Expenses

In your personal arsenal, you have two weapons. One of them is money. If you haven't monitored your finances regularly, start. Do a personal balance sheet. Look at your expenses every month and your income. How much are you spending and and how much are you earning.

If you don't know how much your spending, start tracking it. Be cost driven. Keep records of everything. If it's helpful, use a credit or debit card that gives you a hard copy at the end of the month. If you don't like credit cards, or have trouble paying off your amount every month, write stuff down in a notebook or keep receipts. Use whatever system works for you. You have to know down to the penny. Track it always. Track it every day.

Recognize that every penny spent is a penny lost. You have to lose as little money as possible. Make sure that every penny lost returns something to you that has value. Maybe it's your rent. Your health insurance. Your food. Your clothes. Whatever it is, make sure that you lose as little as possible, but no more.

Are you paying interest on a big credit card balance? Can you get a family member to lend you the money at no or little interest and pay them back and save paying the interest?

Do you have a car you're supporting that costs too much? Consider selling it and getting a cheaper one. I was supporting a car here in Philadelphia for $300 per month. I was driving it 1 day a week, and we have Philly Car Share. I sold it and put the money in a CD. It doesn't earn much interest, but it gets at least something instead of losing $300 per month. And it wasn't getting more valuable either.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Go hard on your spending. Don't be afraid to spend money, just make sure it's going for something that helps you.

I'm trying to help people network more productively. Is this helping?

Connecting makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my approach to writing. See www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing outlet, By and for Writers. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

It is fueled by my reading and thinking and talking about entrepreneurship. For those ideas, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com.