Did you know that on average we maintain the same habits throughout our life? Guess what, a light bulb just turned on, look above your head for the light. What habits are driving you in your life? I hope by now you realize that it takes great effort to maintain good habits consistently, and it takes the same effort to maintain bad ones.The habits we keep will help us succeed or not in life.
We consciously make choices to see those habits develop as the years pass. Now I ask you, if bad habits drive your life what can you expect back out of life? Karma and a guilty conscience will eat at you little by little. I believe that the mental fortitude we have only gets weaker with every bad decision we make. So I am telling you we are creatures of habit, and if we try to make the good ones stick you can win with personal finance. Granted not all habits revolve around money, but many have a direct relationship with your ability to keep more dollars in your possession.
In contrast if you regularly live life practicing good habits you will reap the benefits. For example consistently investing almost always gives you a bajillion dollars in the bank. Granted bad things happen to good people, and I know for a fact statistically bad things also happen to bad people. Keeping that in perspective we can’t live life in fear, and we can decide how to live life based off either good or bad habits. If you’ve decided to live life fostering bad habits, that’s fine live your life, but at the end of the day what does that say about how dishonest you are with loving your life.
The Habits we Keep: (A Few Examples)
Consistently Save $$ in the 401K or Roth IRA – Good Habit- (You might not need it today so why not save it for tomorrow)
Every night you eat ice cream and feel guilty with your weight – Bad Habit – (You know it can’t be good for you to consume all that sugar every day)
Getting new side hustles with ease – Good Habit – Avoiding family for the sake of excessive dollars – Bad Habit
Drinking Alcohol every day – Bad Habit – Drinking Socially on Occasion – Good Habit
Using Surplus money wastefully to party or retail therapy, and you don’t have an IRA. – Bad Habit (Bro you can’t find 5% in a paycheck to put away- really)
Living year after year above means, and borrowing debt consistently – Bad Habit
Constantly gossip to put others down – Bad Habit (Only those with low self-esteem gossip)
Investing a % of Surplus money into Mutual Funds – Good Habit
Living life in fear because the government will bail you out – Bad Habit (This is not winning)
Putting your foot down to finally pay off debt, and doing anything to achieve it – Good Habit
Taking out payday loans to get you through the month because you didn’t manage money right – Bad Habit (Have you read the fine print on these loans- Insane apr)
Not Realizing how damaging bad habits are – Bad Habit
Consciously learning from past mistakes and building upon Good habits – Good Habit
Some of the habits I mentioned are not 100% related to money except for the fact that they cost money to continually consume them. I know most of you already know how to decipher between a good or bad habit, but why is it that people can’t pay off debt? Why do people still live paycheck to paycheck?
If it was easily understood then there wouldn’t be a need for a personal finance community spilling the beans on your great financial choices. (Enter Sarcasm) If I could have it any way I would want all of you to be millionaires, taking world travel to a new level. Unfortunately this is not the case, and your blow up raft on the local lake is fun, but not to the level of Condé Nast. If you are unable to change the bad habits for your own sake, then at the very least do not complain or ask for guaranteed assistance from others when times get tough. It was ultimately your choice to continually live with those bad habits.
Do I have to spell it out for all of you that good beget good, and bad is just bad. Those bad habits you constantly foster will never help you win an Olympic medal, start a business, win with handling money, or become a millionaire. It takes common sense to know how to set bad habits aside, and build good habits to succeed. In order to help you achieve the best out of life, read this great habit forming book below.
Excellent Resources on Habits:
Care Groups
Comment if you believe the habits we keep will help us succeed.
Rich Uncle EL
I remember how hard it was to get into the habit of healthy eating and working out. It took YEARS to figure it out, but since it finally clicked into place about 5 years ago, I've been on autopilot. It's great!
My recent post How Much Do You Need to Live In New York City?
Oh that’s cool you found the perfect balance, ive always loved working out. Good habits go a long way.
Great article…the key message, or maybe I should say word, that I got out of it was “habit.” And from experience, repetition and making it a routine is the best way to make something become a habit. 🙂
Cheers to good habits! AFFJ
A Frugal Family’s Journey recently posted..Retirement Accounts (Update) – June 2014
I purposefully repeated the word to stress that it is important to maintain good habits and forgo bad ones.
Changing out bad habits with good always make life more fulfilling. Those bad habits are just so easy to pick up and hard to kick!
My recent post Confessions from a Frugal Heart
I know right they are, but if you want to be successful or wealthy kick those bad ones to the curb.