Now before you start to think...."well I don't have any excess left...if I was earning more money....then I would have some free". Let me dispel this myth...and tell you that it is a known and excepted fact that amount of money that people earn has little if any bearing on whether or not they have an excess left to invest. The only way to create an excess it to spend less than you earn, instead of spending all that you earn.

Even doctors and lawyers, who earn well over $100,000.00 per year, often end up at retirement with little more Net Worth than factory or office workers.

Net Worth is calculated by deducting value of all liabilities or loans you have from income-producing assets owned to give you net value of your income-producing assets.

Why aren't high-income earners retiring wealthy? Why don't they end up with a greater Net Worth than someone on a low income? It is quite simple. Human nature seems to dictate that whatever anyone earns....they spend....some even spend more than they earn and charge it on their credit card.

The higher your income grows...the more you spend and only way to get out of this cycle is to realise that it is happening, and make a concerted effort to reverse this habit....and to begin reducing your expenditures so that you can free up money to invest.

The best way to do this, is to try 20/80 plan. This plan simply means that as soon as you receive your pay....you put aside 10% for God, 10% of it for investment....and then use other 80% to live off of. Put aside 20%, and then pay all bills and do grocery shopping....and then after that whatever is left over you can spend.

Most people do it wrong way around...they pay bills, do shopping and spend what is left over, never leaving any left to save or invest. By taking investment money out first you will alleviate temptation to spend it.

The road to wealth is not determined by how much you earn, but by how you utilise income you have and how much you save and invest.

You need to take control of your finances. One of best ways to start having more control over your money is to find out where it has all been going, and then amend your spending habits to allow you to live within 20/80 plan.

If you write down a list of your monthly net income, then in another column write down a list of essential items that you have to spend money on. You should be able to work out an average for telephone, gas, electricity, insurances and rates, from your previous bills. Work out an average of how much is spent on grocery shopping and petrol. If there are any other necessary utilities include them as well. Then deduct second column from first - and this will give you maximum potential savings for each month.

It can be quite startling how high this figure can be and make you wonder where all extra money went.

Another good learning experience is to simply write down for a fortnight every dollar spent and write next to it what it was for. You will soon find that there are a lot of unnecessary expenses, often caused by impulse buying, where you have spent money on items that you neither needed or really wanted, and could easily have gone without.

When you can begin to recognise these areas, and start to consider whether or not you are spending your money wisely, before you hand it over, then you will be beginning to take control over your money and are well on way to embarking on your investment journey, which will enable you to have a financially secure future for you and your children.

Visit my website at To find money to invest for your future, you need to make sure that your outgoing expenses are less than income that you are receiving. You need to develop an excess that you can have free to invest.

Now before you start to think...."well I don't have any excess left...if I was earning more money....then I would have some free". Let me dispel this myth...and tell you that it is a known and excepted fact that amount of money that people earn has little if any bearing on whether or not they have an excess left to invest. The only way to create an excess it to spend less than you earn, instead of spending all that you earn.

Even doctors and lawyers, who earn well over $100,000.00 per year, often end up at retirement with little more Net Worth than factory or office workers.

Net Worth is calculated by deducting value of all liabilities or loans you have from income-producing assets owned to give you net value of your income-producing assets.

Why aren't high-income earners retiring wealthy? Why don't they end up with a greater Net Worth than someone on a low income? It is quite simple. Human nature seems to dictate that whatever anyone earns....they spend....some even spend more than they earn and charge it on their credit card.

The higher your income grows...the more you spend and only way to get out of this cycle is to realise that it is happening, and make a concerted effort to reverse this habit....and to begin reducing your expenditures so that you can free up money to invest.

The best way to do this, is to try 20/80 plan. This plan simply means that as soon as you receive your pay....you put aside 10% for God, 10% of it for investment....and then use other 80% to live off of. Put aside 20%, and then pay all bills and do grocery shopping....and then after that whatever is left over you can spend.

Our population is ageing, due to baby boomer generation, and within 30 years there will be so many retired people, compared to number of working age people, that it will be economically impossible for government to afford to provide any reasonable source of monetary assistance for elderly.

The government has realised this, and that is why they introduced compulsory employer paid superannuation scheme and are even now beginning to give financial incentives to Self-funded retirees.

Most of us have never sat down and even considered ramifications of why compulsory super was introduced and for many of us it is a matter of too little too late. Even for young women in our society - who have a full working life ahead of them, they still cannot rest assured of a comfortable retirement.

Why is this? It is because that unfortunately even with contributions at current level of less than 10%, someone on an average wage who works continually for 30 years, is still going to find themselves trying to survive on an income equivalent to less than $20,000,00 per annum in today's dollars.

You will notice that I said continually working for 30 years. This is another reason why women are particularly disadvantaged, firstly because they often have to take up to ten years leave from workforce to raise children, secondly because women in general earn less than their male counterparts and thirdly because an enormous proportion of women in Australia, will never have received any previous superannuation contributions, prior to compulsory superannuation being introduced, and will therefore not have had contributions made over their entire working life so far, giving them even less to fall back on by time they retire.

Many women may previously not have thought of lack of superannuation contributions as being a problem, as their husbands may have been contributing to super since they first began work. Unfortunately though with high number of divorces in this country, it is unwise to rely on fact that your partner's superannuation will be there for you in your retirement years and even if a large proportion is awarded in a settlement - that it will be sufficient to sustain a comfortable retirement for any length of time.

All of these factors are why women now more than ever, need to begin taking action to build up a source of ongoing income, that will grow to such an extent, as to be able to provide a secure and happy future for themselves and their children.

It needs to be a source of income that is unrelated to physical work...that is an income that is generated from income producing assets - and not from our personal efforts. One of best sources of creating this ongoing income stream is to begin building an investment portfolio property, also aptly paraphrases as bricks and mortar.

We need to start collecting income producing assets now, so that they will have time to grow and develop so that we will be financially independent for our retirement years.

Property is one of best types of income producing assets, mainly because through gearing, which is borrowing other peoples money to supplement our own, we are able to control assets of a far greater value, and benefit from growth on overall value, including borrowed portion, in contrast to only benefiting from growth on small portion of our own money contributed.