Pay ourselves first

Most people think that when they get their paycheck, the first thing they should do is pay all their bill and then if there is anything left over, they can save a few dollars. In other words, pay everyone else first and yourself last. Our parents taught us that to really get ahead of the game, you have to turn this around. Put aside a few dollars for yourself, then pay all your other bills.

We have to save our money. In the beginning, we tried to put ourselves on the budget, but somehow he numbers never added up and we started fighting a lot.

We originally started by putting aside just 4 percent of our income and slowly increased the amount. Today, we save 15 percent. But on average we always save about 10 percent.

We did have 401 (k) plans. But a lot of companies, including mine, had pension plans that allow you’re to contribute extra money if you wanted to. Most of our friends did not bother.

After that, our next priority was to put aside enough so we could buy a home. Both our parent told us that their homes had been the best investments they had ever made that nothing gives you freedom and security like owing a home. But the key was owning in free and clear.

We should be watching our spending and saving as much as we could. They made a big point about now so many people waste big money on small things.

You know, the trick to getting ahead financially is not being cheap and boring. It is watching the small stuff, little spending habits you have that you had probably be better off without. We realized that one of the main small stuff things we were spending too much money on were cigarettes. We both smoked about a pack a day and our parents hated it. Back then, they pointed out that if we stopped wasting money on cigarettes we could probably save enough n two years to make a down payment   a home. And we had be saving our health in the process.