The secret to saving is to take out the amount to be saved first, as soon as you are paid. This amount should not be touched for any other purpose except saving, and possibly investment. It has to be deducted first because if it is deducted last, in general, you will find that nothing is left. This money saved should be put into a separate savings account – preferably one where the money cannot be easily withdrawn.

It means that whatever you have left (after taking the set amount out) must be budgeted to live on. Sooner or later your weekly expenses will adjust down to the amount you have left. The upside is that while this is happening, your savings account will grow and you will be able to look at investment.  This will help you create extra income (if done wisely).

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Even though using iCashbook greatly reduces the time needed to track your accounts, we are always looking for ways to let you do less. One area we’ve been working on in this regard is the coding of your transactions.

This week we have released a number of enhancements to our Memorisation Rules functionality:

• Revamped Memorisation Rules page with a more intuitive design and flow
• Use of wildcards (*) or regular expressions is fully supported in text matching
• Rules can now be set across all accounts (previously a rule could only be applied per-account)
• Rules can be tested prior to saving them (previously they needed to be saved first)
• Rules can be added while in the Money In or Money Out schedules with text match data pre-populated (select a transaction and click the “Create Rule” button)
• Rules can be applied directly from the Money In or Money Out schedules - build your rules as you code.

Memorisation Rules Manager

Create Rule in Schedules

The Memorisation Rules work in conjunction with the iCashbook auto-coding process, but take precedence over auto-learned coding behaviour. This is a powerful feature of iCashbook and will result in you spending a great deal less time coding your transactions - take a look today! http://www.icashbook.com

There are many myths and incorrect theories surrounding wealth creation and people with wealth. Some of these may affect your goals of financial freedom and independence.

Here are some of the most common myths.

Myth 1: You need to have a top education in order to be wealthy.

There is no doubt that a good education will help you avoid disasters in your quest to create your fortune. However, simply having a good education is not enough. There are many university graduates and even professors who are not wealthy, while there are many business owners and company directors who have little education but who are wealthy.

To be wealthy you need to be able to convert your knowledge into money in the fastest and best manner. Many men and women, with little formal education and without university degrees, are captains of industries today and extremely wealthy. Bill Gates was a university dropout who had an idea, plenty of drive, and computer knowledge, which was turned into the Microsoft Empire today. He is now one of the world’s wealthiest men.

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What is Financial Planning?

Financial planning for a business is simply that – planning the finances of the business. It is where the financial statements of the business will reflect its financial condition and thus help it to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

Financial planning will enable the owner of the business to use projections and other financial performance criteria to plan for the capital, assets and personnel requirements of the business in order to maximize its return. Financial planning is central to the business plan. It is the basis on which business decisions are made in order to secure the financial future of the operation.

Basics of Financial Planning

Financial planning is the foundation of every successful business. The planning should be carried out once a year and revised monthly. This planning will include comparing financial projections with actual results.

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It goes without saying; your debts will pull you down faster than anything else.

Debts reduce your net worth (which is your wealth) because of the cost of the debt, but if it is bad debt then the situation is even worse. Bad debt is incurred on things that do not increase in value, whereas good debt is incurred on things that do increase in value.

Debt can be used wisely, but only for assets that appreciate or grow in value, and hopefully also generate revenue income. If debt is not controlled it can easily get out of hand. It will result in financial bondage rather than financial freedom.

The best advice is: don’t get into debt at all.

Money used to pay off debt cannot be invested, but money put into other options will enable it to grow. Debt money is lost money because it is gone.

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