Save a bit of money from every pay day starting with the first job you get.
That allows you to seize opportunities that living pay cheque to pay cheque will not
Worked well for me.
Once a week paper route savings bought me a small start on a used stereo receiver in the late 70's.
$80 was a bunch of money for a 13 year old in 1979.
By 1981 I had a better two nights and a saturday job, so savings bought a turn table and speakers that took me beyond FM listening on head phones.
Bought a small mixer and second tape deck, and long term borrow I later bought- a reel to reel recorder by 1983.
The reel to reel and a good FM yagi antenna on the roof let me tape 6 hours a night from a Buffalo FM station that was computer controlled.
So the dj never yapped over the start or end of the song.
That let me dub the hit songs to cassette with a very small loss of fidelity.
Those tapes and the two decks let me start dj'ing local events.
The money from that bought me a light organ and strobe lights I built from kits.
That funded bigger venues. Funds from the djing and the summer job paid for first yer of uni.
Working for an electrician first summer I bought my first own vehicle, a ten year old basic Ford pickup truck.
That let me earn money moving other students while I was at school.
Working for the electrician let me do a good deal on uni.
Dad paid my tuition and room rent- the fixed costs. I paid all other expenses, and graduated broke, but with no debts.
That got me working full time, and by the time I had worked three years me and two other guys jointly bought a new house.
That was 92, and sold in 95 for a loss but costs not more than an apartment for each would have cost.
Got sent overseas with work living expenses paid for 3 years. Got back to town and bough a family house, and had a pretty small mortgage.
Saving and prepay 15% every year and had the mortgage paid off in 6 years.
Since then save and live below means, and now wife retired at age 55, and I am slated to retire in a couple ore years.
Saving habits have in turn fueled the means to pursue this hobbying.
