How to Reduce Taxes on Stocks 2021

How to Reduce Taxes on Stocks 2021

Taxes can eat up a big chunk of your capital gains, and they really affect the long-term effect of compounding. 

The good news is that there are steps you can take to minimize the taxes you pay on stock gains. The tax regulations are different from country to country, and I’m trying to generalize, but most of the examples that I use are from the US tax system.

Let’s get cracking. Here are a few things you can do.  

1. Maximize Your Contribution to Accounts that Offer Tax Advantages

In most countries, there are some kind of savings accounts that give you tax advantages.

These could be 401(k) plans where you can contribute a part of your paycheck before taxes, thereby reducing the amount you have to pay taxes on (if you are self-employed, the equivalent is a SEP IRA).

This could also be a Roth IRA that lets you contribute money you already paid taxes on, where your money can grow tax-free. In other words, putting money into an Roth IRA doesn’t reduce your taxable income the year you make the contribution, but you get a tax benefit on the back end.

The UK equivalent would be an ISA account.

These types of accounts have a different name in every country, so you should research your options and take advantage of them. You might want to call an accountant or call your local tax authorities to learn what accounts that offer tax advantages are available to you. 

2. Invest Long-Term

If you don’t sell your stocks, you don’t pay taxes on them. 

Did you know that Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary? How come one of the richest men in the world doesn’t pay a lot in taxes?

That’s because Warren Buffett doesn’t sell shares.

Warren Buffett’s income is actually very modest. His annual salary from his company Berkshire Hathaway is just $100,000 a year, and his secretary is rumored to make at least $200,000.

Warren Buffett’s wealth comes from holding just one stock: Berkshire Hathaway, and he doesn’t sell it – which means he pays no taxes on his accumulating personal wealth.

Some countries give you a more favorable treatment if you are a long-term stockholder. In the US, you pay regular income tax on a stock you hold for less than one year. If you hold it for one year and a day or more, you pay capital gains taxes, which are lower than regular income taxes. 

3. Combine Gains and Losses Strategically 

If you have an investment that has gone bad, you can sell it off strategically to offset capital gains.

If you sell shares with a loss in your taxable brokerage account, that loss can help offset other short-term or long-term gains. 

How does that work? In most countries, you only pay taxes on your net gain (the amount you have realized in gains minus your losses). So if you know you have some realized gain, you have an opportunity to realize some losses too to offset that gain. This is called tax harvesting.  

Of course, you don’t want to have any losing position on purpose just to avoid taxes, but if you happen to have an investment that didn’t go as planned, you can be strategic about when you sell it.

4. Structure Your Investment for Tax Efficiency

On some accounts, you don’t pay taxes, and on others you do.

You can position your investments so you get the best of each system. 

Why not place the very long-term investments in your taxable brokerage account where you only pay taxes when you sell them?

Why not place dividend paying stocks or short-term investments in your Roth IRA, where you don’t pay taxes? 

Don’t Let Taxes Overshadow Your Investment Strategy

You should buy or sell investments based on your belief that they will gain or lose value over the long term. Don’t make investment decisions just to reduce your tax burden.

Taxes are a luxury problem. If you pay taxes, it means you’ve made money. Don’t forget that. Be grateful for it.

Also remember all the things you contribute to with your taxes. Like my uncle used to say, “I pay my taxes with gratitude.” 

I’ve thought a lot about that during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I live in a country (Denmark) with one of the highest tax rates in the world, but also in a country with one of the best free healthcare services in the world. I’ve been fortunate enough to feel safe throughout the pandemic – and that means a lot when you have small children.

I try to pay my taxes with gratitude and think of how I contribute to society.  

Don’t forget the e-book Free Yourself.  It’ll teach you how to calculate how much a company is worth. You can get it for free here

Five Reasons Why You Should Have a Prenup Contract

Five Reasons Why You Should Have a Prenup Contract

Only a minority of couples sign a prenuptial agreement – a prenup, for short.

