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I am 23, just 6 months out of college. I did not pay for a single thing in my life until i was 21. I would work in the summer between school years and make a couple grand. I would spend that during the school year no doubt. Plus whatever my parents would give me, but i was not a big spender. I just landed my first real job (in nothing else but financial investments) and I'm making about $750 a week after taxes. Not bad at all for the cost of living expenses in my city. I have been a longtime gambler, playing poker, blackjack, sports betting, you name it. But since my income has risen over the last few months, i am also increasing my bets and dont seem to stop making $500 bets or more. Although i have pocketed $2,500 in the last 2 months gambling. Is this OK? Am i going to go broke in the long run? I do seem to only gamble when it is excess money, meaning i dont gamble with my rent. But i feel like im being careless even though i have won money. Any suggestions

2007-02-02 07:40:22 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Business & Finance Personal Finance

9 answers

Dude, I just decided to post answer to your question becuase the answer you gave me was excellent answer. Thanks a lot for that!

To your question, well I am in same situation as you are. I got out of college 2 years ago and I didn't really work when I was on college. But once I landed my job in real world, I began to realize value of $$. Think about it this way, sooner or later you are going to get married. Then it will start adding responsibilites to your life, you will have to start saving for house, nice car and for your childeren. That thinking will help you learning the real value of dollar.

I don't think that at your age gambling is a big concern, but you can easily lose money in it. Well I did couple of years ago, I quit ever since then. Try to deviate your monthly finance towards your need. For example, out of your $3000 gross check, try to make a budget. That's what I did to learn the value of $. I had about $1100 spend behind my personal "must" needs. Rest of $1900 goes to my savings account for future saivng (not to mention, I have same pay rate). With that budget, after two years I have about 30k saved up today.

But looking at today's economy, that is nothing. Hell, that is not even good enough to buy a brand new SUV!!!!! That's why last week I decided to splilt my savings up and invest some in stocks.

To sum it all up, while you are young these money won't be a big deal to you. But once you will marry and start family then you will realize that you shuold have started to save a long time ago. It looks like you are going on right track, but try to quit gambling. No one ever got rich via gambling.

2007-02-05 03:27:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

The honest answer is that there are no right or wrong answers in life.

If you're worried about it though, then you should set yourself up with a gambling bankroll that is funded totally separately from your normal income.

That is to say that the $750 a week you're making from your job should be untouchable alltogether, and you could get a part time job that pays for your poker/blackjack/etc. That way, you have no risk, and if you tap into your regular income after promising yourself that you won't, then you'll realize that you have a problem and you need help.

Other ways to get money for poker without getting a part time job are:

play at www.nlop.com. They have advertisements that they make all their money off of, and because of this they host free tournaments where you can qualify to play in their big tournies and win prizes as large as a $10,000 seat into the world series of poker (they gave away 12 seats in 2006). And I am completely serious when I say not one person spent a single dollar buying into any tournaments on their site. It just isn't an option there.

Another option would be to do the same thing as above at www.wsopfreerolls.com. That site is a more traditional online poker room, but they offer a lot of freeroll tournaments that require no deposits and pay out real money.

It's win/win

2007-02-04 19:54:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

If you are concerned that you won't be able to stop gambling, please get some help. You may feel like you have it under control now, but it's a very slippery slope to where you don't.

Also, to learn the value of a dollar, the best thing you can do for yourself is get yourself on a budget. Write down everything you need to pay for in a month, and your income. Your expenses (including saving/investing and fun stuff you can afford) should equal your income. It's a very eye opening experience to go through.

2007-02-02 10:22:37 · answer #3 · answered by Jen G 5 · 0 0

I have 3 daughters, luckily 2 of them are still small and i don't have to deal with three money wanting all the time girls at the same time. My daughter, earns her money. She babysits, she does chores, and she gets paid. What she has, is what she gets to spend, if she spends all that money and she wants a 40 dollar shirt, oh! looky there, too bad! She can't have it! If she chooses to go out and spend it on candy and movies, then she can, she just won't get that shirt she wanted! You have to learn to say the word, NO! If you can't learn to say NO, then she won't be able to understand that she can't always just get every little thing she wants exactly when she wants it. You can also do this, when giving her an allowance, give her sections of stuff: This goes towards clothes, this is towards movies and fun, this is towards church ,this is towards ____ etc. Make sure she spilts it evenly and she doesn't sneak 10 dollars from another pile to that pile, that works for my daughter, but after awhile she got lazy and figured out that the hard way that if she wanted to go places and get cute clothes, she'd have to save up. Its okay to buy her a shirt every once in awhle, maybe bargain with her, you buy this ill buy that, since she is your only daughter, but for now, i'd create a system or just a "tough love" attitude toward her. Goodluck, these are the hard years.

2016-03-15 04:21:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Good Lord, IMHO, you're getting yourself into trouble already. You're starting on the path to gambling addiciton and perhaps using the rent money to gamble with. You may win, but you may also loose.

If you've found yourself making bigger and bigger bets now, it will just escalate as time passes. But, hey, it's your life and if you want to spend your money that way, more power to you.

You should be investing that money for your future with ROTH or even non-qualified accounts.

I learned the value of the dollar very early. My parents were just making ends meet so if I wanted anything extra, including college, I had to pay for it. No big deal, you appreciate it more if you earn it yourself.

I learned to look at things in a different light. Do I need that, or do I want it. If I'm making $5/hour, it cost me 7 hours of my life to earn that $35 sweater. Is it really worth that much of my time and effort?

2007-02-02 08:15:42 · answer #5 · answered by parsonsel 6 · 0 0

At this stage you don't seem to be breaking the 1st rule of sucessful gambling. Don't gamble more than you can afford. However I understand your concerns that it seems a waste of money and it may get out of control. Have you thought about budgeting for it? If you look at gambling as a hobby, there's nothing wrong with having a hobby as long as you don't spend money on that which should go to something else. Most hobbies cost money. So plan your budget including a certain amount for gambling. When you are gambling only take that amount of money, don't take your credit card. If you win, you can put that into your hobby budget, and not feel guilty about spending it later on gambling.

You are careless if your spending on gambling is out of control, regardless of you win or lose. If you win, do you take into account the amount you have lost on previous occasions losing? Or the fact that you are likely to gamble that win away? probably not, what did that $2,500 actually cost you in terms of previous loses? But there's nothing wrong with gambling as a hobby if you enjoy it, so keep it under control and you won't feel the guilt, nor will you kid yourself that you are actually gaining from you winnings as you will appreciate that you will probably gamble them all away. And in the unlikely event that you end up actually making money (and some people do, there are professional gamblers out there) Good for you.

2007-02-02 07:59:05 · answer #6 · answered by gerrifriend 6 · 2 0

Everybody has to have a hobby, but if you're worried about it call 1-800-bets-off

2007-02-02 07:46:13 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

This isn't a finance problem, it's a serious gambling problem and you need to seek professional help.

2007-02-02 08:03:32 · answer #8 · answered by wc256764 2 · 0 0

Earn it.

2007-02-02 07:48:43 · answer #9 · answered by lisateric 5 · 1 0

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