Introduction

To get ahead financially in life, there are two principles that you should abide by: Live below your means and pay yourself first.

Win by living below your means

When you live below your means, you will start to move up financially in the world. You will have money to sock away into a nest egg. I remember years ago, I adopted this very principle. I was not making a lot of money. But I managed to save enough money that I could loan $500-without a second thought-to a family member who needed money to pay the closing fee on a house that she was buying. I could afford to do this because I had built up quite a bit of savings from the money that I had left over after I paid my daily expenses since I was living far below my means. Conversely, if you violate this principle, you will find that you have become a slave to your job. You will have to work over time or work another job just to pay your bills! We all know people who are living above their means in order to keep up with the Joneses. No matter how hard they work or how much they earn, they just cannot seem to get ahead. They continue to drift further and further into debt. Let's face it: If you are making $1 million dollars a year, but are spending $1.5 million a year, you will forever be in debt and never be able to get financially ahead. The math is just not in your favor. Until you change your ways, you have sentenced yourself and your loved ones to a life time sentence of debt and suffering. Live above your means and you lose. Live below your means and you win!

Win by paying yourself first

The other financial principle you should live by is that of paying yourself first. That is to say that before you pay anybody else-gas, light, rent, mortgage, etc-you want to first write out a check to yourself. Let's say, for example, you adopt this principle. Let's say that you actually put this principle to work. And let us also say that you decided to pay yourself by way of automatic payroll deduction or in check form, $100 a month. At the end of the year, you will have $1200 in the bank, not counting the interest that accumulated over the year. Easier said than done, you remark. How am I going to find the money to do that? Let's see: Can you find waste in your spending habits to allow you to pay yourself first? I believe you can. Are you buying a $5.00 Starbucks coffee everyday just before you go to lunch? Are you buying your lunch instead of brown bagging it? Are you a sucker for impulse items at the check out counter? Are you addicted to alcohol or cigarettes that command you to buy them? I am sure you can think of a host of other ways that you are throwing your hard-earned money away. Once you become aware of it, you will undoubted realize that, yes, I can, find the money to pay myself first and begin to move myself and my loved ones financially ahead. Failing to adopt this principle, you will find that you are no better off today than you were 10 years ago simply because you failed to put money away for your future. Instead of saving, say, $1000 a year for 10 years and, as a result, having $10000 in the bank, you will have nothing socked away since you were too busy paying everybody else first before you paid yourself. I myself personally adopted this principle at some point in my life and went from being in the red to being in the black! Pay yourself first and reap a harvest. Pay others first and remain poor.

Conclusion

To conclude, by adopting these two simple yet powerful financial principles, you will begin to pave a road of gold for your and your loved ones financial future.