TwentyFrugal

Start investing with Acorns today! Get $5 when you use my invite link: https://acorns.com/invite/K5QSRE About two years ago, I was in the process of moving to Chicago to complete a Master’s degree. I was going from a steady paycheck back to being an unemployed student living in an expensive city.  The first thing I did was hit up the local goodwills and salvation army’s. They had things that my local thrift stores could only dream of. With Chicago being a huge sports city, I started buying up jerseys and selling them on eBay, Facebook, OfferUp, and LetGo. I made enough to make it a few months. I landed a remote job working for the company that I worked for before moving to Chicago. I was still only making around minimum wage. I was frustrated because I was basically putting my long term wealth on hold while living there. I found an app called Acorns that really made a huge difference for me. Acorns rounds up your purchases and invests the roundups in ETFs that you select based on r...

The Cost of a Gym Membership in 2019 The average cost of a gym membership in the United States is as much as $600 a year. This is for your run of the mill average gym. Then if you get into the specialty gyms like CrossFit or PureBarre that you need a coach and classes for, your annual cost goes even higher. If you are a member of one of these gyms, I challenge you to make a working list of the equipment that you use at your gym and, in a separate column, whether that equipment is critical to your routine or if you could do without it.  Building a Home Gym After you have made this list of what is critical to you and what isn’t, you can start looking at the cost of this equipment. I recommend looking for secondhand equipment on resale sites like Facebook Marketplace, EBay, Craigslist, etc. I personally built my last home gym for only $250 solely on Facebook Marketplace. This was my breakdown: Bench press/leg press with about 300lbs of free weights: $100 Power Tower ...

These are 5 rules that I have set for myself that have helped me do more with what I have. Even with a low income, these rules can help you make the most of your income so that you have more to enjoy later. 1. Live below your means This is a virtue that my father hammered into my skull from day 1. In today's economic environment, it is easy to think that you can afford something that many of us actually can't.  For example: Statements like... "You can afford the monthly payment" "Take a little out of savings and replenish it next month" "You'll never get an opportunity to do this again" These statements may be true, but they are used to make you think you can afford something that you can't. The simplest way to look at it is that you want to have a personal net profit every month.  Net Profit = Revenue - Expenses Tracking your spending will help you find your monthly revenue and also see your monthly expenses. Cut out t...

I am 23 years old with a few months left of college and years of financial advice deep. My father is a financial advisor and hammered some key financial principles into my head as I got older. I grew up in a millennial generation with a financial goal of building wealth and establishing financial independence. This blog site will exhibit everything from my key principles, to my weaknesses, to referrals to the other key financial influences on my ideals.  Here is a road map that I have set for myself after years of research. This list comes from a mix of Dave Ramsey principles, modern financial advice, a bachelor's degree in business administration, and common sense. Start tracking your spending and create a budget In order to really get an understanding of where you are at, you need to start tracking your spending. There are many different ways to do this. Apps like Mint, Clarity, banking apps, and Every Dollar will actually link to your debit card and track your spending fo...