Even though it could have a positive impact on the relationship.

It’s a shame, because there are many benefits to being clear about what should happen financially if you separate – even if you never do.

Obviously, most people get married with the intention of staying together. It can feel awkward to enter a conversation – even before you are committing – about what needs to happen in case it doesn’t work out.

But the truth is there’s no better time to talk about it than while in love and looking forward to a future together.

It can be trickier to enter that conversation later in the marriage as it might create confusion and doubt as to whether one is heading out.

What is a prenup and what does a prenup usually contain?

It’s written agreement spouses enter into about what should happen financially if they separate.

You can decide if everything should be split 50/50 or if there should be separate ownership over certain things. You might want to protect an inheritance, a business, maybe some properties that have been passed down through generations, or just some special jewelry.

Why make a marriage contract at all?

Let’s just look at five specific reasons.

1. You Must Be Able to Talk About Money From The Beginning

It may well be that it’s uncomfortable to talk about money and when love shows up and you’re eager to demonstrate how committed you are.

But even the biggest romance will have to deal with the practicalities of life, and your relationship improves when you practice dealing with it.

Now that you’re starting a conversation about the future, it’s also a good idea to talk about other expectations, such as how you expect to divide the tasks if you have children.

2. With Separate Property, You Are More Motivated To Create Your Own Future

The American comedian Ali Wong, who is known from the Netflix series Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, has said that her prenup motivated her to succeed and make an effort with her career.

She is married to Justin Hakuta, the son of a businessman who became rich by creating an octopus toy called Wacky Wall Walker that can crawl down a wall.

When Ali Wong and Justin Hakuta were to marry, Justin’s parents demanded that Ali sign a marriage contract so their son’s future fortune would be protected.

It must have hurt a little, because before they got married, Ali Wong helped her future husband pay off a $ 70,000 student loan with her own money. His future fortune was secured, but she had paid off his debt “for free.”

Yet she is deeply grateful for the marriage covenant.

“I was very motivated to make my own money because I signed a document specifically outlining how much I couldn’t depend on my husband. My father always praised ‘the gift of fear,’ and that prenup scared the shit out of me. In the end, being forced to sign that prenup was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me and my career,” she writes in her memoir Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life.

What if you’re the one with a fortune? You might be happy in the future that you protected it.

This is what happened to singer-turned-business woman Jessica Simpson. She has written about the subject in her memoirs, Open Book.

She married pop star Nick Lachey when she was 22 and he was 31. He was older, further in his career and had more money than she did.

He actually proposed signing a marriage contract, but she got offended and rejected it, saying that they were going to be together for the rest of their lives.

However, the marriage only lasted three years, and in those three years, her career took off.

When they were about to divorce, she had a fortune of about $35 million, while his fortune was about $5 million.

She gave him whatever he wanted to get out of it. She says so in her memoir, but she doesn’t go into details as to how much she gave him. 

According to the press, he got about $10 million – almost a third of her fortune.

But what’s worse: He received the right to 1.5 % of the turnover from her beauty line.

Which brings us to the next point…

3. You Can Protect Your Assets

Jessica Simpson promised 1.5 % of the turnover from her business away to a man she was married to for three years.

I’ve heard about cases like this before.

It must be a bitter experience that a person you’ve been married to for a few years is entitled to your future income from a business that should be entirely yours because it’s your idea and your work.

It’s one thing when the parties have earned roughly the same and share everything 50/50 in the end.

It’s another matter entirely when one person is entitled to the other person’s future income.

It must be extra bitter if it’s the result of an unhappy marriage.

Jessica Simpson explains in her book that she and her ex-husband argued a lot and that she felt he was opposing her success.

Now he can reap the fruits of it forever.

A relative of mine experienced something similar.

She married a man who lived across a continent. To be with him, she resigned from her corporate job, moved to his city. To make money, she started a consulting business.

The marriage was short and not very happy.  When they divorced, he was entitled to a portion of her income from her consulting business. Ten years later, she was still paying him.

