($) I’ve never been to me ($)

If you save less than you had planned to in any particular month, because of an additional expense that came out of nowhere – and these will happen – make it up over the next month or two. Don’t lose sight of your savings targets. Get back on track as soon as possible.

Remember to take a break now and again. Reality check. Forget about the spreadsheet for a while. Breathe. Smell the roses.

Look around. Are your friends and family still there? Dog still recognizes you? Partner still smiling dreamily every morning?

So far, so good. Maybe you can keep some kind of balance after all.

Will everyone around you appreciate the hard work it took for you to reach this point? The stress, the sacrifices, the sleepless nights, the 12-hour days? Probably not. They’ll think you’re the luckiest person they know. They’ll probably ask for some quick tips on how they can double their own money overnight. Feel free to refer them to this book. Particularly Chapter 1.

($)

The Smashwords year-end sale is still on. Get my ebooks (& Shorty’s, & JP’s) for half price, or free, in some cases.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BurningRoses (mine)

www.smashwords.com/books/view/1272084 (Shorty & JP)

In fact, all my ebooks are half-price everywhere, until the end of the year. Except Amazon, as usual.

Enjoy.

https://books2read.com/ap/nmGNXx/John-West

($)

Stop living from salary to salary. Achieve Financial Independence. Retire Early. Join the FIRE movement igniting the world.

Follow these weekly posts for solid advice on how to escape the rat race, covering material contained in Hard Money.

This is no get-rich-quick scheme. It won’t be easy. That’s why it’s called Hard Money.

Work while they sleep. Learn while they party. Save while they spend. Then live like they dream.

($)

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books, or Shorty’s Poems) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.

www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.

www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

♠ Psycho Christmas ♠

“You ready to take another shot?” Connor asked.

Noecker grunted and gritted his teeth. Face pale, forehead covered in sweat.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Connor slowed the plane as much as he could without it dropping out the air and pointed it towards the now substantial dust cloud.

“Where is he?”

“Just aim for the middle of that cloud.” Connor pointed.

The blast filled the cockpit with noise as this time Noecker found his target and bullets sprayed into the middle of the dust cloud. The plane shot past and Connor banked it around again to make another pass.

Francina ran into the back of the plane and looked around. There were chairs on either side, facing inwards, and a storage locker at the back.

She opened the locker. “Yes!” she exclaimed at the row of assault rifles. At the bottom, as she had hoped, was a first aid kit. She opened the plastic container and rifled through the contents.

An explosion outside shook the plane and knocked her off her feet. “What was that?” she called down to the cockpit.

“Shoot that fucker, quick,” Connor yelled to Noecker.

“Keep still, damn it.” Noecker tried to aim.

“If I keep still, we’re a sitting target!”

Francina found her feet and was now staring through the cockpit window. The driver of the van was not giving up without a fight. From the cover of a tree, he now pointed a large gun in their direction.

⛥

The Smashwords year-end sale is still on. Get my ebooks (& Shorty’s, & JP’s) for half price, or free, in some cases.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BurningRoses (mine)

www.smashwords.com/books/view/1272084 (Shorty & JP)

In fact, all my ebooks are half-price everywhere, until the end of the year. Except Amazon, as usual. Enjoy.

https://books2read.com/ap/nmGNXx/John-West

⛥

Read Big Day Out in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, GoodReads, or Amazon, where you’ll find the whole mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.

Download FREE sampler previews of all my books – and some complete short stories – from PCloud at www.bit.ly/FreeBurning. Or read them on Kindle Unlimited.

No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.

⛥

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.
www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.
www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

⛥

For a different experience, listen to these weekly episodes as Spotify podcasts, Apple podcasts, or Google podcasts.

⛥

If you have a book you’d like to publish, contact me to claim your 15 minutes of bestselling fame at No.1 on Amazon. Find all the above details and links at www.amazon.com/author/burning.

In case you missed the link while listening to the podcast, that’s www.amazon.com/author/burning.

⛥

Cheers.

($) Rockabilly Christmas ($)

Reward yourself when you reach your milestones. Spend a little bit of that hard-earned cash. This should motivate you to carry on in the same direction. Bearing in mind that the more debt you settle, the more money you will have available to save. You will start earning more interest and paying less, and this effect will snowball over time.

Now push your savings till you have enough cash to pay 2 months in advance. Then 3 months. Then 6. Then 12.

This will double as an emergency fund when gremlins appear.

Your goals might seem small at first. Pointless. Your ultimate goals, unreachable. But you have to start somewhere. Baby steps.

Those hundreds you save over the first few months will turn into thousands soon enough. Then tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Keep it up long enough and you may run into millions.

These are your first huge strides on the road to building wealth and becoming financially independent.

($)

The Smashwords year-end sale is still on. Get my ebooks (& Shorty’s, & JP’s) for half price, or free, in some cases.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BurningRoses (mine)

www.smashwords.com/books/view/1272084 (Shorty & JP)

In fact, all my ebooks are half-price everywhere, until the end of the year. Except Amazon, as usual.

