What are you doing with your money?

Whatever work you are doing at the moment will be generating you a certain level of income. How much that is, is not important at the moment. What is important however, is what you do with it. Once you have generated your income it is important to know how and where it goes. Here’s a good question for you, “How much of your money do you get to keep?” At first glance you might think that is a silly question. “If it’s my money I get to keep it all don’t I?” “I can do what I like with my money can’t I?” Think about it for a moment though, how much of the money you have earned in the last 12 months have you still got. Probably not a lot, you have probably given most of it to other people. You probably pay a nice chunk of everything you earn to the tax man to start with, the local super market probably also gets a fair chunk, the power company, the phone company, the gas company may all take some, and how much do you distribute at the local shopping centre, for clothes or entertainment. If you’ve got children there will be other people you are giving your money to also. If you have kids you’ll know exactly what I am talking about ……right? I thought so.

You see, when you think about it, of all the money you have earned in the last year, you have probably kept very little if any of it for yourself.

So let me give you a very valuable key. “Pay your self a portion of everything you earn”. Don’t pay ALL of it to other people. That’s right, pay your self some and keep it, I suggest you do this before you start paying everybody else around. This is the key of accumulation
It’s your money after all so shouldn’t you have a higher priority claim to it than other people. Think very carefully about this and choose just how much of your money you are going to pay yourself. As a minimum guide I would suggest you pay yourself at least 10% of what you earn. There are no hard and fast rules, and how much you choose to pay yourself is up to you. You might choose more or you might choose less, but personally, I think 10% is a reasonable place to start.

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