Tackling your biggest expenses first may sound like a no-brainer, but many people, if you think about it, do go about trying to save money by cutting out little things, like the daily cup of coffee, without addressing major expenses, like mortgages.

Personal finance blogger J.D. Roth explains how his love of games has translated into an effective motivator for better money management: I am a gamer. All my life, I’ve been a fan of games of all sorts. I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons since I was in the third grade.

Standard budgets focus on tracking recurring monthly expenses such as rent, utilities and food costs; these budgets are designed to allocate your entire income every month. Negative budgets instead place percentages of your income into various categories based on your spending habits.

The simplest budgeting and personal finance solutions are often the best; they’re easier to stick with. Money Magazine recommends a fast way to create a simple budget: open three different accounts to separate savings, fixed expenses and “fun money”.

You can’t judge a book by its cover. You know this if you’ve watched a fancy vehicle pull up to a much-less fancy-abode. The takeaway lesson? Being rich and appearing rich are two very different things.