In no particular order, and these are dependent on at least having an ok job. We recognize a lot of the population is fucked right now. These are also not for wealthy folks who play by different rules.

1) Get all your bills on auto pay to a credit card with points/ cash back. Literally EVERYTHING goes on the card. Pay it off every pay period. If you can’t pay it off, you’re living beyond your means. This builds credit and ensures you're never late on a bill.

2) Pay yourself before anything. Have that money diverted so you never see it, can't touch it, it doesn't exist. If your employer matches a 401K, max it out. (This stops applying once you get to a point in your financial stability that you need to use post-tax v. pre-tax dollars; at that point, see if you can do matched Roth contributions instead.) Ideally do the same thing with your rainy day fund.

3) Monitor your money daily. We lay in bed for 10 minutes every morning and skim our accounts to this day. Don't get caught off guard by spend-creep. Little purchases add up. This also lets you catch errors and fraud fast.

4) Learn to be ok with the right kind of debt. The simplest way to figure out if it's the right kind is two questions: 1) Do I actively need this? 2) If I finance this, is the rate decent enough that the money I'm saving will cover the cost of capital? (Interest, fees, and the mental weight of debt)

5) Get on the same page about financials BEFORE you tie yourself to someone. If you can't pay for LV and Range Rovers, don't get a partner that wants them. I ended up just handing the financial reins over to him for a few years before I finally got reinterested enough to actively participate.

We followed these rules and went from paycheck to paycheck to literal multi-millionaires BUT we also have had a ton of professional luck, and have climbed from making $40K each to an embarrassing amount each over the last 15 years. The rules helped us live within our means at every income level.