Disclaimer – this is not a post about how to play a better Monopoly game.  Although I couldn’t resist the games analogy forever, as we sport and game incessantly in our household (function of all the men, husband referee, etc).  Since all my children played soccer, of course the current craze is World Cup soccer, and the texts and phone calls fly back and forth with every game (saying mostly, did you see that – they got robbed!!!).

So how do you win the financial game – build wealth and become financially free?  It’s a common saying in sports that good defense wins championships.   The problem with most of us in our financial game is that we tend to play good offense, and not so good defense. 

Offense

Let’s start with offense, since we most of us play pretty decent offense.   In your financial game, your offense is your income, and most of us think this should be our focus. In other words, the more income we have the better.  We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how we can get more of it.   And we think if we just work more hours, we can get more income.

We also define ourselves by how much income we have, and look up to people we think have a lot of income. To many of us, having a lot of income defines success.  And our success is measured by how much stuff we possess.

The problem is, when we focus so much on our offense, we tend to ignore our defense.

Defense

There is a reason why good defense is needed to win championships. Without good defense, offense can be pointless (watch a few professional basketball games to get the point). In your financial game, your defense is how much you spend.

*****If you read nothing else in this post, read this – it doesn’t matter how much offense (income) you have, if you have no defense (control over what you spend).

If you not paying attention to how much you are spending, and where your money is going, the amount of your income doesn’t matter.  If you are spending all of your income, how can you save and invest, build wealth, and win the financial game?

Technical Skills

Good technical skills are essential in games.  You have to know how to play both good offense and defense. Building wealth requires financial technical skills, and a big part of it is budgeting (making a spending plan for your income), and then watching your expenses. Millionaires become millionaires doing exactly that, and they maintain their wealth the same way.

Another technical skill used by the wealthy is to minimize their tax burden. They do this by using ways to grow their money tax free – such as  investing in a company plan, IRAs, and educational savings plans for their children.

If your technical skills in offense and defense need a financial boot camp, please see a financial advisor to get started on a plan to win the financial game.

Photo credit – evelynishere

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.