10 Expensive Habits You Can Break Today
A Financial Planner Helps You Hack Your Bad Habits
Let’s face it — we all make poor money choices. Sometimes we may even be sabotaging our finances unconsciously. We are only human, after all.
1. Wasting groceries because you picked up takeout.
Financial Planner Tip: Plan meals ahead with a weekly system. Add “take out” to the meal plan on certain days when you know you won’t want to cook. Set up the slow cooker or make extra meals and freeze them to make weeknight dinners easy.
2. Deluding yourself that you’ll eat leftovers.
Financial Planner Tip: Own up to the fact that you don’t like to eat last night’s dinner for lunch the next day. Make smaller portions instead.
3. Telling yourself, “I deserve this purchase.”
Financial Planner Tip: Choose to reward yourself for accomplishments in ways that are fulfilling and affordable.
4. Waiting to increase your retirement contributions.
Financial Planner Tip: Use a calculator to determine the real cost of delaying your savings. Save at least up to the company matching contribution in your retirement fund, and then set up your savings on auto-escalation so it will automatically increase each year .
5. Losing receipts.
Financial Planner Tip: Keep a file or envelope for important receipts. Put it in an accessible spot, and when you pay your car registration, a medical bill, or a give a charitable gift, put the receipt in the envelope for safekeeping. You'll need them for tax time or else you'll forgo hundreds of dollars in write offs.
6. Throwing away perfectly good items.
Financial Planner Tip: If you aren’t one to try to sell used items on Craigslist or a neighborhood Facebook page, donate them to charity. Many organizations will even come to your doorstep to pick items up.
7. Shopping to increase happiness.
Financial Planner Tip: Set aside funds for a “spending acｃount” and link a debit card to it.These funds can be designated for your retail therapy, or whatever you’d like to spend them on. Once the money is spent, save up for your next therapy session!
8. Ignoring your credit card and bank statements.
Financial Planner Tip: Review your financial statements for recurring expenses. Ask yourself if you use the services you are paying for. If not, ｄrop them. When you see an item you don’t recognize, dispute it.
9. Buying equipment or gear for your new hobby.
Financial Planner Tip: Rent or buy used equipment until you determine that you are going to make a commitment to your sport or hobby.
10. Comparing yourself to others.
Financial Planner Tip: You don’t know if they got an inheritance, made good investment choices, and/or scrimped and saved for years to buy a special car or the home of their dreams. You also can’t know if they are stretched way beyond their means and are having trouble making payments.
Making a financial comparison between yourself and someone else just isn’t realistic, so don’t waste your time or energy doing it.
Breaking These Habits Will Boost Your Budget
We all have bad money habits, as well as good ones that serve us well. Trim off a few of the bad ones and develop more good ones. You’ll be happy you did.
Article Source: https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/financephotos/10-expensive-habits-you-can-break-today/ss-BBvNjjR
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VOCABULARY WORDS:
1. Delude (v.) ~ impose a misleading belief upon (someone) deceive fool
2. Affordable (adj.) ~ inexpensive reasonably priced
3. Forgo (v.) ~ omit or decline to take (something pleasant or valuable) go without
4. Write off (n.) ~ a cancellation from an acｃount of a bad debt or worthless asset
5. Recur (v.) ~ occur again, periodically, or repeatedly
6. Dispute (v.) ~ argue about (something) discuss heatedly
7. Scrimp (v.) ~ be thrifty or parsimonious economize
8. Trim off (phrasal verb) ~ to cut (something) off something else
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. Do you have a lot of left-over food at home? If yes, what do you do with them? If no, what do you do to avoid having a lot of left-over?
2. What do you usually do with the clothes, bags, shoes, etc. that you don’t use anymore?
3. Do you keep the receipts of your purchases and/or make a list of all your expenses? Do you think this is helpful in managing your finances? How?
4. Do you regularly check your credit card and bank statements? Have you ever experienced being charged of an item you didn’t buy? What happened?
