Perhaps there is no more important decision than taking charge of your financial future. We live in a world of opportunity, and yet most Americans are buried in credit card debt and other types of debt. People who are becoming wealthy are all around us, but most of us are standing still.
You are literate, have a computer, and are part of the “wired generation” if you can read this. You can become as financially independent as you wish to be. The following are the top ten keys to financial success:
1. Decide to be financially successful: This is different than wishing, hoping, wanting, or even desiring to be rich. Commit that this is going to happen! Financial independence is not an accident or a matter of luck, and it usually requires some inconvenience. Have you decided to achieve this goal?
2. Understand how money works: Most people never studied finance or investing in school. Most of them were never even taught to balance a checkbook! To master anything, you have to understand it. Read. Study what successful people do. Take classes.
3. Master your relationship with money: Some people spend for excitement, to show they can. Some people are hooked on spending, and a number of us are simply careless about it. Whatever your relationship with money is, accept it and expand a relationship of respect, appreciation, and gratitude. Use your money instead of allowing it to run your life.
4. Set specific goals: They should be challenging but not unbelievable, just out of reach but not out of sight. Challenge yourself to be out of debt by a specific date. Make a commitment to saving an exact amount each month.
5. Develop a budget: A budget is a set of dreams and aspirations. It’s how you really, really want to use money to benefit your family and run your life. Budget to buy the things you really want and to eliminate the “impulses”, the toys that waste too much of our income. A budget is a map to your destination. Have one and use it!
6. Reduce spending by: Yes, this comes after creating a budget, because once you start controlling your money (rather than the other way around), you have powerful new reasons to cut back.
7. Begin investing: Most of us either spend or speculate. Both are roads to disaster! Invest in what you know. Invest cautiously, wisely, and regularly. The objective is not to “make a killing”, but to get rich over time. Know and obey the distinction between gambling and putting your money to work for you.
8. Increase assets:— Most people try to increase their income, which is a mistake. Making extra money means paying extra taxes. It takes time and tough work. And, while wealth arrives in the form of cash, it’s easier to spend.
9. Reduce taxes: Most Americans pay more in taxes than they do for food, clothing, and shelter combined! It is your biggest expense! Because it is deducted from their pay, the negative and center elegance have no idea how much they pay.The rich recognize there are criminal and suitable approaches to safe haven income, to spend money on socially accountable approaches, and that the tax code encourages this. Learn the tax laws and how to apply them to your advantage! (Yes, it’s the most uninteresting studying you’ll ever do, and really well worth it!)
10. Use your wealth wisely:— “The reason most people aren’t wealthy is that we’d spend it all on ourselves,” someone once said. Give. Share. Help others. When you use money to make a difference, you have the opportunity to go above and beyond.
Being greedy and selfish will not draw money to you. Investing in your community, you will! To begin your education about money and becoming a millionaire, I highly recommend several books on the subject.
Two of the best are “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko and “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter.
Courtesy:– Success Consciousness