Micro-habits with financial support
Objective 1: Define micro habits and understand how they impact emotional, physical, and financial well-being.
Objective 2 : Identify positive micro habits that can improve your financial health, such as budgeting, saving, and financial education.
Objective 3: Recognize negative micro habits that can harm your financial stability, like impulse buying or not having a budget, and learn how to avoid them.
· Topic 1: What is a micro habit?
o Micro habits are small and easy routines that you can adopt that have an impact on your emotional, physical, and financial wellness. These are efforts that tend to snowball into positive or negative outcomes depending on the efforts that we’ve tended to put into the aspect of life.
· Micro habits that you might have as your physical habits can be you park further away so that you walk more steps to your destination.
o Micro habits are ones that are tiny that you do every day to help steer you toward results or away from results in your life.
o These are tasks that take you less than 5 minutes at a time.
· Topic 2: Micro habits to positively help your financial situation:
o Use the 30/60 rule daily/weekly to help give yourself a better understanding of financials. That is 30 minutes a week of financial education and 60 second a day understanding your financial situation.
o Connecting micro financial habits are the little tasks that we do to help our sense of well-being for our actual financial status.
o Tracking your monthly cash flow/ budget / spending plan all connect to knowing and understanding the future net worth that helps you in looking at the financial strengths and weaknesses. This is budgeting within your means and maintaining within a written budget; however research shows that less than 25% of Americans hold within a written budget. Just knowing in your head doesn’t help you move toward your goals. I know when I balance our excel spread sheet it always amazes me on the food line, of I thought we did so well this time around, but sometimes you must adjust. Though knowing this helps to plan more realistically for what is to come and make budget adjustments.
o Find spaces to engage in financial conversations that will grow you of asking questions, not looking for comparisons, but simply collecting information on how to adjust and understand your financial goals. Everyone in these conversations benefit.
o Always save and invest in the market regularly no matter what’s happening in the market. This will help you have the habit of putting money away monthly for the emergencies and unexpected cost. Creating the micro-habit of saving consistently helps to give a portion of your income to creating a foundation for financial success even when you are only setting a small amount away each month, it still helps create the habit over time. Always be sure you are contributing to your retirement opportunities, so you never miss each deposit.
o Micro spending habits can look like breaking down big expenses (my mom always has done this with things like contacts and glasses to how many days in the year you are going to use them. And really when you look through that lens, you will see it much differently.) Buying with the habit of value will last you versus cheaper alternatives.
o Do you factor in interest cost to your purchases? If you put something that’s $100 on your credit card and you do not pay the statement balances, you’ll add $10 and pay $110 instead.
o The micro habit of saving can be very important as well. Are you going to drink the sparkling water? We tend to buy the ones that are on more of a Bogo deal.
o Create the micro habit of saying yes to your budget, because this is simply your way to express yourself. You come up with the categories that are important to you!
o Are you haphazardness with your bill paying? This can create a time that one slips through the cracks, having a regularly time to make sure you are set up is important to make sure random spending and withdraws do not mess up your balance of bill payment.
o Apply a waiting period your purchase before making a certain dollar amount purchase. Like create a rule that you must wait 48 to 72 hours before a purchase. This will help you to really think about purchases you are making before actually following through to buy.
o If you can diversify your income to add additional ways of income into your pocket such as a rental income or a side business that can both give you other ways of bringing in income.
· Topic 3: Micro habits to negatively affect your financial situation:
o Did you know that impulse buying can have a negative effect on your spending habits?
o Not having a budget or spending plan
o Late payments
o No savings goals
o Not living within your means
o Paying only the minimum due on your credit cards
o Paying unnecessary fees
o Shopping in the midst of your emotions
· I hope this one is an encouragement for you to make sure you create micro habits in each of your moments throughout the day to help build you to your intentional self.
· Call to action: Take five minutes to identify two micro habits you can focus on this week.
