Today we are on something really really important. Knowing this is one thing, doing it is another.

Pay yourself first! Acquiring this habit is one of the smartest things you can ever do. If you are a middle-aged parent, imagine how much you would have accumulated had you saved 10% of everything you had earned and on top of that, grew it.

Most wealth trainers teach this! However, the #1 mistake parents teach their kids is the left-over strategy: Savings= Income-Expenses. So many parents give their children allowance and allow them to spend first then save whatever is left! Many parents do try to teach children to spend wisely, but forget to teach them a far more important lesson: Paying oneself first. By allowing our children to save what is left is a GRAVE mistake they will continue to be practised into adulthood! I know that, because I had been doing just that!

People who have a relatively more humble lifestyle and are more down to earth will get to save what is left. For many who are always chasing a better lifestyle and are "trapped" in the keeping up with the Joneses', expenses and liabilities will grow as income increases. Following this formula will be disastrous and leave most with nothing much except for debts and liabilities!

We cannot afford to let our kids follow the same formula. We have to pay ourselves first. Only by paying ourselves first can we truly take control of our money. No matter how small our income may be, it is only right that we inculcate the good habit of paying ourselves FIRST! "Habit is everything, it means even more than the amount", as T. Harv Eker always says.

Jean Boey