5 Steps to Gazillionaireness

After five roundtrip flights between California and Japan last year, I racked up enough points to cover, among other things, a two-night stay for us at this lovelily designed hotel. Look at that swank!! It's not the usual Days Inn I stay at.

This strange case of "points"—where first you spend money and then later get stuff for "free"—got me thinking about the how pleasant life is for people who can spend money in the first place. Which then got me thinking, as I often do, about how grateful I am to have a job that pays and gives me benefits. Recently I've also been getting little newsletters from my retirement plan thingy about what I'm supposed to do to prepare for 33 years from now. And with life changes coming up, I feel I should reorganize what financial tips often say.

A recent article on the Mint blog discussed how to prioritize among emergency funds, savings, and debt payoffs. Needless to say, many articles on financial literacy assume that you 1) earn a decent wage and 2) have a manageable-sized debt. Those two things don't always apply, though, given the realities of work in this country. The disillusion of that runs the gamut from a grad student racking up credit card debt to support a family with two kids, to a farm worker who's paid $45 for a whole day's work.

But that's another discussion altogether, one I can't do justice to here or now. So for now I unabashedly position myself among people with a solid income and a one-day-it'll-get-paid-off-sized debt. Here are the things I'm willing and able to do, based on what many of my Retire! magazines say.

1. Track your spending—Done! You know how much I love Excel spreadsheets. But knowing how much I spend each month is helpful for the steps that follow.
2. Establish a realistic budget—I don't know how realistic my budget is. But as someone who isn't pregnant or breastfeeding, I feel it's justifiable to have alcohol take up a large chunk of my income. Internet sources have suggestions for budget breakdowns, though a simple one from LearnVest suggests 50% for fixed costs (rent, utilities, etc.), 20% for financial goals (savings and debt payments), and 30% for flexible spending (leisure and all things miscellaneous). I've always liked the rule of threes.
3. Save up an "emergency fund"—Sources vary on this too, with the above Mint post saying you can start with $1,000. That seems reasonable—not that I can pray to have my emergencies come in small packages... Other sources suggest 3–6 months worth of living expenses. I suppose this is another point on which individuals can vary. 
4. Set some goals—Like building a dog house or traveling to Ireland! Your "20% for financial goals" have to go somewhere. Plus I read that saving is as important as paying off debt, because if you spend your entire 20% just paying off debt, after you've paid it off, you still have nothing left. Huh.
5. Give back—If there was a charity organization that gave out free donuts and ice cream to people who wanted them once a month, I'd earmark my money for that. If you're lucky enough to be able to set some goals for yourself, then you might do yourself some emotional good to give back, too. 

I'm aiming to stop doing any work in 2036 so that I can not have to get out of bed every morning. Over the summer I'm going to spend time learning how to beat the market so that I can be a gazillionaire by then.