Get Ready for 2015!

Live Life

Abundance is Everywhere!

Quotes!

Life can be Awesome, GO FOR IT!

Indeed, Life can be awesome if we could understand the value of it. Life isn't all about suffering or feeling sorry or feeling depressed or being in a state of sadness ever. It is a moment of life, or should I say that life is a moment, a moment to live, to experience to be in harmony with, but what do we do?

We are mostly in the crib mode, sad mode, questioning mode, asking mode, at times even blaming mode, but not appreciating mode or loving mode. Understand that life is all about being the best every moment & we can only feel or be good if we are in the appreciation mode. Appreciation creates that moment of happiness or goodness & that in turn creates all the good around you.

Take a look at anyone around you that is happy & you will see him enjoying & appreciating the moment, because the more you continue to focus on the wrongs, the wrongs they will be, focus on the positive & they will become that, but even more than being appreciative, you need to be in the moment & that is what we all mostly forget.

Being in the moment is the most important thing of all, because the moment you start being in the moment, all that you want will start moving towards you & you will feel that everything you want is with you already. Being in the moment means living this moment to the fullest possible, because even you know it that this moment, this date, this time will never come back, so go LIVE IT & GUESS WHAT

LIFE CAN BE AWESOME, GO FOR IT!

No one to blame but yourselves

Let me put it plain & simple. We all know that we are the master of our lives, no matter how much we continue to tell that someone or something else holds the key to our success, we know they don't. It's us & only us that have the power & energy & the power lies in our hands. Still we continue to complain & curse others for our own failure. Get Up & gear up before it's too late, because you wouldn't want to be on death bed to realize that there is something that you wanted to do. Something that resonated with your heart, something that you thought about.

Don't wait for that to happen as the time will never be right. The time will be either partially towards it or absolutely against you. So go ahead, live your life, because remember, in the end of it all, you would have No one to blame but yourselves.

Merry Christmas!

Time Quote!

Life is yours make it Awesome!

Hell, if you have been thinking that your life can be made beautiful by someone else in the universe, then, you are highly mistaken. You & only you hold the power to change your life & it's circumstances. Life is without boundaries, but we have been told in life, that everything has boundaries & we need to live within it, but like, Really?

Life is abundant & abundant with you being the sailor, the master to it. Instead, all you have been thinking that your father, mother etc. hold the power to abundance, which isn't the case. You need to get rid of these thoughts of lack & out of power for life. The moment you take charge of your life, you will be astonished to see what the life puts you through, as that will be hell bigger & better than what you could have ever thought of.

Get rid of the laid back & thoughts that keep you back & take charge of Life to make it Awesome!

Your Life in Your Hands!

Be Kind!

Kindness doesn't cost anything, but still people find it difficult to be kind to others. It is a virtue to all abundance & happiness in the world. If you are kind, you are being grateful & you are being happy & we all know that happiness is that we all desperately seek, no matter in whatever phase of life, we are all accustomed to it, but still we forget the biggest virtue that can take us there & that is by BEING KIND.

Life has issues (problems as we call them), but they are there to make us stronger & be better, but instead of being able to take this issue as something that would improve us, we all tend to be frightened or anxious because of that, whereas we should continue to be kind in our life to stay happy.

Gratitude!!!

You know what, you can carry an attitude all you want, but that wouldn't take you far or make you big, because attitudes can only make you fall, whereas Gratitude will take you to heights that are way beyond your reach right now or what you never thought could be achieved.

Gratitude fills your heart with happiness & abundance. It fills your heart with love, appreciation and a goodness. It makes you look for the good in others.

So going forward, fill your heart with Gratitude & see the difference.

Follow your dream!

Find Goodness in everything!

Indeed, this world is full of goodness. Goodness of Happiness, Goodness of Health & Wealth. Good of Humanity, Goodness of Relationships & everything else. We intent to find goodness in everything but fail drastically as nothing could help us attain that sense of feeling goodness unless we start looking at things that way. Goodness isn't something that doesn't happen. Goodness is something that we have & should try to attain.

So go ahead & start searching for goodness to live a wonderful life.

