Live Your Life for Half the Price , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Mary Hunt

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

164 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

"It's the money you don't spend that ultimately gives you the freedom to live the life you love!"You work hard for your money. You know you should save some, but it seems like every month something comes up that sets back your best laid plans. If you're tired of working hard just to get by, this user-friendly guide shows you that you can slash the cost of nearly everything you need without sacrificing joy and quality of life.Mary Hunt shows you how to get off the monthly money roller coaster. She offers the specific techniques, resources, and motivation you need to keep more of your money every month, including•finding money you didn't know you had•cutting your grocery bill by 50%•controlling the mother of all budget-busters•avoiding fees•paying off your mortgage•saving on bills•preparing for disaster•paying less for your dream car•planning family vacations•and moreIt's time to start saving, giving, and finally making financial progress, and with humor and compassion, Mary Hunt is leading the way!

Sujets

Personal finance

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	11 août 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441223470
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0461€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 2005 by Mary Hunt
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2347-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
In your lifetime, you will manage millions of dollars. You are receiving your fortune in installments—one paycheck at a time. The money you don’t spend will ultimately give you the freedom to live the life you love.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
An Interview
Introduction
1. The Life You Love
2. Found Money
3. Handy Tools, Secret Weapons
4. The Jarring Truth about Food Shopping
5. News Flash! There’s a Kitchen in Your House
6. The Mother of All Budget Busters
7. No More Back-of-the-Closet Mistakes
8. Attack of the Killer Fees
9. Home, Sweet, Paid-for Home
10. Remember When Talk Was Cheap?
11. Strategies for Big-Ticket Items
12. Your Dream Ride for Half the Price
13. Disaster, Disease, Death, and Other Fun Topics
14. Travel and Family Fun
15. Your Satisfaction Guaranteed
16. Rules to Live By
Afterword
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
Index
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Acknowledgments
I t’s been more than two decades since I founded Debt-Proof Living. What an amazing ride. How did I get so lucky? The truth is I didn’t get here alone. I’ve been privileged to have so many people help me on this journey, and I am humbled.
Thanks again to my husband, Harold, who has been right beside me through every dip and turn, always supporting and believing in me. And my kids—Josh, Wendy, Jeremy, and Tawny—what did I ever do to deserve you?
Huge thanks to Raquel Contreras for keeping our home clean so I am free to do what I do better than cleaning house, which is writing. And writing and writing.
I have so many other people to thank: Cheryl Van Andel for her beautiful cover design, Kristin Kornoelje for making these pages so readable and error-free, and most of all my editor and long-time friend Vicki Crumpton for making this book possible.
Thank you to Josh Hunt and Max Halbert for managing the DPL office so I can quietly check myself into book jail from time to time, confident that everything will be well taken care of in my absence.
Last, to you my readers who continue to inspire me every day, thank you!
An Interview
O ver the years, I’ve had many media interviews, and I’m grateful for every one. One interview, however, stands out in my mind because of an unfortunate case of host laryngitis. It was the first time I’d ever been asked to interview myself. Seriously.
I can’t say it was unpleasant. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself. I responded candidly to each of my questions; I knew all the answers and didn’t stump myself even once.
Now I find myself in a similar situation. There you are and here I am. I know you have questions, but alas your voice is silent. So what I did that day for a radio audience, I’ve decided to do for you: I will interview myself.
Me: Why did you write this book? There are plenty of books out there on personal finances already.
Myself: I know this looks like a personal finance book, and it is in a way, but not really. This book focuses on just one segment of the art of managing your money.
Me: You’re going to make me ask?
Myself: I wasn’t finished. It’s the part about limiting your spending so that it does not exceed 80 percent of your income.
Me: Oh, so this is a budget book!
Myself: No, not really.
Me: A bargain guide?
Myself: No, not that either. This is a book about how to live below your means—how to spend less than you earn. Living below your means is a decision, an attitude—it’s a way of life.
Me: Forgive me, but I don’t understand the difference between living below your means and finding great bargains.
Myself: If you are committed to maintaining a healthy margin between what you earn and what you spend, you’re going to be a deal hunter. But the bargain isn’t the issue—the bargain is simply the means to the end. The real issue is achieving a lifestyle where you buy what you need and want what you have—a consistent way of life where you live below your means.
