1. Attitudes learned in childhood
Financial attitudes are absorbed in the same way as family traditions. We observe them in adult relatives and adopt them. Surely you cook some dish exactly like your grandmother, and use expressions in speech that parents often pronounce. At school, we are not taught the basics of personal finance, so as we grow up, we begin to handle money the way we learned in childhood.
But the parents could be wrong, or their approach is simply not suitable for your purposes. Therefore, it is useful to analyze what you have learned from them.
- Evaluate your current financial habits: how much you save, do you have debts, do you make a budget and do not go beyond it. Try to remember when and why you got these habits.
- Think about which of them you would like to change and how it can be done. For example, to make a budget for a week, not for a month, so that it is easier to stay within it. Or give up individual entertainment to save on an important purchase. Find methods that you can apply right now to start changing your life.
2. Emotions
They often manage our financial decisions. For example, when we are stressed and in a bad mood, we want to buy something to please ourselves, and at sales we often rake in unnecessary things for fear of missing out on a good offer. But emotions pass, and we are left with an empty wallet.
Do not rely on willpower. It is better to create conditions for yourself in which saving and reducing spending will be easy.
- Set up an automatic transfer of part of the money to the savings account on the day of payroll. So you don't even have to think about whether to postpone or not.
- Do not pay with a credit card if you cannot return the money for the purchase within the next few days.
- When you go to the store for specific things, take with you only the amount necessary for them, so as not to buy anything extra.
It is not necessary to completely abandon spontaneous acquisitions, just know how much you can allocate for them, and help yourself to protect yourself from emotional spending.
3. Social networks
There we constantly see beautiful things and tempting offers and gradually begin to believe that they are what we lack for happiness. We begin to compare ourselves with those who have them, and make rash purchases. At the same time, we forget that not everything we see reflects real life, and envy and comparing ourselves with others only harm us .
So don't let social networks dictate where to spend money.
- Check the accounts you are subscribed to and remember which of them most often cause you dissatisfaction with yourself or a desire to buy something. It may be worth unsubscribing from them.
- Think about what you are interested in and how you can develop in this. Set realistic goals for yourself and strive for them. This will help you be happier with yourself and your own life.
When you understand the above factors, start implementing new approaches in your life. For example:
- Formulate your goals and think about how exactly money will help you achieve them.
- Identify areas of expenditure that can be reduced.
- Automate your savings and start saving little by little to create a financial airbag or to repay a large debt.
- Improve your financial literacy, read more or listen to podcasts about personal finance.