Stay Grateful, Be Happy!

Are you willing to live a happy life? Well, the reality is that everyone wants to live a happy life, but no body wants to be grateful. Why do we refrain from being grateful despite knowing the fact that to attract abundance, you need to be grateful.

Let's try to understand the power of gratitude:

Gratitude is a virtue of feeling good. If we ever plan to bifurcate the word Gratitude, it comes to be Gr-attitude, meaning Great Attitude & why is it so? The simplest & obvious reason is that Great Attitude is all about feeling good, feeling happy & feeling that you have received all that you want. We all know that everyone loves a smiling & a happy face & we see it around us, in the Universe.

Universe always continues to provide us with all that it has, all the good things, like the Sun giving us Light & Heat, the rivers giving us water, the trees giving us flowers or fruits & despite giving us so many treasures daily, they never seem to show attitude & see what happens to them, they keep growing & blossoming.

The world is all about being happy & sharing happiness. Happiness comes from Gratitude, because a sorb thought or attitude can never bring in a smile, let alone happiness.

The other big factor is that when you are being grateful, don't try to speak it out to others in a boasting manner that I grateful today or tomorrow for this or that. Feel it to yourself & yes, if you ever help anyone, do it with gratitude, never talk or boast about it & you will have more abundance to follow.

So, Start BEING GRATEFUL NOW!

Asaan Hai

Indeed, it is true, Asaan hai. Asaan Hai is a term that was introduced to me by my friend who was a fan of Sandeep Maheshwari. Sandeep Maheshwari, a revolutionary thinker & founder of ImagesBazaar has really transformed my life with the usage of the word, 'Asaan Hai'. I still recall watching his 'Last Life Changing Seminar' on CD that he had shared with me & what that did to me & my life has no words or rather I should say that words fall short to express my immense gratitude towards this man that has immense knowledge & has no weird ways to describe that. Ever since I watched his video & have been using the amazing word or should I say catchphrase for all the things that were either 'very difficult' for me or out of hand, can be seen walking towards me at escape velocity.

Thank You Sandeep Sir for the impact you had on my life.

Ready to Blog!

Hell Yeah, there were so many days that I tried to find out time to do my own blogging, but with time not by my side, it was seemingly difficult & I felt at times that I need to fix this up. Despite time not by my side, I tried to cope with it by re-publishing content from other sites to keep it going.

Now, trying to settle the score with time, I am ready to start my own blogging. If you like that, GIMME A HELL OF YEAH!

The 5 Steps To Manifesting Financial Abundance

Re-published from http://www.shiftfrequency.com/enlightened-beings-the-5-steps-to-manifesting-financial-abundance-2/

The Universe wants you to be financially abundant and is always supporting you in making this a reality. So it really doesn’t matter what the economy is doing, or how long you’ve been struggling financially, it’s more about the vibration you’re sending out into the world today! Financial abundance is your birthright! It’s time for you to claim your abundant nature and start manifesting the financial abundance you truly deserve. Here are 5 easy steps that will support you in manifesting much abundance into your life:

1. Fully Acknowledge, Accept, and Embrace Your Abundant Nature.

The secret to feeling your abundant nature is to open your heart, and fully embrace the abundance that has already blessed your life. Let your armor melt away. Remove any shielding around your heart and imagine throwing it into a big fire. Breathe deeply and physically open your arms wide, inviting this abundant Universe into your heart. With each in-breath, imagine that EVERYTHING in the entire Universe is pouring into your heart; all the stars, planets, Earth, and all its people. Feel how truly abundant life already is. Let your heart welcome it all!

“It is not only my right and my privilege to walk in the abundance God has for me, it is my responsibility…just as it is my responsibility to live the rest of my truth.” ~ Jan Denise

2. Welcome with Gratitude the Abundance that is all Around You.

There is an abundance of people on the planet to create things for you, grow food for you, and supply water to drink. Let in the abundance of joy, pleasure, opportunities, and laughter into your heart. Feel this abundance of support at your very core. You have already been and will always be blessed by the abundance of the Universe. You may have partially closed the door to feeling this abundance due to past conditioning or scarcity thinking. Consciously open the door now, and proclaim the truth to the Universe by stating, “I am a truly abundant being!” Say this message over and over until you feel that it has penetrated deeply into your soul.

