What you do with your first ten dollars says a lot about what you’ll do with your first ten thousand.

Habits scale, amounts do not. How you handle ten dollars shows the pattern already running, whether you spend it the moment it lands, whether any of it goes to anybody else, whether you can bear to leave some untouched. A bigger number later does not install a new pattern; it just makes the existing one louder. People assume they will become generous and careful when there is more. Mostly they become more of whatever they already were.

Split your next pay packet three ways before you spend any of it. Something kept, something given, something enjoyed without guilt.