses can hurt you.
An important one is using credit to cover lifestyle instead of needs.
You don't want to go in debt to finance your lifestyle creep.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: So how do you get started spending less than you make?
Number one, you got to know what your take home pay is.
That's after taxes and deductions, the bottom of the check. You also want to look at the last 60 days of spending.
Now you can do that going back or you can keep track going forward. The reason you want to do that is because awareness comes first, then change. Yeah, not trying to shame anybody, you just want to clarify where your money's going. Now, practical adjustments you can make.
Cut waste, not joy.
Cancel or downgrade unused subscriptions. Cook at home a couple times a week instead of going out. Comparison shop and negotiate prices for insurance, phone, Internet and utilities.
Use shopping lists and avoid impulse buys.
Now understand that cheap is fear based. Living below your means is goal based.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Ask yourself, does this help or hurt future me? And stop buying to impress people who aren't paying your bill.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Whoa, come on, sir.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Now here's what you can do today. Start by setting up an auto save payroll deduction. Each payday, 20 to 50 bucks will work.
Cancel one subscription today.
We all have subscriptions. Do you need all of them? Use tax refunds and bonuses to build cushion, not finance. Lifestyle creep.
Two home cooked meals this week instead of takeout Might require a little planning, but it works.
Trouble comes when lifestyles grow faster than income.
Even a small margin creates peace and opportunity. I cannot emphasize that enough when you're living above your means, anything that happens. First of all, you're already under stress and anything unplanned happens makes it even worse.
Spending less than you make means taking control of your financial future.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Thus take Control Tuesday. And all of those are so helpful. And as always, if you'd like more information on this episode or any of our episodes, you can go to take controltuesday.com Manta as always, thank you so much.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