I’m not a lawyer and don’t understand the technicalities, but he must have argued that she couldn’t have built it without him and that it was an asset that should be shared.

Obviously, if you divorce, the assets will be divided. Your stock portfolio, the properties, the jewelry, risk being split between you – unless you make sure it’s protected in your prenup.

4. You Make the Decision

If you don’t sign a prenup, there will still be a prenup, but it won’t be you who decides what it looks like. It will be up to the local legislators and the interpretation of the divorce lawyers and judges.

Would you rather close your eyes and hope for the best?

Or do you want to make an informed decision?

The least you can do is familiarize yourself with the local legislation so you know which prenup you are entering if you don’t actively choose one.

5. You Protect Yourself From Someone Else’s Debt

Now we’ve talked about assets that will be divided.

But there’s also something else you need to think about: debt.

What if your partner builds up debt?

The most glaring example could be marrying a gambling addict who has built up a gambling debt. That might become your debt too.

There are other – and less dramatic – ways to build debt. It could be a company going bankrupt. It could be a bad investment.

When I was on my first maternity leave, I went for long walks with a friend who was also on maternity leave.

When you walk around with a sleeping baby in a stroller, you talk about whatever is on your mind.

It’s like getting access to another person’s inner speech… and worries.

She was worried about the debt she was burdened with from a previous relationship.

Years before, she had been in a short and unhappy marriage. She had moved on and had found herself a man who treated her well, and they had a baby.

The ex was still on her mind though. He had made a bad real estate investment during the financial crisis, and when they split up, they parted burdened with a mutual debt.

It was becoming clear to her while she was walking with the stroller that she would only have one child.

The new parents lived in a one-bedroom apartment, and they would probably continue to do so.

It hurt her that they probably wouldn’t be able to afford a second child because of the debt she had from a previous relationship.

There was barely enough room for one child in the one-bedroom apartment. Indirectly, her ex-husband helped decide how many children she could have later on.

Is It Too Late?

If you’re already married, is it too late to get a prenup?

No, of course not. You can sign one whenever you want, and you can change it later.

What’s the next step?

I’m a big proponent of getting help from the best. The next step, of course, is obvious: you need to talk to a lawyer who specializes in prenups.

How do you persuade your partner?

Explain to your partner that there is already a prenup, but it’s the local legislators who make the decisions for you, unless you create one yourself.

I would go with honesty and explain what is important to you and what benefits you see in it for your partner. After all, a prenup is not always something that puts the other at a disadvantage. It can also create security for both parties.

What points should you bring up when discussing it?

It really depends, because prenups are different.

Some people want separate property, and others want to clarify some rights to ensure that their partner is financially secure.

The most important thing is that you enter your marriage informed and well-prepared.

I’m not an expert on prenups. I am an expert on building wealth. Learn how to create a fortune by investing in stocks in my e-book Free Yourself. You can download it here.

How to Protect Yourself From the Threat of High Inflation

How to Protect Yourself From the Threat of High Inflation

Inflation is a threat because it erodes the value of your money.

Inflation is also a threat because it can indirectly lead to a stock market crash.

When inflation rises, the national banks around the world will eventually have to let interest rates rise to curb that rising inflation.

A hike in interest rates can cause the stock market to tumble.

If the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) raises interest rates in the US abruptly, it can actually cause a stock market crash.

We have had a taste of this several times in recent years, including in 2018 when the Fed raised interest rates four times in a row. Stock prices began to tremble… and fell sharply in late 2018. This led the Fed to lower rates again out of concern for a stock market crash, and the market calmed.

We have had low inflation and low interest rates for many years.

Why should that change now?

Because a lot of money has been pumped into the economy following the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

I won’t go into too much detail about M1 and M2 and other measures for money supply in the US to avoid making the text heavy and difficult to read. You can trust me (or google it) when I say that the Fed has pumped money into the system at a rate we haven’t seen before – not even during the 2008 financial crisis.

When large amounts of money are pumped into the system, it causes prices to rise.

