1. Save consistently by living on less than you earn.
2. Study the investment methods and strategies of successful people, and seek advice only from those who are competent — through their own achievements — to give it. Learn from people who have earned the right to teach.
3. Learn to apply the principles of compounding, discounting and leveraging.
4. Never bet on a loser because you think its luck is about to change.
5. Don’t invest in anything that eats or can be driven, sailed or flown away.
6. Don’t invest in anything you can’t explain to your spouse.
(Stolen by permission of my friend John Schaub, whose advice has made me a lot of money; and, more importantly, kept me from losing a lot of money. His website is www.johnschaub.com)
7. Reinvest all proceeds until you achieve financial independence.
8. Never get involved in anything that promises easy or quick riches. Trying to get rich quick is just a form of gambling. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5).
If you try to get rich quick you’ll get poor even quicker.
9. Be constantly on guard against every form of greed.
No matter how much you have, wealth never brings lasting happiness. The more you have, the more you want.
“Take heed, and beware of covetousness: a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
The ground of a certain rich man was very productive. And he said to himself, ‘What shall I do, because I have no room to store my crops? I know: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to myself, ‘I have so much laid up for many years; take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry.’
But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be which you have stored up?’ So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” — Luke 12:15-21
10. Get Started! A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Unless you were born wealthy, you will have to sacrifice financially during part of your life. It is much better if that happens by choice when you are young than by force when you are too old to recover. The decision is yours.
Based upon material originally written by Dave Smith and used with his permission. PUBLISHED IN THE MAY, 2015 ISSUE OF THE PAPER SOURCE JOURNAL. FOR INFORMATION AND A FREE RECENT ISSUE: www.PaperSourceOnline.com
