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.

For years now, one of my goals has been to focus.

I have all kinds of quotes about the power of focus, and I know that you get a whole lot further with something if you can focus on it and make it a priority.

In fact, one of my favorite focus-related quotes is:

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”
~Swami Vivekananda

So I was excited when I saw the link to the Prioritizer that Consciously Frugal had in her post about prioritizing goals.

“Great!” I thought, “Maybe it’ll confirm what feels like the priority to me, if I have to pick one.”

The Prioritizer turned out to be a fickle little thing, only working when I just entered a single word for each goal, but what it eventually spit out was this:

Yup, three out of my four major money-related goals (get my business very profitable, pay off our house, take some expensive trips, and have enough money for retirement) were tied for my #1 priority.

I saw that and laughed, because it’s so typical. I just can’t decide, and you know what, that’s ok. I’ll probably get to all of the goals a little slower, but I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to focus when in fact I am a hummingbird.

It’s time to just go with who I am, and maximize the advantages that brings me. There ARE some, really. Maybe I should stick to one garden as I buzz from flower to flower, but that’s enough of a focus to still make steady progress.

Focusing IS the best way to really make significant progress. When you put all your energy into one thing, you go a whole lot further (and certainly a lot whole lot faster).

But if you’re like me and you’re just not built for focusing long term on a single thing, maybe you’ll join me in implementing some things I read about in Daniel Pink’s book Drive: FedEx Days and 20-percent time.

FedEx Days are what an Australian company called Atlassian has on occasion. They’re days when their employees can work on whatever they like, but they have to produce the results the next day. (Get it? Overnight.)

20-percent time is similar. Google offers 20-percent time as one of their perks. Their jobs page explains, “We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.” So basically 20% of the time, they’re working on whatever strikes their fancy.

Letting your creativity fly like that probably makes the things you’re already doing a whole lot more interesting as well. There’s something about a little inspiration that livens up your life.

Anyone up for being a hummingbird with me?