Inflation in the United States has been around 2 percent for many years (on average from about 2000 until recently). This spring we saw a spike. It doubled and measured around 4 percent in May (PCE index).

Fed chairman Jerome Powell assured that the price increases are a passing problem… but he would have to say something like that to calm down the market (imagine he said the opposite – that alone could cause a crash).

Many economists are talking about the threat of rising inflation. Some even talk about possible hyperinflation.

The question I want to answer here is:

What can you do to protect yourself from inflation?

Should You Stay in Cash?

If there is an imminent threat of rising interest rates and falling stock prices, can cash be a solution?

In the short term, it’s fine to have cash so you’re able to take advantage and buy shares in the event of a stock market crash, but in the long term, cash is the worst asset group to hold.

Why? Because of the obvious fact that the value of your money will erode.

If inflation is 4 percent, the value of your money will be halved in 18 years. If it rises to an average of 5 percent, your money will be halved in 14 years. Not attractive at all.

What About Gold?

The advantage of gold is that the amount of it is limited. This means that it keeps its value over time (and even increases in value).

The problem with gold is that it’s a piece of metal that can’t invent products, employ people, or innovate. It’s not as good an asset as stocks over time.

This way of putting it comes from Warren Buffett.

He illustrated the problem with gold at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

If you had invested $ 10,000 in gold in 1942 (yes, yes, I know you weren’t alive in 1942, but Warren Buffett was), then it would have increased to $400,000 in 2018.

If you had invested the same amount in the stock market (the Dow Jones index), that amount would have become $ 51 million.

That’s a wild difference, right? A bit of an eye opener.

Why Shares Are the Best Protection

When you buy shares, you are buying a small stake in a company.

Good companies are able to protect themselves against inflation.

How?

Inflation means rising prices.

You need to find companies that can let their prices rise with inflation – or even above inflation.

Think about it.

If everything rises 4 percent, would you stop buying toothpaste or juice because they also rose 4 percent?

No, right?

We’ll continue brushing our teeth and drinking orange juice for breakfast.

Hopefully the wage level will rise with inflation anyway.

Some companies are even better at protecting themselves because their customers aren’t so sensitive to price hikes.

Take Apple’s products, for example.

The average price of an iPhone rose from $ 650 to $ 1,000 in five years.

I remember buying an iPhone 7 in 2016 and for a brief moment realizing that I was paying much more than I had previously done for an iPhone 4.

It was more or less double what my previous phone had cost.

But then it wasn’t the same phone at all. It had a better camera, improved features, and a lot more memory.

In 2020, when I bought an iPhone 11 Pro Max, I paid double what I previously paid for the iPhone 7.

I know Apple has cheaper phones than the newest Pro Max, but I didn’t want the cheapest version.

I wanted the best tool I could find, because I use the phone to make YouTube videos and Facebook Lives, among other things.

… But Don’t Invest Blindly in Stocks

When interest rates rise, there is a risk that stocks will fall drastically.

Did you know that it took 29 years for stocks to regain what they lost after 1929?

Warren Buffett’s lineup with gold and stocks would have looked completely different if he had compared their development with 1929 as a starting point.

We are in a historic stock bubble right now that makes 1929 look like a kindergarten day trip.

Shiller’s PE ratio is a measure of how expensive stocks are. In 1929 it was 30, before the crash. Today it’s 38.

This means that shares are more expensive relative to their earnings today than they were at their peak in 1929.

In other words, you can’t just put your money in an ETF that follows a stock index (such as the Dow Jones index from Warren Buffett’s example).

You risk having to wait almost 30 years for your money to recoup.

What do you do instead?

You invest intelligently in stocks.

You need to invest with an eye on how expensive a company is trading on the stock exchange, and you have to make sure that you invest when it’s cheap or reasonably priced.

You can read much more about this in my free e-book here.

Three Mistakes You Make When Haggling

Three Mistakes You Make When Haggling

The other day on Facebook, I read some tips and tricks to negotiate discounts and rebates.

