Healthy Money Habits to Start Today

It’s almost the New Year which means you’re about to be inundated with 5 million “goal-setting powerhouse boss babe” workshops. But you know what I think is even more powerful than setting goals? Habits. Don’t get me wrong, setting goals and going after goals is great! I set goals all the time and work hard to achieve them. However, as I’ve discovered, trying to achieve goals without solid, healthy habits is incredibly difficult. That’s why I think it’s important to develop healthy money habits today!

And if you want to achieve great heights with your money, whether that’s paying off six figures of debt, saving up a six-month emergency fund, paying off your house, investing, or going on a lavish vacation – you NEED to develop and cultivate great and healthy money habits. 

Healthy Money Habits to Start Today:

These are some of the healthy money habits you can start cultivating today!

• Having a Money Minute every day.
• Regular money meetings with your spouse.
• Having open and honest conversations about money.
• Spending money with intention instead of mindlessly.
• Consuming less of what causes us to spend or feel less contentment.

Why You Need a Money Minute Every Day

This seriously shouldn’t take you more than a minute or two a day. The whole purpose behind this is to just “check-in” with your money. It’s not meant to be an annual money review or anything like that. You’re just keeping an eye on your money and making sure that there is nothing funny going on. This process of having a money minute every day is actually how I’ve caught not once but THREE TIMES fraud in our checking account! 

We eventually discovered that our local gas stations had one of their pumps compromised, and scanners were being used on that one pump. Theives were sitting in the restaurant next door’s parking lot and downloading all the data from that pump. That’s how they were getting our (and, of course, other people’s) card information. 

By having a money minute every day, I was able to quickly catch the fraudulent charges before they went more than a few dollars.

>> Head here to learn how to create a financial snapshot.

Yes, You Need Regular Money Meetings with Your Spouse

I talk about this more in my book, Getting Good with Money, but yes, you definitely need to be having regular money meetings/check-ins with your spouse. It doesn’t matter if you or your spouse is the money manager – the one that likes looking at all the numbers. You still need to have regular communication with your spouse about what’s going on financially at home. 

Are you over budget? Is the Christmas Fund almost empty, but you still have Christmas gifts to buy? Did you need to use your Emergency Fund, and now you need to build it back up? No matter how mundane or extreme things may be you need to have regular meetings with your spouse about it. Set it in the calendar and make it a date! 

>> Head here for 5 ways to optimize your finances today.

Be Willing to Have Open and Honest Communications about Money

I’m not just talking about with your spouse – I’m talking about with anyone and everyone. Now before you freak out I’m not suggesting you go around sharing all your personal information with everyone. I’m suggesting that if you simply don’t have the money to contribute to office Christmas gift exchange, communicate that free of shame. Be willing to talk about money because I promise you, you are NOT the only one that may not be able to afford or contribute. 

If the last few years, you’ve struggled to buy gifts for all your extended family members or worse, you’ve gone into debt to do so, you absolutely need to have an honest conversation. You need to discuss with your family ways to help lessen that burden on you. Forgo gifts this year? Do a white elephant exchange instead? No matter what you need to have these conversations with others. 

It’s Okay to Spend Money with Intention Instead of Mindlessly

Yes, it’s 100% okay to spend money with intention! You should not feel bad for spending money intentionally. But the key here is the word intentional. If you keep spending money mindlessly, you’re going to pay for it financially speaking. Instead, make a plan and work that plan. Unsubscribe to every and all store emails. If you’re worried, you’ll miss a coupon code that you may need when you do plan to buy something, set up a specific folder in your inbox and redirect all those store’s emails to that folder. That way, when you do have a plan to buy something, you can go straight to that folder and check for exclusive deals! 

We All Need to Consume Less

For realz. Take a social media break. Ignore your inbox. Go camping with your family (seriously – go do it). We live in a world that is highly curated to make us spend, spend, consume, consume. Consuming isn’t always spending money. How many times have you caught yourself on TicTok just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and not really learning anything that brought any real value to your life? That’s the cycle that we all get caught in – consuming junk. Just like in the 90s, we all loved our junk food (seriously, 90s junk food is epic, and I’d still eat it 😂). We are now all now just consuming digital junk. 

So let’s declutter the digital junk and become aware of the consume treadmill we’re on. Let’s be willing to step away from it when we’re full. 

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