How I view money

 Hellow!

Today is my day off and nothing special happens but I feel like yapping.

So I thought I talk about how I view finances.

This is not a "How to" or whatever, I just feel like sharing, also because I realised I am pretty lonely with my opinions it seems.

I see online people keep talking about buying investments instead of liabilities and shit. I personally believe many of these so-called gurus just copy and paste what they hear and keep babbling the same stuff. It sounds smart at first but lacks all sort of differentiation.

For example they say buying a house is a liability.

Short-term yes but not in the long-run.

My parents bought a house, paid it off.

Now we are living in a new house and the old one is rented. 

We lived there for 18 years and now it is an additional income source, longterm it's going to be my house when I get married and have kids.

My brother gets the house we currently live in. Either way, we either have a money source or a roof over our heads. In what world is that a liability? Just because of that simple decision of my parents, I have an easy life. 

And they never bought brand-clothing, used old shirts for cleaning, filled soap with water to make it last longer, almost never went out to eat etc.

They sacrificed these things, so we have a great life. They were never rich. That's where many people fail tbh. They view luxuries as necessities and then claim they have no money and everything is expensive.

I am in no position to tell other people how to spend their money and everyone has different priorities of course. That reminds me when I went to Singapore and I saw women with super expensive handbags in the train. I wondered, why buy the bag when you can save money and buy a car instead? Apparently cars are incredibly expensive over there compared to germany and parking/upkeeping is also very different. 

To each their own in this case.

But it's worth giving it a thought before buying: "Is this really necessary or is it worth saving and spending elsewhere?"

I don't have Spotify premium, I listen to ads all the time.

"That's just 11€ per month"..I think that's 132€ per year! When was the last time you looked at something you want that had cost ~100€? I could use that money for something more important. And also, when we were kids it was completely normal while watching TV every 30-45 minutes there was 5-10 minutes ads. We didn't die of it.

When I started making my own money I took track of my spendings with the intention to plan my money monthly better. I actually didn't intend to use it for longterm planning.

But now I was able to. 

I have spent in total 17k for shopping, 12k for beauty!!...as a smoker I've spent 1.500€ on cigarettes (and that were only the packages I did track). That alone is almost 30k, wasted.

I love fashion, I love beauty and to some degree people NEED it...you can't walk around naked.

But when you see these numbers, you ask yourself DO I REALLY NEED IT? and especially THAT MUCH?

I try spending less and less on consumption.

There are a few things where consumption actually benefits, and that's when it comes to skill-based hobbies or experiences.

Which leads me to the topic amortisation, which also gets ignored over and over again from these money-experts. 

I've spent over 1.700€ on nail stuff in total, which sounds a lot at first but broken down, since I started my nails that's around 47€ per month. Going to the nail salon had cost me 75€ every 2-3 week because they didn't last AND I didn't even do the heavy designs yet while going there. Now it costs me every 4-6 month around 20€ or something for new tips, colors, gems. Plus I have learned a new skill that I can use to make money in the future. 

Money-experts would have told me to cut back spending on nails or leave it away completely. I think differently about it.

I am willing to spend money on hobbies, if I know it will teach me something or make me better in the long run.

If you use consumption to your advantage it is not a waste of money.

It benefits your mind and soul. You just need to balance it right.

Hesitate when it won't benefit you in the future, spend money when it will be useful.

That's when scaling matters.

Honestly, I don't listen to reviews from people anymore. Normally it should be that you can use the experience from others to avoid making a mistake on your own. However, people are damn morons sometimes.

The highlight was, when I read a 1-star review about a hotel, where they wrote "It had rained the whole time!!". Oh my lord.

The more you do something, the more gets sold, the more likely a mistake could happen (or the opposite, a good thing will happen).

When a car brand sells 100k cars and 15 broke down, it doesn't mean it is a worse brand than the one who sold 500k cars. The other brand that sold 500k had 80k break down. 

One is 0,015% breaking down, the other is 16%. 

But people keep focusing how that one brand sold "only" 100k cars and 15 had broken down.

Try training looking at the big picture.

If you desire to make your own brand, scaling is a huge skill you need.

Personal example here: One of my colleague managed to make 160k revenue last month, the other 120k.

She works only 2.5 days a week, the other 5 days (fulltime).

If you calculate that up, the part-time woman could make up to 320k if she worked full-time. Yes, it depends on how many people come in and what they want, what the weather is like, what marketing does and sale is never linear anyway. It's only about the potential here.

160k vs. 120k looks great but like not such a big deal. 

320k vs. 120k however truly shows her skill.

Another scenario: Salesman A made 90k and Salesman B made 95k. They look the same. However A started 6 months ago and B works there since 20 years. 

I think you get what I am trying to say.

My card has the setting, that whenever I spend money it rounds up to the next euro and saves the amount into my ETF that I have chosen. 

Which means that for example if I spend 12,99€ on food, 1 cent will be put to the ETF. If I spend 12,50€, that would be 50cent.

So far it had saved 238€ into my ETF, just from rounding up.

Scale people, look at the tiny numbers, round them up, differentiate.

Of course there is more to this topic but I want to keep it short and not write a whole book (maybe some day).

I'd be happy to read about your opinions about this topic. I think this should be discussed way more than it is.

xoxo rinmero