There were many creative ideas and examples of white lies.

Here are some of the tricks that came up:

  • One person always said “This is above my budget” and waited for an answer.
  • One asked for a student discount… in his seventies.
  • One person said they had seen a better offer elsewhere (a white lie).
  • One stated it was too expensive and waited for a reaction.
  • Someone lied in a house trade by saying the bank only approved a smaller loan.
  • Someone else called up a hotel and asked for 5 dollars less per night.

What’s the problem with applying for discounts and rebates?

There are three main problems:

Your Focus Is on Lack of Resources

What thoughts lie behind haggling?

It’s a mindset of seeing money as a scarce resource, and it’s rooted in a mindset of lack.

That mindset is being reinforced as you haggle and tell little white lies about not being able to afford something.

It may well be that you call it a “white lie” when you tell a clerk that you can’t afford a dress, but it becomes your truth.

What do I mean by that? It’s a phrase that you say out loud, and your subconscious mind is listening in.

When you say “It’s too expensive” or “It’s over my budget”, that becomes the reality you create for yourself.

Your psyche thinks, “Aha, that’s what you want” and begins to create situations that confirm it, over and over again.

Do you use affirmations? Those small, positive phrases that we say to ourselves to affect the outcome?

It can be phrases like:

“I can do this!”

Or:

“There is abundance in my life.”

“I attract prosperity from all sides.”

With the little white lies, you create negative affirmations.

You Won’t Get the Best

The wealthiest people do the exact opposite of haggling.

They pay more for things.

They spontaneously treat their friends to dinner, they give generous tips, and they look for quality when they buy things – almost ignoring price.

They don’t like sales (have you ever wondered why there are never sales in shops like Hermès and Louis Vuitton?)

I got help from a friend when I moved to Portugal. She had lived in Portugal before and could show me the shops and help me get adjusted.

While we walked around and bought everything from drying racks to floor scrubbers, she kept saying, “Get the most expensive one”.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s better,” she replied.

As we stood by the drying racks, I noticed how the cheap one was light in material. The expensive one was heavy and seemed better quality.

This is often the case. Quality costs more. We already know that. The best ones won’t go on sale.

After she flew back home, I continued looking for the best quality above all.

When shopping for a hair dryer, I thought of my old one that I had left behind.

I had bought it on sale in Lidl shortly after I had been fired on maternity leave (oddly enough, I still remember the price).

At the time, the focus of my life was largely on lack and fear.

That hair dryer smelled of plastic – it smelled toxic – and that smell didn’t go away with time.

When I dry my hair, the children often come over and want me to blow on them. They think it’s fun. I was often torn between denying them a little everyday fun or sending hot toxic air at a dancing and laughing toddler.

I ended up throwing it out when we moved – which is so bad for the environment too.

What did I do at the store in Portugal?

I pointed to the most expensive one they had. It felt heavy and solid. It had a place of its own in the store. Slightly raised above the others, as if it were the king of the hair dryers.

They had to order it in for me because they didn’t have it in stock.

What did it cost? I can’t remember. I didn’t care.

Does it smell like plastic?

Not at all.

It’s worth all the money because now I can enjoy my children’s excitement without fear.

You Might Lose the Trade and Hurt the Relationship

When you’re in a situation where there are several buyers, such as buying a house, a service, or a recycled item, you could lose the deal if you begin to seek out a bargain.

If you start haggling over the house, you may lose the chance to buy your dream home.

If you ask for a discount at the hairdresser, she may ask you to find another place or get annoyed with you.

Both in my business and privately, I don’t bother to go ahead with those who ask for a discount.

I only want customers who pay the full price with an attitude of excitement and gratitude. They’re the most fun customers that focus on learning and getting the most out of it.

What Should You Do Instead?

Try to focus on prosperity every day.

Focus on how much you have and cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

It doesn’t have to have anything to do with material things.

You can go for a walk and enjoy the view. Enjoy the beauty of the scenery. Enjoy the generosity of the trees. The dance of the clouds. The fresh air. The chirping of the birds.

