5 Money Habits That Keep You Poor

Most of what we do with our money everyday is unconscious. The more aware you are of your money habits, the faster you can reach your financial goals. There are certain habits that can keep us from achieving financial stability and even keep us in poverty. These habits keep you poor, and in this post we will discuss 5 such money habits that keep you poor. I will also share my best personal finance tips for breaking bad money habits and replacing them with GOOD money habits!

Paying Yourself Last

As soon as you get paid, you pay your rent, your phone bill, your gym membership, you go out to dinner, you buy something nice for yourself and you are planning to save if there is any money left at the end of it. The problem is there’s never any money left to save. Sounds familiar?

On the other hand, people who do financially well, do the exact opposite they pay themselves first that means before they start paying their bills, swiping their card left and right and giving money to everyone else. They put a portion of everything they earn into their own pockets first then they pay their bills and live on what’s left. They prioritize making themselves richer rather than making other people richer.

Keeping up with friends that have expensive taste

Do you have friends who always want you to go out to expensive restaurants and go shopping with them and go on trips with them and stay in nice hotels. So, if you have friends with bigger budgets than yours, then it’s okay to be authentic and say, I can’t do that because I’m working towards some financial goals right now and I need to save money.

If there are your real friends they’ll understand. Everyone has very different levels of tastes as well as very different budgets so trying to keep up with everyone around you is going to leave you broke and in debt this includes friends as well as people you see on social media.

Overusing your credit card because of points/rewards

Don’t get me wrong credit cards are amazing I love my credit card, but often times I find that people end up spending way more on their credit card than they would have spent otherwise and that basically just cancels out all the benefits of having these credit card
rewards.

Putting things on plastic really has a way of just making you spend a little too mindlessly. Especially, if you’re justifying your spending because of the rewards. So, the money habit to give up is to make sure you only put things on your rewards credit card if you have the money to pay for it in cash.

Disorganized finances

If you have credit cards open everywhere, student loans that you don’t really know the balance for and you’re not really sure what you’re spending every month, then it’s really time to consolidate.

I track my net worth every month using a spreadsheet, that way I can see the progress that I’m making month by month. This is not only hugely motivating but it also forces me to keep my finances very organized because I know where all my money is at all times.

Delay in Investing

Investing for the future is a very slippery slope, you might be thinking that you’ll start doing it one day when you have more money, but more often than not it becomes a never-ending cycle of procrastination and excuses there’s always gonna be reasons why you can’t invest.

The more you delay the investing journey, the harder you’ll have to work to get to the same level of financial freedom as someone who starts investing earlier. Even if its just $50 a month, start investing now don’t wait!

5 Money Habits That Keep You Poor