Brian Tracy

The Law of Saving

The Law of Saving

By: Brian Tracy

Financial freedom comes to the person who saves ten percent or more of his income throughout his lifetime.

One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck. Individuals, families and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high savings rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.

The Law of Investing

This article was written by Brain Tracy to promote his 21 Success Secrets Of Self Made Millionaires CD.

The Law of Investing

By: Brian Tracy

The Law of Investing - investigate before you invest. This is one of the most important of all the laws of money. You should spend at least as much time studying a particular investment as you do earning the money to put into that particular investment.

Check Every Detail

Never let yourself be rushed into parting with money. You have worked too hard to earn it and taken too long to accumulate it. Investigate every aspect of the investment well before you make any commitment. Ask for full and complete disclosure of every detail. Demand honest, accurate and adequate information on any investment of any kind. If you have any doubt or misgivings at all, you will probably be better off keeping your money in the bank or in a money market investment account than you would be speculating or taking the risk of losing it.

Money is Easy to Lose

The Law of Accumulation

The Law of Accumulation
By: Brian Tracy

The Law of Accumulation: how your financial fortune accumulates slowly over time and then becomes enormous, like a snowball. The Law of Accumulation: Every great financial achievement is an accumulation of hundreds of small efforts and sacrifices that no one ever sees or appreciates.

Develop Discipline

The achievement of financial independence will require a tremendous number of small efforts on your part. To begin the process of accumulation, you must be disciplined and persistent. You must keep at it for a long, long time. Initially, you will see very little change or difference but gradually, your efforts will begin to bear fruit. You will begin to pull ahead of your peers. Your finances will improve and your debts will disappear. Your bank account will grow and your whole life will improve.

Build Up Momentum

The first corollary of the Law of Accumulation says: "As your savings accumulate, you develop a momentum that moves you more rapidly toward your financial goals."

It is hard to get started on a program of financial accumulation, but once you do get started, you find it easier and easier to keep at it. The "momentum principle" is one of the great success secrets. This principle says that it takes tremendous energy to overcome the initial inertia and resistance to financial accumulation and get started, but once started, it takes much less energy to keep moving.

Start Slow, Finish Fast

The second corollary of the Law of Accumulation says, "By the yard it's hard, but inch by inch, anything's a cinch."

When you begin thinking about saving 10 or 20 percent of your earnings, you will immediately think of all kinds of reasons that it is not possible. You might be up to your neck in debt. You might be spending every single penny that you earn today just to keep afloat.

If you do find yourself in this situation, instead of saving 10 percent, begin saving just 1 percent of your earnings in a special account, which you refuse to touch.

Increase As You Go Along

This small amount will begin to add up at a rate that will surprise you. As you become comfortable with saving 1 percent, increase your savings rate to 2 percent, then 3 percent, then 4 percent and 5 percent and so on. Within a year, you will find yourself getting out of debt and saving 10 percent, 15 percent and even 20 percent of your earnings without it really affecting your lifestyle.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, decide upon your long-term financial goals and then resolve to work toward them one step at a time. The first steps are the hardest and you must discipline yourself to avoid backsliding into old habits.

Second, practice the law of accumulation in other parts of your life as well. Resolve to master a subject one page at a time. Lose extra pounds one ounce at a time. Learn a language one lesson at a time. The cumulative effect can be enormous.

Brian Tracy Resources

Get Out Of Debt

The Way To Wealth   

These Brian Tracy programs (and many more) are available from BrianTracy.com.
(affiliate link)

Pay Yourself First

To promote the 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws Of Money, Brain Tracy wrote the following article.

Pay Yourself First

By Brian Tracy

Resolve today that you are going to save an invest at least 10 percent of your income throughout your working life. Take 10 percent of your income off the top of your paycheck each time you receive one and put it into a special account for financial accumulation.

