Let me start by telling you what it isn't. It isn't - Money! Nor is it - Budgeting! It has nothing to do with Spending or Tax Avoidance or Investing. And, even though it's only a little word it can be the few letters between being financially successful or a money wreck.

This word is so powerful that it can actually bind the one using it just as quickly as it can offend the person hearing it.

And the word is - NO!

Two letters. One syllable. Yet it seems to be one of the hardest words to say.

Let me place this word in context for a second;

The New Year has just rolled around and after the festivities have finished you begin to set some financial goals for the year ahead. You realise that the budget you set last year failed dismally and so you're keen not to let that happen again.

You plan another budget taking into account more of your lifestyle and less of your dreams. From the outset it seems far more manageable but if kept will still provide some future financial growth.

Then your year begins. Pressures to spend come from every direction like you're caught in a whirling blizzard. The car breaks down and needs the clutch replaced. Your youngest child gets sick and needs expensive medicine. Your oldest child HAS TO go on the next camp and your husband is thinking of renovating the boat that's been sitting in your backyard for the past six years.

And, while your budget looked incredible only two weeks earlier it's suddenly a mess that seems easier to ditch than try and make work.

Now back to that word. Yes, the NO word.

The difference between those that secure their future financially and those that don't all comes down to using this one little word. Those that succeed know when to use it - those that don't underestimated its power.

For while this word may be simple in composition it is the only thing that can actually make a budget work. Numbers and account areas on a page are meaningless until that word becomes an essential part of your vocabulary.

NO - we can't afford for little Jimmy to go on camp this year. NO - the boat is going to have to sit in the backyard for another year or two. NO - I can't meet the boys every Friday down the pub. NO - I can't give this year to the National Blind Leprechaun Society.

The reason we struggle with the word is because we know people will be disappointed with us. They'll make assumptions about our character that we don't want them to make.

And while we lick our wounds from the first person we offended by using that little word we need to remind ourselves that they're not the ones who are going to provide the financial goals that we're pursuing. In fact, they're not even trying to dissuade us from our goals - they're just ignorant of them and don't see the picture we're trying to create.

If you want to see your budget work for next year then start learning the word NO. It's the only thing between you and financial freedom.