Anyone whos improved their money skills will tell you: its not about the rules.
Okay, the rules are important, but theyre not nearly as important as yourhabits and behavior.
After a while, I would check it and think, Oh snap!I did that?
I felt a rush, and that rush made me want to save even more.
In fact, the entire point of personal finance is learning to control money.
And thats hard, because most of us feel the exact opposite: we feel like money controls us.
It keeps us from taking that awesome trip on our bucket list.
It keeps us from leaving a job we hate.
Dont get me wrong, those are necessary.
However, when you get down to the meat of the story, its about control.
They learned to take control of their situation and do what they could, when they could.
Money is boring and overwhelming, and no one wants to give it much thought.
Thats part of the problem.
We want to know how to fix our finances, but were too scared to really dig into them.
you’ve got the option to immerse yourself in your own finances and track every penny.
Set some meaningful goals.Dont just create a budget because you should have one.
Ask yourself why you want to stick to that budget.
Is it to support your family?
Get out of debt and travel?
Its about accomplishing the stuff that matters to you.
In this way, you flip the scriptyou make money work foryourather than the other way around.
Come up with a plan.Draft a plan thats unique to your spending, income, and goals.
The50-30-20 budgetis great, but dont just follow someone elses formula to get your finances on track.
confirm its a formula that fits your needs.
That might mean tweaking the rules to do what works for you.
Control doesnt come easy when you feel like the deck is stacked against you.
Ultimately, all of the other factors go back to cultivating a sense of control.
Taking action, even if its a small action, can be powerful.
For example, lets say you decide to put $10 more a month toward your debt.
Its a small action, yeah,but small stuff adds up.
In his new book,Smarter Faster Better, author Charles Duhigg talks about this concept in detail.
And Duhigg confirms thatone way to motivate yourself is to make decisions.
He writes:
Motivation is triggered by making choices that demonstrate to ourselves that we are in control.
The specific choice we make matters less than the assertion of control.
Its this feeling of self-determination that gets us going.
In other words, by focusing on a decision, you feel in control, and that motivates you.
Taking action is one thing, but theres a difference between blindly following the rules anddecidingto take action.
The rules are important, but sometimes we use them to delegatethe really important work.
Deciding to take action is a little different.
Youre not just doing what youre supposed to do, youre doing whats right for you.
Its a small but important distinction and heres how it might translate to some personal finance basics.
Decide how much you should probably cut back and focus onspending with a purpose.
And thats where mindful decisions come in: youre not just following some blanket rules.
You tweak the advice to accommodate your unique financial situation.
Being mindful and aware of your money habits goes a long way toward establishing your control.
Balance Holds It All Together
Of course,sometimes youll make the wrong decisions.
Maybe the debt payoff method you picked isnt working.
Maybe you overestimated your willpower.
Maybe your raise didnt work out.
Control is important, but control alone isnt going to solve every problem.
You have to learn to recalibrate, and that usually means finding some kind of balance or compromise.
For example, when I wanted to supercharge my debt payoff, I completely overestimated my willpower.
I threw every cent toward my debt and had nothing left over.
Despite making a decision and trying to exert control, my actions backfired and I wrecked my finances.
So I had to rebalance it all.
I had to learn to build a better budget, work with my habits, and tweak my plan.
So much of personal finance works out this way.
You have to find the balancebetween spending today or saving for tomorrow.
You have to find the balance betweenbeing frugal and wasting your time.
Extremes rarely work well.
If youre resourceful, though, you focus on the tips thatdoapply, and put them to work.
Learn to seize opportunities: Resourceful people look for opportunity in everything they encounter.
They look at things from a perspective of how it could affect their bottom line.
And again, control is pretty much everything.
Illustration by nick criscuolo.
Photos:Julie F,Blondinrikard Froberg,Ajay Goel,klndonnelly
