Money can make many things and also it can make monkey things. It all depends how well you will utilize it.Old or young, male or female, regardless of education, talent or qualifications. There are just few steps to take youfrom zero to well overa million dollars and each step is to be discussed in this section every week. Money is volatile.1. Save 10 cents from every R1 you earn. If you put away at least 10 percent of your income as part of a long-termsavings plan, there is agood chance that you will have a financially secure future and be able to attain your financial goals.2. Put 10 percent of every pay increase towards savings, particularly long-term savings such as a retirement plan.If you are employedand belong to a retirement fund, your contributions will increase automatically in proportion to your pay rises. Thiswill help ensure thatyou stay well ahead of inflation.3. Use the “Can I sleep?” judgment when making investments. An investment is too risky if you are going to lieawake at night worryingabout it.4. Diversify your investments. Never invest more than five percent of your assets in a narrow investment (forexample, a specialist unittrust fund such as an emerging company one) or in an unregulated investment. Diversifying your investments willensure you don’t loseeverything if one investment bombs out. Many people who invested all their assets in major scams such asMasterbond lost everything,and the same thing can happen in the regulated market if you put all your money into one sector ... just considerhow the informationtechnology bubble burst in 2000.5. Be extremely cautious if the returns promised on an investment exceed what is generally available. If they soundtoo good to be true,they probably are. It usually means the investment is too ambitious in its claims, too risky, or simply a scam.6. Know the difference between effective and nominal interest rates. Normally, banks will quote you a nominalinterest rate when lendingyou money, but a higher, effective interest rate when you invest money. The nominal interest rate is the simplerate. The effective rate iscalculated by compounding the interest earned or charged.7. Check whether the interest you are being paid is credited monthly, quarterly or annually. Say you invest R10000 for 10 years. If youreceive interest at 10 percent credited annually, you will get a total return of R25 937. If it is credited monthly, youwill receive R27 070.8. How do you decide whether you should invest directly in shares? Simple. If you haven’t got the time to learnabout stock markets, tofollow the progress of companies or to track your portfolio, rather invest in unit trust funds and/or life assuranceendowment policies thathave shares as their underlying investments.9. If you do invest directly in shares, your two most important considerations should be ensuring that you have aproperly diversifiedselection of shares across the stock market sectors to reduce risk, and regularly rebalancing your portfolio. Whena share rises in price,you should consider selling some, but not all, of these shares, so that you make a profit, but your overall portfolioremains proportionallythe same as it was when you started. By doing this, you’ll be able to reap further profits if the share price continuesto rise.10. If an investment product is too complicated to understand, avoid it. It does not mean you are stupid. It simplymeans that the productprovider and/or financial adviser are trying to baffle you.11. Always check the costs of any investment product. Some products are prohibitively expensive. You should begiven a breakdown ofthe costs in three ways: as a percentage of your investment; as a fixed amount; and as the amount by which thecosts will reduce yourinvestment at maturity date. Be very careful if the costs are more than six percent at entry and more than twopercent a year thereafter.12. Always check how much commission is being paid to your financial adviser. Some financial products –particularly those offered byso-called linked investment product providers – come with particularly high costs and commissions. Highcommissions can be aperverse incentive for advisers to mis-sell.13. A product offering a range of underlying investment product choices, such as a wide collection of unit trustfunds, is often not in yourbest interests and may come at additional cost. Be very cautious if anyone recommends that you invest in a linkedinvestment productwith a wide selection of underlying investment choices. Remember that linked investment products come in manyforms and are alsooffered by life assurance companies. The simpler and cheaper solution may be to invest in a properly diversifiedunit trust fund, such asan asset allocation fund that offers underlying investments in all the main asset classes, such as cash, bonds andshares.14. Don’t be afraid to negotiate commissions/fees for financial advice. Most financial products allow you to do this.After all, it is yourmoney.15. If you have a choice, should you pay a fee or commission for financial advice? As a general rule, a fee is betterfor large amounts ofmoney and a commission for smaller amounts.16. If you are a true investor, you invest for the long term and you don’t panic when markets fall. If you want toinvest for the short term, youshould use a bank term deposit or a money market account rather than an investment in the equity markets.17. It is time in the market and not timing the market that counts. Don’t try to time markets or sectors of markets.Few people have gotrich from doing this and most have lost money. The best way to get rich is to take time to select an investmentproduct that has properlydiversified underlying investments, and then to stick with it for the long term. Most people make the fundamentalerror of buying into aninvestment when it is at the peak of its performance and then selling out when its value has dropped.