By Peiying Peng & Liz Zed

Step 5. Forego anything.

Initially keep track daily for one week of all money spent. Continue to track your spending using force of will and focus accounting to the penny, if possible. This exercise will pay off in spades! Over a very short period of time–days and even a couple or three weeks, you will begin to see a pattern of expenses. You will begin to notice small, unnecessary expenses. You will notice that you really could have managed without that purchase. You will begin to compare the purchase itself with the value of one more small addition to your money stash.

Again, over just a brief period of days and weeks there will be many instances where the value of the mounting total will be greater than the brief satisfaction provided by money hastily and perhaps not healthily spent. Soon your stash will begin to look more like the blossoming of a Wealth Account.