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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

Failure to plan is expensive.  Choosing to anticipate is the way to head off the big financial blows, because you are buying a commodity more precious than money: time.
— Mary Hunt, Live Your Life for Half the Price

In time that $22,000 [inheritance] will inevitably go down to $20,000, then $15,000, and before you know it, it will be gone. Most likely the balance on Karen’s secret credit card will be higher as well. What happened to Karen happens to most of us. We’re afraid to really look at our finances head-on, to [...]

If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough. In an environment of more is better, “enough” is like the horizon − always receding. You lose the ability to identify that point of sufficiency at which you can choose to stop.
— Joe Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life

Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.
— Benjamin Franklin

I was just like most people who finally had money.  Rather than act responsibly with my newfound cash flow, I felt I was entitled to make up for lost time by eating out every night, hitting the clubs, taking nice vacations, and filling my life with whatever gadgets I wanted.  I thought picking up the [...]

Affirmations are fine, but affirmations alone don’t change your life.  You can say, “I am rich, I am rich, I am rich” until your face turns the color of money, but until you stop doing stupid stuff with your money and start doing smart stuff with your money, you will still be broke.  Affirmation without [...]

I hear this all the time:  “But it [smart personal finance] is so hard.”  Well, it’s easier than you think, and it’s certainly easier than becoming a financial statistic.  Being a financial failure is what’s really hard.
— Tod Barnhart, The Five Rituals of Wealth

When advised to budget, most people respond: “But I just don’t have enough money.”  In fact, most of these individuals have a lot more money than they think; they just lack control of it.  Making more money is not the answer.  The sad truth is that if you’re out of control, no matter how much [...]

Some people never realize that they can redirect their present incomes and become wealthy.  They buy into the popular culture and ignore the wisdom of the ages.  You are responsible for your choices.  Recast your habits and you will change your life permanently.  You may change temporarily by sheer force of will, but it will [...]