Keep a Budget

• A basic element in your financial success is how closely you keep track of your earning and spending. Establish a written budget, and make a habit of recording everything you make and everything you spend. This simple act will, over time, provide you with a very useful record of your spending habits. If you decide at some point that you need to change those habits, your budget will be valuable for showing you where your money is going, and where you are able to cut back if you need to.
  
  

Consolidate and Minimize Your Carrying Costs

• People who don't keep track of where there money goes are often spending far more than they think on credit card debt, mortgages, insurance premiums, rent and other carrying costs. If you consolidate these costs as much as possible, it will be easier for you to keep track of and control them, and possibly reduce them. For example, if you have car insurance with one company and fire insurance with another, you may be able to reduce your premiums by getting both in a package coverage deal with one company. Reviewing cable packages and Internet accounts may reveal places where you can save money by canceling services that you never use.
  
  

Distinguish Between Spending and Investing

• Not all spending is the same. When you spend money on food or entertainment, that money is spent because what you bought with it is soon gone. However, when you spend money on a house, a rare antique or a high-quality tool that holds its value, you're converting your liquid asset into a concrete asset but you're not spending it, because you can turn the concrete asset back into a liquid asset at some point in the future. You may even make money on the deal. Distinguishing between these two kinds of spending, then making a point of minimizing the former and maximizing the latter, will over time improve your financial health.
  
  

Take the Long View

• Don't judge your financial success by how much you made or spent this week or this month. Don't try to save money by cutting out all spending immediately. Wealth is built over time, and you need to understand your financial situation in the same way. Making a consistent amount of money over a period of years will put you in a much better position than big payouts alternating with uncertainty. Plan your budget for success over the long term, ignoring get-rich quick schemes and unreasonable gambles.