Change Your Money Habits
Sheri here –
Would you like to change your money habits? The place to start might be remembering the money conversations that your parents had about money. Maybe it was never discussed with you directly, but the evidence was everywhere.
Those comments: “We can’t afford that”, “What do you think, that money grows on trees?”, or maybe “You have to work hard to get money”. I know I heard some of those continuously!
Then there was “we’ll just put that on the credit card, no problem”. Maybe they never said that; but you say that EVERYTHING went on the credit card. Then the bill came, and they were stressed out. Or there were the arguments about “how could you have put that much on the credit card?”
Everywhere you looked, there was evidence. No wonder your relationship with money is a bit strange?
Most of us didn’t receive guidance or training about money. How to earn it, how to spend it or how to save it. No wonder you are money challenged!
While you may have a difficult or an interesting relationship with money now, it is never too late to change it!
Set aside 10% of your income
Have it go into a separate bank account. That way, you never see it – out of sight, out of mind. What? Just take 10% out of the money I make right off the top? Are you crazy? I can’t afford to do that.
Yes, you can. It might not happen overnight, but, you will find ways to cut back on those expenses in order to set aside this 10%. Until it becomes a new habit.
This 10% that you are paying yourself goes toward building your emergency fund or your investment fund.
If you don’t take the 10% out first, it will never happen. You will continue to be in the same spot you are in now, forever.
Spend Cash Only
When you spend cash, you are more resistant to spending money or spending money as lavishly. You will think differently about spending money.
After all, when you have cash in your pocket, you feel as though you have money. When the cash is gone, then you feel broke.
You will think twice, even three times about spending money, when you spend cash. You might think about your purchase longer, spend less or not at all.
When the cash is getting low, you will get creative in your ways of conserving money. Maybe you start eating at home more, making only 1 stop a day for coffee instead of 2 – the list is endless.
If not cash, use your ATM card – the one that is just like cash – there is an end to the money and you can pay for it once (unlike a credit card)!
That will leave you with money toward the 10% you took out in #1 above. This too can become a new money habit.
Keep track of everything you are spending
Either write it down in a notebook, keep a log in a spreadsheet or use an app on your phone.
No matter what method you use, you will discover a lot about your spending habits. You might even resist spending something because you know that you will need to be accountable for it.
In that discovery, you may find things that you can change that will allow you to cover that 10% you are setting aside.
Yes, this is a change in not only a relationship, your relationship with money, but a change in a habit. Try the first one, then add another of these ideas. It might take a few days or even weeks to get into doing this, to adjust.
It might take a little longer, but as you persist, you will be successful. Your relationship will change and you will be richer. Richer in a relationship with money and richer in your pocketbook.
Ciao and hugs,
Sheri
P.S. For other tips on money – for ways to cover that 10% you are paying yourself, download “101 Ways to Save Money”, just click here.
