‘Chunk of change’ creates wealth
off debt, or investing, is that the $520 takes wings.
An extra $520 a year paid off a $200,000 mortgage you were going to pay back over 20 years saves around $9000 in interest, and gets you clear of the debt two years sooner.
The question for people is: Where do you find your chunks of change?
Being a married man, there’s only so far I can take my search.
I can absolutely insist on a healthy surplus for saving at the end of the month, but family finances are effectively run by committee.
While the committee is happy for me to curtail my consumption, other committee members have their own opinions about how frugal they can bear to be.
In my book, the best chunks of change to go looking for are the ones that don’t involve ruining your standard of life, or actually serve to make it better.
A week back I met the global spin doctor for Imperial Tobacco. It was fun. He was unbelievably slick. As an ex-smoker (fifteen years clean), I can tell all smokers that the chunk of change on offer there is huge, and you get not to die earlier too.
In the case of giving up smoking, I not only started getting richer faster, but I fuelled my resolve by getting fit.
Self-denial actually improved my life.
It was the same in the more recent instances when I sold my car and started to cycle to work, kicked a soft drink habit, stopped buying a couple of bought lunches a week, and temporarily banned myself from buying any more books until I’ve read the ones on my bookshelves.
So look for your repeated small expenditures that add up to a chunk of change in a year, and decide if the money is better spent, or saved.
No matter what you earn, finding chunks of change can improve your finances.