Agents often justify unnecessary major purchases by rationalizing that all they must do is “sell just one more house a month.” A better approach is to look at where you can make minor alterations that result in long-term savings.

For example, if you spend $6.00 per day for a latte, over the course of a year, you will spend $1,560. Merely bringing your own coffee to the office or substituting a less expensive drink, can easily cut that number by 50-80 percent.

There are hundreds of places where you can save money by purchasing in bulk, buying products online, not eating out so much, or just being conscious of where the money goes.

So, here’s a bit of fieldwork for this week: Identify at least one place where you can save money in your business and one place where you can save money personally. At the end of the next year, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much more of your money that you kept.

(I decided to limit my cappuccinos at $7.00 with tax and tip to twice a week.)