Tag: habits

Habits

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We all have habits, some are good habits, some not so good. Habits are part of our behavior in all the areas of our life. Some people are very organized, Take Jess for instance, her work papers and planner… are so organized and color coded! It seems to come easy to her when it comes to important items like work. She started this habit very young as a student and has carried this habit into adulthood. I on the other hand, really must focus on keeping myself somewhat organized. I was never an organized student, well compared to my kid. But at the same time, I know it’s a “weak” spot for me so I do what I can to make small positive changes to be better organized.  This is an issue I could easily talk to a stranger about, and they would be happy to make suggestions and share their organizational skills or lack of them as well…

When it comes to our money habits. We NEVER want to talk about them. Nope, we don’t want to share that stuff! We all have money habits, again some good, some not so good. Let’s be realistic, we can’t fix all our bad money habits overnight, and maybe we don’t have to fix all of them? Maybe some are not that bad?  But I am guessing we secretly have some things we do repeatedly, that we say to ourselves, why do I do this to myself. 

In today’s world with so much online banking and automation that we can do, some of these bad habits might be easier than we think to break. To really start to make changes, you need to be honest with yourself as to what is a problem.  Write it down! Put it on paper and look at IT! Just ONE problem, not all or many of them if there is a list… Own it! Then write out the steps you need to take to make this a bad habit you no longer have.  Maybe you share your bad habit you are trying to break with someone you know will emotionally support you. That might be a spouse, a good friend, a co-worker.

Setting a goal is easy, executing it, not always as easy.  Maybe just saying the habit out load to someone and talking about it will be the biggest step. After that it might get easier to mentally tackle the habit. Good luck, stay focused and you got this!

Do we really need to make New Year Resolutions??

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Here we are Christmas Day already! Another year ALMOST behind us, with just a few days left. You know what that means… Those new year’s resolutions are right around the corner! I don’t know about you, but I hate those New Years resolutions. Don’t we have enough stress in our lives? I don’t need the pressure. Instead of creating a “promise to myself” That everyone will ask me about, I just say I’m pretty close to perfect so no need to make a resolution! 😊  Ok, I’m not but I still like to use that as my reason for NOT making a resolution. Maybe the easier thing to do is to look at each day or month and just do something a little better? Maybe it’s saving just a little more each month. Ex: upping our 401K contribution by 1%. Maybe its NOT purchasing that Latte EVERY day, how about just on the weekends. Maybe Its cancelling ONE subscription that we don’t really use anyway. Maybe it’s reading a financial book/s. Or listening to a financial podcast every day on the ride to work. What if every month we do one little thing that moves our financial life in the right direction.  They say little changes can add up to big accomplishments…. After all, what we are really trying to do is phase out the bad habits and create good habits. None of us are perfect, so let’s go easy on ourselves and see if we can go into 2024 with a goal of working on our financial literacy and creating better habits when it comes to our money. What if we just make a list of a few things we want to change this year in our financial life. Let’s use the NO Lattes during the week as an example. If you complete the task let’s, say for a month, check it off the list. Don’t get me wrong, there will be some slips here and there, but if we have pretty much changed that habit, it’s a WIN!

Once you have mastered your first new habit on the list, move onto another new habit on your list. Maybe it’s setting a limit on how much you spend on Amazon each month? Or NOT spending anything on Amazon, for a month! We all have things we do or spend money on that we know is wasteful, these are good places to start! It will be cool to look at the list NEXT December to see our accomplishments and how far we have come! Maybe we keep a journal about the habit and next to it each month we list how much money we DID NOT spend on it vs our old ways. 😊 EX: Lattes on only the weekends vs everyday = $100.00 a month x the number of months you do that, could become over $1000 in savings!    

So, we do not have to make New Years Resolutions, that’s too much pressure. We do have to create positive new habits for ourselves that we build on each day or month. 😊 Happy January!!!!