Categories: life, saving, investing
“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.”
Charles Dickens
Who can argue with such an accomplished man as Charles Dickens? Develop habits for wealth and greater contentment will follow.
Main Topic
Try out a few of these habits, and see what happens.
- Get married
- Stay married
- Get a college education
- Get to work early and stay late
- Do more than is expected at work and get promoted
- Have a side business
- Take risks
- Learn from your mistakes
- Try something new
- Contribute regularly to a ROTH IRA
- Contribute to your work retirement account
- Be patient
- Be disciplined
- Eat out infrequently
- Transfer money regularly into a savings account
- Invest regularly
- Order water only with meals out
- Drink alcohol infrequently
- Avoid extravagant and ostentatious people
- Live in a low cost region
- Buy a modest home
- Keep your vehicle 10 years or more
- Take the stairs
- Exercise regularly
- Bring lunch to work
- Maintain your possessions
- Spend more on needs-less on wants
- Drink water
- Eat more rice, beans, potatoes, and peanut butter
- Buy fruits and vegetables in season, canned, & frozen
- Trade walking for driving when you can
- Pay your credit card bill off in full every month
- Give your kids more time and less things
- Don’t equate net worth with self worth
- Use the library
- Compare prices
- Designate part of every paycheck to saving &/or investing
- Do not pay to have a check cashed
- Learn a new skill
- Get an advanced degree
- Write down your goals
- Write down what you appreciate and value in life
- Enroll in a work retirement plan
- Put all investing dollars into unmanaged, low cost, index funds
- Start saving and investing NOW, no matter how old you are
- Take up low cost recreation and hobbies
- Want less
- Ask for a raise
- Eat less meat
- Think less about money and more about living
Action Steps:
Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it for all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.
List several “new” wealth habits from the list to try this week.
Add some of your own “wealth habits.”
