If you’re like a lot of temporarily poor millionaires in America, you make bad financial decisions from time to time; in fact, most Americans make bad decisions with money so regularly that they are living from paycheck to paycheck.
There are numerous influences on your financial decision-making.
A lot of people grew up poor and have poor impulse control when they see something they want.
More people just don’t know how to budget. Most of the time it is relative to the individual’s ability to control themselves. We all want to know how to make good financial decisions.
Save Save Save
Start paying yourself. This can’t be stressed enough. Your bills are very important. Especially bills like electric, rent/mortgage, water, and food. These bills are essential to living. Most Americans live in Middle America where it is impossible to walk everywhere they need to be, but a car still isn’t an essential, but it is easier on the second tier of expenses. For that first tier, you need to add one bill, that bill is savings. Savings is just like your essentials. Don’t stop paying yourself just because you’re having a bad check, just cut what you pay yourself. Make that saving automatic. Automatic saving plans boost your savings and you typically don’t miss the money. Automatic saving starts you on the path of how to make good financial decisions.
Add Fun Time To Your Budget
You can’t be business all the time and expect to not fall off the wagon. The smartest financial decisions come because the steam has been blown off during the fun. The fun doesn’t mean spending your entire savings or your entire paycheck partying hard. It just means going golfing. Or going out to a decent restaurant with your spouse, family, or friends. It’s quite an easy thing to budget for. Each paycheck cut out just a bit of money to go out and use in a fun way. Bowling is another affordable option for people who just want to have a little bit of fun. If you don’t cut out a little bit of money for fun you will get frustrated and just abandon the budget altogether.
Budgeting Buddy
Budgeting buddies or shopping buddies can be very useful when it comes to how to make good financial decisions. This helps accountability and strength. When you have people who are willing to help and spend time making you into a more financially responsible individual. This helps with your willpower and ability to keep your money under control.
The shopping buddy can really help when it comes to spending money. When you’re out shopping the person can ask if you really need that item. They can ask you if you can wait on an item. They can even ask how you will use an item so that way you have to say out loud how you’re going to use the item and how important it actually it is to purchase.
Maintain Your Health And Happiness
You will make the best decision for yourself when you’re in a good mood and you’re healthy. It sounds like a cliché or like it’s just another lecture, but your health really affects your decision-making. Get a good night sleep; eat well, and then clear your mind. Meditate, pray; work out, whatever it takes in order to clear your mind so you boost your decision-making. You can turn it into a well put together thought process instead of deciding your finances on a whim. Your financial well-being ends up being an extension of your mental and physical wellbeing. When you’re feeling good, you want to keep feeling good.
Remember Willpower Isn’t Always There
Willpower is a finite resource. Willpower is worn down during a bad week. It can be worn down during a personal tragedy or a stressful week at work. When you’ve used your willpower to avoid yelling at a coworker or your boss, you can’t expect yourself to hold onto that willpower when you’re making your financial decision at week’s end. Your willpower is at its peak first thing in the morning around the beginning of the week or around the end of the weekend. To make good financial decision remember not to try and make those decisions when your willpower is at its lowest. Do what is best for you by just holding off on your decisions until you’re feeling rejuvenated. Willpower goes along with happy and healthy.
Financial Wellness
The future of your financial wellness relies on your ability to care enough about yourself to take your future seriously. Don’t let a bad week derail good financial decisions earlier in the week. Financial wellness is not just strict budgeting it is blowing off steam as well.
Where To Put Your Effort
Effort usually isn’t required to pay your essentials because even if you put them off, the threat to lose them is usually enough to fix any issues you may be having with paying those. An effort needs to be put into spurge control. The splurging is typically the bane of financial well being. Whether it be going out to eat, alcohol, or just impulse shopping online, the splurging can be a budget killer and can ruin people’s ability to start saving as they should.
Influences On Decisions
The influences on your decisions can actually surprise you. It’s not necessarily the advertising; it’s more or less mental affiliations with all of these decisions that people make. Your past experiences, biases, and ability to commit. Normally good decisions or beneficial decisions for your financial well being are made with ease. They are made in a quick manner usually. The longer you wait, the worse your results can be. It’s not always the case, but make sure that you’re making these decisions with ease. You can’t expect every good decision comes quickly and easily, but financially good decisions are things like automatic savings, paying essentials, and not buying things you don’t need.
Make sure that you save yourself some work when it comes to financial decision-making and keep yourself happy and healthy.