How I help people relax about money.

Here's how I can do it : My six simple rules on how to relax around money.

Everybody knows how to lose weight. The rules couldn’t be simpler: eat less and exercise more so you burn more calories than you take in. Yet many dieters break the rules, or cheat on them “just a little,” or avoid the rules and then rationalize their avoidance. They go out and buy the latest diet book, hoping for a magic bullet that will let them quite literally have their cake and eat it too. But there’s no such thing, and continuing to insist on one is a somewhat childish response.

   The rules about money are pretty simple, too. And everybody knows them. I’ve distilled them down to a quick half dozen, and I’ll wager that you nod with recognition over each one:

1. Pause, take a breath, think, and look at the numbers before any financial decision.
2. Diversify your investments into different asset classes.
3. Buy low and sell high by rebalancing your portfolio. Get aggressive when the market is down and act warily when the market is up.
4. Keep track of your cash flow and net worth.
5. Spend less than you earn now, not as much as you might earn in the future.
6. Save something and give something—regularly.

Simple, right? Yet from top to bottom, these rules are broken, bent, or circumvented as routinely as the dieter’s rule about skipping dessert or exercising for half an hour every day.

      Which rule is hardest for you to keep?  Can you think of something you can do to play by that rule, just for today?