Saving Without A Budget

Money Rule #1 - Be Accountable for Your Actions

Look, I know I reference MSN Money and Yahoo! Finance on here all the time, and I’m always talking about good articles that I find on the sites - but today, I seriously found the single greatest money managing article of all time.

I’m not kidding.

A while back, I wrote about how personal responsibility (living within your means, not blaming anyone but yourself, etc.) was the key to staying in control of your finances.  I thought it was a pretty good post, but it didn’t generate much interest because I didn’t (and still don’t) have a ton of readers.

Well, along comes Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money, and she spreads my words to the masses - only she does it much better and is much more convincing.

In her article, Weston states:

“Part of maturity is taking responsibility for ourselves.  We need to see and acknowledge our role in the problems that befall us.  Even if we’re entirely blameless, which is rare, we still need to figure out how to play the cards we’ve been dealt — to find solutions instead of just complaining.  That’s what maturity is all about.

“When it comes to money, though, a lot of people want to remain financial adolescents.  How much easier is it to point fingers at other people, the government, the economy or lenders for our money woes than to acknowledge we’re at least somewhat — and sometimes a lot more than somewhat — responsible for the fixes we’re in.”

Those two paragraphs may very well be the two greatest paragraphs ever written about money management.  I’m sure it goes without saying, but, please, do yourself a favor and read her entire article.  It’s well worth the five minute investment.

You, alone, are responsible for your finances.  You are the one who decides whether or not you’re going to live within your means, and you are the one who will have to live with the consequences of those decisions.

So, step up, be accountable for your actions and prosper.