I love hearing stories about people growing their wealth. I cheer on every one of them, and add ideas to my toolbox I use when helping clients. Knowing my love for these stories a colleague recommended a book that he said I had to read. This book shares timeless wisdom about growing your wealth through a story telling format. One quote in particular made me sit straight up in my chair:
“A part of all you earn is yours to keep.” – The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason
After reading that line, I sat with it for a moment and reread it. It is such a simple concept but there is also something so empowering about this message. While reading it I envisioned the clients I work with who have invested years in their education and work so very hard in their careers, and it made me think of how important this concept is for them. This message is very easy to forget when the bills come in and our paycheques can leave as quickly as they arrived to pay the mortgage, insurance, property tax, electricity, phone bill, subscriptions, a vast array of expenses for our children ….and the list goes on. If what we earn is entirely distributed to paying bills and affording our Starbucks addiction, then this sends a powerful message about your money. The message that your money doesn’t belong to you, it isn’t yours, and it must all be given away.
If you keep some of your own money each pay period, you can change this messaging about money in your life. By keeping a portion of what you earn you are living the powerful message of the quote. If each month or each pay period you can designate a portion of your earnings to YOU, then you will be the true recipient of that hard-earned paycheque. Perhaps you can even gain a greater meaning toward working when you can truly see the results of your hard-earned efforts start to accumulate.
Keeping a portion of what you earn is vital because it is the only way to build your wealth. The math is simple. If money coming in is equal to or less than money going out, you can’t grow your wealth because there’s nothing left. But if you direct a portion of what you earn to any type of savings vehicle (a simple savings account, tax free savings account, investment account, registered retirement saving plan, etc.) you put yourself on a path toward building your wealth.
I recommend that anyone earning an income implement a disciplined savings strategy that is realistic for you. Whether it’s once per month or every two weeks, keep it simple and set aside a portion of what you earn as ‘yours to keep’. As the savings grow from this disciplined consistent behavior you may find yourself even more motivated and encouraged to increase what you keep by means of earning more or cutting unnecessary expenditures.
As a financial advisor, when I meet with people, we work together to setup a disciplined savings strategy that coincides with pay periods. This has given me the opportunity to see first-hand the effects of saving a portion of every paycheque. I have witnessed couples who never earned six figure salaries amass over a million dollars through their diligent savings strategy. I have seen people reach their retirement and financial freedom goals years before they had originally intended. These people acknowledged that a part of what they earned was theirs to keep and their stories serve as powerful reminders that in order to grow our wealth we must keep a portion of our earnings.
I challenge you to make the necessary adjustments in your own financial life to live by this powerful quote. No more giving all your money away, keep some for you, because as the book also goes on to say ‘soon you will realize what a rich feeling it is to own a treasure upon which you alone have claim’.
