You Didn't Win Powerball, So What's Next?

You didn’t win the Powerball and now you have to earn your money the hard way. I will let you in on a little secret; you are actually lucky you didn’t win the lottery. Haven’t you watched those specials on TV where the people who win the lottery end up bankrupt within the year? There are no short cuts to building your cash but if you will change the way you think and change the things you do with it, the odds of ending up with a pile of it will be much greater than the odds of you winning the lottery.

Spend Less Than You Make

People who have money spend less than they make. The great part is that it doesn’t matter what you make, but what you are spending will determine what you have at the end of the month. A prime example is someone who makes 20k a year but only spends 18k has much more money than someone who makes 200k and spends 205k. To start accumulating cash you need to know where it is going. Once you know where it goes, you can then decide what spending to cut out completely or at least reduce. You will want to start keeping receipts any time you spend money and record it on some type of log. You can track it on a spreadsheet or if you prefer you can write it down on a sheet of paper each day. The key to having more cash is by knowing where you are spending it and then spending less of it.

Show Yourself Some Love

Neither the credit card company, the department store, nor the vehicle sitting in your drive way loves you! The only thing that truly loves you is YOU! So why aren’t you paying yourself before you pay anything else?  Your goal is to pay yourself at least 10% of what you make. Do not get hung up on the Net or Gross part. Just put 10% of what you make into a different account than the one you are paying your bills with. Most people spend everything they make in their checking account so the key is to put money into a different account. Bankrate.com is a great site to search for the Bank where you can earn the highest interest on your FDIC accounts.

Reduce Your Debt

People with little or NO debt usually have much more money than those who have a whole bunch of debt. Earning interest on your money also makes much more sense than paying interest to someone else. The first step to reducing you debt is by NOT charging any more. If that means takingout the scissors and cutting your credit cards in half, do what you need to do so you will quit using them! A great website to help you put a get out of debt plan is www.powerpay.org. The key is not to get discouraged by the debt you have and to keep in mind that you didn’t GET in debt over night, neither will you GET out of debt overnight. The most important point is to quit charging and stick with a plan so you can finally get out of debt.

Make Retirement a When, Not an If

When you are younger you think that you will live forever and will worry about retirement at a later time. Most people are waiting too long to start putting any money away for their retirement and in addition, when they decide to start they are not putting enough money away. If you are in the military make sure you are planning accordingly. For the lucky ones who can make it the full 20 years, keep in mind that the pension you receive is just a supplement and most likely won’t be enough to cover all of your bills. The more money you can put away for retirement and the earlier you start, the sooner you can be prepared for it. You want the choice of having to work in your golden years instead of it being a must!

Now the decisions you make are up to you! You can hope you will win the next Powerball or Mega Millions Lottery or you can start thinking differently and doing different things with your money. Anything in life worth having is worth working for. It won't be as easy as just picking six numbers and hoping for the best, but for better odds, if you will take the advice by making better decisions with your money, you might just find yourself with a whole pile of cash.

Steve Repak, CFP, Professional Speaker and the author of Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training For Your Money For more info please visit DollarsAndUncommonSense.com.