Making sustainable choices is important if we want to keep our Earth a nice and habitable place to live, instead of a worn-out, fiery ball. As April 22nd is Earth Day, we wanted to take a moment and point to our shared responsibility of making the right choices for our planet. And if not for ourselves, let’s do it for our children!
This way of thinking is not only important when it comes to our planet, but it’s also crucial in the realm of personal finance. Essentially, it’s the same — if you want to enjoy life to the fullest and leave your children a nice inheritance, it’s important to make sustainable financial choices. With sound financial habits that last, handling your finances will not only get both easier and more fun, but it also has the potential to set you and your children up for an easier time in the future
The key to sustainable financial habits? Balance. On the one hand, you want to enjoy your life today. But on the other hand, you want to save for both your own and your family’s future. But how do we find balance? And how to keep it? That’s where sustainable financial habits come in! And that’s why in this article, we’re gonna tell you all about how to create them for yourself. All so you can work toward a better future, while still enjoying life today. Because that’s what we all want, right? To kickstart your journey, below we’ll give you six actionable tips that’ll help you with creating those habits. Use them to your advantage–let’s dive in!
1: Start Small
If you want to improve your financial situation for the long term, you want to start with small changes in your day-to-day life. Try to avoid overwhelming yourself with drastic changes from the get-go, as these changes are often hard to sustain. Think of small things like saving $10 every week, or home-cooking your meals twice a week instead of ordering food.
Small improvements that you can consistently carry out are way better than big improvements that only last a month. It’s all about balancing enjoying your life today while simultaneously working toward a better future. We know it can be hard, but taking small steps that allow you to enjoy yourself once in a while has a far greater chance of success than planning to lock yourself in your apartment and not spending a single dollar on something fun for years.
2: Set Meaningful Goals
Moreover, working toward something is easier if you actually know where you’re working towards. That’s where goals come in. Pick a goal that’s important to you, write it down, and make a plan to get there. It could be anything, like ‘I want to save $100 per month this year’, ‘I want to be debt-free by the end of 2025’, or ‘I will invest $50 in index funds every month for the next 5 years’. The more specific, the better. And try to keep our previous point in mind. Start small and make it attainable.
Apart from making your goals attainable, you’re more likely to do the work necessary if those goals are meaningful to you. If you have a strong ‘why’, it’s far more likely that you stick to the financial habits that will get you to accomplish your goals.
Think about why you want to save up cash or invest. Do you want to go on that dream vacation? Do you want to be able to send your kids to college without them having to take out student loans? Do you want to retire early and enjoy as much time as possible doing the things you love with the people you love? Different people have different goals. Therefore, the reason behind your goals is highly personal. That’s why we cannot just flat-out give you a goal to work towards.
Here’s an exercise to determine your ‘why’: Put your phone away, take pen and paper, and set a timer for 15 minutes. Write down your goals and why you want to make them your reality. Be as specific as possible — good luck!
3: Stay Motivated by Tracking Your Progress
If you want to know whether you’re on track toward accomplishing your financial goals, it’s essential that you track your progress. A great way to do this is by picking a set time each week or month and taking 10 minutes to check in with your finances. For example, you can use a budget template and fill it in — this can help you see exactly how you’ve done financially over the last week or month.
Pro Tip: Create a recurring 10-minute calendar event for Sunday afternoon. This will be your moment to check in with your finances!
When you’re tracking your progress and see you’re on track, this will give you a huge boost in motivation. But, if you see you’re not on track and didn’t manage to hit your goal for the month, this is a great opportunity to learn and adjust course.
Remember, stay kind to yourself. Focus on progress, not on perfection. Nobody’s perfect, so there will be slip-ups. Making an impulse purchase, missing a budget target, whatever it is, it happens. Don’t beat yourself up over it, but try to learn from the situation. That way it’ll be less likely to happen in the future.
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4: Make It as Easy as Possible by Automating Your Savings and Investments
A great way to make saving and investing as easy as possible is by automating it. In fact, it’s quite easy to arrange your finances such that you don’t even have to think about them anymore. This greatly improves your chances of adhering to the financial plan you’ve created for yourself. Set it and forget it.
In every major bank’s banking app, you’re able to schedule transfers. You can choose the timing — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. — and the amount. Based on the goals you’ve set for yourself, automate the transfers to your savings and investment accounts.
Pro Tip: Schedule these transfers just after your employer pays you your salary. That way you can’t ‘accidentally’ spend your planned savings or investments. And, if you’re investing in index funds through a major stockbroker, chances are you can automate buying stocks or index funds through their platform too. That way you don’t have to think about putting your money to work either.
5: Try to Think About Money Differently
Sadly, too many people think about money negatively, which inhibits them from building sustainable financial habits. They see money as restrictive, rather than empowering. However, money is a great tool to help you live your best life! It helps you take control of your future, work towards the goals that matter to you, and live life on your terms. Thinking about money positively will help you stick with your financial habits. Remember, it’s here to help you, not restrict you.
For example, for many people, saving money means restricting themselves from buying something. Rather, think about saving money as gaining security and freedom. These savings could be your safety net for when things do not go as expected. And those savings could help you do things you love in the future, giving you the freedom to do things as you please. Whether it’s sending your kids to college, traveling the world, or driving your dream car — it’s your money, so you decide.
6: Make It Fun!
This brings it to the last, but surely not least important point. Make it fun! How? You can create little challenges for yourself or turn saving money into a game. Don’t forget to reward yourself for sticking to your plan and reaching milestones. And take on this challenge with someone else!
For example, if you set a goal of saving $20 a week and stick to it for a month, treat yourself to a relaxing bath, a nice walk in the park, or a movie night. Rewarding yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend money. Just pick something you like that doesn’t interfere with your financial goals and go for it when you stick to your plan.
Here’s another example: Challenge yourself to cook 3 new recipes this week. This not only saves you money on eating out or ordering food but you’ll also up your culinary skills. That’s a win-win in our books!
Also, taking on the challenge of improving your finances with someone else not only makes it way more fun (the more the merrier, right?!), it also greatly improves your odds of actually sticking to your habits. Your partner in crime will act as an accountability buddy keeping you on your toes. And you can do the same for them!
It’s All About What You Do Day in and Day Out
Above, we’ve used this opportunity to show you ways to help you make your financial habits last. That way, you can work toward the future you want, and make your money work for you — not the other way around. One of the most important things to remember if you want to be consistent in your financial habits is to start small. Huge changes require huge commitment and willpower, and most people will fail to adhere to those big changes. If you make small changes to your current life, you’ll greatly improve your odds of sticking to these changes.
It is also important to know what you’re working towards by setting reasonable goals and why these matter to you. Make it meaningful and you’ll have way more motivation to stick through the rough times that will inevitably come. To add to that, by tracking your progress you will be motivated even more if you see you’re doing good, or you get the chance to adjust course if needed.
Lastly, the more fun and easy working to improve your finances is, the more likely it is you’ll stick with your financial habits. Think about money positively and make managing your finances so easy that you don’t even have to think about it. Plus, don’t forget to reward yourself once in a while if you stick to the plan!
Our goal with these tips is to help you crush your financial goals. You give yourself the best odds by creating sustainable financial habits — and in the end, it’s all about what you do day in and day out. Think of building sustainable financial habits as going to the gym. In the gym, it takes consistent effort over a longer time period to start seeing results. It’s exactly the same with your finances. It takes consistent effort over time to see improvements in your financial situation, and sustainable financial habits are the key to this. Good luck — you got this!