What I Learned From My Faltering Business

Back when I started my journey to “financial freedom” I picked up one very important habit that I had never had before, I started saving money. I also started tracking every expense, large or small. If I bought bread at the shop downstairs (which was in Paris at the time, oh, how I miss Paris!) I would write it down.

I started saving just a tiny bit, and then as I made more cash online I started saving a lot and I spent very little. This was the total opposite of what I had done for 30 years. My savings grew, I made some investments and I started building wealth.

Then…I started investing in my little Internet operation. I started hiring people to do things and grow, which was smart. But! And this is a big but, in the process I started losing my newly formed habit of saving - the reason being that I reinvested every last cent and never accumulated anything in my business account.

This worked well for a while as traffic grew but I always assumed whatever I was investing in would keep bringing me greater returns, or maintain the returns. I never thought that all my investment could be rendered worthless or worth much less at the flip of switch. Therefore, I never saved in my business any of the good returns I had for a while. So now I’m left with much less cash flow and no business savings.

My lack of discipline saving in my business also corroded the good habits I formed with my personal expenses. I saved much less than I could have and I stopped keeping my cash flow sheet.

So my lesson is this: I must always save something; hold on to some wealth and let it accumulate. Even if the intention is to invest and grow, a portion must always be carefully saved (not necessarily in cash). I think even the governments of the world could apply that lesson.