10 Rules for a Rich Life

1. A rich life means you can spend extravagantly on the things you love as long as you cut costs mercilessly on the thing you don't

2. Focus on the Big Wins-the five to ten things that get you disproportionate results, including automating your saving and investing, finding a job you love, and negotiating your salary. Get the Big Wins right and you can order as many lattes as you want.

3. Investing should be very boring-and profitable-over the long term. I get more excited eating tacos than checking my investment returns.

4. There's a limit to how much you can cut, but no limit to how much you can earn. I have readers who earn $50,00/year and ones who earn $750,000/year. They both buy the same loaves of bread. Controlling spending is important, but your earnings become super-linear.

5. Your friends and family will have lots of "tips" once you begin your financial journey. Listen politely, then stick to the program.

6. Build a collection of "spending frameworks" to use when deciding on buying something. Most people default to restrictive rules ("I need to cut back on eating out..."), but you can flip it and decide what you will always spend on. If you are thinking about buying a book just buy it. Don't waste even five second debating it. Applying even one new idea from a book is worth it.

7. Beware of the endless search for "advanced" tips. So many people seek out high-level answers to avoid the real, hard work of improving step by step. It's easier to dream about winning the Boston Marathon than to go out for a ten-minute jog every morning. Sometime the most advanced thing you can do is the basics, consistently.

8. You're in control. This is not a Disney movie and nobody's coming to rescue you. Fortunately, you can take control of your finances and build your rich life.

9. Part of creating your rich live is the willingness to be unapologetically different. Once money is not a primary constraint, you will have the freedom to design your own rich life, which will almost certainly be different from the average person's. Embrace it. This is the fun part!

10 Live life outside the spreadsheet. Once you automate your money, you will see that the most important part of a rich life is outside the spreadsheet-it involves relationships, new experiences, and giving back.