“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears.” ~Anthony Robbins

3. Reprogram your Body-mind for Financial Success

The words you say to yourself are the most powerful manifesting vehicles. Each message that you think internally and say externally carries a certain vibrational energy that programs the cells in your body. The words you use actually create chemicals in your brain that bring you experiences of inner peace, love, abundance, or struggle. If you are struggling in your life and you’d like to program your body-mind for financial success, start by using affirmations daily. State what you want as if it’s already here now. Say to yourself “I easily attract all the abundance, love and joy that I need. I am a powerful being who manifests any amount of money I desire.” Notice how you feel inside just thinking these thoughts. You can use our guided Money Mantra Meditationto lead you through a powerful set of 38 money mantras that are proven to dramatically boost your ability to attract abundance to you. You can check it out at the link at the bottom of this e-mail.

“Start believing in yourself and the world will start believing in you.” ~Vijay Thadani

4. Take Massive Inspired Action

The Law of Attraction applies to your physical actions as well as to your emotional and mental state of being. Every action you take sends out an energetic frequency into the world. The movement of your body shifts the molecules inside you and around you on a physical level. This energetic movement is directly linked to the types of things you manifest or don’t manifest into your life. When you take actions from an inspired expanded heart, you send out positive expansive energy which magnetizes even more of what you desire. Engaging in consistent inspired actions throughout your day will create a momentum of powerful manifesting energy, which will quickly materialize into the financial abundance you desire. So today, take a moment to tune into your heart and find out what it is really excited and inspired to do! Start with that first action step that truly inspire s you (it may be small), and then add on another one. You will soon see an inspired momentum of energy take over you which will catapult you forwarded into the financial abundance you are seeking.

“Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.” ~ Nicolas de Chamfort

5. Let go of Attachment to the Outcome of your Actions

The golden secret to manifesting financial success is gently holding your attention on the FEELING of receiving financial abundance while at the same time not demanding it shows up. You can do this only when you can find inner peace with where you’re at and what you’ve got. The idea of needing financial abundance means that it’s not available here now and implies a big disconnection with this all pervasive Universe. When you take actions from an inspired place AND are detached from any outcome, you allow the Universe to completely and utterly support your manifestation. You stop hoping that your inspired actions create future outcomes and truly enjoy your life here now. This makes you into a Manifesting Magnet! Detachment enables you to be fully open and receptive, which in turn attracts new opportunities and people to you. So just have fun taking inspired actions, and see what amazing surprises the Universe will send your way!

Ways to Manifest Money Today

Re-published from http://www.awarenessmag.com/sepoct08/so08_8_simple_steps.htm

Let me start off by acknowledging that I have been flat broke before. Not just once or twice. I have had those times where I was completely stressed to tears about how I was going to pay for the bills that were past due. I have also had times where I have had more than enough money to pay all my bills early, buy boats, cars and take big vacations.
I had both of the experiences above in a matter of weeks. Let me explain, very simply, what I have done to get back into alignment with creating more than enough money. Are you ready to go beyond your current level of wealth?

1. Draw a line in the sand. Make a choice: From this moment forward you will attract more money and create a structure and habits that support a new and improved level of wealth. You have to mean this. You need to be hungry for change.
2. Believe. You must believe you can do this. Even if you are scared that this time won’t be any different from the other times you have made this choice. You will take some actions now that will not allow you to slip out the backdoor on yourself. Take a little bit of effort now to support yourself in the bigger goal.

3. What is it exactly that you want to be different? If you want more money to come in the door, how much and how often? Do you want an extra $10,000 this year or every month? Do you want your business to gross an extra million or net an extra million? When? This month? This year? By next year’s end? You have to choose, or it becomes one of those “someday” goals (aka as a wish!).
If you choose an amount that feels way out of reach, make it smaller. If the amount you have chosen feels too small and that you will still be wishing you had more money after it comes,  then make it bigger. Most importantly, whatever amount of money you are choosing to have, mean what you say. This is so simple, but this is where most people fall down and the rest of their efforts don’t yield successful results.
And one more thing, it is nobody else’s business what numbers you choose. Some people might judge your numbers as too small or too big based on their own life. As long as you feel solid about your choice and you are not wimping out on yourself, go with it!

