the richest man in atherstone

I was looking back over my old accounts today and was slightly taken aback by how far I've come over the previous three years.

Back in 2005 I read 'The Richest Man in Babylon' by George S. Clason and decided to dedicate five years of my life putting in practice the wealth accumulation tactics described in this inspirational text. When I began the project, I hadn't really had much previous interest in financial matters and, after nearly a decade of working, had just £3000 to show for it. The graph below shows how I have progressed over the years:

I achieved this through a mixture of reducing my expenditures, saving 10% of my income, experimenting with different savings and investment vehicles and earning additional income to my salary.

Year one (2005 to 2006) showed the biggest increase in value mainly due a complete blitz on all my expenditures and consolidating all my existing savings into a single decent savings account - this took quite a bit of work due to my previous lack of paperwork organisation.

Between 2006 and 2008, I have managed to accumulate an average of £3000 per year, which has been an little more than 10% of my salary over the period.

I am pleased with the way my net worth has increased in value over the last three years but I'm even more impressed by how much I've learned over the period. I've changed from someone that didn't really understand interest rates, mortgages, types of investment vehicles etc. to someone that has a fundamental grounding in a growing number of financial subjects.

There's still a long long way to go both in terms of things to learn about and accumulating enough wealth to retire at the age of fifty (my primary long-term goal) but these last few years have given me a solid foundation on which to build and I can say with truth that I've enjoyed every step of the journey so far.