By Peiying Peng & Liz Zed

Step 3. Commence by creating a stash.

Your money stash is untouchable and is soon to become your Wealth Account. If you followed through on Step 1 you made a decision and a commitment. Step 2 had you utilizing the resources at hand. You may now have a buddy or two with whom you are able to form a plan for mutual support. A buddy system makes it easier to be held accountable to your commitment for doing things differently than how you’ve done them before.

This is where flexibility can become elusive. You are going to commit to setting aside some money on a regular basis. Perhaps you will even hand it over to someone else for safekeeping. You might even entrust them to maintain an account for you. The important and difficult step here is another commitment. You must agree amongst yourselves if you have a support system–and discipline yourself if not–that the money cannot be ‘begged back’ no matter what excuses you might drag up.

When habitual patterns of behavior are challenged the mind resists and is well armed with excuses. So expect excuses. Depending on the intensity of your desire and focus, and on your conditioning, you are likely to come up with what will perhaps seem like urgent situations. These situations present reasons why you have to have something. This ‘something’ will require some or all of your money. Perhaps you will create an ‘excuse’ about how you just cannot continue to contribute to your stash. At such times you will want to refer back to this Step. It will serve as a reminder of the inevitability of what is occurring. You will realize this is typical ‘habit mind’ resisting the discomfort of change, and threat to the established self-image. You are only experiencing the same as most everyone else who has gone before you, learning how to transition from knowing how to work for money into knowing how to make money work for you.

Persistence is key! You must be consistent and take action toward cash accumulation each day.