4. How will you spend the money? Again, this is your money and you need to be emotionally connected to it. Where is it going to go? If you are going to pay off debt, make a plan for how you will do it, and then decide where the money will go once the debt is paid off. Now you have the beginnings of a plan. That was easy, huh?!

If you are going to save money, how much and to where? You may have to do a little thinking and research to complete this step. If you want to expand your business with some of this extra cash, it may take you some extra planning, but you will be very excited. This excitement will help move you toward success.
5. Clarify and write down how this is going to feel once accomplished. I know to some of you this step will sound like a waste of your time. Do not skip this step. You want to make this goal so real in your mind and heart that you run, not walk, to more wealth. This step is crucial in both strategy and Law of Attraction.

6. Create exact actions and habits that you will implement, starting today, to support this goal of increased wealth. You may only need to take a few actions. This is not rocket science. For some of you, it may be simply be a matter of creating accountability. You already know what to do. For some, it may be about creating an entirely new relationship with money. Some of you may need to quit your job, eliminate or add new team members.

Yes, you may dread a couple of things on your list, but will you be happy once you do it? If the answer is yes, keep it on your list. Break down big actions into small steps so they are digestible. Consistency is key.

7. Inspired action. You may have heard this a million times but are you really practicing it? Are you taking actions that feel good? Are they someone else’s “shoulds” or truly something you have chosen to do? Your intuition is talking to you. Are you listening?

8. Who is going to support you? Are you committed enough to see this goal through? Will you continue to trust that you will succeed, even when you don’t think there are any signs of improvement over a long period of time? Who is going to assist you in a way that truly works for you? Bring in the big guns.
If you really want to have more cash in your bank account and wallet, then print this out and follow the steps in the next 24 hours. This entire process may take as little as an hour or two.
I recently read about Steven Callahan who was lost at sea in a small raft for seventy-six days. His boat had sunk west of the Canary Islands. He was able to write his book, Adrift, only because he was committed to getting back home and living. It wasn’t a matter of “if” he got home, he always thought about what he was going to do “when” he got home. Every action he took to keep himself alive was inspired from the passion he felt about getting home. He always found a way to eat, drink and keep his body working from his belief that he could survive at sea alone. And that he did!
How passionate are you really about being wealthy? Get yourself into the same frame of mind as Steven. It is not a matter of “if” you will be more prosperous, but “when.” It is your choice.

0 effort

The Universe does everything with 0 efforts.
Whatever you want to achieve it is very easy for Universe.
Universe can give you Everything with 0 effort 

The 4 Secrets to Manifest your Destiny

Re-published from 28 Magical Practices

By  Jafree Ozwald

The experience of manifestation is a natural occurrence that can happen for anyone when they have the right knowledge, vibration and awareness.  By practicing this exercise below, you'll begin to create a subtle shift in your thinking, which will take you into FEELING that you can do anything!  Below are my 4 powerful secrets that will instantly help you start FEELING that you can make this shift and start manifesting your destiny this week!

Secret #1 - Have absolute clarity on what you truly want to manifest. The more specific your intention is, the easier it is for the Universe to know what you really want. Specific desires create specific results. Vague request and unclear goals create wishy-washy results.

Secret #2 - Choose to manifest one thing at a time. If you pour your energy into 8 different desires you'll only be giving a little energy to that special one that truly matters. Pick the one that matters THE MOST to you, that makes your heart sing, and stick with it (and only it) for 90 days in a row at the very least.

Secret #3 - Feel your Goal or Intention has already occurred. For at least 3 minutes a day imagine you have already achieved your desired outcome. Hold onto the great feeling of what its like to have done this! A powerful intention is one that stems from a deep desire found inside your heart that makes you naturally feel empowered, alive and free anytime you think about it. As long as your desired outcome is totally free from any "shoulds", "need to's", and "have to's" you will effortlessly attract it to you.

