Checklist for money habits Having already devoted some posts to the money habit issue, we shall treat the issues already raised by readers in the question and answer column so that we can go straight to the checklist that is vital to financial security. To locate your spending habits, carry out the following personal checks. - Do I make up to the money I spend? Anyone who spends above his or her income is clearly operating a bad money habit. - With the way I spend money at present, can I sincerely say that my financial future is safe and guaranteed? - Can I really say that I really need the product I am about to buy? If your answer is ‘no’, you are about to spend money on a product that you not really need. - If the amount of money I want to spend on a product is significant enough to contribute to giving me a better and secured future and I can do away with the product at the moment, will I be willing to suspend the buying of the product till later date? If it is difficult to delay the immediate pleasure you may derive by not spending a particular amount of money today, it may be a tough call to meaningfully build savings to achieve a higher goal in future. - Is the product necessary, so urgent and so important to your immediate well being or it can wait till other time? The basic needs of life such as food qualify as necessary and important. You need this spending for your present well being and to enable you have a better future but if it becomes without measure and uncontrollable it can lead to gluttony and make you become wasteful. - Do I always think of the product I want to buy and make a list before I make my purchases or I just buy as the products catch my attention? If you have the habit of buying products without first planning and budgeting for it, you are not only an impulse buyer, you also operate bad money spending habit. Any product you can buy immediately it catches your attention should be one that you had planned for before but which you haven’t procured. List out what you spend money on. Study your list for a while and determine whether you are actually spending well. Remove not so important things from your list. - What do I need to put in place before I can conveniently embark on acquiring certain products? It is important you know the level you should have attained in life before you should go after certain products; otherwise you may find yourself putting the cart before your horse of life. - Is the product I want to buy too expensive and can I really say I get value for the money I want to pay? It is your duty to be on top of the market to know what competition is doing. You are not doing anybody any favour by paying exorbitantly for products, rather you may be celebrating your ignorance and lack of entrepreneurial instinct. Are there substitute products that can give good value at fair prices? - Are you paying higher for the avoidable goods and services? - What exactly do you need? Is what you want to buy a need or a want? Some Useful Steps to Take: After you might have seriously considered above issues, you can go further by considering the following steps. - Make it a habit to always classify products you want to buy into necessary, important and urgent categories. Move the money earmarked for not-so-necessary, not-so-important and not-so-urgent products to your savings and investments. -Do market surveys to find more competitive prices of products. Paying more as status symbol has a way of depleting your treasury at the expense of wealth creation. Consider your purse and your future goal very well when taking buying decisions. - It may not be proper to consider changing taste and lifestyle when additional expenses cannot be conveniently accommodated by your incomes. It is your responsibility to tackle and overcome peer pressures. -Plan your purchases before setting out to spend. It is a bad habit for one to walk on the street and be pricing products you have not predetermined to buy. - Budget properly for food, education, your personal development and knowledge acquisition, your wards, social engagements, home front, your recreation, utility bills, wear and tear of properties, etc. Check your food consumption habit. Occasional indulgence for a change is not bad but it shouldn’t become an uncontrollable habit. - Learn to close your eyes to products of no real value. If you don’t buy it, it will not take anything away from you and it will not impair your life when you do so.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:05:08 +0000
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