How do I stop guilting myself over small luxury purchases while still being responsible?
I make 50 grand a year and still live at home but I'm very reluctant to buy luxury items such as eating out. I splurged last week bought a fourpack of craft beer.
I don't want to be a shopaholic but I don't want to tightfist my life either.
make a budget
here's what I did:
1. become self-employed (don't ask me how, that's a different topic)
2. realize that self-employment taxes are so high it's not worth making money
3. rather spend your money on tax-deductible luxuries than just handing it to the IRS
4. spend thousands a month on business meals, business travel, buy fleet vehicles that cost as much as a house, turn half your house into a warehouse and write the bitch off, buy a new computer every month, whatever.
5. begin to understand that your job isn't to hold on to money, but to spend it.
6. the more you spend the more you make, assuming a basic level of competence.
7. have way more money than you need.
8. actually feel good about stimulating the economy by feasting at Red Lobster three times a week and going on crazy Disney vacations where you invite your whole family and pay their way just to be a dick.
9. good Samaritan, go to heaven etc.
I don't need a budget, I already save the grand majority of my salary
If you don't have a budget then how do you know how much you can spend on luxury items
Set a "no guilt" purchase threshold below which you do not debate the purchase or give a second thought to it. If you want it and its below the threshold, just buy it and be happy.
The threshold will change, of course, as your finances improve. Set it low enough initially that you're comfortable with it.
I did this years ago, and its very liberating from a financial responsibility standpoint without breaking the bank or ruining my long-term plans. Plus, I have a lot of cool stuff.
Autistic Delusionalism: The Post
Define "luxury"
I spent 3k on pillows, bed sheets, and a mattress.
I thought that was stupid at first, but it made life so much better.
Money is not the purpose of life. Your wealth means nothing the day you pass.
What matters is that you have family and enjoy each day.
That doesn't mean be reckless and nigger rich though.
Treating yourself is essential to being healthy.
>How do I stop guilting myself
Enjoy your luxuries even more.
...
Please teach me!
;_;
Thanks
...
So, you sell a method for people to get rich?
no, I own a business is all. I'm retired.
we clean offices primarily. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year worth of office cleaning.
I can teach you how to do what I did but you're not going to do it so perhaps we can skip the lessons?
Offices dont have people to clean their own mess?
small ones don't. Or ones with employee unions that don't allow janitors.
I'm confused. I see a bank account with an average balance of about a thousand dollars, plus about $1500 in cash. Is this supposed to qualify you to give business and financial advice?
no indeed.
if that's what you see then that's all I have to offer.
>if that's what you see
What else is there to see? Is there a hidden symbol in the bills that proves you belong to the Illuminati? Perhaps we're to be impressed that you balance is so low you pay monthly service charges to your bank?
You took the time to post the picture, so you obviously think it shows something. You also seem to claim to have advice about finance and business so "next level" that hardly anyone will follow it. And yet you're bragging about a sum of money less than children get at their bar mitzvah.
So my confusion remains.
my 'advice' to OP is to spend money as fast as you make it and then you won't feel regret and you might even make more money.
the user called my claim delusion.
I posted my checking act statement showing that I made and spent over $8k last month.
I'd post the $11k I made and spent this month as well but I don't have a statement yet.
I'm actually entering the same business, currently have the site and design stuff being built and waiting on the license.
Hope you don't mind if I ask but 3 questions?
I'm incorporating my household cleaning and office cleaning business in 1, is that alright or should I separate?
Is there a benefit to going directly to businesses and asking their managers if they want to use your service instead of using marketing/relying on them happening upon your site?
Is your business branded in a way that's feels professional or more down to earth? It kinda connects back to the 1st question.
I only ask these questions because they aren't thing I can really just try and see what happens as they can cost me potential customers.
>the user called my claim delusion.
That is delusional. There's no reason why you can't save some of your income and also indulge yourself and have an enjoyable life.
Most people's brains are sufficiently developed that they can do more than one thing at a time.
1. it's fine to keep residential and commercial under the same roof, but you're going to find that 80% of your money comes from commercial and 80% of your time is spent on residential. (pareto principle). Personally I stopped doing residential after my first year, the money's all in commercial/industrial/government work.
2. talk to the managers. ask how much they pay. offer to work for a bit less. I work for about 80% of the going rate and get more business than I can reasonably do while maintaining control over quality.
3. I don't have a recognizable brand. If I ever decide to expand or sell franchises I'd need to build one but I've found I'm perfectly happy being a retired multimillionaire making about $100k/year working 6 hours a week. I travel a lot and I spend a lot of time on my hobbies. I can't be bothered expanding or breaking through the ceiling to large biz. You make more money as a small business with way less work.
my advice could be terrible, I've never tried it outside of my little niche where I kick ass.
>There's no reason why you can't save some of your income and also indulge yourself
I gave the reason.
taxes take about half of anything I save.
You clean and get paid after? or is a kind of pay for a month of cleaning
My average contract is 5 years long, I get paid each month, 30 days after the work is finished for the month.
so I basically pay my employees 60 days ahead of when I actually get paid for their work.
>taxes take about half of anything I save
Get a better accountant. You're obviously out of your depth.
Fucking move out already.
I've explained that too.
1. a lot of the money you reinvest in your business can be spent on things OP considers luxuries. E.g. eating out, or a couple new cars every year, or a bigger house/office.
2. reinvesting my money into my business rather than giving it to the IRS produces a cycle where my business grows and I make more money.
my savings is my business.
there will come a day when I'll have to pay taxes on that, but it isn't today, or any time soon. And until that day I'm sitting on my ass making money and not regretting eating at Chart House or wherever the fuck I feel like going when the mood hits me.
Meanwhile you have no savings, no nest egg, no compounding, no back up plan, and no safety net. You don't even pay into social security or unemployment.
You're the cautionary tale of the idiot who put all his eggs in one basket.
Don't be jealous.
People who work for someone else have their salaries taxed and they get to spend the rest.
Businesses spend whatever they want and the government taxes what's left.
What's the take home point here? Please, please start your own business. You don't need as much capital as you think. A few grey hairs help with credibilitg but they aren't necessary.
I can't tell you what to specialise in. All I can say is that you should tailor your ideas to whatever skill set you have acquired during your time in either college or the workforce.
Make your money work for you, not against you.
astute observation.
however I've been bankrupted twice, started over ten businesses of which only a couple failed, and I essentially build my business fresh each year because like most contractors my contracts run out and I have to bid them again or find new ones.
I have a great deal of confidence in my ability to keep making millions, I've been doing it for a very long time. Almost as long as most of Veeky Forums has been alive.
I'm not afraid of risk, it's like cocaine when it pays off. A feeling few will ever know. And I'm not afraid of failure, I fail often enough. The only thing I need to do is succeed one time more often than I fail.
and again, my business is my nest egg. I can sell it and probably will at some point. It's worth more than most people will make in their lives, and it likely will still be decades from now.
I worked for 16 years, I'll get $800/month in social security. Not that it matters.
How to go to jail 101
yes indeed.
talk to your accountant.
your spending must be "ordinary and necessary." You may not realize what that allows is all.
>confidence in my ability to keep making millions
Your bank statement and wallet contents say otherwise.
>Businesses spend whatever they want and the government taxes what's left.
said the poorfag at his tax evasion trial, which led to a 3 year prison sentence and a crushing civil penalty.
yep. I only gross about $120 per year and after deductions of business expenses I might make $30k per year.
by cash method of accounting I'm a thousandaire not a millionaire.
accrual method tells a different story.