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When it comes to dieting and personal finance, there are some really interesting parallels. There are millions of dieting products and most of them appear really good, but most of them are unable to deliver the instant weight loss with little to no exercise that they promise. You would think by now that people would wake up and realize that these diet products just really don’t work, and there’s no cure for good old fashioned exercise.

Much in the same way, there are a lot of really bad financial products out there that people are sold every single day. People are sold home equity loans and debt consolidation plans every day to “pay off their debts.” These products just do not work. There’s a myriad of products which are even worse that any sane millionaire would stay miles away from, such as a rent to own company, a check cashing service, payday lenders, and yes, even credit cards. These products serve no other purpose than to separate you from your money, yet people make use of them every single day.

The parallels continue. Dieting and financial products are both marketed as heavily as anything else. You’ll see diet pill adds on TV, in magazines, online, and I actually even saw an advertisement for a weight loss product in a urinal once. The world of finance is no different, there were six billion credit card offers sent to 300 million Americans last year. It doesn’t end there, solicitations for bad financial products are absolutely everywhere.

Let’s talk about the actual issue of weight loss. Any wise person who has ever lost a significant amount of weight knows that there is no magic pill which will make you thin. There’s no secret diet that Hollywood celebrities use to make them selves paper-thin, or some magical new treatment that will help you shed dozens of pounds. The only way to actually lose weight that actually works is good old fashioned eating less and exercising more. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The only way to become financially healthy that actually works is good old fashioned spending less and saving more. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. You can be the most well versed financial person in the world, but if you do not practice basic sound financial principals, such as living on less than you make, saving lots of money, and avoiding debt, you will end up with nothing to show for your financial sophistication. It’s not enough to know every list bit of knowledge about personal finance, you have to actually do what you know is right. We know that we have to diet and exercise to lose weight, yet very few of us do it. It’s all about motivation and actually doing it.