The Eco Mode 2

Sometime in August of last year I made these two posts. Each of them is worth revisit. A Thursday and as a result, Eco Mode. To save time, Id summarize things here. In those two posts I said that I was very fucked up with how things were moving so slow in life and I needed to do something about it. And to do something, I needed money. And for money, since my dad is not rich, I needed to save. And to save, I needed to stop spending on frivolous things, and hence the eco mode.

Fast forward to May/June of 2013. About nine months since I first spoke about Eco Mode. Not much has changed. Delhi is hotter. I have lost more hair. I haven't stopped splurging and I am poorer than what I was back then, blame it on a few capital expenses. Yesterday I met a friend who just joined a startup and he's getting paid a tiny atomic bomb for his salary. In terms of numbers, he now makes 4 times compared to me. And he and I are classmates. Nothing wrong with it. He probably deserves it more than me. But he did open my eyes to possibilities that exist for me.

So like last time, I have decided that I would get into Eco Mode starting now. And today was a good start. I had to meet a friend and unlike most days when I take my car for any and every meeting, I took the metro. The journey in the metro sucked but it wasnt very tough. I could live with it. Of course I will not do this everyday but its manageable. Idea is to cut down on unnecessary expenses and save as much as I can.

Coming to money, I have just one savings account and just one credit card. I make all my expenses from the credit card, except tolls, parking and other small out of pocket expenses. This ensures that I have a bill for each transaction and I can verify the spends at the end of the month. And of course I get loyalty points that get me free air tickets.

So I want to take a break by the end of the year for a month or so. During that time I want to travel, probably write a book, take it easy. And I have seven six months to go. In the next six months, here are my measurable goals...

• Save 40% of my income. From all sources. Right now I have one source of income. I need to increase it. Thats my other goal. 
• Make money from 3 sources. And predictable income at that. 
• Get monthly credit card bill to 50% of the average of previous six months' bills. 

Thats about it. If I can manage these three, I think I would be in a comfortable enough position to take a break.

Of course what I do with life and career is entirely different all together. More on it during one of these days in the 1000WADv2.