The best way to make managing money easier is by creating healthy financial habits. When something becomes a habit, it becomes natural and intuitive. Your brain automatically knows what to do.
That’s why today we’re talking all about the best money habits to have so you can be wealthy and have a stress-free financial life. It is possible.
In this post, you’ll learn:
- 7 money habits to have for a wealthy life
- Best resources to help you achieve each habit
- Top book and article recommendations to help you learn these habits
Budgeting
To start a budget, first calculate the total amount you take home each month, after taxes.
For example, you have two bi-weekly paychecks each month at $2000 each after tax. Your take-home pay is $4,000.
All of your expenses, savings, and debt must be under $4,000.
Knowing this total amount is going to help you see where you need to cut spending so you can start saving more. Every dollar helps.
Now you need to allocate how you’re going to spend your money.
This means you figure out how much money goes toward fixed expenses like rent, internet, cell phone, groceries, insurance, etc. Once you have that, then you can see how much you have leftover for paying off debt and saving money.
I personally recommend using EveryDollar’s budgeting app (I’ve been using it for years). You need to figure out the best budgeting method for you because everyone prefers something different.
Helpful tools
- EveryDollar
- Mint
- Free resource library and access free budget printables
- Budget planner
- Cash envelope wallet
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Saving money
Learning how to save and automate savings is one of the very best things you can do for your money.
If you don’t know how to save money, you’ll likely spend it all and never achieve your financial goals.
There are people making six figures and still having a hard time saving money.
It really comes down to learning how to save even when your income is low.
This is one of the best money habits you can have because once you know how to save money, you can go to the next step, which is finding ways to earn more money so you can save even more money.
Think about all of the things you can save for, including:
- Emergency fund
- House downpayment
- Car purchase
- Vacations
- Child’s college fund
- House renovations
Helpful tools to save money
- Get cash back on groceries (even healthy foods) with Ibotta. Get $10 for signing up for Ibotta here.
- Use a budget planner to keep track of your spending
- Get cash back on online purchases (pretty much anywhere) with Ebates. You get $10 for signing up for Ebates here.
- Get the best coupon codes instantly when shopping online with Honey.
- Save money on meal planning and save time grocery shopping with $5 Meal Plan. You get your first 2 weeks free here.
- Slash your cell phone bill in half by switching to Tello. Tello plans start at $5 and the highest plan being $39. You can cancel or upgrade your phone plan any time you want and keep your existing number. I only need the $19/month Tello plan which gives unlimited text and calling, with 4GB of data.
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Earning more money
There comes a limit to how much money you can save, so what you can do next is increase your monthly earnings.
You can do this by finding a new job that pays more, getting a side hustle, or by becoming a freelancer and picking up jobs here and there.
When I was in college, I picked up side hustles to earn extra money whenever I had free time. The side hustles increased my skills, helped me network and meet new people, and even eventually helped me start an online business.
Side hustles to start now
- Sell printables – #1 recommended side hustle for people looking for a low-stress way to earn passive income from home.
- Pinterest Virtual Assistant – Help businesses shine on Pinterest as a Pinterest manager. Create your own schedule, work for yourself, and work from anywhere in the world.
- Sell dog treats – Make up to $2,500 a month selling dog treats with this fun side hustle perfect for people who love dogs.
- Proofreading – Earn $20+ an hour proofreading from home. Be your own boss and set your own schedule.
- Surveys – Make money for answering simple questions. You can take as many surveys as you want and earn up to $5 per survey.
- Bookkeeping – Start your own virtual bookkeeping business and earn up to $80,000 a year from home.
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Investing for retirement
No matter when you’re reading this, the best time to start investing was yesterday.
The second best time is now.
The best place to start your investing journey is figuring out how much you will approximately need. This is the fun part of starting your investing journey. There are several retirement calculators online, but my favorite is Nerd Wallet’s retirement calculator.
