10% or I'm Like the Squirrel, Only Without the Nuts

(paid post)

I didn't start saving money until I was in my 20's. Once I did I got addicted to it. It's amazing to watch your money grow. I loved it.

My mom is VERY frugal, but she didn't really teach me about being frugal or about saving. I think she just assumed I would learn it by osmosis. (Sorta like how I was supposed to learn about shaving my legs by osmosis and that turned out to be pretty much a disaster.)

I learned more about saving money from a boyfriend of mine... my first "grownup relationship". He told me the trick about pulling 10% of my income off the top and putting it straight into a separate account. He said I'd never even notice that little being gone and he was right. (Another trick I learned from him as a self-employed person was to take an additional 25-30% to put into a third account for taxes. Taking it off of each check I got was so much easier than trying to come up with all of it tax time.) You learn to live on what you give yourself after you take out all the deductions.

And, really, once you see that big ole pile of money adding up in your bank account you'll be addicted too. Then you might be tempted to start doing stock trading with an online broker such as Firstrade. I always wanted to do something like that, but never really had the nerve. I'm a big chicken when it comes to money so I'm really conservative. However, I was over at the site today checking it out and they do have $6.95 stock trades which seems cheap, except I've not compared anyone else.

They also have a $50 referral fee so if you don't want to online trading yourself, just go out and find 100 friends to refer and then you've made a big wad of money. And then when you go out to a party or on a date you can impress everyone with your knowledge of all this financial stuff and what stocks are selling for what prices. You'll win friends, influence people, make girls swoon and get weak in the knees, make guys want to buy you a beer -- really, I don't see any end to how fabulous your life will be and all it takes is starting with that 10%.

How hard is that?