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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future.
Whether in business or your personal life, money matters. Sadly, The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy. Not knowing where to start gives you little to no chance of taking control of your finances, so the best place to start is small.
Below are the micro financial habits for more wealth and peace of mind so you can start working with.
1. Monitor Your Net Worth
Make finance simple by focusing on your net worth. Your net worth is your assets (everything you own) minus your debts, whether student loans, credit cards, or mortgages.
With your net worth in hand, you can use it to predict your financial future, whether that’s rate of return, interest rates, or saving rates.
It’s a motivator and shows where you are in the great financial landscape. Plenty of free tools are available online, but it’s as simple as creating a spreadsheet and updating it periodically.
2. Track Your Monthly Cash Flow
Cash flow isn’t just for businesses. It’s for everybody.
Your cash flow tells you whether you’re living within your means. If more money goes out than coming in, you’re on your way into poverty. Track all your outgoings for the month and compare them against what’s coming in.
According to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, 62% of people with a budget feel more in control. Marking down and watching your expenses is the micro habit that signals control.
3. Practicing Smart Loan Management
More than three in four Americans reported feeling anxious about their financial situation. Much of that is because of the debt burden, but you can erode those debts through smart loan management and eventually go onto a life of financial freedom.
Turn to technology to manage your debts. Again, knowing your outgoings, incomings, and interest rates will help you determine where to direct your efforts and start paying down those debts.
There’s an app for everything related to debt these days. Whether you need a consolidation loan calculator, interest rate calculator, or even an AI-powered financial advisor to determine which debt to pay down first, embrace technology over pen and paper.
4. Save and Invest
Automate your savings and investing every month. Put aside a manageable figure, whether that’s 5%, 10%, or 20% of your income.
Ignore what the market is doing and focus on simple S&P 500 mutual funds or index funds. Deposit every month and resist checking the market. Remember, the S&P 500 has returned a yearly average of 10.62% for the last 100 years.
5. Talk Finance
Abandon the idea that finance is a taboo subject. Talking to friends and family lets you pool knowledge and teach others along the way.
Starting a financial conversion could be as simple as asking what a good friend is doing for retirement or asking how they learned about how to manage their money.
6. Write It Down
Here’s a fun fact: 82% of Americans keep a household budget, but only 36% actually write it down using pen and paper. Tracking the numbers in your head is a recipe for disaster because you’re not committing it to memory.
There’s something to be said about mental acuity and making things stick. Practice writing things down on pen and paper to commit everything to memory, and you’ll be able to stick to and remember the vital parts of your spending habits.
7. Leave It for 24 Hours
Set a dollar limit for what you consider a “major purchase,” and then implement a rule that states you’ll wait 24 hours before pulling the trigger.
Impulse buys are the bane of many budgets, and a few ill-considered purchases can leave your finances in tatters.
8. Stay Diversified
Diversification helps you weather the storm. As the old saying goes, never put all your eggs in one basket. Assets include:
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Real estate
- Precious metals
- Crypto
There’s no golden rule with allocations, as everyone has different priorities and preferences, but what matters is you stay diversified, and your allocation matches your short- to medium-term needs.
For example, as you move closer to retirement, you’ll be looking at withdrawing, so you’ll start to move away from stocks and toward less volatile and lower-risk bonds. What matters is you know your allocations at all times.
9. Make Finance a Part of Your Day
Get into the habit of studying different aspects of finance, whether that’s personal or business. Set aside a small amount of time to see what the markets are doing or read one or two financial articles every week.
Making finance an integral part of your life ensures that it doesn’t become a chore and you begin taking an active interest in money.
10. Set Goals and Follow Them
Goals can be anything from paying off your mortgage to retiring by a particular age. Setting financial targets is one thing, but following them is quite another.
Establish these goals and think about where you are every day. Give them a permanent place in your mind, and consciously consider them when you’ve got a spare moment to give them the priority they deserve.
You’ll find this little mind habit gives you purpose and keeps you motivated, even if your overall goal is decades away.
