One advantage of being wealthy is that you can spend some of your money on the adventure and fun things you want to do. 

I believe you can do this, too, as you are building your wealth. 

None of us knows how long we will live, and part of wealth building is creating life experiences that give you joy. 

Wealth is more than dollars and cents.  So, part of your financial plan is to fund your important life dreams - not all at the back end of accumulating wealth, when you’re older, but all along the way. 

I want you to create a dream list of important experiences, or even purchases — things you want to have, do, or be - in the near term, and use some of your current wealth to create a life of joy today.

There you have it - 22 Habits for Money Self-Mastery.  It takes time to create new habits and I’ve given them to you one at a time so it will be easier for you to incorporate them into your life and make them lasting. 

When you’re mastered these 22 habits, you will be well on your way to building your own wealth and wealthy lifestyle.

Here is where you can create a habit that will serve you well for your whole investment lifetime:

Withdraw money from your savings/spending accounts periodically and invest that money to build wealth. 

Again, you can set up a withdrawal from your paycheck to go right into your 401 (k) at work or your own IRA (Individual Retirement Account). 

If you have a business, first of all pay yourself a salary.  Then part of your earnings can be allocated to go into your own self-employment retirement account. 

By definition, retirement investments are long-term, and therefore much of that money should go into growth investments - equities versus bonds.  You’ll get the huge benefit that no taxes are taken out of the earnings in those investments.  Your money will compound tax-deferred.  If you get a 10% return on these investments, your money will double in size in just over 7 years.  That adds up quickly leading to wealth over a lifetime.

Final Habit, #22, next - Fun With Money

Some of you are risk takers — you can sleep at night knowing your stocks might go down as well as up. 

Others would be very unhappy, perhaps lose sleep, if your investment dropped more than 10%. 

This is the whole reason to have an investment policy that takes into account how much risk you are willing to take to get wealthy; it’s the ‘risk versus reward’ comparison. 

Part of managing that risk is having a sell strategy as part of your investing plan.  Working with an investment advisor will help you determine what kinds of investments have what level of risk and whether they are right for you. 

You cannot build wealth without taking some risk with your money, but you can build it more slowly, taking less risk and feeling better about the whole game of investing.

Next Habit, #21, Automatic Investing