1. Immediate Needs.
2. Full Rent
3. Paying the bills.
4. Grocery Money.
5. Beer Money, Finally.
These are the tiers which I have always been trying to reach. I used to bounce around between 1, 2, & 3...
When you start from literally zero dollars, nothing gets taken for granted.
By "start" I mean achieving a level higher than merely providing for "immediate needs." It is actually amazing. I've been dragging along that plateau for many years.
Having my "Immediate Needs" met, meant that I wouldn't be sweating and stressing about caring for my family or literally worrying about keeping us all off the street. Struggling for immediate needs included "borrowing" money from family and applying for food stamps. It meant that I am basically famous in the family as being the one with "money problems but refuses to get a real job."
Suffering at this level was horrible.
Knowing about Fastlane Principles made things more painful and living like this presented a very stark contrast to what was going on in my head and heart.
That level is also where acting financially shameful with my landlord continued to happen. (He was super old, like 114 years or something, and hand-wrote his letters. But he liked me and was too much of a pushover for his own good. But I couldn't actually do anything different at the time.) Reaching "Full Rent" level can actually be false when you are sharing your abode with another adult. I had never really covered that on my own. Always had help.
"Paying the Bills." This level boils down to choosing which bills get paid and which ones don't get paid. I have horrible credit for this reason. I pay Internet, phone, power, but that's just about it. I'm on a cash basis now because my credit card companies don't bother calling me for payment any more. Maybe I can build my credit again somehow.
The "grocery money" level is where, when your food stamps run out you don't mind forking out a few more dollars for milk and cereal at the end of the month. It means I don't have to go to the food bank.
Buying groceries with coupons sucks so bad, I'm telling you.
This is where today's post begins.
"Beer Money, Finally"
This month and last, I achieved "beer money" status. This is not "going to a restaurant" status, unless you're talking about Taco Bell or Costco Food Court. There is no P.F.Changs and "steakhouse" is not in the vocabulary at this time.
But beer money is good.
What this means is that I can spend the grocery money on beer and remain confident that I will have more money to spend on groceries this month, this week, or tomorrow, and buy my beer without any hesitation or doubt.
This is what I've been waiting for. It is the tier that is visible from the dirt floor. It is the level that you can see when you do that "bounce" off the bottom when you've had that temporary windfall, and you really, really want to buy beer, but you can not justify doing so because of what I just said – that you must have no doubt that tomorrow or next week you will still have enough money for groceries.
I'm content with the "Beer Money" tier. I can remain here for a while. I might enjoy some infrequent outings for Italian food or just bring home a bottle of wine once in a while.
This "beer money" tier is MOTIVATING. It gives me a sense that I'm being REWARDED for my hard work getting here. It is not a very far drop to the lowest place I've been, so it's really helping me to FOCUS on what works. It makes it so I don't stop working just because it's late. It makes it so I know what I'm doing when I wake up in the morning.
I admit, I still don't use an alarm clock. I function better on the right amount of sleep. If I keep rolling on past midnight, I don't fret about morning. I can't help myself but to wake up and rise in the morning, pour the coffee and keep beavering away each and every day.
I'm trying to reach "Vegas Money." This is the one from the book, when you lose 6k at one time, but you realize that you just made that money passively over the past hour.
Acknowledgments:
Thank you: @IceCreamKid , @SinisterLex , @Vigilante , @AndrewNC
2. Full Rent
3. Paying the bills.
4. Grocery Money.
5. Beer Money, Finally.
These are the tiers which I have always been trying to reach. I used to bounce around between 1, 2, & 3...
When you start from literally zero dollars, nothing gets taken for granted.
By "start" I mean achieving a level higher than merely providing for "immediate needs." It is actually amazing. I've been dragging along that plateau for many years.
Having my "Immediate Needs" met, meant that I wouldn't be sweating and stressing about caring for my family or literally worrying about keeping us all off the street. Struggling for immediate needs included "borrowing" money from family and applying for food stamps. It meant that I am basically famous in the family as being the one with "money problems but refuses to get a real job."
Suffering at this level was horrible.
Knowing about Fastlane Principles made things more painful and living like this presented a very stark contrast to what was going on in my head and heart.
That level is also where acting financially shameful with my landlord continued to happen. (He was super old, like 114 years or something, and hand-wrote his letters. But he liked me and was too much of a pushover for his own good. But I couldn't actually do anything different at the time.) Reaching "Full Rent" level can actually be false when you are sharing your abode with another adult. I had never really covered that on my own. Always had help.
"Paying the Bills." This level boils down to choosing which bills get paid and which ones don't get paid. I have horrible credit for this reason. I pay Internet, phone, power, but that's just about it. I'm on a cash basis now because my credit card companies don't bother calling me for payment any more. Maybe I can build my credit again somehow.
The "grocery money" level is where, when your food stamps run out you don't mind forking out a few more dollars for milk and cereal at the end of the month. It means I don't have to go to the food bank.
Buying groceries with coupons sucks so bad, I'm telling you.
This is where today's post begins.
"Beer Money, Finally"
This month and last, I achieved "beer money" status. This is not "going to a restaurant" status, unless you're talking about Taco Bell or Costco Food Court. There is no P.F.Changs and "steakhouse" is not in the vocabulary at this time.
But beer money is good.
What this means is that I can spend the grocery money on beer and remain confident that I will have more money to spend on groceries this month, this week, or tomorrow, and buy my beer without any hesitation or doubt.
This is what I've been waiting for. It is the tier that is visible from the dirt floor. It is the level that you can see when you do that "bounce" off the bottom when you've had that temporary windfall, and you really, really want to buy beer, but you can not justify doing so because of what I just said – that you must have no doubt that tomorrow or next week you will still have enough money for groceries.
I'm content with the "Beer Money" tier. I can remain here for a while. I might enjoy some infrequent outings for Italian food or just bring home a bottle of wine once in a while.
This "beer money" tier is MOTIVATING. It gives me a sense that I'm being REWARDED for my hard work getting here. It is not a very far drop to the lowest place I've been, so it's really helping me to FOCUS on what works. It makes it so I don't stop working just because it's late. It makes it so I know what I'm doing when I wake up in the morning.
I admit, I still don't use an alarm clock. I function better on the right amount of sleep. If I keep rolling on past midnight, I don't fret about morning. I can't help myself but to wake up and rise in the morning, pour the coffee and keep beavering away each and every day.
I'm trying to reach "Vegas Money." This is the one from the book, when you lose 6k at one time, but you realize that you just made that money passively over the past hour.
Acknowledgments:
Thank you: @IceCreamKid , @SinisterLex , @Vigilante , @AndrewNC
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