Your Broke?….Well Spend More…Save More

You ever check your bank account and it says $0.33?  Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t, but for those of us who has, maybe it is time for us to readjust our spending habits….lets look at a trend from two different friends…..where going to use great names, Friend A and Friend B:

Friend A does the following:

1. Buys a polo (name brand) from I am High Mall $25.00
2. Buys a pair of jeans (name brand) from High as Heck R Us $55.00
3. We gotta have them Jordan’s or whatevers oh and crash another $175.00

Friend A’s paycheck is approximately $700.00? so what is he left with at the end of the week, not including his other bills and expenses which total up to $400.00? He is left with if I can do the math, only $45 dollars? WTF? In today’s economy, what can you buy with $45.00?

But we have Friend B, who goes on a spending trend just like Friend A

Friend B:

1. Buys 4 non-name brand polos from Wal-Mart spends $25.00
2. Buys a watch, two pairs of jeans, and a hat from I don’t know, some outlet stores for $55.00
3. He takes the other $175.00 and put them in a interest bearing savings account at his local bank, and adds $175 to it each paycheck, and does not spend it til the end of the year. While he also makes $700.00 and has $410 dollars in expenses.

You may ask, whats the difference, Friend B shops cheap, buys a LOT more, and is able to save instead of buyin them overpriced shoes and clothes from the high end retailers, my motto has always been, why dress ten stacks, when you only have about one stack?

It doesn’t matter what you make, if you set yourself a budget, and plan around it, you will realize how much you can actually spend, while you are saving a LOT.  Friend A in 12 months saved  $1080 thats $45 dollars every two weeks from his pay after he bought the same stuff (assuming). While Friend B saved over five stacks because he put back that $175 of his income every two weeks plus the additional $45 dollars he didn’t spend.

To sum this up, you should be able to retain between 17% and 35% for personal savings, that means if you make $500 dollars every two weeks, you should be able to save between $85.00-$175.00 every two weeks, this means, cut out expensive buys and start shopping at the outlet stores, buying generic items (hell I do), instead of buying that BMW, but that Chevorlet Impala….and don’t put gigantic 24′s on them when you only have 12′s money….make commonsense buys, they will help you save more, while you are spending more.

It’s Not Supposed To Be….

You have seen it, read it, talked about it and so much more.  You get that chance to stand for yourself and show the world that you are like Tevin Campbell’s 90′s album “I’m Ready”.  It’s not supposed to be the time where you falter and leave yourself hanging in the balance of your emotions and the way you feel about someone.  On the outside, you are an outgoing seemingly successful person, but on the inside, you feel that you are missing something greater, most cases this can be a companion or some sort, in my case a woman companion.

I don’t wanna sound needy, or sound like I’m begging like one of my favorite R and B singers Keith Sweat, but honestly, its not supposed to be this way, I’m supposed to be the one that walks up to her and says, “hey you are beautiful, and I want you to take my hand and become my boo…” but yet that simple phrase causes a man to falter and then he asks himself the question:

have you ever liked someone so much, but you didnt tell them, or you feared rejection, so you let someone great slip away from your very two hands?

as pitiful as it sounds, I have constantly asked myself this question, I have always asked, what it could have been, what we could have made, living in my dream, while I should be living it in reality.

I rest my eyes upon the pier at one of my favorite spots on Jekyll Island and also walk the beach in the evening thinking, this should be you, me together, but I fail to make a move.   I will tell you, when I’m around you, I never feel ashamed, I feel like I can talk to you about anything, I can sing off-key (which is very unlikely) and it will still sound good, I can make the biggest mistake of my life, but you still appreciate me.  I don’t know, maybe I should man up and jump on it before its too late? I feel like I’m stuck….its not that I;’m feenin, but its more than that…..I wonder, as I write, would she be mad if she read this? It’s not supposed to make her mad….I don’t think….then you think about all the rest that you have talked to or dated, and you realize NO ONE compares, or is up to the standard, it’s not supposed to feel like this, but I don’t know again, maybe I can tell her, maybe she already knows, she probably knows that I think about her, love her smile, loves the way she talks, walks, and maybe the way she makes you feel good, but I believe in the end, the way God works, It’s suppose to be……