“Rich people paid themselves first, then bills and debts. Poor people paid everyone before themselves.” <<Rich Dad Poor Dad>> mentioned. I start thinking about this statement and find out about my mistakes in life cause I didn’t prioritize myself first. After reading some books and thinking about life, I make a decision, start investing in myself first before anything.
During COVID, I lost my job and focus to run my home-based embroidery, arts and crafts business. My income is far behind bills. Even I didn’t qualify for any grant or special deals, I have credit cards with great credit. So I withdraw money from my credit cards to pay bills. This is a huge mistake because I run myself into a high-interest trap. Without enough knowledge, every time I have income, I try to pay as much as I can into the credit cards debt, but it feels never-ending with the high interest.
I’ve been in the situation of a large scam that not only lost goods but also money. This customer email me and paid via phone to order a large number of T-shirts, then after goods had been delivered, the fund was in dispute and withdrawn from my account. The merchandise company not only withdrew the amount that was deposited in my account from this order but also withdrew the fee for their services as well. With not enough funds in my account and overdraft protection link to my credit card, it maxes out my credit card and still left me a negative balance in my account. My car was low on gas, and I have no money to add gas, I was lucky enough that I have some ramen noodles in the house and have some food to go in my stomach. Have you ever experienced joy and happiness with your friend ordering Costco eggs for you that you few like you have the whole world? You have no idea how grateful I am when my best friend that I call my sister orders eggs for me when I have nothing. I’ve got some support from a few amazing people and was finally able to get into a stable living situation. Here’s the experience of how poor I paid everyone before myself. I paid bills and debts before I put enough food into my stomach and give enough nutrition to support my body. So my brain didn’t question why will I receive a large order. I don’t know now scammers will use stolen credit cards to place huge orders to take goods from us, and merchandise doesn’t have a system to avoid these types of scams, also won’t wave fees due to this type of situation. I once lost hope in business because of how many scammers are out there and don’t seem like anyone has the power to do anything to them. Some people are nice and supportive to giving me the courage to continue my home-based business. Now, I am still researching trustful merchandise that can avoid these types of scammers and rebuilding my business system.
“Poor people pay everyone before themself.” If I paid myself and deposit to the savings account before COVID, I would not need to use my credit cards to fund my bills even I didn’t qualify for any support. If I feed myself before I pay my debts and bills, my brain may give me some signal with large amount order might be a scam. I won’t be taking the order right away without doing some research to confirm if this is a legit customer. The fact is, even I starved myself to the dead to pay bills and debts, they won’t give me any prize because of my stupid action, nor happy to lose a customer that can keep paying them everymonth. So I’ve learned to feed and pay myself first now a day. 10% of my income is deposited into rainy day funds, 10% of my income is for my unnecessary expanse, and 80% is for bills and debts.
Don’t forget, “Rich people paid themselves first, then bills and debts.” Now let’s start paying ourselves first to make life better.
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