Let's talk about that white trash rich or redneck rich “lack of savings” disease.

That's when you get that $5 scratch off, you win you 100 bucks, and before that ink is dry on the a hundred dollar bill, you spin it.

I mean, you think in nine different ways you could spend 100 bucks.

Well, here's what happens when entrepreneurs start making good money, or they have this really good day in their life, which is often the case in the hot dog vending business…

They're like, how can I spend this money right now?
I bet I could spend this before I get home!

And it is a natural thing. It is something we all want to do.

We want to spend the money, we want to reward ourselves.

We Ain't Thinking About Savings

We want to go, man, tomorrow's going to probably be better.
And we'll justify and rationalize spending that money.

Well, let me tell you about a lady that was in New Mexico. I'm going to say New Mexico cause that's how I remembered somewhere out West.

She was kicking butt.

She was in our group Vendors United and she was kicking butt, making great money.

And she just kept getting better and better.

She would call into the show and tell us what she's doing.

Then she bought a house, then a car and then she bought a nice fancy pickup truck.

She was just getting in debt right now.

She'd make plenty of money to cover the debt, but she just kept borrowing.

And then something happened and she wasn't able to work. I don't remember now specifically what it was, but it was something that prevented her from working.

All of a sudden all this debt came boom… without a steady flow of income. Without any savings.

As a result, she ended up getting out of the business.

I've always told people to put away 10% for savings

And I don't know if you've read the book Richest Man In Babylon, but it's kind of like that. It's kind of about putting away 10% to pay yourself first.

It's the me, me, me.

And you owe it to yourself to be that way because guess what?

You can't help other people unless you're stable mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially.

So there is nothing wrong with choosing you first.
Pick YOU.

Say, I'm the winner.

I get paid first

So you go, okay, I'm averaging $335 a day, I'm going to pull out $100.

That's my cost to pay myself for being there. The rest is going for resupply and to build the business.

Maybe pay off my hot dog cart faster or get that second cart running for my sister in law or whatever it is, right?

But if you've got $335 you should first pay yourself 10%, $33.50 every time you go out, for the sake of savings.

That's your me money.

That's different from your pay.

Let's set aside money that is not a rainy day fund. I'm saying it's a backup plan, but it's a backup of a backup.

Having Savings It's A Great Feeling

Cause we've had vendors do this after I've talked about it in Vendors United. I've talked about record keeping and having that 10% aside.

You ain't going to miss it, it's just 10%.

And instead of going out and getting the fancy IPA beer, get you a PBR and move on.

Secondly, you build it up.
Have yourself a goal.

Five grand in there, five grand.

Cause something magical happens, and it happens to us all, once we have that set aside savings.

Now, we've got our living expenses covered and stuff, but we have that set aside money.

So now it's harder.

Somehow we're wired this way.

It's harder to spend that money

We're like, Ooh, I don't want to take five grand out of the bank.

It's one of the worst things that happened to us with the debit card, because it's coming out of our bank.

We know it is instantly, but it's different…

I'll use my damn debit card before I'll use my cash because I'm like, okay, this is not real money.

That's real money and I'm not thinking that.

Somewhere up in my white trash head it is okay.

We're entrepreneurs, we're go getters, we want everything yesterday by noon.

And sometimes we have a problem with wait it out.

We'll, if you'll let that money build up instead of going the redneck rich and going out and getting your new boots or going ahead and get that paint job on the truck…

… Wait, just wait!
Put it aside.

Because there will be that magical moment when you got five grand in there.

And you're like, I've got a little backup plan. I could take off two months from work and still be okay.

Then when it adds up, you go, Oh man, I've got three months of income saved up.

I could take the winter off!

We got vendors that take the freaking winter off and I'm not talking two, three months.

I'm talking six months.

We've got an older couple around the Great Lakes and they take off about seven months a year.

They travel the country, they go South.

They stay warm and they don't vend.

They don't need to because they vended their butts off during the hotter months.

So keep that in mind.
Make yourself do it.

Make yourself a rule.

I owe me this! 10% to me.

10% me first, then everybody else, the business, my income, my house bills, all that later.

It's still priority, but the first priority is you.

Pay you first and you will feel like a million freaking dollars.

Because it is easy to get that white trash rich feeling when you just had a hay day, when you've just killed it up at the farmer's market and you did $5,300.

You just got your best day ever, and it's more than you've made in the whole month.

And you go, oh my Gosh, what are we going to buy?
DON'T!

Suppress that white trash richness!

Hey look, I do. Cause I'm the same frikin way.

I am preaching to the choir basically because it's the same thing going on here.

I'm telling you what you must do, if you want to get ahead and have some savings, a safety net.

It's a great feeling!

A super duper magnificent feeling to be able to go, you know what?

I'm going to take the month off. My dad just had hip surgery.

I'm going to go hang out and help them out.

I ain't need to work.
Don't have to work.

I ain't need to call my boss.
Ain't gotta do nothing.

I can just hop in my truck and take a month off.

That's a good feeling.
That's real freedom.

That's better than winning the lottery.

You'll do this stuff.

I'm telling you it works.

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