‘Pay yourself first’. This is a nice soundbite in financial management about the importance of remembering to keep some money for yourself in the seemingly endless list of expenditure that nibbles away at your income. A funny analogy I heard was to picture your expenses as a queue of people lined up waiting to receive their paycheck. You have the mortgage guy at the front, the gas and electricity girl next, the car payment dude and so on until we come to you standing sheepishly at the back after everyone has got their share! That ain’t right!

A wise person once said that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. To achieve success in any area of life, we need to set a goal and then break down the steps necessary to get there. Clearly this principle also extends to our finances.

Do you want your kids to repeat the mistakes that you’ve made with money? Each of us is likely to have made at least one mistake with our finances in the past, but if we fail to warn our kids about the potential pitfalls, there is a risk that we will allow our kids to go through the same (avoidable) problems.

Would you voluntarily choose to be a slave? Seriously, think about it. Would you surrender to someone and allow them to imprison you? The concept seems absurd and may even be bordering on offensive, however this is what many of us are effectively doing every day.

When you look back at your financial transactions over the last few months, did you really get the best deal or are you leaving money on the table? This could be something small like your most recent mobile phone contract or it could be something more substantial like buying a car or receiving a job offer. In almost every area of life, we are in a negotiation of some sort whether we know it or not.

Imagine for a moment that your future self has travelled back in time 25 years and they want to have a chat with you. As an example, if you are now 25, your 50-year-old self is sitting across the table from you and they want to talk. What do you think they would say to you? How do they look? Are they happy and at peace? Are they telling you stories of how your good decisions have led to a blessed life? Or rather, are they stressed and fearful? Have they come to warn you of the action that you need to take now to ensure that their future unhappy existence does not become your reality?

‘Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.’ This was a warning given by former US President Benjamin Franklin.

During my recent study for yet more financial planning exams (It never ends), I reached a chapter that talked about establishing a budget and establishing whether there was a surplus or deficit in your monthly finances. While going through this section to understand why there could be a deficit in someone’s finances, I came across the term the ‘Latte Factor.’

In one way or another, each and everyone of us is building a house. Not necessarily in the literal sense but rather that we are all working to build something that will bring joy, comfort or security (or maybe all three?) which will give us the sense of accomplishment that we all long for.