Secret #4 - Have FUN visualizing your desire happening for you. You cannot be attached to your desire manifesting if you want it to come to you with joy. If you are too serious about your goal, you're cutting off that warm fuzzy flow of powerful manifesting energy. Lightness always wins over hardness in the end, and the greatest thing you can do is to be playful and enjoy each moment of your life to the fullest! When your joy-valve is 100% open, and you FEEL like you could skyrocket over the moon, the manifestations you desire spontaneously occur. They'll show up like magic, divine synchronicities that may make you think you had nothing to do with it.

5 Ways to Manifest Your Dream Life

Re-published from huffingtonpost

I've had many amazing things happen in my life that solidified my belief in the law of attraction. I've also come to understand exactly what we need to do to make the law of attraction work for us -- and it's way more than visualizing what you want and saying positive affirmations.

The most recent amazing thing occurred in this last year. Five years ago, soon after the market crash, we decided to sell our house and move closer to family. At that time, we took a trip to the area where we wanted to live and looked around. On our map book, we highlighted our driving route and circled areas that we liked, and we wrote a few notes to remind us of what we liked.

We also made a list of all the things we wanted in our new home: a wonderful barn for our horses with a heated tack room and a heated bathroom, a covered place to store our farm equipment, 35 hay growing acres, an arena for exercising the horses, a one-story, ranch-type home, rolling hills with great views, great neighbors (the neighbors in our last home were extremely difficult), no homeowner's association or an HOA that was not run by controlling people like at our last home, an art room, a rural location but still very near health food stores and other shopping and to be near family.

It took four years for our home to sell, but it finally did last year. When we went to look for our new home, we were greatly dismayed to discover that there was almost nothing for sale. Apparently, the people in the area we wanted rarely sold their ranches, and the few we saw were falling apart.

We had to find a place quickly -- you can't be homeless with two horses and two dogs! Finally, our agent said, "Well, there's one more home available. It's more than you wanted to pay, do you want to see it?" We felt we had no choice, so we went to see it. Actually, we had seen it on the Internet but it hadn't looked appealing. We later found out that their agent had taken terrible photos, which was why it was still on the market.

We bought the house and amazing things happened regarding financing. Once we moved, we discovered that we had all of the things listed above! We didn't even realize it when we bought the house. Since it was the only decent house available, it seems to us that God picked this house for us.

Then, last week, we took out the map book to find out how to drive to a nearby lake. We opened the map book to the page where the lake is, and there in the margin we had written the name of the street we now live on; we had circled the very area! Wow! We picked it without knowing it and then spirit manifested it for us! If we had sold our home sooner, this incredible house and land would not have been available for us.

From this experience and many others, here is what I've learned about manifestation:

1. Learn to love yourself.
When you learn how to love and value yourself, then you know how to make yourself happy. You cannot manifest from anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, anger or emptiness. You need to know how to fill yourself with love and joy to manifest your dreams.

2. Learn how to keep your frequency high.
This goes along with loving yourself. Your frequency is the rate at which you vibrate. Spirit vibrates at a higher frequency than we do in a body, so in order to manifest, your mind needs to be in the frequency of love, which has a high vibration -- rather than misery, which has a low vibration.

3. Learn to connect with your personal source of spiritual guidance.
In order to be filled with love, you need to be able to connect with your source of love. As you learn to love yourself, you become able to access your personal source of spiritual guidance -- which can guide you in your highest good and support your power of manifestation.

4. Envision what you want with excitement and faith.
Don't give up! Sometimes it takes time as it did with our house. Stay in faith, and keep joyfully envisioning your dreams.

5. Let go of attaching your happiness and worth to outcomes.
When you attach your happiness and worth to outcomes, then you will try to control the outcome. Controlling has a low frequency, so as soon as you try to control, you stop manifestation with integrity. While some people manage to make lots of money through controlling, even though they are not in integrity, they are not happy and they don't feel full and worthy inside.

