Three important rules about money.

This is the area that most people concentrate on. Making money does not have to be complicated or even that difficult and as a result many people are quite good at it.  It can be as simple as trading your time for money; in other words, you get paid by the hour or a fixed salary to show up to work.  The more you are there, the more you get paid.  The main issue with this way to get paid is of course there are only so many hours in the day, so your income is capped at a maximum.

Another way to earn is to be paid on results.  This means you are given a goal or an objective and if you reach it, you are paid a bonus.  Or, you get paid based on the amount of production you do, whether it is selling more or making more.  Being paid for results tends to be where people make the most money as your productivity is often only capped by the amount of work you do and your ingenuity in how you do it.  It doesn’t have to be a complicated skill, however often people overthink it and therefore don’t make as much as they could.

2. Keeping your money.

This is the skill that many less people are good at. How many people have you met that make very large amounts of money and yet never seem to have any? As the average person makes more, they tend to spend more. I call this “spend creep”. As you make more your spending “creeps” upward. Keeping your money is a skill that is almost as important as making money.  Living below your means and withdrawing money from your paycheck before you get it and having it put into different investment accounts are remarkably simple and yet effective ways to keep your money.   

3. Growing your money.

This is the skill that more people require help with than any other skill. People who are good at making money are sometimes good at keeping money but are rarely good at also growing their money.  It is a subtle but powerful difference.  You can easily keep your money in accounts that pay little or no interest or you can invest it in vehicles that will grow it.

This is a skill that is not often taught at school, but it is occasionally passed on from parents to children or self taught. Things like where to put your money to grow it for the short term and the long term, the different kinds of investments and whether it is passive or active are important things to know. You will also want to decide if you are going to manage your money yourself, have someone else help you or a combination of both.

Learning how to make, keep and grow your money are easily learned skills that can change your life profoundly.  A little bit of education will go a long way towards securing your financial future.