What is the single, most effective piece of financial advice you've ever received?

[Nutria]

Savings should be. I've lived in HCOLA always until now and if we let housing drive our budget we'd be broke. Modest was living in a condo/townhouse with two kids and no garage. Most people's modest where I was a 3 bd/1 ba cape that started around $800k.

Our 3BR/2BA 2K sf w/ carport is $180K.

[GrowingTheGreen]

Pretty much anything said by Warren Buffett or Benjamin Franklin. One from Ben: "Money can beget Money, and its Offspring can beget more, and so on."

[Singuy]

My parent leading by example.

They showed me that it's possible to be wealthy despite health issues/language barriers/low income.

Both made a little bit more than min wage for most of their lives, and both are immigrants with huge language barriers (mom still can't speak proper English). They managed to work multiple jobs daily, lived frugally, and saved like no other(given their income levels). This gave them the ability invest when the right opportunity comes up, which gave them the ability to retire early (due to sickness linked to genetics) and with a net worth of 1.5mil (despite medical expenses like a kidney transplant/hemodialysis and gave me a full ride for college+pharmacy school).

Some may say "well they got lucky with their investment". It was a crappy motel in which my parents worked 24/7 x 3 years and hired no one else that made them the money...not some lucky stock or anything)

My parents pretty much had everything against them and yet still made it. They were non-white, can't speak the language, had health issues, and held min wage jobs. "So what is your excuse?" is what I tell myself.

[sandrark]

Sticking to the old traditional ratios for home buying - 28% of your net income for housing, and no more than 34% of your net income for all debt payments.

Buying DIY and ugly properties, while being willing to DIY has hugely improved our net worth.