If the thought of sorting your budget is about as inspiring as watching endless re-runs of Shortland Street, then we have good news. There is a much simpler way to slowly build wealth and improve your lifestyle bit by bit.

If you’re not in the 0.0000026% who are lucky to win lotto, your best bet is to grow your money and investing know-how over time and get rich slow. In our Getting Started Course, you’ll have learned that consistency is one of the keys to building wealth over time - it may not sound glamorous, but then again, neither does losing all your lotto winnings because you don’t have good financial habits in place.

Paying yourself first is one of the oldest rules of personal finance. Every financial guru and their book will tell you to do it, and theoretically it’s super easy: When you get paid, immediately set aside your investment money. Do it when you pay your phone bill, or your credit card but before buying the coat you’ve been eyeing up. Think of your future as a highly loved item that you’ve put on Lay Buy and prioritise it above all your other spending.

When you pay yourself first, you’re telling yourself that YOU are your priority, not the million other things competing for that cash. It’s a simple mental trick you can play to counter the effects of years and years of living in consumer culture.

Sound good in theory but completely impractical?

When you’re in the habit of paying yourself last, it can be impossible to imagine how whipping $100 out of your weekly budget is a plausible endeavour. Many people worry that paying themselves first means running out of money later - if you’re struggling to keep up with your current lifestyle, how can you afford to pay yourself first?

The answer is simple: You just do it.

Experts and quasi experts (gah Rich Dad, Poor Dad, not our favourite book!) point to our ingrained social norms, those almost instinctive tendencies that make it vital for us to turn our finances on their head. The thing is, humans are really good at sorting out our short term problems. When you can’t touch the money you’ve paid yourself and things are looking tight, you’ll cut your Spotify premium account, get a second job, not buy the coat.

Prioritising our future selves however, is a leap too far for our brains. We’re not wired to care as much about 20 years in the future as we are about today. It’s a survival thing. So when you pay yourself last and have nothing left to invest, you won’t get that job, or cut Spotify. You won’t feel any immediate pain from not investing, and you’ll be able to ignore any future downsides like a champ.

The truth is that no matter how good your intentions are, if you don’t pay yourself first, you’ll wind up putting yourself last. No one wants a future lifestyle that’s paid for with leftover change. We want to live our best lives now and in the future.

Paying yourself first, in practice

As with everything we preach about investing, the goal is to start small, and start today. We know our motivational and inspirational prose will have you planning to start setting aside half your pay. Please don’t.

We mean it when we say get rich slow. This is a long term game, and like anyone who’s ever tried a diet will tell you, drastic change isn’t sustainable. We want lifestyle change, and not the kind of ‘lifestyle change’ that drastic diets promote. Start really small, extremely small.

Chances are, you know roughly what’s left in your account before each payday. Start by paying yourself that, and get some early wins. With Hatch, you can deposit a small fixed amount every week or month, then set up auto-investments to put that money to work.

As you see your money grow, you’ll naturally become more motivated to pay yourself more, or at least get comfortable with the idea of gradual increases! So take one small step today and make a giant leap towards a better future. Whether it’s paying yourself $50 or $500 before you do anything else with your income, set up an automatic payment today. In 20 years time, it’ll be like you won lotto, but with the extra bonus of the financial skills to enjoy your windfall.

Compounding returns

Check out our latest video series where our Head of Product, Natalie Ferguson, breaks down what compounding returns are and how they work, as well as how you can turn this global crisis into what could potentially be a once in a life time opportunity for your future.