Changing Bad Financial Habits One Step At A Time

This guest post is written by Lorie L. who writes for The Digerati Life, a personal finance blog.

In today’s multi-tasking world, people are just so used to juggling so many things at a time, that they expect to be able to tackle many things all at once. It seems as if this is also the same attitude with which people approach the endeavor of changing one’s financial habits. Most of us seem to believe that changing financial habits is something that we can do overnight, and something which we can completely overhaul the moment we start it.

To support this fact, this Kiplinger article, The Trouble With Budgets, cites in Point #3, that people tend to expect a miracle overnight, and thus make budgeting an exercise that’s harder than it’s supposed to be. Thus, the goal of turning yourself into a saver from being a former spender falls further and further out of reach as the endeavor to financially rehabilitate oneself turns into a futile exercise. It’s too hard to sustain!

But it’s something that one has to do, else suffer bankruptcy down the line. So, how do you deal? How about forgetting “biting off more than you can chew,” and instead, focus on starting to “take things one step at a time.”

How about that? How about tackling one financial issue at a time, work through it, and when that’s conquered, move on to the next?

Easier said than done, especially when bills are piling up and bill collectors are close at your heels. But take these bits of advice and see if you can work on one area of your financial issues at a time, till you’ve slain all your financial problem dragons

1. If you have credit cards, consider switching to prepaid debit cards for a while so that you can get a handle on your spending. If you have other credit card balances, maybe it’s time you transfer them over to a zero percent balance transfer card so that it’s easier to pay off.

2. You should prioritize. The running bills that keep your household alive, the things that you need to live every day life, don’t neglect these. Savings and emergency funds, don’t neglect these either. Survive first; the debts can wait.

3. Keep your debt-paying to a 35% of your salary maximum.

4. Given these two boundaries in place, when the bill collectors come and want you to pay more, DON’T. Stick to your guns.

5. If they take your house away, let them. Move in with your parents, rent a cheaper place, the point is, you have a roof over your heads. Trying your darnedest to keep the house could be your worst move. You need to keep afloat so that you would be able to work your way out of your financial ditch, so you need to sacrifice what you can in order to be able to keep living.

6. Keep all other payments to a minimum. If not, avoid them altogether. Most financial advisers would tell you that if you’re in a deep debt ditch, the most important thing is to not get into more debt while working towards eliminating the debt that you have.

7. When you have these in place, tackle your issues one at a time. While you’re paying off your debts, identify your worst financial attitudes and habits and work on them, one issue at a time. Our problems stem from habits, and habits stem from attitudes. Work at the roots, and you’re bound to be able to change, for life.

It’s not going to be an easy walk; in fact, it’ll feel more like an uphill climb. But it’s a walk or a climb that will be worth it. You’ll be able to get rid of your personal debt, and regain your credit; then even be able to work towards getting wealthy.

So take that first step! And take each step at a time after! Don’t get overwhelmed by the issues; if you do it one step, one thing at a time, you’ll get to where you wanted to go, sooner than you thought you would. You can do it!