The reason that many budgets and other financial changes do not work is that they aren't thought through completely. Many people try to implement a cookie-cutter budget that neither fits their life or their money. Some simply try to keep it short and easy, ignoring what is really going on. Too many look for the easy way out, such as consolidation or blissful ignorance.

We could all become financially successful if we simply changed the way we think. I don't think it is a stretch at all to say that thinking has changed drastically over the past thirty years. Credit cards are now prevalent, commercialism has even spread to the schools and advertisments bombard us at every corner.

When you are trying to change your life, tasks can overwhelm you. Change often feels like such a large task. Especially when it comes to money.

Sacrifices have been made. People have been killed, wars have been fought, civil disobedience campaigns have been waged and in some countries governments have been overthrown. The lengths to which mankind has at various times gone to achieve freedom is extraordinary.

If you ask thirty of your friends that invest in the stock market what their average returns have been for the last decade, chances are that their returns are all within a same range of returns give or take 5%. However perhaps one will stand out of the crowd, averaging 15%, 20% or even 25% annual returns. And chances are that this one person that has drastically outperformed everyone else is doing something drastically different than all the others.