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The majority of the conversations that I have with people reveal a very interesting fact to me: many people have no idea how to plan for their futures. Most people don’t even look into the future. Most people live for the present and their spending and savings habits reflect that very same mentality. There needs to be a balance for the attention that we give to the different parts of our life. Many people either live in the past, only for the present, or in the dreams they have of their future. They are all equally important but we cannot get stuck in just one of these categories. Learn from past actions so that your present actions won’t make the same mistakes and will therefore leave you looking forward to a brighter future. When speaking about finances, you should look at your life in the same way. What is it that you have done so far and where has it gotten you financially? What are you currently doing about your finances and how do they differ from what you’ve already done? Where do you want to be in a few years and are you taking the necessary actions to get you there? Many people are completely unaware that their current situation is the result of their past actions. So they continue to do the same things and follow the same patterns expecting to get different results. To plan properly, you must first look at what your exact situation is like right now. Are you in any debt? What are your liabilities? Do you have kids and if so, do you plan on sending them to school? Are your wife and kids protected in case you’re not around anymore to pay for the rent or the mortgage? Are you making enough money to get yourself out of debt and pay for all of the necessities? You must be willing to answer these questions honestly or you will put yourself in a very dangerous situation financially. Once you’ve gotten the answers to these questions, the next step is to figure out in which areas you actually need help. The first step is to protect yourself and your family from any debt that you might have accumulated. If anything happens to you, your family needs to be able to pay for the mortgage, the bills, the credit cards, etc. Once you’ve provided the protection, concentrate on actually getting rid of any bad debt that you’ve accumulated. Once the debt is gone, turn the payments into savings contributions… start accumulating wealth. The next step should be to make sure that you are preparing you and your spouse for retirement. At the same time, you should think about whether or not you need to put any money aside for your children’s college tuition. We all wish that we could take care of all of these matters without reaching into our pocket, but just like anything else, a certain amount of income is necessary for achieving your financial goals. Are you making that necessary income or do you need to find a way of making extra? Many people can and do honestly say that they’re not making enough. However, when they do want to make more, they either think about getting another degree or getting another job. Christopher Columbus said, “I didn’t discover America for you to go out and get a job.” The majority of the wealthy people in the US didn’t start out in that position. They first understood that they need their own business so they started one part-time. Then when their business income supplemented their job income, they quit their job and concentrated fully on their business. Learn to do the same and you can build the same type of wealth they did, if not more.