Smoking, Gambling, Drinking and Saving Money

Some things become habit. I can attest to the many attempts it took me to quit smoking. (Sorry to disappoint but I never stumbled into the gambling and drinking vices.) It was not just about breaking the physical addiction of nicotine, but the lifestyle changes that compelled me to reach for a cigarette further enabled my habit. Many years after I quit, I have gotten up to get a non-existent cigarette, not from desire, but simply from the old routine that I had established over a course of many years.

Money management, how we spend and save is so incredibly similar. I have been reading some old “classic” books on handling money and becoming rich. You have heard me say before that most of the same principles apply if we want to get out of debt or if we want to become rich. Many of the steps outlined in these books have to become ingrained and habitual for you to reap the financial results.

It is about mind set, it is about routine, it is about regularly scheduled habits of when and where we deposit money or pay down a debt. Hit and miss actions will doom you to stay in a financial rut. Even lucking into easy cash will be a very temporary gain since new habits of prosperity have not been established.

I have saved money that I was able to divert to pay off bills by breaking habits; like my cable bill, for instance. When I got rid of my cable tv connection, I knew I was wasting money paying for something I seldom utilized. Yet once there were no more channels to aimlessly surf, I felt lost. To be honest, I did go through some withdrawal, especially losing the background noise to which I had become accustomed. But in no time at all I was able to re-build a new passion for books, drown myself in music I had sitting in their cd cases and explore new shows via the internet. Though I may be out of step with some of the shows I hear people talking about, I feel my leisure time viewing has been expanded way beyond what tv could offer, while saving me close to $100 per month.

The tv habit was a habit that had to be broken and I’ve learned to look at how and what I spend my money on, evaluating if it supports my financial goals.

Any bad habits you want to ditch?