Caught these tips off Twitter and thought it would be fun to see how many of these we can check off 😉
I’ll go first, and then you go!
From The Man himself, Mark Cuban:
#1. Live like a student
Nope! I used to live like a student, but that was more out of necessity than desire lol… I will say though that this mentality IS a good one to try and mimic though, at least in spirit, as lifestyle inflation is real and if you keep spending all the new money you earn you might as well still be a broke college student!
So a hearty yes to channeling this, but no to giving myself a point here as I def. live more lavishly than my 19 y/o self could ever stomach 😉 That guy would never spend $6.00 on a latte!
#2. Don’t use credit cards
FAIL. We use one main “house” card for all bills to rack up cashback and keep things streamlined, but we also pay it off at the end of every month because we don’t like lighting our cash on fire… If you struggle with that 2nd part though, then a hell yes to whipping out those scissors and chopping them up!! The c/c perks will never outperform the loss of fees and stress from debt! Better to just avoid it altogether than play the devil’s game if you don’t trust yourself enough. 👍
(And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m 99% sure we overspend using plastic vs cash too… It’s a “convenience” fee I’m willing to pay though after decades of hustling ;))
#3. Save 6 months income
Next Level Activated! 3-6 months banked does wonders to your peace, and honestly even if you can just pull off ONE MONTH of savings it’s game changing.. And the beauty is that once you hit whatever level you’re going for, you don’t have to add any more to it and can divert all future $$$ elsewhere to more exciting things!! Like Pokémon and NFTs! 😉
And remember too, not every dollar needs to be maximized. Even though it looks like the money is just sitting there “doing nothing” and not earning anything, it’s still serving the magnificent purpose of giving you INNER PEACE. And I know a lot of people who would pay good money for that, so soak in as much of it as you can!
#4. Put savings into SPX mutual fund
YUP!!! Well, technically we’re invested in Vanguard’s VTSAX which tracks the TOTAL MARKET and not just the S&P 500 stocks which is what SPX does (or VFIAX – another popular fund from Vanguard), but it’s all a similar concept. You’re betting on a giant portfolio of hundreds/thousands of stocks instead of trying your hand at picking out individual ones which is very (very) hard to do well, especially long-term. And a bonus perk – you can just set it and forget it! A lazy man’s dream!
#5. Invest a % of money into high risk
Score here too! Always smart to have a “long shot” going on the side, though I can’t say it helps too well with that whole “inner peace” stuff as it’s amazing how much MENTAL bandwidth it can take up for being such a small sliver of your net worth, lol… You give me .0001 bitcoins and it’s all I can think about for the next year even though it’s so insignificant! So hopefully your brains work much better at keeping the overall perspective than mine, or at least betting on things that isn’t in the news 24/7 🙂
I would also put starting your own business, or buying up other small businesses, in this department too btw… Stuff that has a higher rate of failure, but also a higher rate of rewards when they succeed! And notice Mark didn’t put a specific % amount there either, which I like since our risk tolerances are all different… Though typically you’ll see recommendations anywhere from 5%-10% of your overall net worth to play with which I tend to agree as a good starting point.
#6. Buy consumables in bulk
FAIL. This is kind of embarrassing as it’s such a core tenant of frugality – especially for a money blogger (!) – but for whatever reason we just don’t do much of it… Or I should say, my wife doesn’t do much of it, and ain’t no way I’m going to pipe up and ask her why to then have the task transferred over to me, haha… I let her run the show there, and I run the show here with our finances!
But yes. More bulk = more sex…y. So good on all you Costco and Sam’s Club shoppers banking those savings around the world… At least I think Costco is around the world?! (I googled: “Costco has 833 warehouses worldwide: 574 in the United States, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 16 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one in Iceland.”)
#7. Negotiate with cash
Does yard sales count? ‘Cuz if so I’m an undefeated champ there – BOOM! But can’t say I do much negotiating outside of that… Except for house buying times, but even then we always end up choosing the mortgage route than cash money for ultimate flexibility… Not that we usually *have* the cash to pony up most times anyways, haha… do you know how expensive homes are these days??! It’s insane!
But overall, yeah – anything that tips your hands in negotiations is great, and if you have the cash to back up that fast-talking mouth of yours then you go with your bad self. Not many things feel better than pulling off a good deal!
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And those are his 7 tips!
So let’s see here… Out of the 7 recommended it looks like I can confidently check off at least 3 of them, and then maybe partially 1 or 2 of others.
So I’m going to give myself a solid 4 out of 7 here which means I’m definitely no Mark Cuban, but something tells me Mark Cuban isn’t Mark Cuban either 😉
No way he doesn’t use a credit card these days or leverage his millions of billions of dollars to strike deals… I’m sure he buys in bulk and lives like a college student at least in his mind, but obviously these tips are geared more for the general public than an entrepreneurial rock star like himself.
Still, a fun checklist to go down and always good to at least *consciously* be choosing to take one path or the other than living financially oblivious! So see how many you can check off too, and then share below so we can compare!
Your financially conscious friend,
PS: For more insight from Mr. Cuban, here’s his thoughts on How To Get Rich
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Photo by TechCrunch / Doodles by J$
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