{"id":1936,"date":"2015-09-16T00:15:30","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T08:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/?p=1936"},"modified":"2015-09-15T10:16:16","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T18:16:16","slug":"9-financial-habits-worth-picking-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/9-financial-habits-worth-picking-up\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Financial Habits Worth Picking Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"financial<\/a>If you\u2019re looking to improve your financial health, no matter what stage of life you\u2019re in, one easy thing to do is focus on one new habit at a time.<\/p>\n

This is something I\u2019ve consistently done over the years and has had an amazing compounding effect.<\/p>\n

Here are nine financial habits you can try to incorporate into your routine.<\/p>\n

Balance Your Checkbook Weekly<\/h2>\n

Do you balance your checkbook or do you just look at your bank balance online to get a sense of where you stand? If you do the latter that could be a big mistake \u2013 especially if you don\u2019t have a large buffer in your checking account.<\/p>\n

Balance your checkbook at least weekly. This will give you a true sense of how much you\u2019re spending and on what. Not to mention you won\u2019t accidentally overdraw your account.<\/p>\n

Use a Cashback Website<\/h2>\n

Using a cashback website, like Top Cashback (which in my research, offers the best deals) should be a no brainer. Especially if you do a lot of shopping online.<\/p>\n

By using a cashback website you can effortlessly earn back hundreds of dollars per year without ever having to work for it.<\/p>\n

Consistently Declutter Your Home<\/h2>\n

Decluttering your home can be so huge for your finances in ways you\u2019d least expect.<\/p>\n

When you constantly declutter you are aware of the things you buy and never use. And if you\u2019re like me you\u2019ll find out that you\u2019re buying more of things you already had<\/a>, but were misplaced.<\/p>\n

Create a Second Source of Income<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m a huge proponent of not having all of your eggs in one basket. Not only does having multiple income streams protect you in the event you were to lose one of them, but sometimes those streams you least expected can become the most powerful.<\/p>\n

Our traditional economy still isn\u2019t stable. You need to put at least part of your income in your own hands. Develop working on a second stream of income.<\/a><\/p>\n

Automatically Invest<\/h2>\n

Putting your investments on autopilot is one habit that\u2019s easy to pick up. After you set it up you never have to think about it again.<\/p>\n

Automatically investing has been a huge life saver for me.<\/p>\n

Increase Your Savings Rate by a Percentage Each Year<\/h2>\n

Next, it\u2019s smart to increase your savings\/investing rate as your income grows. You can do this by increasing your savings in small incremental amounts \u2013 say, 1% per month or 10% per year. (Do more if you can.)<\/p>\n

Since you\u2019re already used to saving, it will be easy to pick up these habits and since 10-12% per year is a relatively small increase this shouldn\u2019t be difficult to do.<\/p>\n

Reinvest Your Dividends<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re investing in dividend stocks make sure that your dividends are automatically reinvested. This will help you grow your investments at a much faster pace.<\/p>\n

Come Up with a Retirement Savings Plan<\/h2>\n

It can be hard to think about retirement \u2013 especially since it seems like it\u2019s so far in the future for many of us. But this is something you need to be thinking about and planning for.<\/p>\n

There are many different ways to save for retirement.<\/p>\n

Some people choose real estate and rental properties, other max out their 401ks, and Roth IRAs each year and others do a mixture of both.<\/p>\n

Determine how much you\u2019re going to need in retirement<\/a><\/p>\n

Practicing Gratitude on a Daily Basis<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re all in different places but no matter where your financial life is right now there\u2019s always something to be grateful for. Start a practice of gratitude and continually be thankful for what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

I know this can sound a little new age-y or even weird to some, but practicing gratitude cultivates contentment. This can radically change your entire life \u2013 financial and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking to improve your financial health, no matter what stage of life you\u2019re in, one easy thing to do is focus on one new habit at a time. This is something I\u2019ve consistently done over the years and has had an amazing compounding effect. Here are nine financial habits you can try to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[347],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}