Me: Who did you write this book for?
Myself: Since 1992, I’ve devoted my life to helping people make the shift from spender to saver—showing them how to stop spending all they have, how to get out of debt, and how to live below their means. Millions have taken me up on my offer and proven that my simple debt-proof living plan works.
I can’t tell you how many people have gotten out of debt and gone on to do amazing things with their lives and their money. I really can’t. I know—and this breaks my heart—that for every success there are ten thousand more who don’t get it or, if they do, procrastinate. They make good money and they’re not horribly in debt, but they spend all of their money—all the time. These are the people who need this book.
Me: Who would not benefit from this book?
Myself: I’d like to think that I’m such an entertaining writer that anyone would find this a real page-turner, but those who never spend beyond their means, those who give, save, and are building wealth will probably not find much inspiration. They are already doing what I’m talking about here. While I’d be honored if they flipped a few pages, I did not write this for those who are seasoned at living below their means and are looking for ways to go lower and lower. And lower.
Me: So what can we expect in the pages that follow?
Myself: You may have noticed this is a single volume, not a ninety-six-volume matched set. That’s why you are not going to find every possible consumer product and service together with details on how and where to buy it for 50 percent off. This is not Mary Hunt’s Guide to Bargains . I hope to empower my readers to action by teaching them the principles of living below their means and showing them how to reduce the cost of some of their major expenses.
Me: Thanks for being my guest today. Where can our readers find you if they have questions?
Myself: It was my pleasure! These days I spend most of my time hanging out at my website DebtProofLiving.com and my blog EverydayCheapskate.com.
Introduction
A ffluence is not measured by your annual income. Affluence is determined by how many of your resources you manage not to spend—the amount of income you keep.
Live Your Life for Half the Price is about how to spend less than you earn, how to make better choices with what you have so you can keep more of what you make. Who should read it? Anyone ready to achieve extraordinary results on an ordinary income.
Live Your Life for Half the Price is about how to spend less than you earn, how to make better choices with what you have so you can keep more of what you make. Who should read it? Anyone ready to achieve extraordinary results on an ordinary income.
The idea that you should live below your means is obvious, isn’t it? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve ever heard of the concept. You know that cutting spending is hard work but living paycheck to paycheck is much harder work. So if you knew how to stop spending so much, it’s safe to say you’d be doing that by now.
Living on less than you earn takes effort. Like swimming upstream or walking up the down escalator, you have to work at going against the flow. It takes a conscious effort to spend less on everything from food to ATM fees, insurance to clothes, and the fun things in life too.
Sadly, by the looks of climbing credit card debt and personal bankruptcy filings in the United States, too few people are willing to put forth the effort. It seems easier to just spend all you have and then depend on credit to cover the gap between what you think you need and how much you make. At the time, it seems fine to have it all now and pay later. Yet, we eventually learn the long-term effects of that spending error.
If you are not where you’d like to be with your money, don’t assume that’s because you make less money than you desire. Increased income does not guarantee a better life. Think about it. Ten years ago your annual income was less than it is now. Perhaps it was a lot less. You believed then that if you only made more money you’d be out of debt and on your way to building wealth and securing your future.
Then you got a raise or changed careers. Your annual income improved, but then you added new expenses and accepted new debt. Before long, you started thinking again that if you only made more money you’d be out of debt, on your way to building wealth and securing your future.
Then you got another raise or changed careers. You made more money. You took on more expenses, added more debt. I know I am repeating myself, and that is my point. You’re caught in a vicious cycle that insists more money is the only way to improve your financial situation.
More money alone is not likely to change your life. You’ve proven that. Making the decision to stop spending all of it so you can keep more of it—that’s the solution.
It took me decades to wise up. But finally I found the key to the life I love. I hope it doesn’t take you that long. How much more time can you afford to waste? No matter your current income, you can do better with what you have without giving up the life you love. Just the fact that you are reading these words right now means you have an important resource within your grasp.
As you read this book, make it a personal challenge to see how much of your money you can manage to keep. Make it a game. Try different strategies. Some things will work bett