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How Forming Good Habits Can Bring Your Money Back

Money is like gas, they say! It runs out as fast as gas does. It’s more exaggerated if you lack good money habits. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then it’s most likely that you’re experiencing it more.


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Panafrick Sammy

2 years ago | 7 min read

Image via Pixabay

Maybe you’ve been trying hard to start up your nest egg. Things don’t seem to work. But it’s not yet time to give up. You can do it…

All Abilities lie in Your Hands!

…Because all abilities lie in your hands!

You’re now asking. What else can I do? You feel you’ve done your best. It’s okay, but don’t give up. You can learn some lessons from the most successful people in the world. Many of them failed several times before making it in life financially.

What you need is a few adjustments to your daily spending habits. Then, believe me, you’ll start having more than just spare change in your pockets by Friday evening!

Do you want to cultivate good habits to help you keep money in your pockets? Then you need to do this...

Think of Hourly Worth

When is the last time you took the effort to think of the value of your time? Have you ever thought of how much you earn in one hour? And have you also taken the time to consider your expenditure in relation to how much you earn in one hour? It’s worth taking note of these concerns!

Here’s a practical scenario you can use to understand.

You’re in the habit of buying delicacies in the morning before starting work. Your pack of delicacies may include cookies, sodas and coffee. And the cost may go way above $15. You’ve made this a daily routine.

If you make $10 an hour, you realize that you spent more than what you would earn in your first hour even before starting work. If you start thinking of hourly worth, you’ll adjust your expenditure accordingly.

Do you want to save your money? Then it’ll be good you quit the impulse purchases. Make it a habit to do hourly calculations before making any purchase. Ask yourself the number of hours you’ll need to work to afford your intended purchase. If the amount is way above the hourly rate, shelf the idea and move on.

Tame Your Habits

Are you in the habit of buying coffee daily from the dispensing machine? Have you ever tried to estimate how much it costs you in one year?

Then here’s the math!

In one week, your coffee bill could amount to a minimum of $12.65. If you calculate it in a year, it can run into $657.80. That’s when you buy your coffee every morning. And you’ve made it a habit!

This is a bad habit. But you can save three-quarters of that expenditure if you form good habits. I’m not telling you to stop buying your coffee altogether. But you can do some adjustments like reducing the number of your coffee times. Instead of buying the coffee both in the mornings and evenings, you can restrict it to only some evenings.

You can also reduce the number of coffee days. Like, you cut down to only three days a week. Or better still, you can start brewing your own coffee at home.

And here’s the research.

Home Brewed Coffee

Because taking coffee daily in the morning and in the evening is normally what you do is considered a bad habit. But cutting that down to the suggested tips is forming good habits. You can stick to it. Sooner or later you’ll start enjoying your every sip, knowing when you’ll have it again. And also knowing that you can’t allow yourself to have it any other time!

Sacrifice Your Time Off

Did you know that your time off could be lost opportunities to make money? Yes, you could start thinking of your time off as lost money. And when you do, you’ll realize how good it is to sacrifice your time off for work.

What do I mean by this?

Here’s a practical scenario to explain it.

You have the habit of going home early to catch up on your favourite TV program every day. Or you’re fond of sitting up late to watch your favourite soap opera. Or you simply go home in a hurry to relax.

It’s a bad habit if you can make double hourly rates after working long hours. You make $15 an hour on a regular time. But if you work for extra two hours, you can get $60. So, would you forfeit $60 to go home and watch your soap? Or just to relax on the couch?

If you said yes, then this would be a bad habit. Maybe you’re arguing that you didn’t lose any money. Yes, maybe. But you lost the opportunity to make $60!

You can form a good habit of this by knowing when to seize opportunities. You can excuse yourself for having lost opportunities in the past. But letting future opportunities pass by is inexcusable. Forming good habits won’t allow for such a waste of chances.

Spend Where It Matters

When you hold large sums of money in the bank without using it is a waste! Money won’t have any meaning unless you give it. And you give money its meaning when you use it. That’s when it enters into circulation and joins the production chain.

$1, 000, 000 lying idle in the bank is just huge figures in a device. But $100 put to good use has more meaning. It can leave a lasting impact on the user.

