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How to Be Financially Successful

1. Unlimited Income
   Although you may not be in a position at your job to make as much money as you want, it doesn't have to stay that way. The number of dollars available for you to earn is not limited. If you begin to realize this fact, it may help you to push yourself on a subconscious level to seek other avenues to generate income. Though this push doesn't give you a license to overspend. On the contrary, it could help you to over earn, though we don't think it's possible to over earn. If you get to the point where you make much more than you need, you can donate more to charities.
   
   Think positive; think of yourself as doing better. Think like this before you are doing better, as it may help you to achieve this state moving forward.
2. Keeping Up With the Joneses
   While comparing yourself to others can be a source of motivation, you can't base your life on it. No matter what you have, whatever it is, your job, your car, your house, there will always be something better. Your friend, your boss, your neighbor, will have some things that are better than what you have.
   
   Although you do want to better yourself, and this isn't to say you should give up and accept less than to which you could aspire, but at some point, you need to be happy with what you have accomplished. You are the only one who can determine the level of success you will accept. If you feel you haven't reached your level yet, then work toward reaching it.
   
   There is no reason other than ego for one to try to appear to be a success when one is not. We think someone would be better served by keeping their money in the bank and have a savings account rather than to look like they have money and really have none. Why be fake? Though the desire to look like you have money can be a motivation to actually obtain money.
   
   What will the fake person do when an emergency happens, and their bank account is empty? They won't be able to pay with the fancy new clothes they bought. When you get to the point where you are saving regularly and paying all of your bills every month, then you can begin to spend money on extraneous things. This philosophy is our opinion. We are not saying to look sloppy, but you don't need to subsidize the companies that overcharge for their high-end brands that hardly make clothes better than reasonably priced brands. Think about what you buy before you buy it and be sure you are getting good value for what you pay.
   
   Would you like to know that you chose to buy more modest brands because you wanted to not because it was necessary? Sure, you aren't wearing expensive clothes or driving an expensive car. However, you are better off because of it. Compare your finances to the person trying to look successful when really they are deep in debt and scarcely have any money in their savings account. And, you know that you might be able to retire someday, how nice!
3. Set Some Long Term Goals
   Setting goals doesn't have to be a tedious activity. Think about how you want your future to look. How much money do you want to have? In what kind of house do you want to live? What kind of car do you want to drive? What kind of job would you like to have? Aside from your financial goals, what about your personal goals? Goals that aren't related to money. You could write them down as a list so you can refer to them when you are feeling off-track or discouraged. Whether you write a list or not, you may notice that as time progresses, your original list of goals may change as you gather more life experience.
4. Teach Yourself
   If you don't know how to reach your goals, then search the internet, talk to others, visit the library, and read books to learn how to do what you want to do. Start with articles like this, whatever it takes to light a fire under you to ignite your passion for success. It will take some effort to learn how to be financially successful, but in the end, it will be worth the trouble.
   
   If you can't seem to learn what you need to know on your own, Community Colleges offer courses, and High Schools have very cost-effective night schools.
5. Determination
   It will require effort on your part to accomplish what you need to do to bring yourself to the point of success you desire. If it were so easy, everyone would be successful, but that doesn't mean we can't all try to get there. We are still trying our best to get to where we want to be. There may be times when you feel discouraged and unmotivated, but you need to keep an eye on the "big picture" to stay focused and productive whether you are an employee or you are self-employed. Forge ahead and stay the course.
6. Credit Issues
   Keep track of your use of credit and your accumulation of debt. Having monthly payments that become unmanageable will only put a roadblock in front of your plans. Obviously, not many people can buy a car or house with cash, so loans are necessary, but for other than large purchases, try to use cash or debit where you can. When you buy things with cash or debit, you have finished paying for them without a bill hanging over your head.
   
   You can actually make money using credit cards by getting cash back if you are responsible with your use of credit. We have written another article that explains a simple strategy you can use to do this.