Meet Greg. He’s 27-years-old and lives in San Diego, California.
He graduated college in 2013 with a useless degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton and has bounced around from job to job over the past 4 years to where he now makes more than he ever has—$40,000 a year salary.
He’s also as broke as he’s ever been, albeit he has a roof over his head, food in his belly, and running water and electricity.
Should he be grateful?
Let’s break down Greg’s finances:
His income is $40,000 and he gets paid on the 1st of every month. This means he gets 12 paychecks a year. This puts Greg’s monthly income at $3,333.33
Every paycheck, however, he has deductions taken out…
Health Insurance: $76.24
Dental Insurance: $44.76
Federal Income Tax: $331.15
State Income Tax: $88.07
Social Security: $206.67
Medicare Tax: $48.33
This is a total of $795.22 taken out of each paycheck before he ever sees a penny of his earnings.
This is $9,542.64 taken out for the year.
You can see that Greg doesn’t make $40,000, he “makes” only $30,457.36 because he only gets $2,538.11 deposited into his checking account each month.
Here’s how Greg, who lives very frugally, spends his money:
Having racked up debt for delaying his career and going to college for 4 years, he has a monthly student debt loan payment of $227 he’s dealing with. (National average is $280/month)
Here’s Greg’s updated financial picture after this expense: $2,538.11- $227 = $2311.11 left over.
Instead of splurging on a studio, he roommates with 3 other dudes in a small run-down house.
His rent, which includes cable, internet, trash pickup, and utilities, is $750. This allows him to live in an “average” area (not a nice neighborhood but it’s not the ghetto).
At least he has his own small bedroom, right?
There’s no dishwasher though, so the sink often looks like this with 4 dudes:
Here’s Greg’s updated financial picture after his housing expenses: $2311.11 – $750 = $1561.11 left over.
To get to his job in La Jolla, Greg needs to have a car.
Riding a bus is too time-consuming and besides, who wants to live in southern California without a car?
His old 1994 Toyota Camry he purchased 3 years ago finally broke down after it hit 220,000 miles and he was forced to get a “new” car.
He settled on a 2004 Chevy Impala that costs him now $84 a month, but the big expense is the insurance which sets him back $170 a month.
Add in $150 he spends on gas and suddenly he’s spending $404 a month on transportation expenses.
Here’s Greg’s updated financial picture after transportation expenses: $1561.11- $404 = $1157.11 left over.
He likes to go to the gym to keep his body in shape, so his gym membership sets him back another $50. His monthly cell phone brings another $87.34 out of his pocket. This adds another $137.34 in monthly reoccurring expenses
Here’s Greg’s updated financial picture after accounting for all reoccurring monthly expenses: $1157.11- $137.34 = $1,019.77 left over.
You can see that Greg has just over $1,000 of money each month left to “spend” as he chooses once the monthly reoccurring expenses are paid for.
Can you live on $1,000 a month for food and drinks, clothes, recreation, sports, birthday gifts, doctor copays, repairs, unexpected expenses, furniture, travel, etc.?
Let’s look at what Greg did.
He goes to WalMart and loads up on Ramen Noodle, and generally eats cheap.
He wants to eat healthily but never sets foot in a Whole Foods.
Because here’s what they don’t teach you in school:
You can’t afford $5 organic strawberries even at $40,000 a year.
“Eating out” means a $6 turkey sub which he splurges on a couple of times a week.
All in all, Greg somehow manages to only spend about $500 a month in food, which is only $16 a day.
You can’t really take a girl out for steak and lobster for $16 a day, nor can you feed a family.
That’s why Greg isn’t focused on dating or marriage at this point, he struggles to take care of himself, much less a family.
Can you imagine how a guy making $40,000 a year with a stay-at-home mom and a couple of young kids does it?
As you can expect, Greg easily spends the remaining $500 on various life expenses that come up each month.
This past month he was able to save a penny, literally.
After all, isn’t a penny saved a penny earned?
At that rate, Greg will become a millionaire in 100 million months—or 8,333,333 years.
Yes, that’s over 8 million years.
By then, a million dollars just might be worth a penny.
The reality is Greg will probably not save a penny a month and have a nest egg of $3.60 in 30 years because one of these months he’s going to have more unexpected expenses and he’ll have to go into debt.
To ever get out that debt, he’ll have to cut even more into his monthly expenditures or he’ll need to increase his income.
I teach people like Greg how to increase income, how to get off the $40,000 a year treadmill and find financial freedom.
Until you increase your income, there is no money to save folks!
Get your money right and invest in Cardone University.
I made it so affordable, even Greg can get on it if he wants to.
STOP the Ramen lifestyle!
Be Great,
GC
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