You can manifest your dreams, but first you need to lay the foundation by learning to love yourself.

How to Manage Your Finances

• 1. Re-published from Wiki-How
  2. Personal financial management is a subject that is not taught in many schools, but is something that nearly everyone has to deal with in their lives later on. Here are some statistics: Some 58% of Americans do not have a retirement plan in place for how they'll manage their finances when they get old.^[1] While people generally believe they'll need about $300,000 to support themselves in retirement, the average American has only about $25,000 saved at the time of retirement.^[2]Average household credit card debt among Americans now stands at a distressing $15,204.^[3] If these facts are alarming to you, and you want to reverse the trend, read on for specific, targeted advice geared towards giving you a better future.

     Part 1 of 4: Make a Budget

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        For one month, keep track of all your expenses. You don't have to limit yourself; just get an idea of what you spend money on during any given month. Save all your receipts, make note of how much cash you need versus how much you expense to credit cards, and figure out how much money you have left over when the calendar turns.
     
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     After the first month, take stock of what you spent. Don't write down what youwished you had spent; write down what you actually spent. Categorize your purchases in a way that makes sense to you. A simple list of your monthly expenses might look something like this:
     • Monthly income: $3,000
     • Expenses:
       • Rent/mortgage: $800
       • Household bills (utilities/electric/cable): $125
       • Groceries: $300
       • Dining out: $125
       • Gas: $100
       • Emergency medical: $200
       • Discretionary: $400
       • Savings: $900
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     Now, write down your actual budget. Based on the month of actual expenses — and your own knowledge of your spending history — budget out how much of your income you want to allocate to each category every month. If desired, use an online budgeting platform, such as Mint.com, to help you manage your budget.
     • In your budget, make separate columns for projected budget and actual budget. Your projected budget is how much you intend to spend on a category; this should stay the same from month to month and be calculated at the beginning of the month. Your actual budget is how much you end up spending; it fluctuates from month to month and is calculated at the end of the month.
     • Many people leave significant room in their budget for savings. You don't have to structure your budget to include savings, but it's generally thought of as a smart idea. Professional financial planners advise their clients to set aside at least 10% to 15% of their total earnings for savings.^[4][5]
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     Be honest with yourself about your budget. It's your money — there's really no sense in lying to yourself about how much you're going to spend when making a budget. The only person you hurt when doing this is yourself. On the other hand, if you have no idea how you spend your money, your budget may take a few months to solidify. In the meantime, don't put down any hard numbers until you can get realistic with yourself.
     • For example, if you have $500 dollars allocated to savings every month, but know that it'll consistently be a stretch in order to meet that goal, don't put it down. Put down a number that's realistic. Then, go back to your budget and see if you can't tweak it to loosen up cash somewhere else, and then funnel it into your savings.
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     Keep track of your budget over time. The hard part of a budget is that your expenses may change from month to month. The great part of a budget is that you'll have kept track of those changes, giving you an accurate idea of where your money went during the year.
     • Setting a budget will open your eyes to how much money you spend, if they haven't been opened already. Many people, after setting a budget, realize that they spend money on pretty petty things. This knowledge allows them to adjust their spending habits and put the money towards more meaningful areas.
     • Plan for the unexpected. Setting a budget will also teach you that you never know when you'll have to pay for something unexpected — but that the unexpected will come to be expected. You obviously don't plan on your car breaking down, or your child needing medical attention, but it pays to expect these contingencies to happen, and to be prepared for them financially when they come.

