As the saying goes, cash is king in so many ways. When you have cash available, it’s easier to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, you can get discounts on the products or services you buy, and you’re less dependent on the fickle winds of fate.

This cash doesn’t have to literally be money you can hold in your hand. It’s usually money that you have available in a bank account for daily expenses, future needs (both planned and unplanned), and desires.

Right about now you might be thinking, “Sure, it’d be nice to pay cash for everything. But let’s get real. Sometimes you have to borrow money to get ahead.”

Well, you can make sure that you have enough cash for the things you want and need without borrowing money. Sometimes what you have to be is patient and committed. I don’t buy things any longer unless I have the money available already. It took a while to get to this stage, but I did get here.

There are three keys to doing so: spending less than you earn, planning ahead for expenses, and keeping a sharp eye on your cash flow.

You see, it’s really having a positive cash FLOW that’s king. On an individual level, cash flow is essentially the movement of money in and out of your bank account. When you have more coming in than going out, you have a positive cash flow.

When you have a positive cash flow (and some good insurance), you don’t find yourself falling deeper and deeper into debt. Instead, you find more and more opportunities opening up for you. Getting to that positive cash flow takes planning and the ability to say things like “no”, “not right now”, and “how can I do this for less without sacrificing quality?”.

Before you can get to positive cash flow, you’ll need to see what you’re spending your money on, when you typically need to have it available to spend, and how much income you have coming in when. Remember to take things like taxes and other irregular expenses into account as well.

At first it will be hard to juggle things, because expenses rarely line up conveniently with income. To combat this, you can do things like changing the due dates for your expenses (where possible) and building up a cushion of cash that acts like an operating account.

Sometimes people have feast or famine type income, which was pretty common for me until a few years ago. In that situation, it’s important to remember that the famine is coming while you’re enjoying some of the feast. Setting aside more than enough for the future is critical when you’re flush so that you can slowly dole it out when you’re not.

Of course, increasing your income while maintaining or lowering your expenses makes it even easier to reach a positive cash flow. You can do this through side jobs, selling things you no longer need, asking for a raise, switching jobs, starting a new business, etc.

The beginning stages are usually the hardest part, but once you get through them things get easier and easier because you have more and more money available as time goes on. Then you can step up and take advantage of opportunities that folks who are cash strapped can’t. Cash (and cash flow) really is king.

You’ve probably heard the saying the goes like this: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

I like that saying, because it reminds me that while I can’t change the past, now is exactly the right time for me to get started on (or continue working on) the things I want to do.

Financially, this means that I can start out each day by asking myself what I can do to move forward.

Saving money and investing is important to me, so I can move a little money toward those items — or at the very least I can ask myself whether what I’m about to buy is worth it before spending money.

It also means that I don’t need to keep actively kicking myself about that $1000 that I spent unwisely years ago, or about the time I withdrew money from my 401k.

Instead, I can focus on now. Now is exactly the right time — and the best time.

Is there something you’ve been neglecting or putting off when it comes to your money? Here are some oft-neglected areas of personal finance:

• Creating a will
• Making a spending plan/budget
• Funding retirement
• Saving for college

Notice anything interesting about that list?

The first two items deal with things we’d rather not think about. If we make a will, we admit in black and white that we’re going to die someday. Who wants to admit that?

If we make a budget or a spending plan, we might have to change, or at the very least shine a spotlight on our current habits. We resist being “told what to do”, even when we’re the ones doing the telling.

The next two items deal with things that feel very far away, so they are easy to put off. Other things feel more urgent, right up until the very last minute. That’s when we realize — too late — that we’d have been a lot better off if we had only started sooner.

Or we may assume we don’t need to plan for those things at all. We intend to work forever and our children will get scholarships. But what if we can’t and they don’t? At that point our choices are limited.

It’s not too late to handle any of the things we’ve been putting off. In fact, it’s time to take action today.

Choose one thing you’ve been avoiding and write it down. (I like to use Google docs for stuff like this, but anything will do.) Now make a list of the things you need to find out about the subject before you can take action. Those are your first steps.

Do one of them today.