Put a part of every income aside before you spend any of it.
Save before you spend.
Payday every month. You choose. The other saves first.
Save on payday, before the month starts. What is left at the end is rarely much.
← Red LinesRed Line 1 of 48 The idea Why first works How people do it Where it bends This game’s numbersHow strong the proof isBGood proof, with limits Where it comes from
Most people save what is left at the end of the month, and little is left. Turn it round: the saving goes first, on payday, and the month lives on the rest.
Spending grows to fill whatever is in the account. Pay €2,000 and keep 10% first: €200 a month, €2,400 a year, and the month lives on €1,800. Wait for the leftovers and the jar stays empty.
A standing order on payday moves the part before you see it. The book’s rule was a tenth of everything you earn.
With expensive debt, paying it off comes before saving: a card at 19% costs more than savings earn.
Worked out on this page
Saving taken first, by itself, raises saving a lot in large real-world studies, but most of them are workplace pension plans in the US.
- Save More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, Journal of Political Economy 112(S1), S164-S187, 2004
- The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior Brigitte C. Madrian & Dennis F. Shea, Quarterly Journal of Economics 116(4), 1149-1187, 2001
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · How we grade
- A Strong proof: Many good studies or long official data, from different teams or countries, point the same way.
- B Good proof, with limits: Solid studies agree on the direction, but the size varies, or the data covers few places or few kinds of people.
- C Mixed proof: Some good studies for, some against, or the evidence covers only part of the line.
- D Thin proof: Mostly one book’s argument, one survey or stories. It may be wise, but it has not been tested well.
- = True by the sums: It follows from arithmetic, so no study can overturn it. We still show what real data says.
George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon (1926). In our words, not quoted.
See it in numbers: Compounding · Debt (From Zero)
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