Cumulative Advantage

Have you ever, as a result of hard work and dedication noticed that when you are able to get one thing to go your way, other things begin to follow?

Perhaps it was that first promotion that elevated you to a place where the quality of your work would be seen by an even greater number of people? Or, maybe it was your volunteer efforts that inspired many others to join in, multiplying the impact?

The phenomenon contains an explanation.

Success comes one small advantage at a time.

This profound saying about life provides excellent context for personal finance. If you can begin to move in the right direction, and develop consistently in your approach, positive results are an inevitability.

Let’s look at an example.

Jaclyn’s Journey

Jaclyn is a 36-year old nurse, with a husband and two children. Always a hard worker, she has built and maintained a strong reputation at work, solidifying herself as one of the finest practitioners in the hospital.

But, for the duration of her 20’s, her financial life had no direction. She barely contributed to retirement, saved very little, and was a profligate spender. After meeting her husband and settling down to build a family, she realized…neither of them were particularly effective when it came to managing their financial lives.

Eager to do better for her children, she began to self-educate. She consumed information online, read well-known personal finance books, and found a mentor (a family friend with a penchant for financial well-being). She rapidly acquired knowledge, and was soon educating her husband on all that she was learning. Once on board, he too felt they needed to take action. And did they ever…

They set up time on an on-going basis to discuss financial priorities (defining needs vs. wants), establishing budgets, and finding ways to make their money work for them. Their debt-load is now nearly extinct (except for the mortgage…which they intend to pay off aggressively), with investments growing and compounding while they sleep.

Jaclyn’s net worth (assets minus liabilities) has skyrocketed.

It all began with a desire to learn, and a willingness to take action…each step becoming its own advantage.

When you add up each of these small advantages- the desire to be better, the initiation of the learning process, and then action- you have cultivated your own superpower.

Cumulative advantage.