Save First, Spend Later

I saw this advice on the morning news while watching a story about Christmas spending, though this advice could certainly apply to Amway too.

So here's a rare blog where I don’t curse out the fucking assholes in the Amway upline, a little off topic but seeing as how its the Christmas season sort of fits with this time of year.

I hate seeing stories about budgeting for Christmas especially when it’s a few weeks away its pretty much a lost cause for most people. One financial expert that was interviewed said to budget 1.5% of your income for Christmas. That would include presents, baking extra meals, or any other spending that happens this time of year. He said if the annual income was $50,000 then that’s a budget of $750. He also said to save first, spend later and then totally glossed over that and moved on to saying spend only cash at Christmas. Like I said could be advice a little too late for some people who are whipping out the credit card and then regretting it when the January bill arrives in the mail.

Years ago I read something about figuring out how much money you spend for Christmas. Divide that amount by 12 and then put aside the cash every month. By the time Christmas shopping arrives you’ll have the cash on hand. Good advice. Every month Ambot and I put $100 into an envelope. By the time October or November rolls around we’ll top off the envelope for the rest of the year. So who’s good at math? By the time we start Christmas shopping we’ve got $1200 sitting in an envelope. When we first started doing this we put in $60/month. Then $80. And we’ve been stuck on $100 for awhile now. Ambot suggested today that next year we should increase it to $125/month. Because here’s how it goes. For the most part our Christmas cash covers the bulk of our spending. We do charge some – thanks Amazon! Our credit card bill for Christmas shopping is well under the credit card bill for Amway shopping.

I’m a saver/investor and Ambot is a spender which is what got him in trouble with the Amway cult and feeding into the scam. He pulled out his credit card for everything including buying his precious upline meals thinking that he’s tracking all his business expenses with a credit card not really comprehending that eventually he has to pay it back.

Using the same philosophy figure out how much you spend on Amway each month and set that cash aside, not use a credit card. Well actually most of the time you have to use a credit card cause its Internet purchases. So lets say cash that’s set aside to immediately pay back the credit card. Factor in at least $300/month on purchasing Amway products so you can earn a bonus check of just under $10. Ambot wanted to earn more money. The lowest amount he spent in a month was $468. Most months were between $950 and $1050 purchasing Amway products with the highest spending two months after joining - $1,358.

Here’s where I want to SCREAM! My food budget is $600 and that includes groceries and eating out, about half/half. What the fuck was he buying? OK, I’ve mentioned hyper consuming XS Energy Drinks before. How does this possibly come close to we buy from Amway products we normally buy when we’re grocery shopping? I’ve never come close when grocery shopping.

Say you’re going el cheapo on buying CD’s so add another $20/month but the sky’s the limit. The most CD's Ambot purchased one month was $150 but most of the time it was closer to $40/month.

Gotta have your premier membership to WWDB $50. Don’t forget Communikate if you’re a “serious business builder” $35/month.

Various monthly seminars - tickets and parking - $70+.

That’s $476.90 a month doing just the basics to earn a less than $10 bonus check from Amway and prove you’re a serious business owner. It goes up and up and up from there depending on how much room you have on your credit card and how much you want to impress your upline with your spending.

There are 4 major functions each year usually in another state. Transportation, meals, hotel, tickets - plan at least $500 and it could go higher depending on your circumstances (how far you’re travelling).

So lets do it like we’re putting cash aside for Christmas and dividing by 12. You need to set aside cash close to $700 (or more) each month to be a member of Amway the cult of greed!

Yikes!

Does anyone think that could be a mortgage payment? Does anyone think that could be invested in stocks or a 401k or IRA? How about a pretty big blow out for Christmas?

That’s a lot of cash to set aside each month for a business that has over a 99% failure rate.

I still like the advice from the financial expert on the news: “Save first, spend later.”

Apply that to your Amway business before you go nuts on your credit card to impress your upline.