You can form good habits of putting your money into valuable use. You can budget it, pay down your debts, invest and save the rest of it for a rainy day.

Consider Saved Money as Earnings    

It goes without saying that saving is like paying you first. You can automate deductions from your paycheck before receiving it. You can authorize the deductions to go into your savings account. This way, you’ll “earn” even before receiving your paycheck.

It’s just like in this scenario!

You’ve been a habitual spender on coffee. Your expenses on coffee have run into over $657.80 yearly in the past. Then you’ve changed your habits. You’ve reduced your coffee drinking and you’re now saving around $500 yearly. You could say that you’ve saved $500 yearly for not buying coffee as before. But in essence, you’ve earned $500 in one year for reducing your coffee consumption.

Why is it considered as an earning instead of savings?

Abandoning a habit and forming a new one is really some hard work. It requires real sacrifice. Just imagine forfeiting that sweet sip of your coffee you’ve used so many times. Think of the effort required. And the amount of work needed to kill that habit you had formed after so long.

Is it not really demanding? Just like you’re doing some work to earn? Then that’s why you need to consider the saved money as your earnings, payment for your troubles! And best of all, it has helped you keep money in your pockets.

Think of so many other bad habits that can be stopped and replaced with good ones. Think of excessive consumption of alcohol or habitual smoking here. The amount of money involved is enormous!

Think of how much alcoholics and habitual smokers would earn if they left their “bad” habits. It’s a substantial amount that the culprits would spend on things that matter in their lives. And again, you can manage to keep money in your pockets.

Do you want to form good habits? And probably get to bring back your money?

Then you can do this for sure…

Distinguish “Need” Or “Want” Before You Purchase

Do you have any debts? And do you want to get out of your debts?

Probably you answered yes to both questions. If you did, then you needn’t worry. You’re not alone in this. Many Americans and other people around the world are suffocating with debts. And they’ve been trying hard to get out of them.

It doesn’t matter what type of debt you have. It also doesn’t matter how big your debt is. All that matters is that you need to get out of it. And pretty fast!

Getting out of your debt is the only way you can improve your financial situation. It’s also the only sure way you can stop living paycheck to paycheck.

For you to succeed, one thing needs to happen! You must distinguish between your “needs” and your “wants.” The distinction can help you manage your spending.

And how can it help you? 

To manage your spending, you need to create a monthly budget. And before you can create the budget, you must have a list of your expenses.

Your expenses come from both your needs and wants. That’s why you must get the distinction between “needs” and “wants.”

Needs are your must-have expenses. You must have food, water, shelter and security to your healthy. All expenses towards these provisions are your needs. They help you do your job.

Conversely, wants are those things that you can choose to have. The element of “choose” implies you can live without! Such things can include entertainment, dining out, travel, and monthly subscriptions or memberships.

It’s good to note that wants are not entirely bad inclusions in your life. They help you spice up your living. They motivate you to accomplish more. But, they’re not a must-have! You can survive without them.

And that’s the distinction you need to know when considering your expenses. You want to know if what you’re going to spend your money on is a must-have. Or whether is something you can live without.

That being said, it’s important to realise that some needs are synonymous with wants. And also, the reverse is true. This understanding forms the basis of your budgeting. It also informs your decision of whether to buy or not to buy.

 

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Panafrick Sammy

I’m extraordinary in one thing! And that’s helping businesses, both small and large-sized to rank for their target keywords. And I've got results! My Approach The first lesson I learned in SEO is that “not all traffic is created equally”. Traffic is not the goal. Driving bucket loads of sales that generate ROI, that’s the goal. You want targeted traffic from a qualified audience most likely to buy your offer or take your call to action. Here's how I can help you increase ROI with SEO content. ✅Just starting and you don’t know where to look? I’ll help you conduct keyword research based on your marketing goals and your buyer’s needs. ✅Got a content strategy but do you need someone to execute it for you? I have a tested formula for creating SEO-optimized content that ranks on the Google search engine. ✅Got a strategy and execution plan but you’re not seeing the results you expected? Bring me in!


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