Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

You landed your first job. Now, finally after years of scrimping and begging, you have your own money. Well maybe the scrimping and penny-pinching hasn't changed, but you still have your own money. Now what are you going to do with it?

As tempting as it is, this isn’t the time to go buy that fancy new car, new furniture or designer clothes. The very first thing you should do is take a look at the concept of Paying Yourself First.To be clear: buying all the stuff you want is not paying yourself first. That is paying the bank and the stores first. Think about this for a minute; you buy a car for $20,000 and in 20 years what is it worth? Not much! More than likely you’ll have spent money on 4 or 5 more cars (if you keep each one for 4-5 years). If you trade them in and even get $4,000 for each one in 20 years you’ll have paid the bank and the dealership $88,000, and what do you have? A 4 year old car worth about $3,000!

Let’s take a look at the principle of Paying Yourself First. Instead of going into a lot of debt for new wheels, you decide to buy a used car or use mass transportation until you’ve saved and gotten a pay raise. Now, instead of making a $300 per month car payment, you can put $100 per month into savings or investments and use $200 for a used-car payment.

This chart assumes a monthly investment of $100 at 8%. In 20 years you’ll have paid the bank and the dealership only $72,000 but you have $59,000 saved! In 30 years it gets better (even after you've stopped investing $100 per month); you’ll have only paid the bank $24,000 but be worth almost $150,000:

Time Period 10 years    20 years   30 years

Total invested $12,000   $24,000    $24,000

Account value $18,294   $58,902    $149,035

Of course the more you save and invest, the more you’re likely to have. The secret is to take some money now and start paying yourself first by investing it. Later, as your income increases and you gain more experience with investing, the more you’ll be able to do.

Remember every time you spend money you are paying someone else, so make sure you are paying someone else for something that is going to enhance your life. So pay yourself first, then decide what things are important and at what level. Maybe you want the money to start your own business or take a trip, you get to decide.

Do you have to have the most expensive stuff? If so, think about how those things enhance your life and what the real cost is of having them is before you pay others for (i.e. go buy) the things that bring you long-term enjoyment.

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"100 Dollars Money by Photos8" courtesy Photos8.com via Flickr Creative Commons