How To Become a Financial Superstar!

Take these tips from everyday people who took on impressive – if not, seemingly impossible – financial challenges, and be inspired to think differently about your money.

One pair of roommates embarked on a project they titled the Buy Nothing Year. One couple minimized their housing, transportation and grocery expenses and bought little else until they were able to retire in their 30s. One man gave up a salary of US$150,000 (S$203,677) and now travels the world on less than US$30,000 a year.

The stories astound from a sheer practical perspective and while many of them employed the same tactics – cycling instead of driving, cooking at home rather than eating out, choosing inexpensive investments and minimizing taxes – what kept them on their path tends to be more individual and unique.

Here are some mental (because the first hurdle is always psychological) tips you can pick up from these everyday financial superstars, who haven’t done anything more special than you and me – except to think differently about their money.

1 STOP THINKING OF SAVING MONEY AS DEPRIVING YOURSELF

As blogger Mr Money Mustache, who retired at 30, says: “You’re actually buying yourself the most valuable thing you can: your freedom. So if you say, ‘I like spending my money – on my freedom’, it gets you excited about saving again.”

“With that money comes freedom and opportunities,” says Geoffrey Szuszkiewicz, one half of the Canadian roommate pair that embarked on the Buy Nothing Year, in which he and his roommate Julie Phillips stopped spending on consumer items such as clothing and electronics, as well as services such as haircuts, dining out and even petrol.

2 BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOALS