These are two of my basic rules.

1. Pay yourself first.
2. Play yourself first.

What do I mean here…

Pay yourself first.

The best way to save money for your future and get to a place where you have some ‘F*ck You Money’ is to pay yourself first. There are three ways to do this (there are probably more, but I only use these three, FU)

• Pay yourself first by ticking the box for your company’s pension. They will match what you contribute, and sometimes they might add more. This is a must. Tick that box and take your company pension. It comes out at the top end, so before you are taxed. So that means it is a tax-free long term saving plan. Grab that with both of your hands – you are daft if you don’t.

• Pay yourself first automatically. When your pay plummets into your bank, automate the first Direct Debit to be to yourself and drop that into a long term savings and/or investment bank account. I would say build up an emergency fund and then, when that is in place, pump the money into a low-cost indexed linked fund. Go USA funds here because they return a better percentage increase over time. Oh, and pick accumulation funds as they reinvest, and you quietly increase your game here.

• When you are budgeting per day or week and working on your spending versus your planned spending, you are doing well and get on the green side. That means if you have not spent all of your budgeted money for the week and you are in the green – then pay yourself first from this wee dod of cash. Take that cut from that and drop it into your savings account. Pay yourself first every time from all the little bundles of dosh that you make or construe. It is a way of thinking.

Instil this mentality into your monthly, weekly and daily routines, and see how quickly you will realise the benefits. When you see the savings mount up as a percentage of your monthly costs or yearly pay, you will get a magnanimous incentive. When you have a readily available net worth of more than 100% of your annual top line pay (before tax), you are rocking it.

Play yourself first.

Don’t be anyone else but yourself. So many people hide away their true thoughts (myself included), but please work hard to get them true thoughts out and be true to your authentic self. Granted, it is not easy, but it is worthwhile. So force yourself to do it. Force it. Tell your inner self F.U. and direct it to the people who hold you back. F Them.

• Play at being the true you and don’t have a care what others think. This one sentence freed me from so much. Others are so busy with themselves that what you think they are thinking about you is not true… most people have nothing more than a passing thought about you. Get over yourself. Push yourself out there and ignore the naysayers. They are nothing more than a reflection of their own inner thoughts. If that doesn’t help you get out there and do something and not give a toss about what others think – then just imagine everyone naked. It might help. It also might put a smile on the face of your inner self.

• You are the main character in your movie so play that character with pride. You decide how the main character in your film (I mean you here) reacts to everything and how you build your image. As they say to people who are aspiring writers… ‘Write what you know and write the truth as that is always easier to write about.’ So with that in mind, write yourself as the main character as true to yourself as you can. Honesty to you and knowing yourself will go a long way to allowing others to see your authenticity, and people will trust you. Because you have developed the core values of trustworthiness, and when you achieve that, don’t let people down. Don’t be a dick like that.

• Always play you. Don’t leave yourself at the door of the office. That is a sh*t working life, and you end up pretending to be something you think are or something you are definitely not. Bring your whole self into the office and be who you indeed are, respect the rules, because everywhere has fecken rules… but be yourself within the rules. (Or break them if that is the true you – yeah, knock yourself out on that sometimes). You spend a third of your day at work on most days of the week – so be happy there, be yourself there and if you can not be, then ask yourself if you are where you are meant to be. They most likely do not deserve the real you. If it is a mismatch, then change it up Batman, you know you can if you put your mind to it.

Get comfortable with yourself. Your failures and your successes, and don’t fecken defeat yourself by drowning your head in negative self-talk. The number of people I hear daily talking themselves out of success or beating themselves before they even start by the negative language they use towards themselves is always astounding to me. If you play the main character in your own movie, you work hard to write that blockbuster script…

Write yourself in as the hero and scribble in a healthy, wealthy lifestyle and do it with a compassionate core as your character lives a life of servitude to others.

It is ok to be Batman and have all the complexities of the character because he is essentially a good person. 

Just like you.

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