I’ve been offering financial advice professionally for nearly 40 years. I’m also a millionaire several times over.
During my decades in the trenches, I’ve heard every conceivable piece of financial advice, acted on many and offered some of my own. Here are the best of the best, a few simple sentences you can follow that will absolutely, positively make you richer.
- Never spend more than you make, ever.
When I was 10, I started cutting grass to earn money beyond my meager allowance. Minutes after earning my first buck, mom was stuffing me in the car for a trip to the bank to open my first passbook savings account.
Fifty years later, priority one is still to put something aside from every paycheck and send out less than I bring in. Of course, life being what it is, it hasn’t always worked out that way. But in general, getting richer every month is as simple as spending less than you make and getting poorer is as simple as spending more than you make.
- Avoid debt like the plague.
Most people treat debt as if it’s a normal part of life. They divide it into categories like “good debt” and “bad debt.” They discuss it endlessly, as if it’s some mathematical mystery.
Debt’s not complicated. Paying money to temporarily use other people’s makes you poorer. Charging money to temporarily let other people use yours makes you richer.
Since paying interest makes you poorer, you only do it two situations: first, when you have to in order to survive; second, when you’ll earn more on what you’re financing than what you’ll pay to finance it.
Unless borrowing is ultimately going to make you richer, don’t do it.
Stacy Johnson | Yahoo News