MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins

you set up this metaphorical machine and maintain it properly, it will hold the power of a thousand generators. It will run around the clock, 365 days a year, with an extra day during leap years—and on the Fourth of July, too.
    Take a look at the accompanying graphic, and you’ll get a better idea how it works.
    As you can see, the “machine” can’t start working until you make the most important financial decision of your life. The decision? What portion of your paycheck you get to keep. How much will you pay yourself— off the top, before you spend a single dollar on your day-to-day living expenses? How much of your paycheck can you (or, more importantly, will you) leave untouched, no matter what else is going on in your life? I really want you to think about this number, because the rest of your life will be determined by your decision to keep a percentage of your income today in order to always have money for yourself in your future. The goal here is to enable you to step off the nine-to-five conveyor belt and walk the path to financial freedom. The way to start off on that path is to make this simple decision and begin to tap into the unmatched power of compounding. And the great thing about this decision is that you get to make it. You ! No one else!
     
I can’t afford to waste my time making money.
—JEAN LOUIS AGASSIZ
    Let’s spend some time on this idea, because the money you set aside for savings will become the core of your entire financial plan. Don’t even think of it as savings! I call it your Freedom Fund, because freedom is what it’s going to buy you, now and in the future. Understand, this money represents just a portion of what you earn. It’s for you and your family. Save a fixed percentage each pay period, and then invest it intelligently, and over time you’ll start living a life where your money works for you instead of you working for your money. And you don’t have to wait for the process to start working its magic.
    You might say, “But Tony, where do I come up with the money to save? I’m already spending all the money I have.” We’ll talk about a simple yet extraordinary technique to make saving money painless. But in the meantime, let me remind you of my friend Angela, the one who realized she could drive a new car for half the money she was spending on her old car. Well, guess what she did with 50% of the money she was paying out? She put ittoward her Freedom Fund—her investment for life. When we started, she thought she couldn’t save anything; the next thing you know she was saving 10%. Then she even added an additional 8% from her savings on the cost of the car for short-term goals as well! But she never touches the 10% of her income that is locked in for her future!
     

    In the end, it doesn’t matter how much money you earn. As we have seen, if you don’t set aside some of it, you can lose it all. But here you won’t just set it aside stuffed under your mattress. You’ll accumulate it in an environment you feel certain is safe but still offers the opportunity for it to grow. You’ll invest it—and, if you follow the Money Power Principles covered in these pages, you’ll watch it grow to a kind of tipping point, where it canbegin to generate enough in interest to provide the income you need for the rest of your life.

     
    You might have heard some financial advisors call this pile of money a nest egg. It is a nest egg, but I call it your money machine because if you continue to feed it and manage it carefully, it will grow into a critical mass: a safe, secure pile of assets invested in a risk-protected, tax-efficient environment that earns enough money to meet your day-to-day expenses, your rainy-day emergency needs, and your sunset days of retirement spending.
    Sound complicated? It’s actually pretty simple. Here’s an easy way to picture it: imagine a box you’ll fill with your investment savings. You’ll put money into it every pay period—a set