You have to put what you learn into action.

One book I enjoyed as much as Rich Dad, Poor Dad was The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason. The book has some very simple lessons about wealth.

One of the more difficult lessons is "a part of what you earn is yours to keep", which works with another lesson of "set thy purse to fattening". The idea is that you should save some of your income no matter the circumstances. He is credited as coming up with the saying that you should "pay yourself first".

This lesson makes sense. Money will always be short. If you pay out 100% of your income, you'll still need more money. If you pay out 90% of your income and save 10%, you could eventually have enough savings to invest in something that generates wealth. Yes, your creditors will howl and gnash their teeth that they need to be paid, and they will from the 90%. The other 10% is yours. You're not working for them, you're working for you.

It is a simple lesson. Yet it is so difficult to put into practice. I've done this several times. At some point, I lose my way and end up spending my savings, leading me back to financial struggles.

There is a more recent book popular book titled Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, which pretty much tells you the same thing, except he uses dedicated bank accounts to allocate money. One account for all your income that you use to distribute to other accounts for taxes, business expenses, owner's pay, and profit. You can set up other accounts, depending on your needs. The profit account is the one that collects the money that is yours to keep. It's forced budgeting, which is difficult to maintain when you are inclined to pay everybody else first.

My point in all this is that we need to put what we learn into practice.