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9 Money Myths & Mistakes That Could Cost You
Myth: Quit All Bad Spending Habits Cold Turkey
Instantly stopping your bad spending and saving habits may set you up for failure and leave you feeling discouraged and less motivated to improve your finances.
Changing your spending habits should be taken on in smaller steps. For example, if you like to eat out, save it for Saturday night.
9 SAVES
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Common budgeting mistakes
- Not Tracking Expenses: it's impossible to stick to your budget if you don't know where your money is going.
- Buying on Impulse: Impulse buying is expensive.&nb...
Tracking expenses
Write it down when you’ve gone over your budget. The negativity you feel will help prevent you from overspending more or doing it again. Just think of this step as damage control.
Being frugal and miserable
If you try to deprive yourself too much, you’ll binge later and throw all your hard work out the window.
A spending binge can set you back far more than treating yourself occasionally, so go for the occasional minor splurge. Just keep your treats within your spending limits and you’ll be fine.
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Key Ideas
Brand name products
You don’t have to spend money on the big brand names.
Your local grocery or drug store might have a store brand or sell a generic version. In most cases, the ingredients are pretty muc...
Basic car maintenance
You do not need a professional mechanic to sort out many of the simpler car problems.
There are all sorts of easy and helpful instruction videos available to repair or maintain your car for cheap.
Shopping when you’re hungry
We are more susceptible to buying stuff we don’t need when we are hungry. The same goes for a leisurely grocery trip.
Make your shopping trip when you have other errands to do and a limited time to do them. You will be less likely to spend time exploring and picking up items that you did not originally plan to purchase.
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Key Ideas
3 Financial Basics
- Create a Financial Calendar: prevent yourself from forgetting quarterly tax payments and to get credit reports.
- Check Your Interest Rate: Pay off loans, open saving accou...
Budgeting Like a Pro
- Consider an All-Cash Diet, as limiting yourself to physical currency combats overspending.
- Set aside 1 minute a day to check on your financial transactions, to identify problems, track goal progress and set your spending tone.
- Allocate at least 20% of your income to financial priorities like emergency funds, debts and retirement fund.
- Budget about 30% of your income for nonbasic spendings, like entertainment. Abiding by the 30% rule, you can save and splurge at the same time.
How to Get Money Motivated
- Draft a Financial Vision Board, it motivates and helps you to stay on track with your financial goals.
- Set specific financial goals stating the reason, the way, numbers and dates.
- Adopt a spending mantra, a phrase that serves as a rule of thumb for how you spend.
- Love yourself. Taking control of your finances is part of that.
- Make bite-size money goals. Make the bigger ones but also small step goals to get there.
- Don’t be a financial fatalist, and switch to more positive mantras.
- Get your finances and body in shape. The discipline associated with regular exercising translates to managing your money well.
- Appreciate what you have now, instead of being a consumerist.
- Get a Money Buddy. Studies indicate people pick up good habits from friends with similar traits.