Gambling

How I went from gambling addict to 100k in the bank.

As soon as i hit the 18 year old milestone i downloaded sports bet.

I remember it to this day. 

From 13 to 18 i was working casually in Rebel sports.

i was young to be in this type of retail role back then and a lot of the people around me were older. This gave me a lot of experience being around them and a lot of them i looked up to and at that time in my life they were what i wanted to do.

Out of the town, Playing sports, drinking after sports, gambling and just being young and boystrous.

This was what i wanted.

So once i turned 18 i had people i could talk to and gamble with right away.

I was going to the casino 3-4 times a week, 

Going to the races on the weekend then the casino after.

It was just non stop gambling 

And then came the horses. 

This is where the addiction started.

There's horse races everyday

Every 
Single
Day

When you are doing it, Its the best and i loved it. The highs and lows all of it.

At one point i was actually making a decent living while i was studying and it did help me out so i am grateful for that.
Although what goes up must come down.

I gambled just enough to survive (most of the time)

How and why did i stop?

I cant lie, I have not cut it out completely.

I still go to the casino a couple times a year and when the big races are on like the Melbourne cup i will have a flutter.

Although it is pure fun.

I got in control by limiting myself.

Out of sight out of mind.
This was not an over night win, it took months to not think about it or try to gamble.

I closed all my accounts and put deposit limits on all of them, 

Even after that i did set up accounts in family members names to gamble.

The biggest change for me was starting to talk and work with peoples finances.

Who am i to be giving financial advice if i myself have no control over my finances and gamble?

This was a HUGE turning point for me.

It's like the fat Personal Trainer giving health advice.

It doesn't make sense and as a consumer it's not respected.

Hence why you see so many Real estate agents or sales people with expensive cars because they want to look the part as if they have money and you want to trust them to get into the position they are in.

Realisation and moving on

Now that i had beaten the gambling addiction,
I began to reflect on why it had me.

I knew it was the rush of winning as i've always been competitive and this gave me more ways to win.
But i think i just loved money.

Trying to win and winning with minimal work was great.

Money won is much better than money earned.
Now its only better because you have minimal respect for it and usually spend it because you didn't work for it....

While gambling, you have no respect of feelings for how much it is actually costing you.

Money being direct debited from your account does not feel real.

And this makes it 100 x easier to continue to do so.

When you start to appreciate the money you own and how easy it is to spend but not so easy to keep.

It's agonizing to simply waste money for no return.

Going through a gambling addiction and coming out the other side gave me huge respect for money.
For how difficult it is to keep.

Making money is easy.

How you secure and save your money is the hard part.

You too can beat any spending addiction or inability to save by following these tips.

1. Remove it from your sight.
Keep it out of sight, remove the root cause.
If it is gambling put stops on all your accounts, Block the websites and delete the apps.

2. Look at your Bank-statements everyday. 
Keep track of the expense and what it is costing you.
If its a weekly thing multiply it by 52 and x by 5 years to see the 5 year cost.

3. Involve someone else to keep you accountable.
A partner, close friend or family member can help significantly with this.
Making sure you have someone to talk to and secure your finances.

Getting financially secure and knowing your spending can be done for anyone.

it just takes conscious practice and consistency.