By: Angele Gerten – Affiliate/Community Communication- Staff Writer
As we enter a new year, many people set (or attempt to set) resolutions. You can likely guess what the top two areas of life these resolutions surround – health & finances.
Why not try something a little different? Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on the past year. And since this is a finance article, let’s focus on our money. How’d we do these last 12 months? Are we closer to our savings & investing goals? Did we pay off debt, grow our credit score, increase our net worth?
Reflecting is a great way to simply decide if what we are doing is serving us and uncover what’s not. We may be unaware of sneaky little money habits that hide under the surface of our daily lives until we are intentional enough to do a little assessment.
Here are a few money habits that you may not be aware of, and may require some attention.
Are you accumulating debt? Do you regularly ignore bills or payments? Are you neglecting insurance & investments, giving the excuse you don’t understand them?
Are you avoiding planning for the future or setting any financial goals?
If any of those sound familiar, it’s time to make some adjustments. James Clear, habit expert and author of Atomic Habits (one of my all-time favorite reads) says, “Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformation.”
The good news with habits, you may only need to make a small change to have a big impact. The important thing is staying consistent. Choose an area you may have a bad money habit, and introduce a new tactic. For example, if you delay paying bills, twice a month put in your calendar an appointment with yourself and your budget. Pay your bills only twice a month, then reward yourself for a job well done.
Since research tells us only 9% of Americans that set resolutions keep them, and 43% quit by the end of January, let’s try this slightly different approach. Clear says,
“The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.”
We don’t need a new year or a big resolution to make changes to our financial situation. We simply need to reflect, and modify – and plant a seed that will cause lifelong transformation as a new money habit.
Angele Gerten is a financial advisor who loves teaching people how money works & creating lifetime relationships with her clients as they work towards their financial goals together. She focuses on a variety of areas including debt elimination strategies, establishing a budget & an emergency fund as well as investing for the future. Email: angelepfs@gmail.com