When looking to become successful, where do you start? Some will read books and biographies of other successful people. Some might even turn to self-help books or even

the movies for motivation. At the end of the day though, success starts and stops with you. Everything you do determines whether or not you will be a success or a failure.

If you choose to hit the snooze button in the morning and then surf the internet all day at work, you really cannot expect to get that promotion, let alone a nice raise. If you are buying everything in sight with your credit card, you cannot expect to become wealthy.

In order to become wealthy and successful, you need to turn your bad habits into good habits. What are some good habits that will lead to success you ask? Here are 4 great ones to get you started.

4 Habits That Lead To Success

Live Within Your Mean

It is basic, but so many of us ignore this habit. We have to learn to live on what we earn. If you cannot afford the premium cable channels, then you need to learn to go without. I know that it stinks and you want them, but you are not in a position financially to have them. If you really want them or anything else for that matter, you have to figure out a way to be able to afford them.

Cut spending somewhere else. Get a higher paying job or just get a raise. Start a side business. Any of these will work.

The bottom line is that if you keep spending more than you make, you are just putting yourself into a deeper, darker hole. If you think life is not fun now, just stay on your current path. You will soon realize that your situation today is a walk in the park.

Stop Watching TV

This is a great habit to instill for a variety of reasons. First, the less TV you watch, the less likely you will be tempted to buy something. This will save you money. Secondly, you can spend this extra time you have to read books. This will help you to learn and hopefully you can apply the things you learn to your job so that you can get a raise.

Or just as good, you can use this time to venture out and start a side business, find other ways to make more money, or even get a second job. This is great if you are in debt or not. If you are not in debt, the extra income can help you snowball your debt. If you are not in debt, the extra income can help you to save more money every month. This money can then compound and grow into more money.

At the end of the day, we spend way too much time watching TV. Take back your life and turn off the TV.

Set Goals

A lot of people set wishes and not goals for their lives. They say things like:

I wish I had a million bucks
I wish I had a better job

You get the idea. Instead of wishing, turn them into goals. Tell yourself you plan to have a better job by the end of the year. You plan to have a million bucks by the time you are 60. Then figure out the steps to get there. If either of your goals are these, here are the steps:

When planning for a new job, first you need to update your resume. Do not worry if it is not perfect, just do the best you can. Then find some staffing firms that have jobs in your field and send them your resume. Make sure you call them to follow up. Many times they will give you some tips to clean up your resume more. Then, start hunting for jobs, apply and interview.

When planning for one million bucks, you need to learn to live within your means, then save as much money as you can. As you begin saving, start investing your money in low cost investments.

Find A Mentor

Another great option for wealth and success is to find a mentor. They are all over the place, you just have to find them. The best places to find them are in clubs. Find a club to join on meetup.com and start meeting people. Before you know it, you should have found someone that has what you want.

The next step is to make friends with them and have them teach you how to be wealthy and or successful. You will be surprised at how willing most will be to offer some guidance and advice.

Final Thoughts

These are just 4 habits of wealthy and successful people. In a post on my other blog, I go into detail about 12 more important habits, that you should definitely check out.

You want to know how to get ahead financially? There is one sure fire way, and the best part is that it is fairly easy to do. So why are so many of us in such poor financial shape? It is because we do not follow this simple rule. What is this rule? It is spend less than you make.

That is it. My guess is you knew that right? If you can just follow this tip, you will be in good financial shape. Let us look at how spending less than you make puts you in better financial shape.

Get In Shape: How Spending Less Than You Make Benefits You

First off, when you spend less than you make, you are able to save. This money that you save can go into various pots:

Emergency Fund

Retirement

General Savings (think vacations, gifts, toys (both for you and the kids)

General Investing

The extra money you have left over at that end of the month can be saved/invested and grow into larger amounts of money through the years. You will discover the benefit of your money working for you, growing without you doing anything, instead of you working for your money.

The next benefit of spending less than you make is that you avoid debt. Debt is bad because it ends up costing us more over time. When you buy something for $100 on your credit card and do not pay it off, you start accruing interest. If it takes you a few months to pay it off, you have spent the $100 plus another $15 in interest charges. That $100 item suddenly cost you $115.

When I bought my house, the lender gave me a sheet showing me how much interest I would end up paying on my house over the 30 year loan. I bought my house for $167,000 but with interest, my total payment would be over $300,000! Talk about eye opening!!

How To Spend Less Than You Make

OK, I have just showed you why you need to live within your means, now we get to the part where we learn how to actually do it.

There are a handful of ways to go about it and I list many below. You can use all or some of these tips, whatever you need to actually spend less than you make.

Pay yourself first If you can learn to pay yourself first, you will automatically be setting yourself up for not overspending. The great thing is that paying yourself first is easy to do and will only take you a few minutes. The rich do it, so it has to work, right?

Avoid lifestyle creep. This is a fancy way of saying not to spend more as you earn more. Many of us get into the habit of getting a raise and then spending that raise on something. Most times it is something with a monthly payment, like a car, a higher cell phone plan, more cable channels, etc. Avoid doing this like the plague. When you get a raise, save it and keep living like you were before.

Be more frugal. Try to find ways to save money everywhere. This post talks about a ton of ways to save money from food to clothes to home repair. The more you can save by following these tips, the more money you will have for a rainy day or to invest.

Stop trying to keep up. This is along the lines of lifestyle creep, but I wanted to talk about it separately. We have a tendency to try to keep up appearances with our neighbors, friends and family. We need things to impress them, so we buy a bigger car, a bigger house, etc. I agree that for some people, this might impress them but only for a short time. You want to really impress someone? Retire when you are 50. That will impress them. They will not be able to stop talking about you and asking you questions about how you did it.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, your financial success hinges on one thing: living within your means. Learn to cut expenses here and there and avoid lifestyle creep. Also pay yourself first. In time, you will see that you are ahead of the game financially and will be well on your way to financial success.