Every day, they cultivate habits and follow rules that many of the rest of us don’t. But we could. If you want to be wealthy, here are three important ways you can follow their examples.

First, whatever your income, live below your means. Spend less than you can afford to for houses, cars, vacations and entertainment. Put your money to work building wealth, not building a lifestyle that saddles you with expenses.

Second, measure your financial success by your wealth, not your income. Wealthy people invest as much of their money as they can into their businesses, their investment portfolios and other assets. The most successful accumulators of wealth get a charge out of putting dollars into investments, not consumption.

Third, pay attention to your money, and treat it as important. Too many people, including many with high incomes, treat money as a resource they can easily renew, almost like water flowing into their lives at the twist of a tap. It often leaves their pockets barely noticed. The best wealth builders, according to Stanley, spend an average of 100 hours a year planning and monitoring their investments. They’d rather spend money on good financial advice than on a new boat. The least effective wealth builders turn their financial decisions over to other people so they can concentrate on the boats and the trips.

Smart planners for early retirement don’t want to sell themselves short. They figure they will need as much income during retirement as during their working years. They don’t buy the notion that they can live on 70 percent of their pre-retirement income. They have lots of activities to live for, and they want the means to fully participate in everything that they can. Many of my clients spend more during retirement than when they were working. And I encourage them to do it.

Likewise, smart people know that inflation, which seems so innocuous these days, can be a major problem to anybody living on a fixed income. Savvy investors avoid the common mistake of thinking they’ll do fine with an income that remains static. The practical effect of this, of course, is that they know they’ll probably need more income in retirement than it would appear on the surface.

Smart people don’t burden themselves with mounds of consumer debt. Most people need credit to buy a house, which can turn out to be a fine investment. And most working people need loans to buy cars. But the revolving debt of credit cards is extremely dangerous.

Every year I speak to high school students. I ask them to think of everybody who wants them to save money. It’s usually a very short list, maybe Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma. Then I ask them who wants them to spend money, and it doesn’t take long for them to see that nearly everybody else in the world wants them – wants all of us – to spend money. If we don’t have the money to spend, the business community is eager to give us credit. Sign up for a new card. Transfer a balance. Skip a payment. Have what you want, and have it now.

If you can pay off your credit cards every month, you can get nice freebies. I know of a physician in Seattle who sent his son to Yale, paying four years’ of full tuition with his Visa. He paid off each monthly bill and in the process picked up enough frequent flyer miles to take several months off and fly everywhere in the world he wanted to go.

But if you just make payments, you’ll likely forget what you spent the money on long before it’s paid for. In just a few days you can rack up a credit card balance of $3,000. Even if you never charge another dime, at a typical monthly payment rate of 3 percent of the balance, coupled with an annual interest rate of 16 percent, it will take you 18 years to pay it off.

Successful people are suspicious of things that look too easy to be true. They don’t assume that the stock market will keep going straight up until (and after) they retire. If you’ve been making 17 percent a year in the market, it’s a snap to project that ahead for 10 or 20 years and conclude that you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams. But that’s a fantasy.

Smart investors will take advantage of good investment returns. But for planning purposes, they’ll assume realistic returns, perhaps 8 to 12 percent a year – and they won’t take themselves out of the game if they have a bad year.

Smart people know the value of time, and they don’t wait until the last minute to start planning for retirement. Sure, if you’re in your 20s, retirement seems pretty remote. But that’s the very thing that gives you an opportunity to do a lot, for a little.

If you can manage to save $2,000 a year in a Roth IRA (the earnings on which are never taxed) starting when you’re 25, and if you get a 12 percent investment return over the years, by age 60 you’ll have $863,327. If you wait until you’re 40, your $2,000 a year would grow to only $144,405 by the time you’re 60.

A one-time investment of $5,000 when you’re 25 will grow (at 12 percent) to $263,998 by the time you’re 60. If you wait until you’re 40, you’d have to invest $27,368 to get the same result. Wait until you’re 50, and you’ll have to start with $85,000.

But smart people who have waited too long don’t try to play high-risk games of "catch-up." They don’t chase extraordinary returns, for instance, by investing their life savings in Internet stocks, hoping to be lucky enough to make up for lost time. Instead, they’ll find ways to save more and scale back their retirement needs. If necessary, they will plan to work longer while they build their assets in a sensible way. If they take some extra investment risk, they’ll do it thoughtfully.

I’ve purposely saved the best item for last. And though it seems to contradict all you’ve just read, it fits. Smart people don’t wait for retirement to make their dreams come true. They know life is uncertain, and all the tomorrows that we assume are ours can be snatched away in an instant. Having set aside wealth for their future, having identified their dreams and goals, smart people find ways to make those dreams reality, starting now.

Here’s an exercise: Imagine you won some stupendous amount of money in a lottery, and you never needed to work again. You’d probably spend money on lots of things you always dreamed about. But if you’re smart enough to have read this far, you know you’d get bored after a while just spending to consume. The interesting question is not how you would spend your money, but how you’d spend your time – your life.

In this exercise, identify four or five major things you’d devote time to for the rest of your life. Maybe it’s learning to fly a plane or honing your skills at some avocation such as photography or golf or sailing. Maybe you’d love to be a philanthropist, giving money to causes and organizations that you consider worthwhile.

Keep fantasizing until you are fairly clear you know what you’d like to do if you could do anything. Then find ways to pursue those interests now. Do it for immediate satisfaction, and do it as preparation for when you’ll have more time. For almost anything on your list, you’ll find ways to indulge your passions without waiting for retirement.

If you do that, you’ll improve your quality of life now, and possibly for early retirement or when you’ve retired at full retirement age.