What was the best piece of money advice you ever received? Who was it from and how did you use it?”

There’s been loads! Where did they come from? Everywhere! Billboards, books, Buffett and Bullmore.

From adapting the Nike theme (“Just do it!”) to my personal finances, to the classic truism (“No-one ever went broke making a profit”) to Buffett’s book of the bizarre (“It’s only when the tide goes out that you see who’s been swimming naked”).

If I had to nail down just one, I’d nominate this: “It’s not what you make that matters, it’s what you keep.” I can’t remember where I heard it first and, damnit, I can’t find it on Google. But it sounds very Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer-ish.

The concept became important to me when I was a journalist. When writing was my full-time gig, I knew that if I wanted to continue to be poorly paid, I’d have to make my money outside of writing.

The phrase is one whose relevance has been always been significant, but constantly changing. Honestly. The more you learn about personal finance, the more genius those words become.

For me, at first, it was about tax and paying less of it (the ghost of Kerry). But then it morphed into gearing strategies (property and shares). Then it became about financial structures (trusts, businesses and superannuation).

As I constantly say, Generation X is in a sweet spot to make the most of their rising incomes. But it’s how much of it that they keep that will determine how successful they become.

Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and a licensed financial adviser.