Managing your money, for both your business and in your personal life, can be a daunting prospect. With the new year, many of us are thinking about how we can best allocate our resources and set budgets that will help reap the biggest rewards. But how should you be thinking about the best way to take care of your funds? Take a page out of the playbook of some of the worlds biggest billionaires.
![Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock (9309598ed) Oprah Winfrey poses in the press room with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, Calif 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards - Press Room, Beverly Hills, USA - 07 Jan 2018](http://abovewhispers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/oprah-winfrey-backstage-golden-globes.jpg)
Oprah Winfrey poses in the press room with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, Calif
75th Annual Golden Globe Awards – Press Room, Beverly Hills, USA – 07 Jan 2018
1. Make an investment in yourself.
2. Remember your net worth isn’t your self worth.
Though Laurene Powell Jobs might be most easily recognized as the widow of the late Steve Jobs, she is a businesswoman in her own right. The philanthropist is worth $20 billion and is the founder of nonprofits College Track and the Emerson Collective, which focus on education, conservation, immigration reform and supporting underserved communities. “My relationship with money is that it’s a tool to be self-sufficient, but it’s not something that is a part of who I am,” Jobs told Walter Isaacson.
![Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma performed a magic trick during the Singles’ Day countdown gala hosted on Nov. 10. (photo courtesy of the company)](http://abovewhispers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AliBaba-Smashes.jpg)
3. Start early and stay steady.
The “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett is known for being thoughtful with his investments and how he approaches money. One piece of advice that he gave during a speech at the University of Notre Dame in 1991 is proof of that: “I’ve seen more people fail because of liquor and leverage — leverage being borrowed money. You really don’t need leverage in this world much. If you’re smart, you’re going to make a lot of money without borrowing.”
5. Sign all your checks.
6. Remember that money won’t solve everything.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma is now the wealthiest man in China, but before his riches, one of Ma’s earliest gigs out of college was earning $20 a month as an English teacher. During a conversation at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2014, Ma said that millions of dollars can be a “headache” because of the attendant responsibilities.
In an interview with Bloomberg in 2017, Ma had this to say about his $49.5 billion net worth: “I don’t have time to spend money. People say, ‘Jack, you can spend money better than government, better than the other guys.’ So you have all the assets. How can you spend better? Increase my own private assets? How much many can you spend in your life?”