STEP 2  
As you continue
investing, clean up by spending less,
using a budget, owning your own home, and aggressively
paying off debt:
- Spend less: just skipping a
twice-monthly dinner and movie, for example,
saves $1,800 a year, which, invested each year
for 30 years at a 10% return, would total
$536,628
- It's easier to control your
spending if you keep track of it using a simple
budget, like the one here
- Own your home—but take
the time you need to find a home you like, even
if it takes you a while, at a price that won't
make you too house-poor to invest
- Paying debt has a guaranteed
return of thousands of dollars in interest: pay
down the highest-interest rate debt first, and
always make at least one extra mortgage payment a
year
- Go through your stuff, and if
you haven't used it in a year, if it isn't
central to who you are, throw it
away—cleaning up enhances the value of what
you already have
NEXT
STEP
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Even investment billionaire
Warren Buffet understands how spending less than you earn
builds wealth: his license plate says
"THRIFTY," and Texas A&M University's Mays
Business School student George Giannukos met with Warren
Buffet and wrote a blog entry about it
| "Whether
you waste money on fancy coffee, bottled water,
cigarettes, soft drinks, candy bars, fast food,
or whatever it happens to be—we all throw
away too much of our hard-earned money on
unnecessary "little" expenditures
without seeing how much they add up." - David Bach, The Automatic
Millionaire, one of the investment books I recommend
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