Bryan C. Fleming

No matter how much you love your work, you need to take some time to recharge yourself. You simply can’t work all the time. You become too inefficient. You need to remove yourself from the day-to-day grind too see things from a new perspective. By taking time away from your work, you’ll actually work smarter and get more done.

Consider the word Recreation and break it down:

Re – Creation – Recreation will really allow you to re-create.

So, give yourself some well-deserved recreation this weekend and enjoy the 4th of July Holiday.

Discipline is hard to come by today. Particularly when it comes to finances. We all want everything right now. We buy it on easy to get credit. We tell ourselves we’ll pay for it down the road when we get some extra money. Of course, those days never come.

But when it is OK to go get that new Big Screen TV or that swimming pool for the family?

Your first rule should be to always pay cash for these extras. Never put them on credit. That’s just immature and shows a lack of self-discipline. Plus, when the newness wears off, you just have another bill to pay.

So first pay cash, and second, set a goal to get it.

You know, why not use that burning desire to pull you forward. Set a goal! Let’s look at a big screen TV. Here’s how you could set a goal to get it:

“I will get the Sony 62-inch TV once I get my first landscaping customer”

Or

“I will get a new Computer after I have invested $1,000 into the stock market”

Or even…

“I will get a new Mercedes Benz E320 when I buy and sell my first investment property”

Do you see the power in these? The desire will give you the reason to do something you don’t want to do. Now, it goes without saying that your goal should be in line with your accomplishment. Start small and go from there.

I had a cell phone that I absolutely hated. I really wanted a new camera phone. I thought they were so cool. But I wouldn’t let myself get it until I sold my first copy of a shareware program I wrote. It forced me to pull some long nights to get that program out the door. It forced me to improve it. Then the first sale came in and I ran down to the Sprint store and buy my $50 phone. Of course, the software program paid for that cell phone many times over. It still makes money to this day.

Remember, being financially disciplined doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun. In the end you’ll have more fun. You’ll force yourself to make more money and you’ll be further ahead. Once you make the switch you’ll never look back!

A friend of mine is a young ambitious guy. He’s just getting started out with his first corporate job and he’s pretty fired up about it. I asked him today if he’s putting money into his company’s 401K plan. He said he thought about it, but didn’t because he wanted to buy a condo. We did some math and he could hardly believe that $100 a week could earn him $211,000 a month by the time he was 73 years old.

Let’s consider his $20 million dollar fortune. Did he have to out and invent the next Google? Did he have to struggle to become the CEO? Nope.

The only thing it required him to do was show up Monday morning and work his job. In fact, he doesn’t even have to try for a raise. He can blow his paycheck on anything he wants. He will still end up wildly rich.

If you can put money into a 401K at your job and don’t, you’re screwing up. It’s because you think you don’t have enough money. Might I suggest that you don’t have a money-making problem, you have a money-spending problem. Making money is easy. Not spending it is very hard. Especially in this day and age.

401K plans are great because they protect you from yourself. Your company’s payroll department takes the money before you go and spend it! It’s brilliant.

You must have the discipline to save 10% of everything you make if you want to get rich. That’s the magic pill you’re looking for. It’s a principle. When you finally decide to start saving, there will be two hard moments. Both are brief, but you’ll have to overcome them. First, is probably right now as you’re sitting here trying to justify all the reasons you can’t save 10 cents of every dollar. The next one will be your first pay-check after you decide to do it. Notice I said first check. After the second check you’ll never miss the money. The pain is over and you’re on track to being a millionaire.