Enjoy.

https://books2read.com/ap/nmGNXx/John-West

($)

Stop living from salary to salary. Achieve Financial Independence. Retire Early. Join the FIRE movement igniting the world.

Follow these weekly posts for solid advice on how to escape the rat race, covering material contained in Hard Money.

This is no get-rich-quick scheme. It won’t be easy. That’s why it’s called Hard Money.

Work while they sleep. Learn while they party. Save while they spend. Then live like they dream.

($)

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books, or Shorty’s Poems) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.

www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.

www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

♠ Strippers ♠

The driver of the van killed the lights. There was still enough moonlight to track it.

“Who is that?” yelled Francina above the sound of the machine gun blast.

Noecker gritted his teeth and pulled hard on the trigger a second time as a spray of bullets narrowly missed their target. If their target was a small bush thirty metres away from the road.

“Do you want to try aiming first?”

“Hold this tin can still for a second and I’ll have a better chance. Bloody amateurs.”

The van skidded and turned hard left into the veld. Bullets sprayed the sand but none of them found their mark.

Connor banked the plane to the right. “I’ll have to go around.”

Noecker grunted with pain. “Take your shirt off,” he coughed, bubbles of blood forming around his mouth.

“You don’t have enough blood left for that.” Connor pulled hard on the controls, watching through the side window as the hippie van performed a series of handbrake turns. “He’s churning up the dust. Reducing visibility.”

“Not for that,” growled Noecker. “For a bandage. Tie it tight around my shoulder.”

Francina did as she was told for once and took off her black shirt. Connor lost sight of the van for a second, not in the dust, but looking over his shoulder at Francina, now in a black vest top, bending over and fixing a tourniquet around Noecker.

“Eyes on the van and off my tits, thank you very much.”

⛥

Don’t forget the Smashwords Year-end sale. Get my books for half price, or free, in some cases.

Read Big Day Out in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, GoodReads, or Amazon, where you’ll find the whole mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.

Download FREE sampler previews of all my books – and some complete short stories – from PCloud at www.bit.ly/FreeBurning. Or read them on Kindle Unlimited.

No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.

⛥

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.
www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.
www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

⛥

For a different experience, listen to these weekly episodes as Spotify podcasts, Apple podcasts, or Google podcasts.

⛥

If you have a book you’d like to publish, contact me to claim your 15 minutes of bestselling fame at No.1 on Amazon. Find all the above details and links at www.amazon.com/author/burning.

In case you missed the link while listening to the podcast, that’s www.amazon.com/author/burning.

⛥

Cheers.

($) Look at yourself ($)

Enron was named “America’s Most Innovative Company” by Fortune magazine for 6 consecutive years. Until 2001, when it came to light that Enron had been hiding several hundred million dollars’ worth of losses and debts.

The company collapsed amid a barrage of legal cases and indictments.

Don’t be like Enron’s executives. Or their auditors. Be honest. Especially with yourself.

Now let’s look forward instead of backwards.

Where would you like to be financially in 6 months’ time? A year? 2 years?

Look at your monthly budget. Work out a sustainable monthly surplus. Increase it slightly, if you like a challenge. Then calculate how much you would like to have saved by your target date. Or how much debt you want to have settled by then. Or both.

Don’t just plan to save whatever is left after paying the bills. That’s not a plan. Reprioritize your thinking. Remember, saving is now your primary goal. Decreased expenses were just a means to an end, freeing up cash for you to increase your savings every month.

Early in your journey, you will have accumulated enough cash to pay next month’s expenses in advance. Don’t actually pay them in advance. Just have enough cash to be able to.

Congratulations. You are no longer living from paycheck to paycheck.

($)

The Smashwords Year-end sale starts today. Get my books for half price, or free, in some cases.

($)

Stop living from salary to salary. Achieve Financial Independence. Retire Early. Join the FIRE movement igniting the world.

Follow these weekly posts for solid advice on how to escape the rat race, covering material contained in Hard Money.

This is no get-rich-quick scheme. It won’t be easy. That’s why it’s called Hard Money.

Work while they sleep. Learn while they party. Save while they spend. Then live like they dream.

($)

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books, or Shorty’s Poems) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.

www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.

www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

♠ Dive dive dive ♠

Noecker grunted in pain as his shoulders shook in a brief burst of laughter. “We’re not going to the Cape, Frankie. Not yet.”

Noecker grunted again as Francina roughly wrapped a gauze bandage around his shoulder. “Why not? That was the plan.”

“Sorry, honey. I changed my mind. Just getting in touch with my feminine side.”

Before Francina could find a loose sharp heavy object to smack Connor with, Noecker grabbed her wrist with his good arm. “We don’t know which of us has the rogue DNA we need. And with me… well, like this, that cuts our chances in half.”

“But we are pretty sure that your little darling is going to make our current nightmare a lot worse,” Connor added. “And we know she has exactly what we need. So, all things considered…”

Francina gasped, Noecker grunted, and Connor grit his teeth as he put the plane into a controlled dive. Below them, and not far ahead, they saw a battered flower-bedecked hippie van cruising along a single lane country road much faster than any hippie van had a right to cruise.

“Connor!”

