If I Were BROKE… This Is What I’d Do

You need to pay yourself first because if you don't pay yourself first, you are never going to have the money that will support your future and your financial freedom. Hey guys, welcome back. I'm Tatiana and today I'm going to share with you what I would do if I went broke. So I managed to become a millionaire at 24 years old and if I lost all the money tomorrow, all my business assets, this is what I would do. Now I want to mention first that if that did happen, I would not have lost my most valued asset. Even though the finances would be gone, the business would be gone, everything I've worked for would, you know, appear to be gone. That's not 100% true because the most valuable asset I have is the knowledge and the experience I've acquired in order to earn that amount of money and that's truly the most valuable thing because even if everything else disappeared, what I have in my head, that's not going away. That stays with me and that is something that nobody can ever take away and I can use my knowledge to start again. So I want to start off by first saying that, you know, if you're broke right now and you're living paycheck to paycheck, you need to figure out why that is because that is not an enjoyable way to live. It's not comfortable and there's reasons why you're living paycheck to paycheck. So if you're living paycheck to paycheck, it means that your expenses and your income are the same. They're equal, okay? And that's exactly the opposite of what you want to do to achieve financial freedom, okay? So your expenses should be lower and your income should be higher, okay? So if you're in that situation right now, you really got to know where it is that you're spending money and you've got to invest in some time management skills like whether that's training or seeking help from a family friend or YouTube or whatever because you need to figure this out because money management is the the basis of all this. If you don't have money management skills now when you have barely any money in your bank account, you will not be able to manage the million dollars that's in your bank account, okay? So don't fool yourself. It starts now. So expenses, income. So what are your expenses and you should know what all your expenses are. If you're in that situation right now where you're living paycheck to paycheck, you need to know exactly where it is that you're spending your money and you need to know exactly how much you're earning. The earning part is easy. You know how much you make every month. The expenses is often where we get carried away. So if you are living that way right now, I would argue that you don't really have unless you're 100% happy and comfortable then fine, ignore this. But if you are striving to have financial freedom, then don't give yourself the luxury of getting your nails done and going shopping and eating out all the time and ordering in all the time and you know these are luxuries in life and you haven't earned that yet because if you're living that way, then you're living in a way that you can't afford. If your expenses are equal to your income, you're buying things that you can't afford. If you are using credit cards and you're not able to pay them off every month, you are living a lifestyle that you can't afford. So you know when my girlfriend calls me up and she says, hey you want to get your nails done? You know she should not be in the position to be asking to get her nails done. You know that's where you want to be saving the money. So those are expenses that do not need to be used. Those are that's where you can start saving money. So find ways to decrease your expenses. So there's two ways to fix this right. You can either decrease your expenses by figuring out okay where exactly is all this money going and then eliminating some of these things whether it's the eating out or the movies or whatever it is. Or you can increase your income. So for most people the easiest option is to decrease their expenses. But if you increase your income, then you can live the same lifestyle that you're having now. So those are the two options. And so figure that out okay. So I think you know first of all if I was broke, I would figure that out. Figure out what my expenses are and where I can afford to save money. And the most important thing if you read any kind of financial book, any kind of investing book, the most important thing is to pay yourself first okay. Now what does that mean? That means that before you pay for anything, before you pay your mortgage, before you pay for the hydro, before you pay for your car insurance, which by the way these are all liabilities, you need to pay yourself first. Because if you don't pay yourself first, you are never going to have the money that will support your future and your financial freedom okay. So it doesn't matter how much you're making right now. If you're making you know $500 a month, it doesn't matter. If you're making $10,000 a month, it doesn't matter. The same principle applies of paying yourself first. So that just means that you are going to out of every paycheck automatically pay yourself first. You could have this set up with your bank. So if you get paid a thousand dollars per month, you can automatically have your bank set up to take 10% of that and put it into a savings account. And this can be your rainy day savings. This can be you know start the start of your investment portfolio, whatever you want it to be okay. But you need to have this money because if something happens in the case where you go bankrupt or if you know ---- hits the fan and you this is your security, you have something to fall back on okay. So this is a must. No matter how tough things are, this is a must. This is what is going to free you. So if it's 10%, just put in $100 per month, $100 per month in your savings account. So if you're making $2,000 a month, 10% or more. If you can afford to do more, then do it because this is for you. You know you're not, you know by investing less, it's only sabotaging yourself. So the more you can put into the saving buckets, it's all for you. So do what you can afford and stretch yourself if you can. Okay so that's the most important rule is to pay yourself first. So next to that, once you've gotten that sorted, you've gotten you know the whole money management sorted, you understand now okay this is kind of why I went broke and you know let me have that awareness so it doesn't happen again. And then you have the income that is coming from your paychecks, 10% of it directly to a savings account. Now at this point, you need to have some extra money to not just pay your expenses. You want to be able to now not just put 10% of your savings but also have another bucket of income which you can use to invest in yourself. So the best investment you can make is not a stock, it's not investing in real estate, it's actually investing in yourself. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this video, you know my biggest asset is not my portfolio, it's not my business, it's me. It's what I've invested into my knowledge, in my training, my education, my self-development. So in order to have