Are you choosing poverty thought your daily actions?
1. Eating food that’s way past its expiration date
2. Eating food off the ground
I shamelessly followed the 3–5 second rule for food that dropped on the ground.
Aate old food in the fridge.
I ate food that sat out all day.
Simply put, I just hate wasting food.
Growing up it was never a good thing to throw away food.
To this day, I hate when I order something and I don’t like it, or I’m unable to finish all the groceries (not a common occurrence, but still happens at times).
Whenever I went out with a previous partner and ended up wasting food, I always made sure they covered that one because I couldn’t stomach the loss over food. 🫠
Over time, I realized, I simply struggled to let go of food. I had two things pitted against me:
- My attachment to food (I’m a bona fide foodie)
- My attachment to wasting money on food (something I hold most dear)
Do you eat leftovers that you shouldn’t?
It’s also bad business for your gut health. It’s not worth it. Though my stomach has somehow remained iron clad.
No matter how good and pricey the food is, let it go.
I literally had to hold myself back a few times from doing this until I’m like bro….just stop. Please. Smh.
3. Tracking every single dollar down to the penny
It’s useful but unnecessary — to an extent. I track my net worth now, everything else comes secondary. I track it on a monthly to quarterly basis. But I highly recommend you do monthly, as I’m starting to do now.
Interestingly enough, after I stopped budgeting down to every f*cking dollar, my net worth grew more.
4. Being Stingy AF
I took my family on a trip to multiple countries, and it was one of the best memories of my f*cking life. I also feel like it gave back to me exponentially in growth and mindset.
Giving is the best thing in the world. It’s much better to give than to receive.
5. Saying “Yes” to every financial request
It goes both ways. You need to give, yes, but you also need to set boundaries and be a good steward with the resources you have OR you won’t have any left. Don’t be the “yes” person all the time.
6. Stop Being Arrogant. You Won’t Live Forever. Don’t delay experiencing life
I’m not going to wait until I’m 40+ to start traveling the world.
I’ve always had a desire to have a large portion of the world completed before reaching that point, which is opposite of what many gurus recommend.
Get creative.
Find a way to build wealth now and live for today.
Will you have less? Maybe.
Or maybe you’ll get creative enough to build similarly to others stuffing away every single dollar waiting for the day they reach financial liberation.
7. Making Consistently Bad Investments
I’ve made some REALLY bad investments that made me go, why the f*ck did you do that, bro?
Due diligence is SUPER important.
Don’t invest in what your friends, partners, family members, or gurus tell you to invest in until you do your absolute due diligence on the investment AND the person recommending the strategy.
And if something sounds too good to be true, study the sh*t out of it before buying into it.
Once again, if you are not a good steward of your money, the universe likely won’t give you more to work with.
8. Partnering with people who don’t respect money
It matters who you partner with, and money matters a lot when it comes to relationships.
If the person isn’t a good steward with their money, don’t expect them to be a good steward with yours — that’s delusional.
9. Focus on how much you spend < Focus on how much you invest
In the end, it’s more about how much you put away.
If you put away enough, you won’t have too much left over to spend.
Prioritize one over the other and the second becomes noise.
Once you see your investments scale, you will naturally become more thoughtful about your spending as a consequence.
10. Don’t use the word “expensive”
I’m very sensitive to this word.
Whenever people use it, I get withdrawals.
“Expensive” is relative.
If something is a price that I don’t feel is worth it or doesn’t feel right for my current financial status, cool.
But I don’t need to label it expensive.
Expensive makes it out of reach and communicates lack.
One of my favorite parables: A master gave three servants different amounts of money based on what he believed they could handle. Two invested and doubled it. One buried it out of fear, laziness, and ignorance. When the master returned, he rewarded the ones who multiplied what they had and took the money away from the one who did nothing