The Money Zen Method for Personal Finance

The Principle: Every penny has a job — to save or to spend; investing your savings; buying things with the money you want to spend, and if you live frugally you can save more money to buy better things.

The Method

1. Simplify your non-investment assets by dividing them into two parts: the money you want to save and the money you want to spend.
2. For every income you earn, plan ahead the amount you want to save, and the amount you want to spend.
3. Know exactly the amount of your savings, so you can used it to invest.
4. For every withdrawal from your investment accounts, plan ahead the amount you want to save, and the amount you want to spend.
5. Always know how much money you have left to spend, so you can avoid over-spending, and save more money for things you want by cutting spending.