BizSugar.com › Success Stories › The Best Piece of Business Advice I Ever Received: “Always Live on Last Year's Income."

I’ve followed this advice in some form virtually every year since receiving it and it’s provided huge dividends – both economic and psychological.
Economically, it worked because my income was going up every year and following this guideline amounted to a forced savings program with a very simple guideline that was easy to remember and easy to follow.
I simply took the excess and invested it in income-producing real estate and maxed out my retirement plans. It wasn’t long before the income from the real estate was enough to live on.. (It’s worth noting that real estate is not the business I’m in. Putting money into that space was a form of diversification.)
It was particularly powerful when my income starting soaring because I had already established the habit of living below my means.