“Not now, honey. Daddy’s working.” He pulled back on the controls and slowed the plane till it was just above and maybe a hundred metres behind the crazy wagon. “Hey, old man. This is an older model than I’m used to. Are the machine guns still controlled from your side?”

“Connor!”

Noecker leaned forward with another, louder grunt. “I only need one hand for this.”

Connor grinned. “No time for that, you old pervert. Just force that godawful monstrosity off the road before I flip this bird and kill us all.”

⛥

Read Big Day Out in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, GoodReads, or Amazon, where you’ll find the whole mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.

Download FREE sampler previews of all my books – and some complete short stories – from PCloud at www.bit.ly/FreeBurning. Or read them on Kindle Unlimited.

No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.

⛥

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.
www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.
www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

⛥

For a different experience, listen to these weekly episodes as Spotify podcasts, Apple podcasts, or Google podcasts.

⛥

If you have a book you’d like to publish, contact me to claim your 15 minutes of bestselling fame at No.1 on Amazon. Find all the above details and links at www.amazon.com/author/burning.

In case you missed the link while listening to the podcast, that’s www.amazon.com/author/burning.

⛥

Cheers.

($) Again and again ($)

Do the same exercise at the end of the next month. And every month after that, putting each month’s numbers in a column to the right of the previous month’s numbers.

If the net result is increasing, you are doing something right. You are on your way to building wealth.

If the net result decreases every month, you will have identified a problem that needs to be addressed. Go back to your budget. What went wrong? Was your income lower than expected? Or – more likely – did your expenses exceed your budget?

Ask yourself why it happened. Was it a once-off cost that affected one month in isolation? These things happen. Try not to have too many of them, but don’t lose sleep over it.

Or was it a new monthly expense that you hadn’t anticipated? Can it be reduced? If so, reduce it.

If not, update your budget. You might have to cut somewhere else to get yourself back on track. Hard choices. But necessary.

After implementing these changes, track the numbers again at the end of the next month. Were your adjustments successful in correcting the downward trend? Did your net wealth increase over the last month?

If so, carry on.

If not, repeat the steps listed above.

($)

Stop living from salary to salary. Achieve Financial Independence. Retire Early. Join the FIRE movement igniting the world.

Follow these weekly posts for solid advice on how to escape the rat race, covering material contained in Hard Money.

This is no get-rich-quick scheme. It won’t be easy. That’s why it’s called Hard Money.

Work while they sleep. Learn while they party. Save while they spend. Then live like they dream.

($)

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books, or Shorty’s Poems) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.

www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.

www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

♠ Learning to fly ♠

Boys and girls, stealing a plane is no small accomplishment. This is not something to be taken lightly. And certainly, never to be tried at home.

Secondary considerations include details like how much fuel does it have? How much will you need to reach your destination? Who’s going to fly the thing? And – of course – who will be designated to wear a tight skirt and serve your recently-acquired drinks during the flight?

No no no. Leave this to the professionals. They know what they’re doing.

“Put pressure on it!”

“I am!”

“Well press harder! I’m bleeding to death here, woman!”

Connor glanced over at Noecker. The old man was indeed looking pale under his centuries of weather-beaten tan.

“Nah, you’re alright. It’ll take more than a handful of high-velocity steel-jacketed armour-piercing shells to wipe that sunny smile off your face.”

Noecker found the energy to spit in Connor’s general direction. It came out more reddish than it should have.

“Don’t make me regret recruiting you straight out of the orphanage, boy. Maybe I should have left you on the streets a while, let those hard knocks straighten you out.”

Francina looked up from her doctoring. “Connor, do you know what you’re doing? Or where you’re flying this thing to? I can’t tell a thing from that control panel, but I’m sure we’re supposed to be a lot higher than this.”

Connor took his hands off the plane’s controls and made a show of peering out the cockpit’s side window. “Gee, honey, you think I should stop and ask for directions?”

⛥

Read Big Day Out in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, GoodReads, or Amazon, where you’ll find the whole mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.

Download FREE sampler previews of all my books – and some complete short stories – from PCloud at www.bit.ly/FreeBurning. Or read them on Kindle Unlimited.

No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.

⛥

Anyone in Johannesburg who would like a signed copy (of any of my books) can have one delivered to their door by Big Bad Wolf Motorcycle Maniac Deliveries. No charge for delivery.

Or have them delivered anywhere in South Africa via Bakgat Books. https://bakgatbooks.co.za/all-stores/burning-books/

Also available in Edenvale from Inner Journeys bookstore.
www.facebook.com/InnerJourneysdnr

Or from Profound Books in Bramley.
www.facebook.com/Profoundbooks

And they’ll always be available on Amazon.

www.amazon.com/author/burning

www.amazon.co.uk/John-West/e/B072833D7Q

⛥

For a different experience, listen to these weekly episodes as Spotify podcasts, Apple podcasts, or Google podcasts.

⛥

If you have a book you’d like to publish, contact me to claim your 15 minutes of bestselling fame at No.1 on Amazon. Find all the above details and links at www.amazon.com/author/burning.

In case you missed the link while listening to the podcast, that’s www.amazon.com/author/burning.

⛥

Cheers.