Your Money Habits
"I cannot say whether things will get best if we change; what I can say is they must turn if they are to get better." Georg C. Lichtenberg
Your Money Habits
Are your money habits getting in the way of your success with money? Often our money habits can be so buried in our subconscious that we are not even aware of how they interfere with our potential to handle our money successfully.
While our money habits are ordinarily established early in life by our family environment, they also evolve from the environment we live in today. Contemporary living makes money administration difficult. Most of us know that having a hold savings is leading for our financial well-being; but few of us do it on a quarterly basis.
Unfortunately, knowing best has not meant doing better. As recently as the 1980's savings were in the double digits -- population were saving at least 10% or more of their income. Today it is a negative digit - most of the population is not saving any money at all. Worse, many are using prestige cards and borrowing to spend more than they earn and are just hoping it will all work out somehow down the line.
For example a local concentrate who were emotionally attached to their company only knew how to run their company a safe bet way. In the early days their company was profitable and provided a lucrative income. However, when shop circumstances changed and their company started on a downward trend their ingrained habits prevented them from acting appropriately. Instead of changing their ways they decided to borrow money from the bank.
Over the years their company kept declining and their options for improving or selling their company diminished over time. Rather than turn their habits they found it easier to borrow money "hoping" their company would once again flourish. As you might have guessed their gamble did not pay off.
This story applies equally to those of us who earn a salary instead of running a business. If your money habits are overspending and not saving there will come a time when your debts will become impossible to manage. Even if you are not increasingly going into debt, without savings any unexpected large cost or loss of earnings can lead to financial problems.
What are your money habits? Are you a spender or a saver? Do you use cash or credit? Do you have a spending plan or wing it month to month? Do you vocalize a checkbook equilibrium or do you just check with the bank? When you feel down do you go for a walk or go shopping? Do you pay off your prestige card balances or only make minimum payments? Do you put money in a savings account or are you constantly putting money in and taking it out?
Habits are human nature. My husband and I had a good laugh recently over how he reacted to a minor disruption to his morning routine. When my husband's eyes became angry he went to see his optometrist. The optometrist prescribed eye drops that my husband needed to put in his eyes in the morning and wait at least a half hour before putting in this contacts. With a stunned look on his face my husband said to his optometrist, "If I don't put my contacts in the first thing in the morning it will upset my whole routine." The optometrist looked at my husband with a big grin, flashed opened his hands by the sides of his head and said, "Change!"
What a notion - turn - it seems so straightforward but is not so easy especially when you have been doing things a safe bet way for a long time. Fortunately, you do have choices. You can continue to do what your have always done and get the same results - or, you can "Change" for the better!! Of course, habits are easy and turn is difficult - many find that a financial advisor can help them overcome their negative money habits.
By Barbara Hause
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