This is part of Adam’s foundational series making sure you have prepared the groundwork of your financial life before seriously growing your pennies.
How you would like an extra job? It could be well paid, have flexible hours and you could start today! Sounds good?
I warn you: your employer will be quite a bit older than you and they won’t be able to give you any positive feedback. Worst of all, no matter how hard you work, you may not get paid straight away, and you won’t even know your true wage. But I can assure that that it will worth your time.
Who will you be working for? You may have guessed: Your future self.
During this foundational series of articles here at Magical Penny, I’ve been hoping to shift your perspective forward a few years. This is essential if you are going to grow your pennies. Working for your future self might not seem fun all the time but it pay dividends… literally.
Having a vision in your mind about what the future will look like is important as you begin down the road to saving and investing. It helps you to reconsider when you are tempted to steal from your future self: Sooner or later you will want to prioritise today over tomorrow.
Here are 6 ways to earn ‘employee of the month’, impress your future self (your boss) and improving theirs and your bottom line:
Learn about your boss
Where do they live ? What are they doing? You will need a clear view of this future life if you are going to be successful at saving consistently. If you don’t, you’ll just as easily take those pennies and spend them. For example, I’d like to buy a car soon (if I pass my test this month!). However, the pennies that I have saved so far have already been ‘ear-marked’ for other plans: Plans that my future self is determined to make happen. I’m going to keep listening to him and leave those pennies alone: what those pennies represent is much more significant than their monetary value. My current self is therefore saving up for a car in a separate savings account. Separating your savings into different ‘piles’ can be a really useful way of psychologically controlling what your pennies are eventually spent on.
Listen carefully
Everyone’s boss will have different goals, different dreams. Listen to them and write them down. If you begin saving for goals that don’t mean much to your boss, you will not get promoted to a life where your goals will have come true. Listen to your future self when you begin working out a savings plan. Perhaps you want to save for a house? Or a new car or a wedding? Some of us might need to save for all three at the same time! but listen to what your future self might say as it help put your current priorities into perspective.
Remember, there isn’t one right way to handle your money so use what is written here and elsewhere to give you a framework but then customise it for you. The main objective of Magical Penny is to get the ball rolling and make you think about your pennies. What can they do for you if you give them a chance to grow? It’s something you may not have thought about before to the same level of detail but it can have a huge impact on your future life. Listen carefully to your future self and save with intent.
Set some goals
Setting goals helps you pay attention. And not paying attention is the easiest way to find yourself in trouble. Your future self is relying on you to reach their goals but they are not going to be achieved without your focus and hard-work. It’s therefore no surprise that goal setting is an important part of most careers. Measuring progress is also a great motivator, particularly as your future self finds it hard to thank you for your effort in real time (until space-time is transcended of course). Start by setting some cash-based goals, perhaps for a holiday or buying your next car instead of taking out a car-loan.
Don’t waste time or pennies on the job
Your boss is not going to appreciate expensive habits if they stop you from letting your pennies grow and work for them. It’s OK to indulge now and then but when you find yourself doing something day in, day out, and it is costing you your pennies and distracting you from your goals, ask yourself if it is worth it. You’re certainly unlikely to be impressing your future self. You do want to be employee of the month don’t you?
Help your boss look good
Reading and learning about new things that you’re passionate about is one of the best things that you can do for your future self. However, it is important to remember that it is action that makes your future self look good. For example when I was starting this journey I wanted to know everything I could before I started investing, but it was only once I had made that first step that the real progress was made (Magical Penny will help guide you through this process when you’re comfortable to make your first step).
Have fun and don’t forget about now
Working for your future self never actually stops. With any luck your boss will be an incredibly old and wise person who has had an amazing life. But don’t deprive yourself of everything for the sake of your future self –you do not want your boss becoming bitter!
For me at least, spending on travel is a win-win: My ‘current self’ gets to enjoy the sites and experiences while my ‘future self’ gets memories and a new perspective on the world. On the other hand, I doubt my ‘future self’ would be so impressed if I bought my current self a new shiny laptop – and it would seem primitive compared to the million times faster computer that my future self will have in 2050.
As with everything, balance is important but to sum up, the work you can do for your ‘future self’ will most likely have a greater impact on your life than work that you do to satisfy your ‘current self’.
Are you up for the job? If you are, then go out and impress your boss!
If you liked this post you might like:
- J Money coming to same conclusion about travel. @Budgets are Sexy
- Why it’s great to lose money in savings account @Magical Penny
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