The person who can accurately estimate his or her future expenses and then be able to pay each of those expenses in a timely manner when each of those expenses becomes due and payable is a wise financial planner. A wise financial planner also has some control over how much each of those future expenses will be.
For example, if his or her utility expenses exceed his or her estimate of such expenses, steps can usually be taken to reduce such expenses by using less electricity and/or gas each month. The same is true for the use of the phone and cable or satellite television service. Clearly, it does not make wise financial sense to pay for the use of telephone land line service when you also have wireless cell phone service.
The point here is that if you spend money for things that you can live without, that money is wasted because you can easily save that amount or invest that much on things that will increase in value as time passes. That is called building a nest egg for your future retirement. Besides making and sticking to a monthly budget, you can spend your excess earnings on items that will appreciate in value as time passes. Doing so will prevent the loss of the purchasing power of your accumulated savings.
Therefore, it is wise to purchase real estate and tangible personal property at times when the purchase is far less than its true value. Those times happen to be when the economy within a country is economically depressed, as such is currently the case for the people within the United States of America. If you would have spent your life savings to purchase gold five years ago the purchasing power of your life savings would have increased more than 300%. That is a fact and it still is possible that the price of gold, as well as silver, gemstones and other metals will continue to rise as long as the World economy continues to remain the same or become worse as time passes.
People need jobs in order to earn the money that allows them to remain healthy and alive. Being unemployed, people will sell their items of value for pennies on the dollar, thus providing the buyer of those items to make a whole lot of money after the economy improves, allowing the seller to receive a price for each item that better reflects the true value of the items in question. You better believe that doing so will bring a greater return on your investment than what a bank or other financial institution will pay you for the use of your money.
So now you have a few ways in which to wisely spend and/or invest your hard earned money. Having a plan to do so is just the first step to achieving your goal of financial security.