If you quiet your mind, you can reach a place where you can feel prosperity as a strong physical force.

Some will feel goosebumps. Others a trembling sensation of joy through the body.

Try to meditate on your inner sense of prosperity for at least 15 minutes three times a day. Morning, midday, and evening.

True prosperity is so much more than money. It is an inner sense of freedom, love, generosity, gratitude, physical well-being, and wonderful relationships.

There is an infinite stream of wealth, abundance, and prosperity, and it lives within you.

When you become good at cultivating this feeling, you’ll also attract outer prosperity.

It sounds like abracadabra, but it’s not.

Your inner world and your outer world are connected. Of course they are.

As long as you focus on chasing deals and getting special discounts, you focus on scarcity and the material part of prosperity.

The good news (for those who are stuck on “lack attack”) is that daily meditations on prosperity are completely free. Not only that: It’s also 15 minutes that you don’t spend chasing deals on stuff you’ll probably never use anyway.

How does this relate to investments? It’s a perfect fit.

You’ll become a better and calmer investor when you feel inner prosperity and abundance.

You’ll be less likely to panic and sell in fear or buy in greed because you are beyond that.

Learn how to invest with my (free) e-book Free Yourself. You can download it here

Three Reasons Why a Sabbatical Can Boost Your Career

Three Reasons Why a Sabbatical Can Boost Your Career

Does it become a “black hole” in your resume that you fall through if you take a sabbatical year or two?

I think many people stop themselves from taking life breaks or sabbaticals because they have a feeling that they can’t leave the rat race.

Maybe it also just seems unmanageable.

My opinion is that everyone should do it at least once in their life.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some reasons why it can benefit not only you, your health, and your well-being, but actually your career as well.

1. You Gain New Energy

The first reason is obvious.

When you get a break from your daily life, you’ll release built-up stress and gain new energy.

When you’re stressed, you’re not a very good employee.

First of all, it’s not very appealing with a colleague sighing deeply at their desk.

Secondly, you don’t get good, creative ideas if you’re run-down and tired.

The input you provide in the workplace will be far better after a life break. You become a better colleague and employee because of it.

Many people return from a sabbatical year and make a huge career leap afterwards.

2. You Can Rebrand Yourself

Sometimes we get stuck at work because we have become the person “who can do that”.

We have been branded into our position – perhaps without wanting to.

I have heard of actors who take a few years off because they’re tired of being offered the same role.

Then they disappear from the screen for a period of time, and when they return, they deliberately seek to rebrand themselves.

Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey is an example of this.

He was tired of the romantic roles he was offered and took a two-year-long break in 2000s.

New offers began rolling in after a while.

That’s how he landed the role in Dallas Buyers Club, which won him an Oscar. You can read about this in his autobiography, Greenlights.

3. You Can Take Courses and Educate Yourself

You can spend your sabbatical on creating a new version of yourself.

Of course, there are many ways to do that.

You can travel, you can try out a new career, you can take courses, and you can even get a whole new education.

You can even do a combination of these things.

You can travel to another country and take courses there.

Many people in my courses are taking my program as a part of a sabbatical.

Some take a break voluntarily, others are in the middle of a career change, some are on maternity leave, others have been fired. What they have in common is a rare opportunity to try something different and focus on learning something new.

What To Do in Job Interviews

When you are in a job interview, the question may arise.

The HR person may point to your resume and ask why you have a gap.

It happened to me just a year after I was fired on maternity leave.

I have to admit that my answer was bad. I reacted defensively because I got a bit offended by the question.

Of course, there was no gap in my resume. But that’s how these HR people talk.

You need to prepare a good answer and explain how you spent that time sharpening your skills.

You can even write it into your resume.

You can conclude your explanation by saying something like: “I’ve never been sharper than I am right now, and that’s partly because I took the time to…” (here you explain what you spent your time on).

Warren Buffett says it very clearly:

“The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself,” he says.

