If you’re like most people, you’d be more open to sharing your fitness journey or sex life than talk about your financial situation. If you want to achieve better financial health, though, get ready to be a bit uncomfortable. We’ll have some money talk, starting with bad habits that most of us are guilty of.
Choosing Cards Over Cash
Not all debts are made equal. There are good ones — those you use to buy or acquire assets that increase value over time. Often, people don’t feel too guilty about purchasing a home or taking out a loan for a business. Paying for school is also an excellent example of good debt because it’s an investment for the future.
Meanwhile, there’s the other kind of debt you should always avoid at all costs: the bad ones. These are incurred when you purchase items that quickly lose their value or yield interests once you take them out of the shop.
Bad debt happens when you buy things you don’t need and can’t afford. There’s nothing great about this kind of debt other than the instant gratification of shopping. And do you know why most of us fall easily into this trap? Credit cards are to blame.
Shoppers tend to overspend when they’re swiping cards rather than paying with cash. Essentially, when you’re using credit cards, you’re shopping with money you don’t have. As the price of convenience, transactions come with high interest.
If you want to make your financial situation better, steer clear of bad debt, and choose to pay with cash over credit cards. The benefits are twofold: 1. resisting to buy unnecessary things will be so much easier and 2. you’ll do away with interests.
Taking Out Loans Without Payment Plans
This is one thing that many people often overlook. No matter the kind of debt you get into, it should be accompanied by a management plan. People drown in debt because financial obligations can pile quickly and unnoticeably.
One moment, you’re confident that you still can manage all your loans, and the next, you find yourself owing more lenders than you can pay. This is what happens when you fail to track your debts and come up with a payment plan for each one of them. It goes for all kinds of loans, good or bad.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone. Say, you’re taking out a home loan in Provo, Utah, work closely with the mortgage company. Taking your current financial situation into account, they’ll help you find the financing options that work for you. You’ll at least get an idea of how your finances will look like in the coming years.
Not Knowing Where Your Money is Going
Mindless spending is the result of one’s failure to track their expenses. When you aren’t aware of where your money goes, you’ll overspend on unnecessary things. Then, you’ll wonder why it’s so hard to make ends meet. It will be impossible to curb poor money habits when you’re unaware of them.
Achieving better financial health isn’t rocket science, but it does require a major lifestyle and behavioral change. After breaking the bad habits above, work on forming good ones. Little by little, you’ll gain control over your financial situation again.
