My father thought he could improve his golf game by watching closely other good golfers at his club and copying swing tendencies he thought were good.  For instance, one golfer had a slight hesitation at the top of his backswing before starting his downswing, so my father copied that move.  Did it work for my father?  Sometimes, but that’s not the point.  The point is, my father tried to emulate those that were better than him.  There is a lesson there for your financial planning.

This article shows that, the wealthier you become, the more you tend to pay down debt rather than accumulate more assets.  Maybe it is time for you to start doing the same!  If you aren’t already doing so, use any extra money you come into to pay down debt rather than to buy something else.  Save more, spend less.

The Millionaire Next Door

Twenty-two years ago in 1996 Thomas Stanley and William Danko published “The Millionaire Next Door“.  In it, they describe habits and tendencies of wealthy people from all walks of life, and who mostly live in blue-collar neighborhoods.  Some of the common traits among wealthy people (which they call Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth) were as follows:

• Spend less than you earn
• Don’t buy too expensive of a house.
• Don’t go into debt
• Buy a used car, and buy it by the pound:  Don’t buy an expensive small sports car
• Don’t try to Keep Up with the Joneses
• Take a financial or investment risk only if the odds are in your favor
• Don’t bail out your own deadbeat children

Stanley and Danko’s point was the same:  If you emulate those that are already wealthy, you are more likely to become wealthy yourself.

Find Someone to Copy

If you are not where you want to be financially or in life, or if you just want to improve your current position, instead of inward soul searching, just go out and find someone who is successful at what you want to do and copy what that person is doing.  Your role model can be someone famous or they can be someone in your own family or neighborhood.  They can be world-renowned for what they do or just good in your own opinion.  You can talk to your role model before setting about to change your life, or you can just wake up one morning and set to the task.   You don’t need to copy everything the role model does, just those things that make your role model successful.  Tweak it so that it works for you.

A Good Financial Planner

If you are still struggling to find a role model, especially in your financial life, I would be glad to provide assistance.  Though I am not holding myself out there as a role model, I can help you come up with a plan that will help you get you to where you want to be, and I can provide examples of people who are successful in getting their financial lives in order.  For some people, working with another person, a qualified, caring financial planner, is the only way they are able to understand their financial goals and get the help they need to get there.