Recently I barely avoided a potential financial disaster. Like many people who bank online and try to automate their life, all of my bills are paid through my online banking. Month after month for several years I’ve had complete faith in knowing that my bills were paid in full and on time.

Until recently…

Even though my bills are paid automatically, I still find paper statements in my mailbox every month. Like clockwork, I check my mail and there it is. Knowing that it is just a bill that will be taken care of by my trusty online banking setup, I proceed to toss the bill in the shredder without looking at it.

Last week was different. For some odd reason, I had a minute in my life with absolutely nothing to do. So I decided to kill time by actually looking at my mail. It took 30 seconds to turn nothing to do to a raging headache that made me late for my weekend travels.

I looked at my mortgage statement and noticed that I was past due on my payment and had a $50 late fee assessed. I figured it had to be a mistake and promptly got on the phone with customer service.

This “mistake” ended with me driving to my branch to speak with my personal banker in order to get everything fixed. Turns out the property value of my house was re-assessed and the escrow payment my bank requires me to pay increased. Since my automatic bill payment sent a partial payment for the old amount, my bank considered the payment outstanding.

In the end there was no harm done other than my blood pressure going through the roof, but of course this could have been completely avoided if I took the time to open my bills.

Long story short, just because my bills are being payed automatically, I’ll be sure to not get too comfortable in knowing everything is being taken care of. In the end, it’s ultimately my responsibility to make sure my bills are paid on time and in full – not my computer’s.

Next to stuffing your hard earned money under your mattress, your savings account may be the worst place to put your money.

Inflation rises at 3 – 4 percent a year, which means for every $1 you have now, it will only be worth $0.96 next year, and the following year it will only be worth $0.92. That may not seem significant, but over the course of time, the value of your money decreases significantly. According to this inflation calculator, $1 in 1997 only has the buying power of something that costs $1.31 in 2007 dollars. In other words, over the course of 10 years your dollar is only worth $0.79.

Imagine that your $100,000 savings is only worth $79,000 just because it was parked in a simple savings account that paid less than 1 percent interest on your hard earned money.
As someone who is working to increase their net worth, you obviously want to get the highest return for your money. However, the potential rate of return generally comes with risk or tying up your money for a specific amount of time. Of course you can’t lock up all of your money in investments because you need cash on hand to pay your bills and get through life.

Your excess cash, however, should be in an account that at least keeps up with the rate of inflation. Otherwise you are losing money as time goes by. An online high-yield savings account, for instance, gives you the benefit of being able to access your money with an ATM card, while providing a nice yield that will keep up with or exceed inflation rates.

Millionaire Money Habit: Keep only the money you need to get through life in a simple savings or checking account. Put the rest of your savings in an account that will beat inflation rates so you are not losing money by having your cash stashed in a low-yielding account. If you can stand to not touch the money for 10+ years, your best bet may be the stock market. Otherwise seek fixed-income investments, such as a CD, or a high-yield savings account like HSBC.

The belief of not being able to afford things can have a very restrictive power. It can prevent you from accomplishing more and experiencing things you want to do. Instead, you’re left thinking to yourself, “I wonder what it would be like if . . .” or “I wish I could.”

If you want to accomplish more, achieve a goal, or even purchase something that is currently out of your price range, then do it.

Instead of giving up without trying, change that thought process. Get rid of the “I wish” and “I can’t,” and replace it with “How . . .”

• How can I afford to do X
• How can I make $X
• How do I accomplish X

It’s amazing what you can achieve and how creative you can get when you put your mind to something.

I was recently reminded of this because my sister and I were discussing how I am planning a trip to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and go on an African safari next year. She got choked up because this has always been her dream. That’s when she started to say those limiting things. “You’re so lucky you get to do that. It’s always been my dream and wish I could go.”

It really left my puzzled and simply replied, “You should come with me.” She followed with the, “I can’t. I wouldn’t be able to afford it.” That’s where the discussion ended.

To me, that just doesn’t make much sense. I haven’t set the money aside to pay for the trip, but that’s because I have yet to take the steps to create my budget.

In fact, I rarely pay for anything. Anytime I have an upcoming expense or I want something that will cost something, I simply find a way to make other people finance it for me. I might have the money, but why use it when I don’t have to.

I’m guessing this trip will cost upwards of $5,000. As soon as I was invited on this trip I said “yes” without hesitation – without looking at my bank account to see if I can afford it or thinking what it could cost. I immediately knew it was something I wanted to do, and therefore I will simply create the money. That’s why it is called making money.

Sometime within the next year, I’ll find a way to provide something of value, and I’ll have my entire trip paid for from the people that wanted what I had to offer. That way I don’t have to use any of my own money.

For example, when I was in college I wanted a new laptop. Business were just starting to catch on to the internet thing, but had incredibly slow computers that were infected by viruses and spyware.

So, I went door to door and asked the small business owners about their computer problems and offered to try to fix their computers. I did a couple things to clean up their computers, and they saw instant results.
Then I told them how with their high-speed connection and the amount of data that is being transferred on their machines, the problem will just come back over time. That’s when I introduced them to the disk I had in my backpack, which contained a document I created on how to do exactly what I just did. The disk also included a trial of a virus protection software program, which I had the rights to distribute for free.

I offered to sell the disk for $50 for each computer they owned, and promised to visit anytime they needed help. Looking back, I probably should have found a way to earn money when they upgraded the trial on the antivirus program as well.

At any rate, it didn’t take long for me to earn enough money to buy my laptop, with plenty of left over to enjoy the typical college lifestyle. All financed by Dean’s Sandwich Shop and the local travel agency.

This is how I tackle most of my incidental expenses in my life. If there’s an upcoming expense, I find a way for someone else to pay for it. That allows me to use my money for much better things, like investing.

Millionaire Money Habit: It’s amazing how creative and resourceful you can become when you think “how can I pay for this” rather than “can I pay for this.” Get rid of the limiting belief system, and this simple change in perception can create an entirely new outlook in life.