“Why am I always living paycheck to paycheck even when I get salary increases?"

This episode is part of our FINANCIAL FIERCENESS!™ series! This episode is, “Why am I always living paycheck to paycheck even when I get salary increases?”

Budgets?
Be cautious about budgets. People may create “ideal” (or fantasy) budgets. The goal is attaining and sustaining financial independence so you need to increase your income (and income producing assets) and lower your expenses. 

The title of this episode states that there is already more income yet they are still paycheck to paycheck. Thus, we should immediately focus on expenses. Remember, the path to financial dependance (aka “broke”) is to spend more money when you earn more money. Instead, you must simultaneously work to increase income (or revenue) while decreasing expenses. Focusing on decreasing expenses, you must do the opposite of the inclination (i.e., I got a raise so I can get the bigger satellite package, etc.). 

Money Days?
This is my term for when I go through all of my expenses and cut costs (or increase my money that I have possession of). I take all of my required expenses (utilities, etc.) and my desired expenses (cell phone, etc.). I usually take 1-3 of the total list on each Money Day and do the following:
-Call the vendor.
-Have a timid demeanor.
-State, “I am not able to afford this. Will you please help me lower my bill?”
-I tell the customer service agent that I don’t want to cancel my service but I am just unable to afford it. If they do not make any acceptable reductions, I will then go to the cancellation department (usually an agent trained in retention of customers who will be able to offer better savings to me).
-Add up all of the money that I have saved each Money Day!

I have paid myself money that I was giving away and I am now moving closer to attaining and/ or maintaining financial independence!