25th June - Money Management

Rewind a decade, and the mentality with which I'm blessed today, probably started in my second year of Uni. After a decadent Fresher year in which I spunked every penny of my student loan on Primark tat, KFC, and most notably, alcohol (£2 pints and 50p shots, it would have been rude not to), my purse strings immediately tightened by my sophomore year, trading my mentality for 'one big' rather than 'several small'. At the beginning of the year, a couple of my fellow flatmates and I booked a big Ibiza trip for the following Summer. The holiday itself would skint us, but I knew from the offset that one week in the promised land would be worth a million nights in the Student Union. And so, to the bemusement of many, I essentially hibernated through the majority of the Semester, utilising Daryl's Xbox and the giant projector screen TV we rented out from the 'loan counter', rather than spunking away money every Wednesday at 'BOP', the Uni's big weekly student night. 

Whilst my flatmates would stagger home, £30 lighter, I was aware that £120 a month, or around a grand over the course of an academic year, would not only pay for my life changing debut on the White Isle, but also subsidise me in the ever exotic nightly dish of 'pasta and mayo' for a couple of terms. Nobody said it was glamorous, but it was a sacrifice worth making. Remember, 'one big' rather than 'many small'. The mentality had actually birthed itself some years earlier, when I'd attend Sixth Form between Mondays and Fridays. I'd then work in a local supermarket from 8am-10pm on a Saturday, 12pm-10pm on a Sunday, and 5pm-10pm on Monday and Thursday evenings. Whilst others studying for their A-Levels were working 5 hours a week, or sometimes, none at all, I was clocking up at least 34 per week on the checkouts, knowing that I needed to fund a batch of 40 hours of driving lessons with BSM, my theory, my practical, my off-white Volkswagen Polo, petrol, and a fully comp insurance package which I significantly remember, set me back £1800 per year (and remarkably, that was the cheapest at the time, for first-time 17 year-old male drivers). I replicated the method in 2017/2018 to fund a fortnight in Miami. For 4 continuous months, I commuted and worked at my 'usual job' between 8am-7pm at an office in Camden, wearing a black shirt and black jeans, often hidden by a hoodie on top, and would then go straight into 7pm-1am shifts in a local pub, unleashing the hoodie and being good-to-go in my bar uniform like a pint-pulling Superman. When I look back on the trip, I don't remember the exhausting 80-hour weeks for 80-odd days and nights in a row. I remember the memories of Miami. You see, in life, you don't recall the wasted evenings in local pubs. Only the big moments and even bigger trips. 

These days, I don't earn a lucrative amount. Not by any stretch of the imagination. My annual earnings start with a 2, and I'm not even the main 'breadwinner' in my household. Yet, there isn't a single item on my bucket list which I refuse to compromise on between now and 2023. The next few months will see trips around New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in addition to Florence, Venice, Dubai, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the World Cup in Qatar. There's no magic money laundering going on here, just relentless organisation, and hard-work. I was told from a young age that there's no money in journalism. Later, I was informed the same about the music industry. But a lack of earnings was never a problem to me, so long as - first and foremost - enjoy what I do daily. I realised that as long as I enjoy the work, I simply have to do more of it, to keep up with those stuck in 9-5s which they hate, but pay well. That's why you'll see me staying logged on in evenings, through weekends, and during free-time, maximising clients and going that 10% or 20% further than the average Joe. Hence why I'm now awake at 3.40am on a Saturday morning typing this very blog. You'll see me working out every incoming and outgoing month-by-month, year-by-year via documents, notes, and spreadsheets. 

I refuse to make impulse purchases in shops when I already have everything I need. I don't ask for material items for Birthday or Christmas (instead preferring experiences) because I have a coat which works fine, and a pair of trainers which still fit. My headphones aren't broke and I've got food in my cupboards. Managing your money means boxing clever. I don't go out on weekends, spunking away cash in vile clubs playing cheese music, charging for entry and watered-down drinks. I've not bought an alcohol beverage inside a festival for what must be close to a decade now. Even before the V.I.P treatment and freebies in the press area. Why slosh away £8 on a warm can of Carlsberg once, let alone 10 times in a row? When you can pre-drink a 4-pack of the same items for £3.50 an hour before entering. Or the classic 'hip flask full of vodka', utilised throughout the day to sprinkle a touch of magic on those £3 Pepsis. If you want to achieve the bigger things in life...

... It starts with cutting out the small ones.