We all have bad habits. Even the people we admire and put on a pedestal can find themselves indulging in bad habits that we may find distasteful. From smoking to biting our nails we all have our little vices. We tend to keep these on the downlow since they largely don’t cause a great deal of harm. But there are some bad habits that can not only damage us but our families as well, and those are bad financial habits. And like every other kind of bad habit, we’ve all been guilty of playing fast and loose with our financial security. In the pursuit of the finer things in life like nice cars, luxurious vacations, fine dining and (of course) lots and lots of gorgeous clothes, we can lock ourselves into a spiral of debt that we become increasingly unable to dig ourselves out of.
Yet, our bad financial habits needn’t be our ruination. We can still live a good life, have gorgeous things and still be well prepared for an uncertain future when we kick these bad financial habits…
Failing to budget
In a consumer capitalist society, it’s very hard to properly budget when there’s just so much temptation out there. Most fashionistas know that when they see something gorgeous in a high street store window, they have a very limited window in which to claim it before it’s forever out of their grasp. But we can still have these things. Budgeting does not mean inflicting self denial on ourselves, it’s simply a matter of being cognizant with our finances. Any of these household budget templates can work for you as long as you stick to it. If you see something you want, rather than buy it now and worry about the consequences later, budget your way to it. You’ll appreciate it more that way, too!
Failing to expect the unexpected
When you’re loving life it can seem as though the skies will be blue and cloudless forever, but none of us really know what lies around the corner. And in a time of economic and political uncertainty, budgeting can help insulate you from risk should you lose your job or face unexpected expenses like car trouble. What if we suffer an accident that renders us unable to do our job? Proper money management can help to enlist the aid of an insurance claims lawyer to help get the disability benefit to which we’re entitled. Impulse spending may give us a giddy and fleeting thrill but it comes at the expense of knowing our future is secure.
Over reliance on credit cards
In an age where we’re surrounded by temptation and consumer credit is so easy to come by, it’s tempting to think “I want that… So I’ll have it!”. But this mentality can lead us into spiralling credit card debts. Even those cards with attractive low or even 0% introductory interest rates can send our finances into freefall when the introductory periods expire and the interest rates shoot right back up again.
If you must use credit cards, box clever with them and keep moving the debt onto new cards until it’s cleared. That way you’ll pay off your debt quicker and waste less money on interest.