How to Build Good Money Habits that Actually Last

February 19th, 2023

6 min read

Have you ever wondered what it would take to make a lasting financial impact on your life? Sure, it’s easy to talk about the importance of budgeting and saving money, but it’s another thing entirely to actually develop good money habits that will leave a lasting impression on your finances. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems. By instituting just 7 simple money habits into your life, you can make sure that you’re making the most out of your hard-earned money and setting yourself up for a more financially stable future. From budgeting to investing, these 7 money habits will help you make a lasting financial impact on your life.

1. Analyse Your Budget to See What’s Left Over

The first step towards making a lasting financial impact is looking at your budget and seeing what’s left over. This may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of people simply don’t take the time to do this. They go through life without keeping track of their finances or budgeting, and they don’t see the big picture. You have to know what’s going on with your finances in order to make the best possible decisions with your money. You have to know what you’re working with and what’s left over so that you can budget accordingly and have a clear idea of how you can use your hard-earned money to make the most out of it.

2. Automate Your Finances

Another important step towards making a lasting financial impact is automating your finances. While keeping track of your expenses as they come in can be helpful, automating your finances can be even more beneficial. By setting up automatic transfers from your paycheque to your investment accounts, bills, and savings accounts, you can take the control out of your hands and out of sight. This way, you don’t have to worry about keeping up with your bills or making sure you have the money to make your investments. Instead, the money is taken from your paycheque automatically, transferred to the accounts you’ve set it up with, and deposited into the accounts you’ve set it up with. This makes it easier to stay on top of your finances and budget accordingly. It takes away the human error factor and helps you make sure your finances are in order without you having to worry about it.

3. Automate Your Savings

Along with automating your finances, you should also be automating your savings. Again, this takes the control out of your hands and puts it in the bank. It’s important to have a savings account, but it’s even more important to have an automated savings account. By automating your savings, you’re making sure that you’re putting a certain amount of money away from each paycheque and depositing it into your savings account. This will help you to save for your future expenses like retirement and unexpected expenses like car repairs or medical bills.

4. Split Your Bills into Payments

Another good money habit to get into is splitting your bills into multiple payments. By splitting your bills into two or three payments each month, you can save a lot of money on interest and put yourself in a good position to make a lasting financial impact. It’s important that you make sure you have the money to make each of these payments. You don’t want to put yourself in a position where you’re struggling to make a payment and having to take out a loan to cover it. This is how people get themselves into debt. Instead, you want to make sure that you have the money available to make each of these payments so that you don’t end up racking up more debt than you already have. You could consider Wagetap’s bill split feature to easily split your bill payments into three or four repayments that align to your payday.

5. Make Wise Choices When You’re in a Pinch

One of the best things you can do to make a lasting financial impact on your life is to make wise choices when you’re in a pinch. This is where you have a really important bill coming due and not enough money to pay for it. What do you do? Do you borrow money from a friend or family member? Do you take out a loan or cash advance against your credit card? Or do you make a different decision entirely? It’s important to make wise choices when you’re in a pinch and you don’t have the money to pay for something. Perhaps you can ask your utility company to delay your bill until next month. Or maybe you can call the cable company and ask if you can downgrade your package for a cheaper price and still get everything that you need. These are just a couple of examples, but there are plenty more where they came from.

6. Separate Your Accounts

Finally, you should make sure that you’re keeping your accounts separate. This means keeping your savings accounts separate from your checking accounts and other types of accounts. This is especially important if you’re saving up for something big like a new car or a house. You don’t want to mix your savings with your transaction account. This will make it more difficult for you to reach your savings goal. Instead, keep your savings accounts separate so that you can easily keep track of how much money you have saved up without having to worry about it being mixed up with your other finances.

7. Track Your Expenses

Finally, you should make sure that you’re tracking your expenses to see where your money is going. This is an important part of budgeting and staying on top of your finances. You need to know where your money is going in order to make sure you’re not spending too much, but also that you’re spending enough. You need to make sure you’re covering all of your expenses and that you have enough left over to put towards savings, investments, and paying off debt. If you’re not keeping track of your expenses, it can be difficult to know where your money is going. Fortunately, there are plenty of free apps and websites that will help you track your expenses.

Download Wagetap

Wagetap is a powerful financial tool that can help you manage your finances and cultivate healthy money habits. It allows you access to the money you've already earned, instantly. They also offer a bill split feature where they cover up to $600 of your bill, and you repay in smaller instalments aligned to your payday.

These 7 money habits will help you make a lasting financial impact on your life. The best thing you can do is track your finances, automate your finances, and automate your savings. Keep your accounts separate, split your bills into two or three payments each month, make wise choices when you’re in a pinch, and track your expenses. These are simple ways to keep your finances in order and make sure that you’re saving up for the things you want while still staying on track with your finances.