When it comes to money I have ten rules.
Rule 1.
What goes around comes around. Don’t cheat people out of their money. If you cheat, others will cheat you, or spend their lives trying to cheat you.
Rule 2.
Where money becomes a focus of intense disagreement, don’t race to sue. In the end you won’t make a lot of money. In the mean time, you’ll spend money on keeping the case moving forward. If you are sued, don’t get emotional, don’t panic, and don’t spend a lot of money upfront on lawyers. Be patient. Don’t be intimidated, don’t throw insults around. Things work out.
Rule 3.
The biggest fool in the room is the one who gives his money to someone else in the room, to invest in something that the investor knows nothing about, for the hope of bigger than normal gains. Even elderly grandmas aren’t taken in by this flawed strategy.
Rule 4.
Find a marriage partner who manages money well, and make sure they get all the money each month. A good money manager has one essential quality. They don’t like spending money.
Rule 5.
Spend your hard earned money wisely. And in part that means taking a nice vacation. Your wise money manager marriage partner will probably opt for camping (I have nothing against camping). But, if I have a choice, I want to sleep in and have clean sheets everyday, etc.
Rule 6.
Don’t brag about your money. Bragging makes people jealous, and makes you a liar. Bragging always gets out of hand.
Rule 7.
When it comes to your money, control your risk. There’s only one way to control risk. Own the majority shares of a company.
Rule 8.
Avoid cynicism. A cynical nature causes you to hide your money under a mattress, and to buy a gun to protect the mattress. Protecting a mattress and paper under a mattress with a gun is questionable logic.
Rule 9.
Save ten percent a year. If you can’t, keep trying until you can. You’ll have some good years, some bad years, and many in between years. It’s easy to save ten percent in good years, doable in the in between years, and a bit challenging in bad years.
Rule 10.
New wealth comes from giving birth to new ideas. Incremental wealth comes from efficiently implementing old ideas.