LAA and GoAnna,
There's a big difference between not spending money on stuff you don't want and worrying about spending $2 on a bottle of water. I mean, seriously it's $2, who cares. I don't have a mobile phone or car not because I'm a tightarse, but because I don't want either of them.
I wouldn't spend $2 on bottled water either, but just don't get why people are all 'ZOMGZ! You spent $2 dollars on a bottle of water! What a waste of money!' like $2 is a big deal. Catching public transport costs more than that. It's not a big issue. People need to get out of the mindset of holding tightly onto the change in their pocket.
Mark
It's not the $2 Mark.
It's the cummulative effect of ALL the $2 over a period of time. If you add to this one item every other consumer item you spend money on, over a year it ends up being in the thousands of dollars.
Many people with the same mindset as yours end up at the end of the year with no savings, still in credit card debt etc, and wonder where their money goes, and say they can't save. It's all too common unfortunately.
But of course; they can't see this.
I'm not saying YOU will, as simply by being
here you are in the smarter minority of society who is getting off their backsides and trying to do it themselves, so you're on the right track.
Being an investor is the same as being a business owner, and one of the keys to a successful business is cashflow management - minimise expenses, maximise income. So we need to adopt the mindset of a business owner when following the path of property investment - especially if you plan to accumulate and hold a number of properties.
All these "mortgage stress" sales that the D&G'ers love to warn us will occur are a result of bad money management in various forms.
I know this is probably telling you how to suck eggs, and I'm sorry it seems like this, but you did ask.
Another factor I forgot to mention earlier is WHERE you are in your journey of wealth creation.
Often times we get newbies here who are just starting out, and want to know where to start, and in many cases their mindset and financial management practices is where they need to start.
The beginner needs to adopt the mindset that Wylie and I (and others) advocate to get to the starting line sooner, while the more established people can take a breather and spend more freely.
There is nothing more dangerous (to themselves) than the newbie investor with loads of income to use for investing, but bad money management skills and not a lot of knowledge. Their easy access to finances makes them careless. It's often a time-bomb sadly.
Look at the USA over the last 2 years. Many of those foreclosures were on really nice houses - expensive houses.
Why anyone living in a country where there is perfectly clean, free-flowing, drinkable water, would opt for an expensive, highly commercialised substitute (benefitting only the health of the manufacturer's wallet) is totally beyond my comprehension!!