Sometimes time is an investment in ourselves.

If you want to learn about investing like Warren Buffett, you can download my investment book Free Yourself right here.

Five Rules to Get You Through Revenge Spending

Five Rules to Get You Through Revenge Spending

As the world opens up after the global pandemic, some people become euphoric and buy luxury items that become a symbol of freedom.

Are you aware that Lamborghinis are almost sold out for the year? Six months into the year, 2021 has become the luxury car brand’s second-best year ever, even though the outside world has been closed for a few months.

“Revenge spending” describes the phenomenon when people come out of closure and spend more money than they did before the closure.

The consumption may be driven by a bitterness over having been forced to sit isolated at home and having to eat your own food day after day. It may also be driven by a bitterness over all the things  – like travels and parties – that were canceled.

Did you have a thought (or maybe even a plan) that you would throw a huge party or book a long luxury trip when it was all over?

How do you navigate the euphoria of returning to normal without making financial harakiri?

Here are five rules you can follow:

1. Avoid consumer debt and overdrafts

Avoid building up consumer debt because you feel excited at the moment. 

Do you know the rules of compounding? This is when your money makes money for you, and begins to grow exponentially because with time you’ll have more money working for you, as you reinvest the return. 

Debt is the exact opposite of that.  It makes your money work against you because you are paying for your debt. The higher the interest rate, the worse the problem. And the rule of compounding works the other way too: money will work faster and faster against you.

The worst debt is consumer debt and overdrafts on credit cards. It should be a rule of thumb for you to avoid it at all cost.

2. Never spend more than you earn

Make it a principle that you always spend less than your current income, so you can put money aside for savings and investments.

Now, we’ve all been through a long lockdown, and we have missed the world. I’ll be the last person to tell you to stay at home so you’ll save money. 

I’m not going to deprive myself further. 

I want to enjoy traveling, going out to amusement parks, aquariums and zoos with my kids. I want to go out for dinner with my girlfriends, and I want to visit the people I care about.

Instead of looking at your monthly income and expenses, I would look at the annual income and expenses and make a plan. 

In this way, you can have some summer months where you spend more than your current monthly income (but not your yearly).

3. Review your priorities

Perhaps the closure has opened up a new way of life.

Maybe it’s time to adjust consumption accordingly.

Maybe you’ve realized that you don’t miss going out for drinks with your colleagues. Maybe you’ve found that what you really missed was dinner parties at home. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Doesn’t matter. The important thing is to review it. 

The shutdown may have changed your lifestyle permanently. There’s no reason to fall back into old habits if you haven’t really missed it.

Reflect on what you want back in your life and what you can live without before you say yes to all the invitations coming in. 

Personally, I prioritize experiences over material things. I love dinners with friends, small parties, travel and adventures with my kids.

But I don’t preach zero consumption. Instead, I advocate consumption with consideration and maybe moderation. 

Buy what you really love. Buy quality that will last –  and stay away from the rest.

4. Make a Budget

It helps to set a budget for how much money you can and will revenge spend. 

This isn’t the time to deny yourself a dinner with friends because you want to save money for investing. Not on top of lockdowns. It can be downright unhealthy and depressing to isolate yourself further.

You’ve probably saved some money during the shutdown as vacations and parties were cancelled.

Make a date with yourself, sit down and calculate what you have saved. You can feel free to spend some of that money now. 

I always try to look for compromises in life. In this context, it means finding a way to spend, have fun and also set money aside for investing.

Of course, you’re allowed to pamper yourself, but you need to set some limits for how it may affect you financially.

5. Make Your Money Work For You

If anything, the lockdowns have really illustrated how important it is to have a financially strong base.

It’s important that you make sure that your money makes money for you while you sleep – or for some reasons can’t work.

It’s honestly easier to enjoy life and consume “for fun” (or revenge) if you have the confidence that part of your finances is working for you in the background and moving you in the right direction.

If you want to learn about investing, you can download my investment book Free Yourself here.