Aaron Patzer of Mint.com states the “4 good habits that can make the dif­fer­ence between going broke or build­ing up your net worth each month”:

1. Save mon­ey
2. Avoid debt
3. Invest
4. Don’t lose it

Though only 4, it takes a while to be in the prac­tice of start­ing them. Uphold­ing them is a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. To do that, I think his recent write-up, 12 Steps to Finan­cial Fit­ness, is a good guide­line to help attain those 4 good habits in the long run.