Tips for Saving Money at the Movie Theater

November 8, 2012 by Natalie · Leave a comment

Ways to save

1. If you can, go to the matinee show

2. You can buy discount movie tickets from Costco, Sam’s Club, Credit Unions, and through employee discounts

3. Sign up for the movie theaters’ rewards programs. I have a rewards card with Regal Theaters and if I get so many points, then I can get discounts at the food stand, and also a free ticket every now and then. I swipe the card when I buy movie tickets and when I get items at the food stand which helps me earn points faster.

Discounts in Practice 

The last movie that we saw was Argo, and I had one free ticket from earning rewards points through the Regal Rewards program. The following table shows how much I was able to save.

 

Cost without discount Cost with discount
2 tickets @ $11.00 each2 pretzels @$5.00 each

Total Cost = $32.00

 1 tickets @ $11.001 free ticket @ $0.00

2 pretzels @$5.00 each

Total Cost = $21.00

Savings (($32-$21)/$32)x100 = 34%

 

Every penny counts, and even though I did not get a discount for the pretzels, I still saved 34% of what I would have paid had I not used any discounts.

Posted in Saving Money.

Show me the Money

November 8, 2012 by Natalie · Leave a comment

There are a lot of people walking around pretending to be bigger than they are. They need to keep up an image and talk about how they have a big commission coming, or that business is doing great. My question to them is show me the money?You can’t feed your kids with IOUs that is why it is important to have positive cash flow.

What is cash flow? Cash flow is the actual money that you receive and spend during a given time period. Your paycheck is the cash flow that you receive and your bills is the cash flow that you spend.

When it comes to investments. If you want to figure out wether something is a good investment, then you would use the following formula.

(Cash coming in) – (cash going out) = +/- cash flow

Example:

If you want to buy a house and rent it out, you would want to determine what kind of cash flow you would get. You can use the formula shown above to determine if buying the house is a good idea.

Givens:

Rent collected: $1,000

Property Taxes: $30

Maintenance: $50

Mortgage: $800

 

(Cash coming in) – (cash going out) = +/- cash flow

($1,000) – ($30+$50+$800) = +/- cash flow

$1,000 – $880 = $120

Buying the house would be a good investment because you would have a positive cash flow of $120 each month which could help you build wealth. If on the other hand the house would cost you a lot more than what you can rent it out for then you would have negative cash flow which would be a bad investment.

I knew a small business owner of a catering company who had continually lost between $500 -$1,000 a month. That business closed because that type of loss continually was not sustainable. They had a negative cash flow problem and ran out of money. It was a powerful lesson for me to learn. You can can have many potential deals in the works, but if none of them work out, and no cash comes in, then you will eventually go out of business once your money runs out.

In conclusion, if you want to become rich then make sure that you have positive cash flow in your life. If you have negative cash flow in your life, then take steps to reverse it. I would love to help you with learning how to create positive cash flow in your life.

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Posted in Understanding Money. Tagged with , , .

Foundation to Becoming Rich

November 7, 2012 by Natalie · Leave a comment

Becoming rich and building your wealth is part of the American dream. Financially speaking, becoming rich is about building up your cash and property while controlling your costs so that you can have a lot of left over money. Below is the basic accounting equation which shows how to break down wealth.

Terms:

  • Assets = Anything (money, property, stuff, etc) you can use or sell to save your financial ass

  • Liabilities = Debts, loans, costs or money that you owe

  • Equity = Whatever is left over after you have paid what you owe.

The official formula aka the Basic Accounting Equation:

Assets – Liabilities = Equity

Example:

You purchased a car for $10,000, and you put $2,000 down. In order to get the car you had to get a car loan for $8,000. How would that look in the Basic Accounting Equation:

Assets – Liabilities = Equity

$10,000 – $8,000 = $2,000

If you want to become rich, then you need to build up your equity, and control your liabilities.

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Posted in Understanding Money. Tagged with , , , , .