The great thing about living today is we have so many ways to learn new ideas. Depending on your learning style we have books, audible books, videos, and podcasts to name a few of my favorites. One observation I have noticed when learning about people who have achieved some level of recognized success in various fields and professions very rarely do I learn about someone’s story and think to myself that seems impossible. It is just the opposite. When I learned about how Jerry Seinfeld fine tuned his craft it was interesting to find out he kept a large calendar on his fridge and made an X each day he wrote jokes. He did not focus on a certain number of jokes or quality of jokes but on the simple idea of writing jokes every day. He referenced that once he got the chain going, he did not want to break the chain. He knew consciously or at least subconsciously that if he wrote jokes every day for a long period of time, he would get great results. Simple yet amazingly effective.

When you think about what makes people financially successful over a long period of time, it usually comes down to a few simple things -- a few simple habits.  These few habits work for people who are just starting out and continue to provide clarity and guidance for those who have had great financial success.  Most financially successful people often have directly or indirectly attributed their financial success to a few concepts below. Some of those profoundly simple ideas that still stand the test of time many years later are the following: live within your means, invest for the future, focus on what you can control, written goals, decision making process, a life lesson, a diversified portfolio, magnifying best habits, providing yourself options and choices when it comes to retirement, and having a little bit of patience.