You may feel that you’re well paid, you may feel that you’re poorly paid, you may not get paid at all; in any case, you may be just like me. When it comes around to the third week of the month, or even occasionally the second, I’m scratching around under the cushions of the proverbial sofa, looking for my last dollar. If this sounds like you then, my friend, this might the place for you.
I’m tired of wishing the month away until the next pay cheque. I’m not extravagent. I have my fixed outgoings. I like my job and I don’t want to move just to chase a bigger pay check. So what can I do to banish the ‘last dollar blues’?
One month, I was desperate. Within a few days of my pay check touching my bank account, it was largely gone. But then it hit me (just after the credit card bill hit the doormat). Isn’t a problem shared supposed to be a problem solved? So I invested that last dollar (OK, just a few more) to start this site. And that’s my plan. I want to use this site to share ideas and strategies to help me (and everyone else) keep several steps ahead of the last dollar.
Are you in? Then welcome aboard. But first let’s set some ground rules:
1. We know about spending less than we earn. We’re doing our best to do that (It’s just that we’re spending to the limit). So don’t tell us to start cutting down on the Starbucks or whatever. Our aim is to make, not to save (or rather it’s to make so that we can have a chance to save properly).
2. We’re not interested in strategies which involve getting a better-paid job, or demanding a raise, or whatever. We’re happy where we are. And if we’re not, then there are plenty of sites out there we can go to help us move.
3. We’re motivated already. We know where we want to be - in a place where regular bills are paid with ease and we have enough left at the end of the month to treat ourselves or our families, our just put some away for a rainy day. We don’t need to be told that we have to look in the mirror and shout ‘I am a tiger hear me roar’ for five minutes before breakfast.
4. We’re going to do this legally, and we’re pretty sharp, so thanks to all you ’sons of former African and Eastern European dictators’, but no thanks. You’ll just have to get your money out yourself.
5. That’s it.
So,let’s get on. Time is, as always, running. We have the last dollar (I’m putting on the table in front of me as I write), how do we make it work?