Money Habits to Change

Many people have a hard time with their money for some reason. They struggle for numerous reasons. Maybe they weren’t educated correctly about it when they were kids, or they might have the yolo mentality. Whatever the case is, that needs to stop. If you or your significant other has bad money habits today is the day that they need to change. Below are a few bad habits that you have to change to become better with money.

Not tracking your spending

One of the worst money habits you can have is not to track your spending. How could you expect to know when your money is going if you’re not tracking it? There are several easy ways for you to track your money. Some of them include saving your receipts, using a program like Personal Capital or Mint, or doing it the old-fashioned way and use a balance register. I like Mint because it allows me to see what I’m spending. That way if I’m spending too much in one category, I can try to change some things and spend less.

Randomly Investing

The next bad money habit is randomly investing. By saying invest randomly, I mean investing your money into something without really knowing what you’re doing. That is a very quick way to go broke. If you take some time to learn about individual investments such as the stock market, it can become a good long-term investment strategy. If you are still you and the market does go south, you’ll have plenty of years to make it up.

Using your credit card too much

A lot of people use their credit cards irresponsibly. At one point I was in that club. I can remember using it to get numerous shots at the bar for my friends and I. I did that several times. There is nothing wrong with using your card for things like that. The problem occurs when you don’t have the money to pay those purchases off each month. That was me. I was only paying the minimum on the credit card for years. I now pay more than that, but I know that a lot of people still struggle out there. I suggest that people only use their credit cards on things that they can truly afford. It may take some discipline in the beginning, but it has to happen.

Not saving anything

The last habit that I want to discuss is not saving any money. In my opinion, this is the worst bad money habit out there. Too many people don’t save any money. If there is an emergency, they are forced to use their credit cards. This cycle has to be broken. Everyone needs to save some money from each paycheck. Saving at least $100 would be ideal, but everyone isn’t fortunate to do that. You may have to start with $20. The goal is to get in the habit of saving. The more you practice, the better you will get at it.

What bad money habits have you changed?

Jason Butler

Jason Butler is an Atlanta native, as well as businessman, blogger and teacher. Not only is Jason a prolific flipper, marketer, writer and side hustler his number of years in higher education and student support have given him expert knowledge in understanding the economics of the student loan industry.