Force of Habit

Habits are seemingly small things, but they have great force in guiding our lives toward success or failure. The dictionary defines a habit as an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Habits can be our greatest ally or our worst enemy. Good habits are small things that done regularly will yield positive results. If you eat an apple a day and take a walk around the block after dinner, that will accumulate into a healthy body. If you save 10% of every paycheck, although it seems like a small amount, it will accumulate into a fortune over time.

As business philosopher Jim Rohn says, these small disciplines are easy to do, but they are also easy NOT to do. Disaster doesn’t strike on the first day that you skip your walk or substitute a Snickers bar for your apple….Disaster doesn’t strike the first paycheck you decide to spend it all instead of saving some of your money. But you’ve got to be smarter than that! If you continue down that road, disaster will certainly come upon you. You succeed and fail by small degrees everyday, with your wealth, health, and relationships.

If you can harness the power of habit for good, you will certainly have a life of many successes. How? It takes about 21 days of discipline to convert a new behavior into a habit. Work on one good habit at a time, so you don’t become overwhelmed. Healthy people are healthy because of they have good health habits – eating an apple instead of a Snickers bar, taking a walk around the block, etc. Wealthy people are wealthy because they have good money habits – staying out of debt, saving regularly, investing, etc.

Please remember, there is no quick fix for getting “financially healthy”. If someone tells you there is, run as fast as you can in the other direction! Most financial messes aren’t made overnight, and they won’t be cleaned up overnight either. As Dave Ramsey says, “You can wander into debt, but honey, you can’t wander out!” Decide today to commit yourself to good money habits, and watch them accumulate over time into financial peace of mind.

How Having a Budget Can Remove the Money Fights from Your Marriage

“I can’t believe you are buying more clothes and shoes! Don’t you have enough already??”
“How could you go and buy a new iPad when we are already strapped for cash?”
“Who charged $700 worth of stuff on the Visa card last month?”

Sound familiar? If so, you are hardly alone. Most married couples admit to fighting about money on a regular basis. In fact, it is the #1 reason for divorce in this country - money problems and money fights. Getting on the same page with your husband or wife is essential to winning with money. “ Ha! Not likely,” you say. The surprising fix for money fights is having a budget that works for your family.

Now many of you cringe when I say that dreaded “B” word – budget… But a budget is simply a plan for how you are going to spend your money for the month. As Dave Ramsey says, “A budget is you telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.” How does a having a plan for your money take the fights out of your marriage? Once you have agreed that you are going to spend a certain amount of money on something, like clothes, then there is no fighting when you buy clothes. If you’ve decided that we’re going to spend $200 on electronics this month, no one yells when electronics are bought, so long as you keep to the agreed amount. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Working through the budget with your spouse causes you both to communicate about what is important to each of you and your family. There is a learning curve when you get started with budgeting. The first couple of months, you will make a lot of corrections and changes to your family budget and that is to be expected. You and your spouse will probably fight through the first couple of months of budgeting, but don’t get discouraged. It will get easier the longer you do it. Doing a monthly budget is a small price to pay for financial peace of mind!