Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Earning > Saving

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Saving is a finite solution. You can only save so much, can only be so frugal. Your power for earning is unlimited with the right resource (you), the right tools (knowledge), and the right force (hard work).  That isn’t to discount saving.  Saving is an important part of the equation too.  But, because of it’s limited ability, it can only be so much a part of your overall wealth and financial independence equation.  Do you know what limits savings’ ability?  Your earnings. You can only save so much as you earn.  If you only earn $8 an hour, you can only save $8 an hour.  Far less, really, because who can live on $0 an hour?  Not many.  So, the more you make, the more you can save.

There’s another side to that, even.  The more you make, the more ability you have to make more.  That’s the root of the old saying, “It takes money to make money”.  While you can actually make money without having much money, the more money you have, the more opportunity you will find to earning more money.

Earning > SavingIncreasing your earnings isn’t always an easy equation to solve, though.  Many people feel like they’re trapped in the job they have, the payscale they’re in, and the life path they’ve chosen.  Not at all true!  Your earning potential is unlimited if you combine the resources at hand and improve the ones that aren’t.  You’ve already got you.  Increasing you knowledge of the work you want to do is pretty easy as well.  It just takes a bit of time, and some crafty searching online.  Pretty much anything you want to learn about is available online.  Heck, there are even entire sites dedicated to free college courses.  All you need is to dedicate some time to learning whatever it is you want to learn.  You can find that time by taking it from some of your TV watching time.

Follow all that learning up with some good old fashioned hard work.  That’s it.  Just hustle a little.  Unfortunately, there isn’t any magic formula for that one. I don’t know how to motivate you to work.  I don’t know the right things to say to you to make you want it.  You’ve got to provide that part.  If you can’t find the motivation to pull yourself away from American Idol for an hour to learn something, or work on making yourself a better earner, there’s just nothing that I can do for you.  You’ve got to find that part for yourself.

But, listen.  If you’re capable, like me, of getting your finances under control; of learning how to keep a budget, pay your bills on time, and learn from mistakes, there’s no reason you can’t learn how to earn more.  You CAN learn how to do something you want to do.  You CAN learn how to make yourself more marketable.  And you CAN earn more.  And, if you do, you WILL tip the scale in your direction.  You’ll start to earn more.  You’ll be able to save more.  And you’ll find that opportunities will present themselves to you.

How are you going to improve yourself today?