Pay Yourself First Without The Money

If you are into financial management, I bet all my money that you have heard of the concept “Pay Yourself First”. Rest assured this post is not about finance.

Basically, the idea is to allocate a portion of your paycheck to be saved elsewhere before you even settle your pay-or-die bills. The concept is created simply because saving if not forced, is an impossible thing to do. I know it is kind of harsh, but it is the truth. You can see the proof from my bank account (which of course I will not disclose here).

Forget about my bank account. Just look at yours. Did you manage to save money if you didn’t save it immediately after you get your paycheck?

Amazingly the concept is just as useful to be applied to other things in life.

1) Peace of mind.
Everytime you have a moment of peace from work, or crying children etc, just take some time to finish off your book. Do not fill up that moment with anything else. Do what you want to do first.

2) Achievement.
Everytime you do a great job, give yourself a pat and say “Nicely done [insert name here]”. Do this before you start congratulating others.

3) Career.
Everytime you are overwhelmed with mountains of work, some yours and some are others’, you should always finish up your work first before helping out others. There’s no point in being a jobless angel.

4) Student life
If you are given the responsibility to be the president of your student council, but your grade are heavily affected by it, you should resign from the post and start focusing on your study. That is paying yourself first too.

/end list

It is always a noble thing to be selfless and to always think of others before yourself. But a line must be drawn simply because if you are taking care of others your entire life, who is actually taking care of you.

Remember the safety briefing given by the flight attendant everytime you board an aeroplane. You must first use the gas mask before you help your child. The reason is because nobody else will take care of your child if you had already fainted.

– I Wonder –
Do you pay yourself first?

——- Personal Note ——–
When it comes to loved ones, all rules go out the window. People no longer care for themselves when their loved ones are at risk. Would you agree?

Photo Credit – Allner_s

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This post has 4 comments.


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  1. 12 Oct 09 9:50 pm

    n the banji has spoken,
    after a long silence,
    am sure glad u’r back bro…

    if money to be considered as luv,
    my luv to citibank, the bank dat come tru for me in tough time,
    regardless of its late charges and financial fee.

    my luv to my car, the car dat carries my family ere and there,

    …. then i’d say i dont luv myself, n i dont luv my family.
    cause i dont give them enough luv for them to keep after i’m gone.

    if u put it this way… what a lousy man i am!!

    ok now i’m freaked out.
    the 15k loan i took for saving inside the ASB (FIxed deposit)
    is considered as …?

  2. 17 Oct 09 9:36 am

    Pocket – Life has been busy for quite sometime now. And I don’t think it will get any easier 🙂

    A car is now no more a luxury. Unless of course you buy a 7 series. So don’t worry about it. A car is considered by many as necessity now. That itself is a way you are paying yourself first.

    About the loan, I truly believe that is the best way to pay yourself first. In the end, the money is there for you to use. No worry bro, you are doing ok.

    Not paying yourself first is when you give a part of yourself, your time, your money to someone / seomthing else when you really need to use that resource for yourself first.

    For example, you sacrifice your sleep time, just to entertain some friends clubbing.

  3. 18 Oct 09 9:52 am

    Great post! Piece of mind is so important nowadays.

  4. 20 Oct 09 12:10 am

    Ralph – Yup.. more important now than ever. People can earn money but never peace of mind.

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