Why you must earn before you spend

Earn it before you spend it. ~Author Unknown

If you want to build wealth then developing good money habits is essential dear reader. And if you’re a parent then it’s a good idea to encourage your children to develop good money habits too.

In fact, if you can only give your children one piece of financial advice then the best piece of advice is included in the quote above. Earn before you spend.

Far too many people today do the exact opposite.

People spend money they don’t have to impress people they probably don’t even like. The result is a burden of debt from which it is very hard to escape.

Occasionally we all want to buy those big ticket items. A nice television; nice furniture; a nice personal computer, tablet or smartphone; et cetera. Naturally, these are things we all want. The question is, does it make sense to incur debt in order to own these things?

My advice is to save the money first and then buy that thing you really want.

Financing arrangements are there to make other people rich. And by using finance that almost always means you’ll pay a lot more for items acquired using credit.

The ‘buy now, pay later’ deal usually comes with a high interest rate added. So inevitably if you go down this road then you’ll end up paying a lot more than you would otherwise.

Yes, you’ll get the item quicker, that’s true. However you’ll enrich someone else at your own expense. In what way does that make sense?

Now be honest with yourself; there really are very few things in life we couldn’t live without if we had to, surely?

Look after your own interests rather than lining the pockets of other people whilst impoverishing yourself and your family in the process. That is today’s message.