  Part 2 of 4: Spend Your Money Successfully

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     When you can borrow/rent, don't buy. How often have you bought a DVD only to have let it collect dust for years, without using it? Books, magazines, DVDs, tools, party supplies, and athletic equipment can all be rented for smaller amounts of money. Renting often saves you the hassle of upkeep, keeps room in your storage, and generally causes you to treat items better.
     • Don't just rent blindly. If you use an item for long enough, it may be best to buy. Perform a simple cost analysis to see whether renting or buying is in your best interests.
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     If you have the money, pay a high down payment on your mortgage. For many people, buying a home is the most costly and significant payment they'll ever make in their lives. For this reason, it helps to be in the know how to spend your mortgage money wisely. Your goal in paying off your mortgage should be to minimize interest payments and fees while balancing out the rest of your budget.
     • Prepay early up front. The first five to seven years of a mortgage are generally when your interest payments are going to be the highest.^[6] If you can, take your tax return and funnel a portion of it back into your mortgage. Paying off early will help increase your equity fast by lowering your interest payments.
     • See if you can't make bi-weekly payments instead of monthly payments. Instead of making 12 payments on your mortgage in a year, see if you can't make 26 payments on your mortgage instead. This will allow you to save thousands of dollars, provided there aren't any fees associated with it. Some lenders charge significant fees ($300 to $400) in order to give you the privilege, and even then only apply the payment once a month.
     • Talk with your lender about refinancing. If you can refinance your loan down from 6.7% to 5.7%, for example, while still making the same payments, go for it.^[7] You could knock off years on your mortgage.
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     Understand that owning a credit card may be very important for establishing credit. A credit score of 750 or above may unlock significantly lower interest rates and opportunities for new loans — nothing to sneeze at. Even if you rarely use the credit card, it's important to have one. If you don't trust yourself, just lock it in a drawer.
     • Treat your credit card like cash — that's what it is. Some people treat their credit cards like unlimited spending devices, running up balances they know they can't pay off and only making the minimum monthly payment. If you're going to do this, be prepared to spend significant amounts of your money on interest payments and fees.
     • Shoot for a low credit utilization. A low credit utilization means that the debt you put on your credit card is proportionally low to your overall limit. In plain English, that means that if you have an average monthly balance of $200 on your credit card but your limit is $2,000, the ratio of your debt to your limit is very low, about 1:10. If you have an average monthly balance of $200 on your credit card but your limit is $400, your credit utilization is going to shoot through the roof, about 1:2.
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     Spend what you have, not what you hope to make. You may think of yourself as a high earner, but if your money doesn't back up that statement, you're shooting yourself in the foot acting like you are. The first and greatest rule of spending money is this: Unless it's an emergency, only spend money that you have, not money that you expect to make. This should keep you out of debt and planning well for the future.

  Part 3 of 4: Make Smart Investments

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     Familiarize yourself with different investment options. As we grow up, we realize that the financial world out there is so much more complicated than we envisioned as children. There are literally options to trade imaginary items; there are futures to bet on things that have not yet happened; there are sophisticated bundles of stock. The more you know about financial instruments and possibilities, the better off you'll be when it comes to investing your money, even if that wisdom consists only of knowing when to back away.
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     Take advantage of any retirement plans that your employers offer. Often, employees can opt into a retirement 401(k) plan. In this plan, a portion of your paycheck is automatically transferred to a savings plan. This is a great way of saving, because payments come out of their paycheck before it's cut; most people never even notice the payments.
     • Talk with your company's HR representative about employer matching. Some larger companies with robust benefit plans will actually match the amount of money you put into your 401(k), effectively doubling your investment. So if you choose to put in $1,000 each paycheck, your company may pay an additional $1,000, making it a $2,000 investment each paycheck.
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     If you're going to put money into the stock market, don't gamble with it. Many people try to day trade in the stock market, betting on small gains and losses in individual stocks every day. While this can be an effective way of making money for the seasoned individual, it's extremely risky, and more like gambling than investing. If you want to make a safe investment in the stock market, invest for the long term.^[8] That means leaving your money invested for 10, 20, 30 years or more.
     • Look at company fundamentals (how much cash they have on hand, what their product history is, how they value their employees, and what their strategic alliances are) when choosing which stocks to invest in. You're essentially making a bet that the current stock price is undervalued and will rise in the future.^[9]
     • For safer bets, look at mutual funds when buying stocks. Mutual funds are bundles of stocks collected together to minimize risk. Think about it like this: if you've invested all of your money in a single stock and the stock price plummets, you're screwed; if you've invested all your money equally in 100 different stocks, many stocks can completely fail without affecting your bottom line. This is basically how mutual funds mitigate risk.
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     Have good insurance coverage. They say that smart people expect the unexpected, and have a plan for what they'll do just in case. You never know when you'll need a large sum of money during an emergency. Having good insurance coverage can really help tide you over through a crisis. Talk with your family about different kinds of insurance that you can purchase to help you in the event of an emergency:
     • Life insurance (if you or a spouse unexpectedly dies)
     • Health insurance (if you have to pay for unexpected hospital and/or doctor bills)
     • Homeowner's insurance (if something unexpected harms or destroys your home)
     • Disaster insurance (for tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fires, etc.)
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     Think about getting a Roth IRA for retirement. In addition to, or perhaps instead of, your traditional 401(k) plan — which is usually an employee retirement plan — talk with a financial advisor about getting a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs are retirement plans that let you invest a certain amount of money, and extract it, tax-free, after you turn 60. (Well, technically, 59 ½.)
     • Roth IRAs are invested in securities, stocks and bonds, and mutual funds, giving them the opportunity to grow significantly over the course of many years. If you invest in an IRA early on, the compound interest that you earn (interest on top of interest) will create significant increases in your investment.

