The first thing I did when I decided to save was not a spreadsheet of investments. It was a list of where the money went. It was boring and a little embarrassing, and it changed more than anything I bought later.
Two numbers matter: what comes in and what goes out. The difference is what you save, and the share of your salary you keep is the one figure that predicts how the chart ends. Ten percent gets you a retirement at the usual age. Thirty gets you choices. Fifty gets you a chart most people do not believe.
Pay yourself first: move the saving out on payday, before the month gets a chance to spend it, and live on the rest. It sounds backwards. It is the only order that works.
Two people, twenty and forty years on
Ana moves the saving out on payday and lives on the rest. Ivo never made the list, and about a tenth of the salary leaks out unnoticed every month.