Fear is used to drive so much of what we do or don’t do with money. When it comes to saving money, savers are not known as being the sexiest people on Earth. Why? Because often times our culture celebrates immediate spending as sexy. Our culture smacks of credit cards and home equity loans funding lifestyles beyond reason.

Why are savers cool? They are cool because they look beyond today and elevate their wealth over time by putting their temporary money to work for them long-term.

Because savers put money away today and often become regular investors, they tend to live below their means early and have fewer and fewer worries as they age. While most people cannot have a vision for the future, savers have a plan for generating steady growth in savings and long-term investment growth down the line.

Sound complicated? It isn’t.

Our ideas are driven by establishing the proper emergency savings fund for today’s complicated employment market (15 to 18 months of expenses in money market savings accounts and certificates of deposit). We also believe it is critical to establish a pattern of reducing and eliminating all credit card debt (starting with the higher interest rate cards first).

Chasing your credit score is putting credit at the center of your financial well-being. We believe the base of your personal financial plan should be the regular building of savings and regular investing along with the reduction and elimination of debt.

Balance is the new sexy. This means you should have a good balance of increasing savings and regular investing while reducing and eliminating debt. Once you have established your emergency savings fund, you should educate yourself on regular investing. For many, this means mutual funds and diversity. Do your research on investing before you spend a nickel. Make sure you understand that investments go up and down and only risk what you can afford to lose forever.

Checking accounts are money laundering accounts for OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. If you want to steadily lose money over the course of your life, leave extra money in your checking account. You will lose a lot. If you use any excuse to push money from checking to saving and investing, you will gain more than most people ever recognize.

Real value is not often built overnight. Overnight wealth is celebrated too much. Most of the time, building wealth is about having a strategy YOU understand and working it.

And you can get ahead for you and your family.

HELPING YOUR KIDS GET AHEAD

If you think I was born saving money, you are wrong. My family is filled with hillbillies from Louisiana. There are members of my family that don’t believe in 401ks or IRAs. I was not brought up to save and invest regularly and I have made every mistake you can think about when it comes to money. I have had to learn the absolute hard way how to get savings on track and make it a part of your life without killing your lifestyle. I have had to learn the hard way how companies mislead with marketing. It is my mission to share what I have learned about regularly saving with my own children and also share it with you. That’s why we have a lot of “free” (blogs like www.boostmywealth.wordpress.com and www.stickyasset.com/blog and groups on Facebook like “Coupons & Coupon Codes”)!

In this country we don’t do enough to teach our children about money, managing money, saving regularly (and automatically), compound interest and steady investing for a long-term future. As a parent, we are always concerned that they get a good education and go to a good college so they can make a lot of money or have a valued career path. The truth is that we could do our children the biggest favor and one of the best things by sharing with them sound saving and investing principles.

You can join our free Facebook group (or have your children do it, too) by searching in the Facebook bar on your “wall” for “Live The Lifestyle Your Family Deserves.” Click on “become a fan.” It’s free and it ties our free blogs into that group.

If you want to give your children the same information we are giving ours, you can purchase the only thing we sell on any of our blogs or groups. It’s called “How To Survive Any Financial Crisis” and you can get it for only $4.95 at www.middleclassmoney.com.

Thank you for reading our blog and good luck!

Loyd Ford
www.stickyasset.com/blog
www.middleclassmoney.com
www.boostmywealth.wordpress.com
www.squidoo.com/boostmywealth
www.stickyasset.com

Connect with us on Facebook with these free groups:
“Coupons & Coupon Codes”
“Live The Lifestyle Your Family Deserves”
“Saving Money”