I’m very excited today. Rich Money Habits just got featured at MoneyHackers.net! Here’s an excerpt of the interview.
What encouraged you to start Rich Money habits?
It has been said that we are creatures of habit. Some money habits make us poor, while others make us rich. The key to being rich is knowing which is which.
My money habits growing up can be described as “working hard for money”. The only way I knew how to make money then was to work hard and and get paid at the end of each month.
Being young and foolish about money, I made sure that my “hard work” was compensated by having lots of fun. I have earned and spent my money as if there’s no tomorrow, dining out with friends, buying the latest gadget, or buying home appliances all at once, EVEN if I didn’t have the money to pay for it. I only had to use my new credit card.
When my debts piled up, I realized that my money habits are eating me alive. I even had to do cash advance on my credit card just to pay for rent. That was a wake up call for me. I realized I had better take care of my own money by controlling my own money habits or I’d end up begging for money to pay for what I eat.
That proved to be a turning point in my financial life. My journey of trying to learn how the world of money works started by discovering my own “poor” money habits and forming new “rich” money habits to help me get started in taking control of my own finances.
Rich Money Habits was born out of my desire to help people take control of their own money habits. It starts with recognizing that years and years of “poor” money habits programming cannot be undone overnight. It takes constant exposure to the financial habits of the rich, making your own financial mistakes, and having the courage to take action in spite of financial failures. More importantly, Rich Money Habits was built in the hope of cultivating a community where people can learn and encourage each other to discover and strengthen the “rich man” within each one of us.
How does Rich Money habits differ from other financial sites?
The main focus of Rich Money Habits is in helping you develop the mindset of the rich in the hope of drawing out the “rich man” in you to help solve your own financial problems.
Some financial sites focus on being frugal. Others focus on ways of saving. While a few concentrate on the different investment vehicles, whether it be online savings accounts, mutual funds, real-estate or stocks.
Even though Rich Money Habits will occasionally feature these topics, it is mainly to highlight the money mindset behind the financial decision and examine how and why people take advantage of these financial vehicles in the first place.
Does personal experiences play a key part in the content of your blogs?
My personal experiences (both successes and failures) are occasionally included in some of the articles in Rich Money Habits in the hope that it might help encourage other people to explore and discover their money habits on their own.
Where do you get the ideas for your blogs?
Ideas are a dime a dozen. I’ve read hundreds of personal finance books, magazines, blogs, attended financial seminars and coaching, designed software solutions to major financial services companies but nothing beats jumping in and experiencing how to solve your own money problems. Listening to other people’s money problems also allows me to tune in and understand why people do what they do with their own money. My goal is to extract the valuable financial lessons from all these sources and effectively communicate those gem of money ideas to readers of Rich Money Habits.
What are some key concepts to keep in mind when creating a budget?
One thing I learned about a traditional budget is that it doesn’t work – at least for me anyway. I don’t keep a detailed list of all transactions that I make. What works for me is keeping an overall picture of where my money is coming from, where is it going out, and more importantly, if I’m keeping any of it at the end of each month. If I need to know where my financial life is, I can check my accounts and instantly get an idea if my money is growing or not. I’ve learned to stay flexible and treat a budget like a plan that has to be continually refined as I go.
What is some financial advice you could give our readers?
Keep learning. Keep dreaming. Keep building your own rich money habits.
Thanks to Lydia @ MoneyHackers.net for the interview. The original article got published @ http://www.moneyhackers.net/465/interview-with-allan-from-rich-money-habits/.