Most of us believe, or deceive ourselves into believing, that we need about $1,000 to $1,500 a month less than we actually do need to go on living the exact same way we live right now. Surprisingly, this figure seems to vary only a little bit regardless of income levels. If a client writes down that she needs, after taxes, $3,000 a month to live, invariably the truer figure is $4,000. If the client thinks he spends $10,000 a month, the actual figure is closer to $11,500. Where does this month-to-month self-deception lead us? Into financial chaos.

— Suze Orman, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

The power of positive thinking is not a new idea, but when it comes to money it is, because we’re still so afraid.  We’re a culture of slogans — in ads, on bumper stickers, on T-shirts, needle-pointed onto pillows.  Call it what you like — a financial mantra, a new truth, a new belief in yourself — but you must create a positive, empowering message for yourself and instill it into your powerful mind to replace the fear you’re leaving behind, beginning now.

— Suze Orman, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

Until the pain became unbearable, I was not willing to change.  Pain brings change.  Crisis precedes progress.  And change exposes our weaknesses.  No wonder so many of us avoid change at any cost.

— Mary Hunt, The Best of the Cheapskate Monthly

You either get it, or you don’t. In almost every situation, there are people who get it, and there are people who don’t — and it’s really easy to tell them apart. Those who get it are enjoying the fruits of their knowledge. Those who don’t spend a lot of time looking puzzled, frustrated, and doing without. Those who don’t get it can often be found beating their heads against the wall and complaining that they never seem to get a break.

— Phil McGraw, Life Strategies

Some people prosper when times are challenging, and some people never do, even in good times.  Some people endure serious personal financial storms and come out stronger than ever before; others get swept away.  The difference is this:  Those who do well in both good times and bad times manage their money from a position of power rather than acting out of hope, anger, regret, or fear.

— Suze Orman, The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life

If it is your intention to be the master of your financial destiny, you must begin paying more attention to your money.  Not all financial advertisements or advisors have your best interests at heart, so you must learn the difference between the myths that you are being told and sold, and the reality of how money works.  It is never too soon to begin, it’s true, but it’s also true that it’s never too late to start.

— Suze Orman, The Courage to Be Rich

We build our working lives on this myth of more.  Our expectation is to make more money as the years go on.  We will get more responsibility and more perks as we move up in our field.  Eventually, we hope, we will have more possessions, more prestige and more respect from our community.  We become habituated to expecting ever more of ourselves and ever more from the world, but rather than satisfaction, our experience is that the more we have, the more we want — and the less content we are with the status quo.

— Joe Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life

Here’s what I want you to know and understand: reducing our spending was the catalyst that started the dramatic and permanent change in our lives.  And that change was not limited to our finances.  It was all-pervasive.  Learning the power of living below our means gave us the life we love.  It affected our relationship, our spiritual lives, our home life, our children’s life, and now — your life.

— Mary Hunt, Live Your Life for Half the Price

One of the biggest challenges in anyone’s life is knowing how to interpret “failures.”  How we deal with life’s “defeats” and what we determine is the cause will shape our destinies.  We need to remember that how we deal with adversity and challenges will shape our lives more than almost anything else.

— Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within

Money itself is also neutral — neither good nor bad. You can raise a cathedral with money; you can build a death camp with money. What you do with it is up to you. You can become obsessed with acquiring money; you can become equally obsessed with avoiding it.

— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously

Financial freedom requires not just insights but also actions, and to carry out these actions you must learn about money and how it needs to be treated.  True financial freedom is not only having money, but having power over that money as well.

— Suze Orman, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

This is perhaps the main lesson of this whole experience. It is basic but still unlearned: human beings must have savings. This is not just a good idea. It’s the difference between life and death, terror and calm. So start saving right now, and don’t stop until you die.

— Ben Stein, “You Don’t Always Know When the Sky Will Fall,” NY Times, 2008-10-26

Where’s the peer pressure to live small today so that we might live comfortably tomorrow?  Where’s the celebrity spokesperson to tell us how way cool it is to eschew the little luxuries of the moment in order to afford a long-term-care policy?  Where’s the slick marketing campaign that can convince us to forgo a year’s worth of hair, makeup, and Botox injections to the forehead in order to pay an accountant to tell us we spend too much money and we’d be advised to downsize?  And besides, none of our friends or neighbors are doing these things.  Without a comparative yardstick, or the peer pressure to keep up with the Joneses’ retirement planning, we are not motivated to save.  So we keep up with the Joneses in the usual way:  consumption.  An iPod for an iPod.

— Lee Eisenberg, The Number

Perhaps we cling to our affluence — even though it isn’t working for us or the planet — because of the very nature of our relationship with money.  As we shall see, money has become the movie screen on which our lives play out.  We project onto money the capacity to fulfill our fantasies, allay our fears, soothe our pain, and send us soaring to the heights.  In fact, we moderns meet most of our needs, wants, and desires through money.  We buy everything from hope to happiness.  We no longer live life.  We consume it.

— Joe Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life

Here is a simple but profound truth: YOU CAN NOT GET OUT OF DEBT BY BORROWING MORE MONEY. 

No more than an alcoholic can become sober by having another drink.

— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously