5 Money Habits to Acquire for Financial Freedom [#4 will save you from heartaches!]

Trying to become financially stable is a struggle.

For the last several years, money has been tight for me. I’m also not the only one living paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by each workweek.

Many people in the U.S. have suffered financially due to the pandemic; with how things are going, it will not end soon.

That means people will continue to struggle to pay their bills, prolonging their suffering.

In my situation, I accumulated a mass of debt directly caused by my lack of impulse control along with the hospital bills I received from going through septic shock in 2016.

It cost a lot of money to save your life.
Having this debt wouldn’t be that big of an issue if I would earn more money in my paychecks. However, thanks to being a chronic pain sufferer who is chronically ill, I’ve missed a lot of work to the point that my hours were cut from 35 hours a week to 21.

Of course, no one can survive off 21 hours a week, so last year, I made a goal to eliminate my debt. Unfortunately, I never followed through and fell deeper into debt, almost making it impossible to erase.

But do you know what? Constantly being in debt leaving you too broke to make payments on your bills suck.

Because I know how much of a stressor it is not having enough money to pay your bills, I decided to investigate ways to become more financially stable.
5 Money Habits to Acquire for Financial Freedom.

Trying to become financially stable is a struggle. Primarily when you’ve been financially unstable most of your life, so I won’t lie.

Our mission of erasing our debt and becoming financially stable is going to be tough. However, it’s not impossible, but we’re going to need to focus on having the willpower to achieve our goal of financial freedom.

One of the ways we can work on getting out of debt is by changing our money habits. I understand the feeling of wanting to spend your money on whatever you choose, but sadly, we can’t afford to do that.

We need to decide what’s more important to us — eliminating our stress by reaching financial freedom or spending our money on stuff like Uber?

So, bye-bye DoorDash.

Money habit # 1: Create and start using a monthly budget.

Using a monthly budget can help you find out where you are spending the most money and how you can cut back on your spending.

To figure out where your money is going, get out the old credit card and bank statements. Using a monthly budget will also help you keep track of how much money you’re bringing home from work each month.

And where your money is going in the categories of monthly bills, weekly groceries, health as in medical and dental, leisure, and entertainment.

While there are many budgeting software programs and apps, you can create a monthly budget yourself with pen and paper.

All you need to do is figure out your monthly take-home pay, then write down each of your monthly bills, debts, and fluctuating expenses in another column.

Money habit # 2: Eliminate current debt.

If you’re like most people and me, you have racked up more than one debt.

So, if you’ve got credit cards, personal loans, or other debt such as medical bills, you’ll need to create a strategy of erasing your debt.

First, write down your debts in order from the smallest amount to the enormous amount.

Once you do that, focus on erasing the smallest amount of debt first by paying as much as you can towards that debt. Even if you only pay $20 extra each month, that will still be beneficial.

After that amount of debt is paid off, take the total amount you were paying plus the $20 extra and add that to the minimum payment of your next most enormous debt.

Continue this strategy until you pay off all your debts.

Money habit # 3: Control your impulse spending and cut out unnecessary expenses.

Another way to help you reach financial stability is to spend less money by controlling your impulse spending and cutting unnecessary expenses.

Let’s get real, we all love to go out to the movies and dinner and sometimes go for drinks with family and friends.

But if it results in you falling deeper into debt, then maybe you need to restrict how many times you go out.

I’m not saying you should stop going out with friends and having a good time entirely, but you shouldn’t go out every night, especially when you’re trying to wipe out your debt.

Putting the money you would have used to go out towards your debts will help you erase your debts quickly.

Sit down and calculate how much money you spend on going out to the movies, to dinner and drinks, shopping sprees, and more.

Once you have the calculated amount, use that amount to make a debt payment each month.

Money habit # 4: Create an emergency fund.

The last thing you want is to find yourself in an emergency with no money to pay for it. That’s why we all need to start saving for an emergency fund now.

No one knows when a disaster will hit, but knowing you’re prepared by having an emergency fund could help you sleep better at night.

The recent pandemic is an excellent example of when an emergency fund comes in handy. The people who lost their jobs because of the virus could live off their emergency fund till they find a new job if need be.

Money habit # 5: Build up your savings.

Everyone should be adding money to a savings account each month.

You could use this savings account as your emergency fund or a savings fund that’s separate from a disaster fund.

Make it the first bill you pay each payday by having a set amount automatically transferred from your checking account or straight from your paycheck to your savings.

Having it transfer to your savings automatically makes it, so you don’t need to worry about doing it manually. You can relax knowing you’re contributing to your savings account every payday.
Reaching financial freedom is going to be a long and bumpy road.

And there will be times when you want to spend your money on an expense that you cut out but can’t afford, so you decide to use the money in your savings account.

When you happen to experience that scenario, you should focus on your willpower and tell yourself no. It’s going to be hard, believe me, I’ve been there many times, but you need to be strong.

In the end, you’ll be a lot happier knowing that you didn’t spend your savings.

CONTRIBUTED BY JENNYP

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