This week Grandpa Terry asked me, "Would you be interested in writing an article for the people that have managed to be able to put food on the table, pay their bills and start saving?" I reckoned, "why not?" so here goes.

I grew up in a lower middle class household. My parents never really saved much. Neither did their parents. So when it came time for me to choose my education, I resolved to devote it to simply learning to manage my own money since I surely did not learn how at home.

Ironically, both my parents were public school teachers who would often joke to one another, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" They were smart, educated people but were economically ignorant. Sadly, as teachers they had learned to harbor contempt and disdain for financial matters instead of embracing them as another learning opportunity. I have since learned that this attitude is widespread in education, so have become more involved as a champion of economic education wherever and whenever I can.

Another irony is that personal finance instruction per se was not offered at my university so I still had to sort of cobble together my personal finance education by learning what I could about money from a business context as a CPA candidate, then supplementing that education through informal, independent personal finance research. When I realized how dire the need for attention to personal finance was and is, I cancelled my plans to become a CPA and launched Making End$ Meet instead. That was nine years ago.

Over that time of both study and experience, here are a few things I have learned that might help answer Grandpa Terry's question:

1. There is a fixed, non-negotiable cost of living, or subsistence. For each person it is different, but it exists and if you'll bother to write your budget, you'll find out what it is.

2. On average, wages seem to gravitate toward that fixed subsistence cost because most people don't bother to plan or budget; so they instinctively, subconsciously negotiate their pay to only afford their immediate, obvious, short term subsistence needs. This gravity influences the job and labor markets, pulling down everyone's wages.

3. Left to their own devices, most people sell themselves short. They ask for less than they could and should because of insecurity, low self-esteem, fear, greed avoidance, and ignorance of their actual needs.

4. No one ever achieved their saving goals by reducing spending alone. Success is a combination of deliberate earning and deliberate spending or in other words, industry and thrift.

5. When it comes to earning and spending or industry and thrift, everyone seems to lean in one direction or the other. No one is born with that perfect balance. We have to develop balance between industry and thrift through deliberate, conscious effort.

6. That effort consists largely of planning and scorekeeping. Planning must be both long-term and short-term. And of course, it must be sincere. Scorekeeping is another word for accounting.

7. Any success, financial or otherwise, begins with a sincere plan.

8. In finance I've noticed a lot of confusion about what a "plan" is. Many people understand a retirement plan to be an account with money in it to pay for retirement. But I understand a plan to be a definite, communicable intention about the future, usually written and stated in terms of time and money, not just descriptively with words. (I've met many people who own an account with money for retirement who have no clue what they are going to do with it, or when.)

9. A budget must not be minimal, including only subsistence costs. It must also consider paying past debts, saving for future needs, "wants" or non-essential things that add a little sparkle to life, and expenses that vary with income like charitable giving and taxes.

10. The sum of all these is budgeted income. Yes, we need an income budget as well as an expense budget. That is how we develop balance between industry and thrift. Most people's budgeted income is higher than their actual income. The difference motivates progress.

11. A good budget must also recognize and deal with irregularities like holiday gift-giving, semi-annual property taxes, occasional home improvements, etc. because there is no such thing as an "average month."

12. Once you've set your budget, leave it alone. It is your standard. Often people will constantly fiddle with their budget to make it match actual results, but that is backwards. We are supposed to strive to make actual results match the budget. Once in a while (every 2-5 years) it might be appropriate to revise the budget based on a thorough and circumspect review of the past; but to constantly tweak the budget is, in my opinion, a mistake because it defeats the purpose of planning and causes confusion.

13. Accept that change is the only constant. This pertains to your income just as it pertains to everything else. Recognize that your income will change, and work with it. If you don't believe me, recognize that even if your income does not change, its purchasing power is changing because of inflation.

14. Ascertain the difference between actual and budgeted income and resolve to do something about it. Do some career planning. Consider starting a business. Marshall your assets, both tangible and intangible. Perhaps you can become eligible for higher income by simply rearranging the assets you already have. Most people have wasting or idle assets they don't even recognize.

15. Develop a very clear idea of what you will do with the money you save. Where will you put it? When will you deposit it? How much do you want it to grow? When will you withdraw it, how much will you withdraw, and why?

16. Recognize that most debt is the result of poor or no planning. It is avoidable through self-control and good planning.

17. Recognize that our culture and governments have an ambivalent, love-hate relationship with debt. For example, we lament the federal debt yet encourage our grandparents to buy bonds (they're opposite sides of the same coin). Recognize that you are influenced personally by that love-hate relationship whether you realize it or not.

18. Resolve to make up your own mind about your own personal debt situation regardless of your governments' ambivalence. Be a leader.

These are some of the beliefs, attitudes, convictions, and habits that savers share in common. For further reading I suggest Tom Stanley's books "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind." I am available to help activate some or all of the above.

"Kris Freeberg is an Economist in private practice who helps households, businesses, and public and nonprofit agencies make ends meet.  More about his practice can be learned at www.makinendsmeet.com"