Then, get the course How To Build Wealth By Investing In Index Funds. At the time of this writing, this course costs only $79. For $79, you learn a simple and straight forward way to invest for retirement.
This is how I learned how to invest my money and I have almost $100k saved at a pretty young age.
The course is taught be @personalfinanceclub, and he makes learning about investing fun, simple, and straight forward. It helps that he’s hilarious and provides a ton of helpful information on his Instagram.
Helpful tools
- The How To Build Wealth by Investing in Index Funds course teaches you the fundamentals of investing. You learn how to 1) open an investment account 2) how much to invest 3) and how to choose an index fund. It’s really that simple.
- The Simple Path To Wealth – My all time favorite investing book.
Related helpful blog posts
- Beginner Guide For People Completely New To Investing
- How To Build Wealth By Investing In Index Funds
Responsibly insured
Insurance is so important because it protects your assets from any unpredictable events. For example, I had a few health issues come up in the past year and having health insurance covered most of the expenses.
Although insurance can seem expensive and even frustrating at times, it’s worth it to be covered and financially prepared for anything to happen.
Experts recommend the following insurance:
- Auto insurance
- Health insurance
- Homeowners/Rental insurance
- Disability insurance
- Identify-theft insurance
- Pet insurance
Helpful tools
- Policy Genius – Compare and buy insurance online. This is where my husband found his life insurance policy.
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Set and complete goals
Without a goal, your brain isn’t motivated to do anything.
When you have a clear goal in site, you’re inspired to take action and get things done. I keep my financial goals on my fridge so I’m reminded of them every single day.
For example, right now our goal is to pay off my husband’s student loan debt. We have a tracker that shows how much money we have left.
It’s so motivating to see us completing our goal every day and getting closer and closer to being debt-free as a couple.
Here are some goals to choose from:
- Paying off your credit cards
- Opening a 401(k) and/or Roth IRA
- Starting a business that will earn you more money
- Increasing your credit score
- Saving for an emergency fund
- Paying off your car loan
- Pay off student loans
Helpful tools
- Book – Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By And Get Your Financial Life Together
- Book – Why Didn’t They Teach Me This In School?
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Stay educated
I’m saving this habit for last because I believe once you’ve achieved the 6 habits above, it’s time to make personal finance a long-term friendship.
For the most part, your financial habits will stay the same, but there will be newer ways to save money and better ways to make more money.
That’s why I recommend following a personal finance blog like mine, or any other. Doesn’t matter to me how you stay educated with personal finance, as long as you do.
Helpful tools
- Follow websites like Club Thrifty, Personal Finance Club, Making Sense of Cents, and Fitnancials (of course!),
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Final thoughts
These the seven most important financial habits you can have for wealth and success. If you don’t have any of these habits yet, don’t stress out. Work on one habit at time.
For example, you can work on starting a budget this month, and next month focus on opening your 401(k) by making meeting with your HR department.
Take one step at a time and you’ll be surprised at where you can be in just one year from now.
Do you have any or all of these financial habits?
Best side hustles to start right now
- Sell printables on Etsy – Selling printables is the #1 side hustle to make money. This can be done on your own schedule and turn into passive income! You can earn over $10,000 a year selling printables.
- Sell dog treats – Make $1,000+ selling dog treats from the comfort of your home. Be your own boss and make your own schedule.
- Proofreading – Earn $20+ an hour proofreading from home. Great for people who enjoy editing and working from a computer.
- Surveys – Make money filling out surveys. You can take as many surveys as you want and earn up to $5 per survey.
Alexis Schroeder is the CEO and founder of FITnancials.
With budgeting and side hustles, Alexis paid off over $40,000 of debt and made over $100,000 in side hustles in college.
Since starting this website over 10 years ago, Fitnancials has reached over 3,000,000 readers. We’ve been featured on sites like Forbes, Yahoo, Side Hustle School, GOBankingRates, Mint, and many more.
If you want to contact Alexis, please send an email to alexis@fitnancials.com.