The Automatic Millionaire (by David Bach) is a little book telling a simple and automatic formula to become a millionaire. It talks about saving money (by sacrificing costly lattes, cigarrettes etc. if needed), effects of compounding (really dumbs down the argument).
Here is a brief sumary of the book:
* Save at least a few dollars a day. ($5 saved every day and invested will become $948,611 in 40 years)
* Learn to pay yourself first.
* Make everything automatic (by setting up automatic payroll deductions, setting up 401k etc.) Plan for saving from 5-20 % of pretax income in a pretax account (401k/403b/IRA/Roth IRA). Maximize employee matching dollars.
* Set up "rainy day" fund, automate the process. Set aside the money for at least 3 months (upto 6-12 months) of all living expenses. Invest it money market/ savings bond.
* Buy a home and plan on repaying it early by methods like biweekly payments, extra principal payments each month.
* Become debt free - pay off all loans, credit cards, automobiles.
* Automatic tithing - set up regular donations to charity.