{"id":5626,"date":"2019-02-14T16:30:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T21:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billlosey.com\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2019-02-14T16:30:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T21:30:46","slug":"10-money-habits-to-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/10-money-habits-to-break\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Money Habits to Break"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Behaviors\nworth changing<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do bad money habits constrain your financial progress?<\/strong> Many people fall into the same financial behavior patterns, year after year. If you sometimes succumb to these financial tendencies, now is as good a time as any to alter your behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1: Lending money to\nfamily & friends.<\/strong> You may know\nsomeone who has lent a few thousand to a sister or brother, a few hundred to an\nold buddy, and so on. Generosity is a virtue, but personal loans can easily\ntransform into personal financial losses for the lender. If you must loan money\nto a friend or family member, mention that you will charge interest and set a\nrepayment plan with deadlines. Better yet, don\u2019t do it at all. If your friends\nor relatives can\u2019t learn to budget, why should you bail them out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2: Spending more than you\nmake. <\/strong>Living beyond your means,\nliving on margin, or whatever you wish to call it \u2013 it is a path toward\nsignificant debt. Wealth is seldom made by buying possessions; today\u2019s flashy\nmaterial items may become the garage sale junk of the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3: Saving little or\nnothing.<\/strong> Good savers build emergency\nfunds, have money to invest and compound, and leave the stress of living\npaycheck to paycheck behind. If you are not able to put extra money away, there\nis another way to get some: a second job. Even working 15-20 hours more per\nweek could make a big difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4: Living without a budget.<\/strong> You may make enough money that you don\u2019t feel you\nneed to budget. In truth, few of us are really that wealthy. In calculating a\nbudget, you may find opportunities for savings and detect wasteful spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#5: Frivolous spending.<\/strong> Advertisers can make us feel as if we have sudden\nneeds; needs we must respond to, or ones that can only be met via the purchase\nof a product. See their ploys for what they are. Think twice before spending\nimpulsively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#6: Not using cash often\nenough.<\/strong> No one can deny that the\nworld runs on credit, but that doesn\u2019t mean your household should. Pay with\ncash as often as your budget allows.  You will actually spend less when\nyou use cash versus credit cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#7: Thinking you\u2019ll win\nthe lottery.<\/strong> When the headlines are\nfilled with news of big lottery jackpots, you might be tempted to throw a few\nbucks at a lottery ticket. It\u2019s important, though, to be fully aware that the\nodds in the lottery and other games of chance are against you. A few bucks once\nin a while is one thing, but a few bucks (or more) every week could possibly\nlead to financial and personal issues.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#8: Inadequate financial\nliteracy.<\/strong> Is the financial world\nboring? To many people, it can seem that way. The Wall Street Journal<\/em> is\nnot exactly Rolling Stone,<\/em> and The Economist <\/em>is hardly light\nreading. You don\u2019t have to start there, however. There are great, readable, and\neven, entertaining websites filled with useful financial information. Reading\nan article per day on these websites could help you greatly increase your\nfinancial understanding.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#9: Not contributing to\nretirement plans.<\/strong> The earlier you\ncontribute to them, the better; the more you contribute to them, the more\ncompounding of those invested assets you may potentially realize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#10: DIY retirement\nstrategy.<\/strong> Those who save for\nretirement without the help of professionals may leave themselves open to\nabrupt, emotional investing mistakes and other oversights. Another common\ntendency is to vastly underestimate the amount of money needed for the future.\nFew people have the time to amass the knowledge and skill set possessed by a\nfinancial services professional with years of experience. Instead of flirting\nwith trial and error, see a professional for insight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behaviors worth changing. Do bad money habits constrain your financial progress? Many people fall into the same financial behavior patterns, year after year. If you sometimes succumb to these financial tendencies, now is as good a time as any to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}