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Wealth-Building Guide - Stacey Tisdale knows a thing or two about wealth building. As a financial expert, author of The True Cost of Happiness: The Real Story Behind Managing Your Money and creator of the life skills and financial literacy curriculum Winning Play$, Tisdale has worked with a wide range of individuals who needed help getting their finances on track and building wealth over the long term. Tisdale shares some of her top wealth-building tips in a Q&A. — Bridget McCrea

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Why Should Young People Be Thinking About Wealth Building? - Because when you’re in your 20s and 30s, it’s very easy to fall into patterns and assume that you have to live a certain lifestyle – all without examining your true values. As a result, you start to commit a lot of financial resources and/or personal commitments to an ideal or lifestyle that’s not representative of who you are. That catches up to you in time.(Photo: Stockbyte/Getty Images)

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How Can Someone Avoid This Trap? - By having a vision of the life that you want to create for yourself and who you want to be, and then by financially supporting that journey. Even if you’re not 100 percent clear on that vision at this moment, just think about what you want to create and what you want for yourself, and then decide whether (or not) the things you’re spending money on are truly part of that vision. (Photo: Apple)

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What Are Some Early Steps I Can Take Now to Start Building Wealth? - Take advantage of every form of retirement savings that you can. This can be through an employer’s retirement plan or via a SEP-IRA or other self-employed retirement account. It’s also important to start an emergency savings account. Your entire financial future can derail quickly if a big expense hits at a bad time. The people who survived the recession were the ones who did two things: they had emergency savings and they didn’t have big debt loads.Work towards keeping six months worth of expenses in a separate account that doesn’t get touched unless there’s an emergency. (Photo: Tetra Images/Getty Images)

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Should Homeownership Be Incorporated Into a Wealth-Building Plan? - We are programmed that homeownership is part of the American dream, but you really have to look at what works for your own life. Your housing expenses should never exceed 30 percent of your monthly salary, and that homeownership brings with it the added responsibility of ongoing maintenance, property taxes and property insurance. Homeownership is not for everyone; don’t invest in an American dream that isn’t yours. (Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Stacy's Tisdale's Best Piece of Advice on How to Close the Wealth Gap - Don’t blame your actions or behaviors on money. The things that people do in the name of money and the things we blame on money are both incredible. As I mentioned earlier, look very carefully at what you really want, how you really want to live and what responsibilities you’ve taken on (or, that you want to take on). Then shape your wealth-building plan around those important elements.(Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Cinema for Peace New York 2012)