[kamaal]

>>You may have heard of paying yourself first to gain success in personal finance.

Can you elaborate more on this.

[s_henry_paulson]

This comes from a book called The Richest Man in Babylon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_(boo...

It's a very quick read, and you can probably find it online for free, as it's nearly 100 years old.

Everything you need to know about being financially successful, in parable format.

[GFischer]

Other resources in similar vein but modernized are the Get Rich Slowly and I Will Teach you to be Rich websites.

In particular, Get Rich Slowly definitely resonates with me. The blog is not well organized for someone who just jumps in, but Forbes has a good getting-started reading list:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/04/19/six-year...

The site:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/

Start with this article:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/09/28/money-is-more-a...

Disclaimer: I'm not rich and I don't apply most of the tenets above !!! but at least I'm self-aware (which I guess is a step 1 to recover, I hope).

[precisioncoder]

While much of the content is very reasonable it should be taken with a grain of salt considering it was originally created as marketing for banking and insurance companies. Obviously it is better for their business models if everyone invests in their businesses through savings accounts, insurance, and banking investment programs. Savings accounts (and often investments) can pay less than the cost of inflation, especially counting in the banking costs. Savings and investing are naturally good ideas, but stable goods such as land are often the best investment.

[jaredsohn]

I'm not the OP, but it just means that when you get your paycheck, immediately deposit a certain amount into savings. Since your paycheck seems smaller, you'll hopefully spend less.

[hfsktr]

I know (not well anymore) someone who owned a business (multiple I think) who's said that same saying and I'm sure I've read it somewhere else. I always assumed it meant: when you have a business treat yourself as an employee and pay yourself so that you don't use all the money (on business needs is all I can think of: staplers, paper, etc) and can pay your bills.

I might have misunderstood it or whatever but I always thought it made a bit of sense since you need to take some money home at the end of the day.

[vinodkd]

this is an americanism, i think. not being one, when i first heard it, i found it confusing too.

what it means is that you put some money away for yourself (ie, pay yourself) before you spend it (ie, pay others).

if you're hearing it the first time, it sounds like the opposite of saving. i, for one, upon hearing it for the first time interpreted it as: "do something good for yourself, ie spend it on yourself" :)

[philjohn]

that's part of it. You then need to put that money to work earning more money by investing it.