Part of Everything You Make Is Yours to Keep

The most important lesson of all the lessons of wealth is the easiest to understand and the hardest to do.  You MUST pay yourself first. You MUST KEEP a portion of what you make and start to develop your wealth.  You MUST live within your means.  If you cannot do this, it doesn’t matter what else you learn.  

We live in a society that believes you should have whatever you want whenever you want it. Advertisers are very good at their jobs and convince us we not only should have the newest neatest thing but that we NEED it. It’s our right to have it. We would be stupid not to buy it.

Instead, we need to create a system where we live off a percentage of what we make, and we have a plan to become financially free.

10 percent of your paycheck should go to your financial freedom account. This means you pay into this account as if it were a monthly bill.  Not only is it a monthly payment that must be made, but it’s also the most important payment that must be made.  You pay this before you pay anything else

This means your goal is to live on less than what you make and use a percentage of it to become financially free. That’s the reality of how to make it happen.  You must get comfortable living on less than what you make. The only way to do this is to be grateful for what you have and pretend that’s all there is. You must leave the traditional, “I get anything I want, whenever I want mentality.” 

If you cannot do this, you cannot be financially free. Short but true.

Living Every Minute,
Tim Reynolds, M.D.