THE YEAR OF MONIES

Happy New Year to everyone. Umm I didn’t do shit on mine but chill and watch anime. I really dislike the holidays because my schedule is very terrible and it interferes with my creative routine so yeah I’ll never be a fan. I’m always ready for the Monday where everyone goes back to work or school and act normal again. 

Anyway. I actually have a New Year Resolution this year.

My only resolution is to get out of all debt and learn everything about business for my company. That is my focus this year. I have the creative shit in the bag. I already know how to do that well so I’m not too focused on creating things. I’m focusing on getting out of all debt and I’m not borrowing money from no one ever again. I don’t want any fucking loans. That shit is the devil. I already fucked myself over by going to college. Biggest mistake in my life. I don’t like making guarantees but I guarantee that I will not borrow any money from anybody. I’m already broke in the new year from Christmas and I just paid my credit card off and that shit is over with. No more credit cards for me. Credit and the building of credit is a scam to me. It’s a cycle of bullshit. Having good credit means you just paid a lot of interest to banks and paid a lot of debt on time. A good credit score ain’t nothing to brag about. I’m not playing that game no more. A good credit score isn’t liquid. It isn’t cash. It doesn’t mean you’re rich. It just means you’re a good at borrowing shit. It just means somebody will let you borrow a car or a house with less hassle cause you have a good history of paying it back. Like I said I’m not borrowing shit no more. If I follow my budget I should be able to pay my car off this year and I’m keeping it until it can’t move anymore. I’m not financing another car. I’m going to be driving pieces of shit with no note until I am able to walk on a lot and pay for a car with zero miles straight cash. One of my long term goals is to have credit score of ZERO because I will not borrow money from any bank and will not have any debt. 

I’m starting to write out a weekly budget and keeping track of every penny I spend. I am literally morphing into Terry Crews in “Everybody Hates Chris.” Working 6-7 days a week and being cheap. Making sure I’m sitting money aside for my child and my bills. My goal is to have my income committed to investing and not committed to paying off debt. The less payments I have the more money I have to invest in my daughter and my business. When I looked at my income a couple days ago and saw how I was just giving away money I literally wanted to smack the shit outta myself. Me not checking my bank account for weeks ain’t cool. Going to Target for toothpaste and coming out with a whole living room set ain’t cool. It’s childish. Buying enough liquor a month as if I throw brunches every weekend ain’t cool. Buying unhealthy food every other day because I don’t feel like cooking or packing my lunch ain’t cool. Buying coffee and juices everyday when we have the best water in the world ain’t cool. This is why it’s so easy to live paycheck to paycheck. More than half this country does and it makes no sense because we’re one of the wealthiest countries with a shitload of resources. When the culture is just focused on spending this is what happens. We normalize it and then wonder why we not rich. There’s people who make over 50,000 a year and they’re broke. It just shows how dumb we are.

I made a deal with myself because the one thing I buy a lot of is anime movies or shows on Blu-ray or DVD. It’s the one thing I collect. Some people collect sneakers. Some people collect sports cards. I collect Yu-Yu Hakusho. The deal I made with myself is that for every movie or show blu-ray I buy I have to put double that amount in my daughters fund and pay off 2 bills even if I just paid them a day ago. Those are my rules. Now I’m cautious on what I spend. My food budget is kind of set the same. If I eat out that means I have to pay a bill. This is what will keep me from eating out. It’s about to get real college dorm-ish in my life. PBJ, Tuna, and noodles. This ain’t a game. Always worried about where your next dollar will come from is not a healthy way to live and I’m not living like that no more.

I had a conversation with a man at my job the other day he’s 66 years old. He retired at 60 but the job he had retired from hired a new president that heard about the reputation of his work and she called him back 4 years later and gave him an offer and he accepted it and he’s about to retire again this year. Not because his job is difficult but because a lot of his friends are now retiring. When he retired the first time he did it earlier than his friends so he said he was bored after 2 months and he couldn’t travel with his wife because she just had major surgery on her hips. So we had a long interesting conversation and the one thing I noticed about him was that he lives his life extremely simple. The reason he said he lives simple is because he was in debt in his 30’s and got out of it by downsizing from his house to a 2 bedroom apartment. He had the same car for almost 20 years and by the time he needed a new one he was able to buy it with no financing. He saved money with his wife and they bought their next house with cash. So in his late 30’s/early 40’s he didn’t have a house payment and he just stacked cash and focused on his kids. Now he bout to move again and purchase another house cash and rent out the old one to a family member. The fucked up part about this is that to me this is not normal when in reality it’s the smartest way to live. When I say it’s not normal I mean it’s shocking to me that I’m hearing it. It shouldn’t be shocking. It should be business as usual. 

I don’t give a fuck about what the American Dream is. I don’t care about having broke fun. I always used to use the excuse that I’m “making memories” to justify spending money recklessly. It’s fucking stupid and that’s what losers do. I don’t even remember half the shit I do in a day so who gives a fuck about memories. I just got a promotion at my job and when I saw how much I now make I told myself I’m not fucking this up. This is a sign and it’s time to elevate. I don’t care about what anyone thinks. I haven’t been on social media in basically 2 weeks and the result is that I don’t see this facade everybody living. All this fake happy shit. All the lies. All the mediocrity. The glorified pats on the back. People are failing and trying to disguise it as winning. All the excuses for impulse behavior. All the boss talk with worker salaries. The bottom line is that I have failed as an adult and many other people have too but fail acknowledge it.  

Write out a budget weekly.

Live on less than I make. 

Live like I don’t have it. 

Invest. 

Dassit. 

I’m not telling people “No” no more. I’m just simply saying “I’m broke” and walking away and that’s the end of it. I don’t give a fuck if people like it or not or feel like I’m not fun. You know what ain’t fun? Being in fucking debt and not being prepared for emergencies. I should literally have 5-10 racks untouched. If I don’t then that means I’m out here playing. 

I know Nipsey told us The Marathon Continues but I’m a live by what he started before that and that’s “All Money In No Money Out.” 

Peace 

Follow us on twitter and instagram 

@politeasflannel

@jayjaybenny

@politecoolery 

@Treevillarecords

Listen to the blog podcast Polite Coolery