The secret to getting rich is as powerful as it is unexciting: live below your means.

That’s it. The bigger the difference between what you earn and what you spend, the sooner you’ll find yourself with enough money to do what you want with your life.

This is from an excellent short piece, “The Boring Secret to Getting Rich,” by Catherine Hawley.

She also adds that to say that it’s unexciting is not to say that it’s easy. For me, however, it was easy. I grew up with so little that it was not hard to save once I started earning what I regarded as a high income. I was never tempted to go through catalogues (remember those?), picking out things that I wanted and ordering them. Instead, I would do what I did as a youngster: go through catalogues, see things I wanted and fantasize about them, and then not buy them.

The only thing I would have added is that it’s a way to get rich slowly.

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