  Part 4 of 4: Build Your Savings

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     Start by holing away as much of your expendable income as possible. Make savings a priority in your life. Even if your budget is small, tweak your finances so that you save around 10% of your total earnings.
     • Think of it like this: If you manage to save $10,000 per year — which is less than $1,000 per month — in 15 years, you'll have $150,000. That's enough money to put a kid through college, start a nice nest egg, or put a significant down payment on a wonderful house.
     • Start saving young. Even if you're still in school, saving is still important. People who save well treat it more as an ethic than necessity. If you save early, and then invest that savings wisely, a small initial contribution can snowball into a significant sum. It literally pays to be forward-thinking.
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     Start an emergency fund. Saving is all about frittering away expendable income. Having expendable income means not having debt. Not having debt means being prepared for emergencies. Therefore, a rainy-day fund can really help you out when it comes to saving money.
     • Think about it like this: your car breaks down and you suddenly have $2,000 in extra payments. You didn't plan, so you have to take out a loan. Credit is tightening up, so your interest rates might be pretty high. Pretty soon, you're paying 6 or 7 percent interest on a loan, which cuts into your ability to save for the next half-year.
       • If you had an emergency fund, you could have avoided bringing on the debt, and the associated interest rates, in the first place. Being prepared really pays.
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     When you've started saving for retirement and put money in your emergency fund, put away three to six months' worth of expenses.^[10] Again, saving is all about being prepared for the uncertainty of it all. If you're unexpectedly laid off work, or your company reduces your commission, you don't want to take on debt in order to finance your life. Setting aside three, six, or even nine months' worth of expenses will help ensure that you're in the clear, even if disaster strikes.
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     Begin paying off your debt once you're established. Whether it's credit card debt or debt left on your mortgage, having debt can seriously cut into your ability to save. Start with debt that has the highest interest rate. (If it's your mortgage, try paying off larger chunks of it, but focus on non-mortgage payments first.) Then, move onto your second-highest rate loan, and begin paying that off. Move down the line, in decreasing order, until you've paid off your entire debt load.
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     Begin really ramping up for retirement. If you're getting to be that age (45 or 50), and you haven't started saving for retirement, it's really important to start ramping up right away. Make your maximum contributions to your IRA ($5,000) and your 401(k) ($16,500) every year; if you're older than 50, you can even make so-called catch-up contributions if you want to pad your retirement savings.
     • Put a high priority on saving money for retirement — even higher priority than saving for your children's college education. Whereas you can always borrow money to help pay for college, you can't borrow money to help fund retirement.
     • If you're totally in the dark about how much money you should be saving, use an online retirement-savings calculator — Kiplinger's has a good one here — to aid you.
     • Consult a financial planner or advisor. If you want to maximize your retirement savings because you have no clue how to start, talk with a licensed professional planner. Planners are trained to invest your money wisely, and usually have a track record of return on investment (ROI). On the one hand, you'll have to pay for their services; on the other hand, you're paying them to make you money. Not a bad deal.