Passion Party #235 - Money, Part 12: Pay Yourself First

You have to start somewhere
so you might as well start small
and start with yourself.

The first thing I learned about building wealth
was that you had to start saving.
So I set up an automatic withdrawal of $50 a month
into a mutual fund.

The second thing I learned
was that to build wealth
I had to feel like the money I earned was not just disappearing to pay bills,
but actually was improving my life.
I had to pay myself first.
Before paying bills I needed to put a certain percentage (10 - 20 - 30%?) of the income into a savings account at the bank
as a cash cushion
an "emergency fund"
for taxes, surprise expenses, or whatever comes along.
The more that account grew
the less anxiety I felt
the more successful I became.

And it all began
when I started
to pay myself first.