My golden rule for IM: Never spend more than half of what you have made so far

This has been my policy since I started in IM a couple months ago and it has served me well. It helps me avoid buying every pretty website I see on Flippa and every WSO I see here with good reviews.

I keep track of how much money I have made by doing things online, and never spend more than half of what I have made so far. This method has been great for me, so I thought I'd share some of the nuances with you guys!

But wait, how do you get started by spending $0?

I started on Fiverr. After doing about 10 Fiverr jobs (editing papers, photoshopping, etc.) I had earned $40. I then used half of that money to pay for my first domain and hosting - and the other half I kept!

During this time on Fiverr, I browsed WF a lot and learned more about what to do once I actually had earned enough money to start making IM-related purchases without breaking my golden rule.

How do you keep track of money?

I just keep a spreadsheet in Excel. I have one column for expenditures and one for revenues. At the bottom I have the sum of all my expenditures/revenues so far. If my next purchase is going to make my total expenditures go over half of my total revenues, I don't make that purchase. It's pretty straightforward, and even if you don't update it every day, you can use your PayPal/Credit Card history to bring it up to date whenever you want to make a purchase.

What about when you find something great and really worth buying?

Most of the time, even if it seems like it can't, it can wait. Is it a WSO, eBook, or similar? Bookmark it and come back to it when you have the money. Who knows, you might not even want it anymore at that time. I have multiple WSOs bookmarked in my browser to come back to when I have made enough money to afford them without breaking my golden rule.

If it's something that is time-sensitive, like a website on Flippa or something, I usually just let it slide. There will be other good websites for sale. If this one is BestKeywordEver.com for $5, then sure, go for it. But if you have any doubts that it will make you all your money back quickly, let it slide until you can afford it without breaking my golden rule.

But I'm a newbie, don't I need to be paying for advice from those guru guys?

Honestly, I have gotten way more (and better!) advice from Warriors right here in this forum than I have from "gurus". Browse around, ask your questions here, and learn the basics before getting started - then when you do encounter "gurus" you will be better equipped to tell if their products/services will actually benefit you.

Take all this advice as you will.. as I said, it has served me well! It is an easy way to manage your funds for IM and make sure you don't go overboard with your purchases. It also helps you focus on one or two sites in the beginning (because you can't "afford" more), which is great because many newbies have problems with spreading themselves too thin.