If you’re not good with money, learn to pay yourself first. Even if it is practically nothing, even if it’s just $1 per pay check.

What do I mean by pay yourself first?

Whenever you get paid, automatically take some portion of money off the top and put it into your savings account. Do this before you pay your bills, before you service your debts, and before you spend anything. And do it without fail.

Sure, this doesn’t directly solve all your money problems, get you out of debt, and make you wealthy. However, if you are bad with money, this practice will transform you.

Because today you feel like you have no control over money. It’s something other people control, and you are at their mercy. But this is not true. And the most important thing you can do at this point is to prove to yourself that it is not true.

Paying yourself first shows you — not in just an intellectual way or in an “oh, that must be nice for other people” way but as direct, lived experience — that you do in fact have a measure of control over money. And once you feel that, everything changes.