By: Tarun Prakash Srivastava, Sr. Executive Editor-ICN Group
What is this principle ‘FIRST PAYMENT TO SELF’ and how does it work?
This principle teaches us to make our assets, even when fulfilling our obligations. According to this principle, we should do the first payment to ourselves every week or every month (as per your income system). If you have resolved to change yourself for a golden future, then by putting aside dogma and irrational logics for a while, try to understand this golden principle carefully.
Please do not make excuses that your income is meager and it does not meet your needs even and how you can make an extra payment. I want to reassure you once again that the cost of success is always decidedly less than the cost of failure. If you pay this price once, then the happiness of life gets added to you. Failure is – you work for money, and success is- the money works for you. The need for success is only for those who are unsuccessful and Just they need medicines who are unhealthy. Keep in mind, you are committed to the full medical care of your financial disorder and “first Payment to Self” is nothing but the price of that medicine only.
We understand the working system of this principle from an example. It is seen that before the income comes in an average man’s family, the budget for the next month’s expenditure is set up and the only effort of that person remains that somehow he can earn money according to the budget so that all of his expenses are fulfilled. There is no mention of assets in this budget. Suppose that the person makes twenty-five thousand rupees per month, and if he spends that money according to the budget of his expenses then all his salary will be exhausted, and nothing will remain left. It will be the same in the next month, and this is going to happen again in the following months.
Attention, who is making this money and for whom is he earning? So far the person was earning money for others for fulfilling his liabilities only. We may quote this budget as a ‘budget of liability’, and if you want to search on it, you will find the budget of nearly ninety seven percent of people of the world is the ” liability budget ” only. These are the people who are losers, miserable and even broken in their lives and their purpose is to earn only as much money as necessary to live. Their mission in life is to earn that much that can fulfill their obligations only and when their income starts fulfilling their current obligation, they add new liabilities again in their lists. They never considered constructing ‘Asset’ in life, and this is the reason of absence of ‘Asset’ in their budget.
Now if the same person gets the first payment of five thousand rupees from that amount himself and dedicates his remaining twenty thousand rupees to his other needs, an ‘Assets’ of five thousand rupees can be prepared in the first month and this Assets shall also be ready to earn money itself. This person can deposit the amount of five thousand in the form of a fixed deposit in his bank, and he can also get additional money in the form of interest accrued thereon. If he adopts the same procedure in the second month, another fixed deposit will be ready, and this small amount will start earning an extra income in the form of interest from the second day of its birth. If the person continues this process for one year continuously, at the end of the year, he will have twelve fixed deposits of five thousand rupees each, and everyone will be earning an additional income even from their respective birth dates.
In this way, at the end of one year, the asset of sixty thousand rupees will be constructed and that too with the additional income on it. It is a ‘budget of Assets’ that includes small but essential basic ideas of assets. So far, we were earning money only to fulfill the ‘Obligations and Liabilities’, but now we are creating ‘Assets’ from our own earned money. It is very straightforward – if you give yourself the first 20 percent of your income as payment, you start building your new assets regularly every month from your income. What do you think? Do you see the prospect of improving the money? Do you think that you have started to penetrate the ‘trapping cycle’? If this has started to happen, then I can say that even though there is not much difference in your condition yet, but you have changed your direction and this ‘trapping cycle’ is ensured to be destructed one day. Maps of your wealth are now beginning to take new forms.
See, in your trapping cycle, seemingly invincible, you have opened a path every month, and the task that seems impossible is becoming more comfortable now. You will find that new openings, new windows, and even new doors are now opened for fresh air, pleasant fragrance, and golden sunlight in your life.
You have discovered a path to salvation from this ever-breaking cycle with your few, but planned efforts and your pride and self-esteem have also reached a level not before.
The principle of “First Payment to Self” is not a new theory, but successful and wealthy people of the society have not allowed exposure of this mystery to the society, but now this incredible secret has been revealed to you. This opportunity is for you as one of the most valuable opportunities in life, and if you have committed yourself to get the benefit of this opportunity, you will change your life completely. And off course, if you are not ready for change yourself, my advice is that there is no benefit of reading this series further, because the person who loses himself, cannot be a winner even by the joint efforts of all the powers of the world.
But,
If your life’s list includes ‘success still, I welcome you to the next stop of travel.
(From my book ‘Science of Money’)
