Some of you may have heard of these ideas before, others may be entirely new to you. But whether you are familiar with these super secrets or not, it will be well worth your while to put them into effect in your own life. The magic they will work on your financial life is guaranteed. I urge you to put them to work - any one of these could change your life! Big changes come from small steps. One plus one does equal two, so if you add one from eleven different places, you will see big results.

This is a four part series giving you advice on saving your hard-earned money in a variety of down-to-earth ways. Nothing here is anything that anyone can't do on a daily basis.

Amazing Money Tip #9   You must set short-term goals and long-term goals. If you don't know where you are going, how do you expect to get there? It's simple but powerful logic. When you have a target sitting out there somewhere in future, a target which is your goal, it can almost act like a magnet that pulls you toward it.

Setting solid goals which are attainable, yet still a challenge, have proved time and time again to be one of most powerful methods of achieving wealth and success ever developed. It has been demonstrated in corporate training schemes. It has been used successfully again and again by countless individuals. Setting both short term goals and long-term goals has effect of focusing your mind like a laser beam. It pulls you along toward higher and better things. It gives solidity to what you are trying to accomplish, and thus makes that which you want more real and likely to come into your life.

Do you think you have a lot of bills? If so, you are probably right. But have you considered bill that costs you most each month?

On average your housing costs probably run about 30% of your take home pay. Your other bills which include utilities, credit cards, etc. also run about 30% of your take home pay. It probably takes another 30% to run your household and if you are lucky you can stash remaining 10% in a savings account.

What are your percentages? Do you know? That's problem. Most people run their budget out of their wallet.

There is that hideous word "Budget". Many people compare operating their finances with a budget to having a ball and chain attached to their wallet. They won't be able to get anything they want for rest of their lives.

Let's see if following scenario fits you:

You get paid. You write out your bills. You give your spouse some money. You wait for next payday to get some more money so you can do same thing.

You may not realize it but if you are doing this you are spending a lot more money than you need to.

Most of people I work with have no idea how much money they make or how much they owe. While money may be important to them it is way to much trouble to learn how to manage it. This is very reason there were $1.5 million bankruptcies in this country last year.

I can almost guarantee that if you are trying to run your finances like scenario above at some point you are going to run into problems. It simply can't work.

The main reason for this is that you never get a broad picture of where you are financially. You pay bills and hope you have enough money to buy your groceries and put gas in car until next payday.

Most people can add and subtract. That's all there is to a budget. If you aren't willing to take time then living paycheck to paycheck will be with you rest of your life.

I call this "Financial Complacency" which simply means that you know you need to manage your money better but aren't willing to do what's necessary. Here are a few excuses I hear to justify this: