“I need to make a deposit,” I said out loud to an empty apartment.

I sat on the floor at the foot of my bed with papers spread all around me.

Bank statements, receipts, a checkbook, a notebook where I kept track of my “budget.”

A curly landline phone cord stretched across the room from its normal spot beside my bed. I punched numbers into the handset, hoping the robot voice on the other end of the line would help me.

I was close to overdrawing my bank account. Again.

This was a common scene for me in college, in the dark ages before online banking.

In fact, this was a common scene for me for the first 10 years of my adult life.

Back then, I treated my bank account like a demanding, hungry teenager. It seemed like no matter how much I fed it, it always needed more.

I spent my waking hours trying to figure out how to make sure it didn’t get completely empty or worse – overdrawn. It was a constant cycle of stress.

I felt like a slave to my monthly expenses.

Then, I began learning about the concept of investment.

An investment is when you make a different kind of deposit. Not one to cover this month’s spending, but a deposit you plan not to spend. At least not for a long time.

Why on earth would someone deposit money and not spend it?

So that the money you invest can multiply…and you (or your kids) can spend some of it in the future.

This concept of investment began to invade every area of my thinking.

What were these monthly expenses I was rushing to “cover” every month?

Was I buying food that was in investment in my health? Or buying junk because I wanted it “right now”?

Was I investing in products and services that would help me multiply as a person? Or buying things I didn’t need?

It began to transform the way I looked at money altogether.

I started to see money as a tool I could use to help build our future… or a resource I could waste. It was my choice.

I was no longer a slave. I was in charge. I got to choose how my little kingdom would flourish and thrive.

Soon, I found it easy to stay within my budget. I became much more thoughtful about what I was spending my money on, and spent less as a result. Even with a small income, I found a way to start putting money aside in savings.

This simple shift in thinking helped me move forward in every area of my life. I had to change my thinking if I wanted to change my result.

The same holds true for you.

The way you view and handle money will have a direct impact on whether you reach your dreams…or you don’t. Are you investing? Or do you feel like a slave to your monthly expenses?

Before you spend money, ask yourself: “Will buying this bring me closer to the life that I want? Or am I wasting resources?”

The choice is yours.