About a week ago my wife and I had four young guys from church over for dinner. It was just a normal Thursday evening and nothing really extravagant. Interestingly enough though, the conversation eventually turned towards finances and investing, which just happen to be two of my favorite topics. These guys were all between the ages of 19 and 21 and had a never-ending slew of questions that I did my best to answer.

Many of the questions were specific about how this and that worked, but I did want to give them one piece of advice that I had been given. Now, I’m not all that much older than them since I’m just turning 27 in March, but I’ve put this advice into action and it has done wonders for us so far. This advice is in the from of a quote, even though I don’t know who originally said it:

“I’d rather live for a few years like most people won’t, to live the rest of my life like most people can’t.”

It’s very simple and doesn’t give you any specifics of how to accomplish things, but it’s been a great foundation for many of the decisions that I’ve made and am making. This quote is the reason that I give, save, and invest over 70% of my income. It’s the reason that I don’t have cable or satellite TV for example. Since hearing this advice, I’ve made tremendous progress that I probably wouldn’t have thought possible before. It’s also not a huge secret which is why I wanted to share it with all of you. There’s also probably many other ways to say the same thing, but it really is the best piece of advice I’ve heard so far.

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