How Many Hours Did You Work For Yourself Last Week?

I am reading through David Bach’s book entitled The Automatic Millionaire.  It is a very straightforward, easy to read book about how to set yourself up for success financially no matter how much money you earn.

One of the neat things Bach brings up in the book is the question: “How many hours did you work for yourself last week?” If you look back to last week and discover that you didn’t save a penny of your earnings, then that means you didn’t actually work for yourself at all.

However, if you did manage to save some of your earnings last week, you can figure out how many hours this amounts to.  For example, if you currently earn $20 per hour and you were able to save $100 last week, then you know that you worked 5 hours for yourself rather than just working to pay everyone else.

The author’s point is that we need to begin to pay ourselves first when we get our paycheck, instead of always paying everyone else first and then trying to save anything that might be left over.  Aim to try and save between 10% and 15% of your earnings and then pay all your bills afterwards.  You will be amazed at how much you can save if you automate the process.  You will be well on your way to becoming an “automatic millionaire.”