Save Throughout Your Career

The fact is that if you save just $100 a month throughout your working lifetime and you invest money in an average mutual fund that grows at 10 percent per annum, you will be worth more than one million dollars by the time you retire. This means that anyone, even a person earning minimum wage, if he or she starts early enough and saves long enough, can become a millionaire over the course of his or her working lifetime.

Lifelong Habits

Parkinson's Law & Wealth Creation

In today's article from Brian Tracy, he looks at how Parkinson's Law undermines wealth creation and keeps so many people poor.

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Parkinson's Law
By: Brian Tracy

Why People Succeed or Fail

Parkinson's Law is one of the best known and the most important laws of money and wealth accumulation.

It was developed by English writer C. Northcote Parkinson many years ago and it explains why most people retire poor.

The Way the Law Works

This law says that, no matter how much money people earn, they tend to spend the entire amount and a little bit more besides.

Their expenses rise in lockstep with their earnings.

Many people are earning today several times what they were earning at their first jobs. But somehow, they seem to need every single penny to maintain their current lifestyles. No matter how much they make, there never seems to be enough.

The Key to Financial Success

The first corollary of Parkinson's Law says: "Financial independence comes from violating Parkinson's Law."

Parkinson's Law explains the trap that most people fall into.

This is the reason for debt, money worries and financial frustration.

It is only when you develop sufficient willpower to resist the powerful urge to spend everything you make that you begin to accumulate money and move ahead of the crowd.

Slow Down Your Spending

The second corollary of Parkinson's Law is: "If you allow your expenses to increase at a slower rate than your earnings, and you save or invest the difference, you will become financially independent in your working lifetime."

This is the key.

I call it the "wedge." If you can drive a wedge between your increasing earnings and the increasing costs of your lifestyle, and then save and invest the difference, you can continue to improve your lifestyle as you make more money.

By consciously violating Parkinson's Law, you will eventually become financially independent.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, imagine that your financial life is like a failing company that you have taken over. Institute an immediate financial freeze. Halt all non-essential expenses. Draw up a budget of your fixed, unavoidable costs per month and resolve to limit your expenditures temporarily to these amounts.

Carefully examine every expense. Question it as though you were analyzing someone else's expenses. Look for ways to economize or cut back. Aim for a minimum of a 10 percent reduction in your living costs over the next three months.

Second, resolve to save and invest 50 percent of any increase you receive in your earnings from any source. Learn to live on the rest. This still leaves you the other 50 percent to do with as you desire. Do this for the rest of your career.

Brian Tracy Resources

Get Out Of Debt

The Life Planning Process (affiliate link)

These are available from BrianTracy.com  (affiliate link)

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My Thoughts

I was lucky.

I was brought up as a saver.

I had to save my pocket money as a young lad to get what I wanted and it was only as a university student that my spending went out of control and created debts.

I wanted a good time. I wanted to join in. I wanted to be popular.

So I spent money that I didn't have.

But then I had to get a part time job because there was more term than overdraft for the bank.

So I worked and was paid and two good things happened.

I discovered that I didn't spend when I worked and the money I got paid went to help pay off my debts.

But it was slow, very slow.

And I started to think about spending money in terms of hours that I had to work.

The night out with friends was now seven hours of work.

While I liked spending, I wasn't so keen on the type of part time work available to students in a big city.

It helped me to reverse Parkinson's Law.

From time to time my business goes slow and I naturally turn my expenses down. I don't like it but I do it.    

Don't Lose Money, Save It

There are two sides to making money and getting rich - what you earn and what you spend.

In this article from Brian Tracy to promote the 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws Of Money, he explains the the importance of the savings discipline and even explains how the law of attraction applies.

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Don't Lose Money!
By: Brian Tracy

Throughout the history of American enterprise, you've heard the words, "work hard and save your money."

Work hard and save your money. It is the oldest rule for success in America.

It's so important, as a matter of fact, that W. Clement Stone once said, "if you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you."

Saving Is a Discipline