This is wealth skill number three. Robert points out that rich people love to buy at wholesale, not retail. And that the trick is not just saving money, but saving the money you save. For example, a friend of his bragged about saving $50/month by quitting smoking. So Robert asked her where the $50 she saved was. It turns out she had stopped spending that money, but didn’t put it away or invest it.

He tells us that when we save money by changing our buying habits, we should take the money we saved and get it out of our spending grasp. If there is money in our accounts, we’ll spend it. He tells us to save money and then save it.

Now Robert asks if we’d like to cut our living expenses by 20% in 20 seconds. I’m interested, are you? The audio then cuts to Mr. Allen in a seminar telling us to take one credit card that we want to keep and cut the rest up. He tells us that our expenses will go down 30% in 12 months. He explains that if we have the money, we will spend it and that that’s a rule and therefore we should simply not have the money. He goes on to tell us that if we have more cash in our pocket than we should have, we’ll spend it and therefore, don’t carry a lot of cash. If your bank account has lots of money, he says to get it out of there. He tells us to put our money somewhere that it’s hard to get to and a hassle to get to.

If the money is easy to get to, we will spend it and this is because our society is centered on instant gratification. And because we are hit with ten thousand advertisements per day to buy something. And one of those ads is going to get us. He further tells us that then we’ll buy something we don’t need which destroys our future and takes away our security in order to get something that gives us an instantaneous little buzz that will be stuck on a shelf somewhere and we’ll never look at it again.

He summarizes that we should not have access to any money. And that’s really true isn’t it? Think about all the impulse items you’ve purchased. Think about how freely you spend money when you have a wad of cash in your pocket. Think about how painless it is to pull out your credit card and swipe it at a gas station or store.

Robert’s Multiple Streams of Income program is available on CD from Nightingale Conant. In the program he teaches us not only how to save money, but how to keep it and make more of it. So remember this third wealth skill: how to save money.