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One morning while I was saying something to my wife, I realized that perhaps the way we think about wealth is way too complicated. It happened when I was telling her that for the first month in a long time, I spent more money than I made. We were going through the list of expenses for June when I said “It’s just simple. You save money when you make more than you use.”
Money management is just as easy as that isn’t it? Make more in a given time period than you spend and you will be ahead. No complications, no 101 list of ways to do this and that, no messy calculators and no need to use complex software.
I wasn’t even thinking too much about it when I made the statement, which meant that I knew this golden and simple fact all along. As a PF blogger, I am guilty of complicating the personal finance subject all the time. I think about another 45 ways to save that extra dollar, 32 ways to invest in the next stock and find the next 87 ways to motivate myself to make more money. I let all these minor issues cloud the main focus, which is really to just make more money than I spend.
With about 150 personal finance blogs, 15 PF magazines out there and tons more ways to read about money matters, it is so easy to get consumed in the little things that we forget about what’s the most important.
Today, I want to alert and remind everyone of something we all know about money managment.
Make more money than we spend. It’s as easy as that.
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Hmm… Thanks for the article. I need to think about whether I spend too much time thinking and complicating my finances too.
Calvin, I am going to do the same
Hi Calvin, I totally agree with you. There are 2 ways to accummulate wealth, control spending or make more money. I prefer the later
Great Post David!
I believe this is an important corollary to another oft forgotten tenet of Personal Finance: Spend less than we make.
magnesium and Invest Money Lab: Hopefully the three of us will be rich!
If that happens we can thank MoneyNing later.
I’ll have to partially disagree with you on semantics…You stated: “I let all these minor issues cloud the main focus, which is really to just make more money than I spend.”
Like Joe above, I prefer to think of it as “Spend less than I make”….
I think looking at it this way puts the focus on spending less, instead of on needing to make more money
And I’m all about not spending, and not on making more money… 
Good post! And yes, it IS just that simple!
As a financial neophyte, I have to say…
DUH.
This kind of reminds me of a SNL skit:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php