How do we successfully navigate a recession? Well, I guess we are about to find it here shortly. The days of easy money in the financial and housing markets will slowly come to a close.
We will have to tighten our belts and start living below our means, saving, and investing. I usually focus on the income side of the house, but today let’s focus on expenses.
What is cash flow? Cash flow is the difference between your income and expenses. You must understand how much cash flow you have moving through your home (and business) every month.
I Live Paycheck to Paycheck 4
To learn more about cash flow, please read my favorite book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. He explains how to document your cash flow and travel the road to wealth.
I always recommend increasing income via businesses, dividends, royalties, and real estate. However, reducing expenses is just as valuable to the equation. When your costs continually increase, we call that lifestyle inflation.
Couponing for everyone. I watched some financial YouTube videos where couponing was one of the topics. I hadn’t even considered the idea of couponing to reduce expenses.
I always preach to read books; thus, I went and grabbed a short book on the subject titled “Couponing for Beginners Guide.”
My first takeaway is that couponing is time-intensive. You will need to cut all the coupons, organize them, and then monitor store sales to use them effectively.
Start a Consulting Business towards Passive Income
It is a lot of work (and luck) to be in the right place with the correct coupons. You can get some fantastic deals, and perhaps even get some free products.
Is couponing for you? I’ll be honest; if you can become effective at couponing, you can just as easily start a home business. As someone running a home/online business, I can tell you it’s not complicated.
However, the thing most people cannot overcome is their lack of discipline. Since couponing takes extreme discipline, you’ll also be good at the various forms of home businesses. I have a series covering home businesses that I will link below.
- Start a Home Business 1: Introduction
- Start a Home Business 2: Outside
- Start a Home Business 3: Online
- Start a Home Business 4: Content
- Start a Home Business 5: Consulting
The takeaways from couponing. If you have little or no resources and lots of time, couponing can be something to give you cash flow.
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Usually, couponers start amassing a stash of products. You can create a small shop to sell to family, friends, and neighbors. You don’t want your shop to become too popular, or you’ll get in trouble.
It’s vital that whatever money you save by couponing or your shop, you invest into a high-yield investment like USDC, series “I” bonds, or closed-end funds. Here’s how this looks.
A quick example. Let’s say your grocery budget is $500. Because you used coupons, you get your spending down to $350. You need to take that $150 and invest it into a high-yield product.
We will invest it into the closed-end Pimco Dynamic Fund (PDI) fund. It pays a 10% dividend yield every month. If we invested $150 every month for two years, it would pay us $30/month.
From Zero to Zeros: From $0 to $200,000
Over time, the income from our closed-end funds would slowly match or exceed our food allowance. That is the power of investing.
As you can see above, every month, I receive $107 from my closed-end funds. I’m slowly working toward covering my entire food budget. This stuff really works.
I wrote an entire series on how to take small amounts of money and invest it into high-yield products. Here is the link to my From Dirt to Dividends series.
- From Dirt to Dividends 1: Gardening & Preferred Shares
- From Dirt to Dividends 2: Livestock & Closed-End Funds
- From Dirt to Dividends 3: Insects & Business Development Companies
- From Dirt to Dividends 4: Community Farming & Mortgage REITs
- From Dirt to Dividends 5: Composting & Dividend ETFs
- From Dirt to Dividends 6: Vermiculture & High-Yield Blue-Chip Companies
Focus on food savings. Even without becoming a full-blown couponer, you can take away some great ideas from the shopping community.
First, we can set our food budget and try our best to stick to it. I know we can blame inflation for blowing our budget, but we can also try harder.
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Second, we can eat less. I know I am eating less and losing weight. I spend less on food than a year ago by focusing on salads.
Finally, don’t waste food. We want to save gas by buying in bulk, but food waste is the most significant food expense.
If we can focus on using almost everything we buy, we will save a lot of money without needing to clip coupons. Buy less, and eat everything, then go back to the store.
Inflation and recession. Inflation affects everyone, and we may be heading for a recession. Not only do you need to reduce expenses, but you need to increase your income.
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For every dollar you save, you need to invest it to earn more money next month. An excellent way to do this is by purchasing USDC. I buy via the Voyager app.
I have roughly $2,000 invested in USDC, and every month I get a paycheck of $14. That’s a tremendous amount of interest for just letting my money sit in an account.
You can do the same with series “I” bonds from the US government. Or you can buy Treasury bonds that pay semi-annually. Whatever you choose, you must increase your income.
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Another example. Say I make $5,000/month from my job. When I have additional income from USDC, my income may look like this: $5,000/job + $200/USDC. Now, my income is $5,200/month.
Currently, my wife and I have jobs, but we have additional income of $900/dividends, $2,000/rents, and $100/business. Do you see how important it is to have extra income streams?
Conclusion. Couponing is a great way to open up additional income streams. Do not just spend the money you save by cutting coupons.
A High-Value Person Makes $100,000/year in Passive Income
It can be a great way to put $100-$300 back in your pocket every month that you can then invest in making even more money.
If you can use coupons and reinvest at high yields, I bet you could create your own passive grocery fund in roughly three years. That money comes in whether you work or not, or clip coupons or not.
I try to focus on putting every penny I can into high-yield investments. When I save $40 from spending less, I put it into USDC first thing next month.
Every dollar counts, especially if you can get that dollar to pay you a dime every year. Be good stalwarts with your money, and you will live a life full of abundance. Couponing can lead to incredible gains when you use it to your advantage.
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
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