“But, Dad, when I have enough to buy this Lego set, then I’ll start saving.”  Do these words from my 10-year-old son sound familiar?  Odds are you have either heard something like this from a child, from a friend, or even coming out of your own mouth.  It’s possible that you heard/said/thought something like this even today!  This form of procrastination is widespread and is certainly not limited to finances.  If you are interested, this book hit home for me and I would highly recommend it.

For now, let’s focus on finances and get back to the dilemma presented by my son.  Don’t let the context of buying a toy distract you.  It’s very easy to imagine a 20-year-old “needing” to have enough to pay for a new car, or a 30-year-old waiting to save because the new house payment needs to be made, and so on.  The message is always the same.  “I’ll start saving when I have enough…”.  Spoiler alert – it’s never enough.   Until we adjust our priorities to pay ourselves first (save), there will always be something new and different that demands our capital.

With this in mind, another must read book has provided a guide for how much to save once your priorities are in order.  The 10-20-70 rule allocates at least 10% of every dollar earned to be saved, so the new demands on your money (the budget, if you will) are based only on the 90% remaining.  This may sound drastic, but the reaction from everyone we have spoken to after they test it out for a few months is the same.  They never missed the 10%.

“Not missing it” may seem like a low bar, but that tends to be the biggest mental hurdle for those of us thinking about saving more of our money.  Once we realize it’s possible, we can then start focusing on all of the benefits that are now available with the extra cash on hand.  We have shown we have the discipline to save, the cash is available if it is needed, peace of mind increases, and so forth.

There are a number of places to store your cash, but there is one that is considered the gold standard.  Participating whole life insurance is what I use for my savings and it has proven to be even more flexible/beneficial/powerful than I first believed.  I would love to talk with you about how to start saving in your own life and how to implement The Perpetual Wealth Code™ whenever you are ready.  Talk soon!