How to Apply Good Financial Habits to the Rest of Your Life

It’s easy to see how having good money habits can make you feel better. More money in your pocket means you are able to go grocery shopping and get that fancy cheese, get your oil changed, and maybe shell out for another TV subscription.

However, you may not have considered the psychological and health impacts that having better money habits can have. If you create improved money management, it has an effect on lowering anxiety. It helps you get better sleep which boosts your immune system. The reverberations of one aspect of your life can deeply affect the rest.

With this idea in mind, you can take aspects of one part of your life that seem to be working and apply them (with some small variations) to the rest. In this way, it’s possible to use the lessons that keep your financials in order to address your life.

Lexington Law has compiled an infographic with over 20 ways to treat your life and finances similarly. Some of the most important lessons speak to issues like:

Don’t stretch yourself too thin

Overwork is just as dangerous as overspending. Don’t find yourself making time investments that your body can’t cash. Like credit card debt, sleep debt is a dangerous thing.

Proper rest, on the other hand, will build your life portfolio in many ways. You can get improved decision-making, immune system boosts, and a generally better outlook.

See Also: 10 Tips to Manage Your Time Effectively Under Pressure

Prioritize the future

Pure impulse purchases are bad for your finances and life. Even if you are generally not a planner, there are a number of things you can do to create good habits in this area.

Make a down payment on organizing

Organization guru Marie Kondo suggests ways to tidy up your life through her KonMari Method. The most important element of this is the first step: making a commitment.

Applying this to your finances means sitting down to make budgets and plan for your future. The same idea can be applied to your life:

Vision board it

It might seem strange, but just the action of writing your goals down has a large impact on what you are actually able to accomplish. Something about the physical action of recording what you want in life, studies show, makes it up to 10 times more likely to happen.

Prioritize your time

Make a schedule and stick to it. If that means turning off your phone and getting rid of push notifications, do it. The myth of multitasking is that it helps you get more done, when in fact, the opposite is true.

By switching between tasks, you are actually wasting precious time. In fact, about 40% of your productivity can be lost when you try to multitask. And besides, you know it always ends up with you on social media!

To Do, To Done

Do you feel like making lists is taking up too much of your precious time?

The lists you make are more than just physical reminders of all the myriad tasks you have yet to perform. They are actually organizing strategies that have added benefits like helping you feel less anxious, get better sleep, and be more productive.

Don’t stop learning

It’s crucial to stay abreast of financial trends and that means always finding more ways to educate yourself. From a life perspective, accepting the idea that you should never stop learning is an imperative. Being a lifelong student is an important part of any journey.

Beyond the direct effect of learning a new skill or gaining new information, continuing to expand your mind will have you living longer and making more friends.

Habla Español?

Learning a new language does more than let you talk to people from other countries. Studies show it can also physically expand your mind and add to improved general cognition.

Make something

Doing something creative, like playing music or creating art, is more than just “art for art’s sake.” It’s a relaxing outlet and will also make you more creative in other areas of your life, too.

Take a continuing education class

There may be topics that can help you professionally or just something you’ve always wanted to know about. These classes keep your mind working and lead to a longer, more fulfilled life.

Let’s get physical

Financial wellness and physical health may not seem to have much in common, but just sitting down to assess your level of heath and making a commitment to better habits is an area where these two elements of life overlap.

Take time to exercise

We all know that exercise makes us feel better, but it has other benefits. Studies show more exercise leads to improved memory and is often correlated with higher salary.

Get out into nature

Yes, sunshine is pleasant and Vitamin D is good for your body. Spending time outside has also been shown to help you sleep, lower blood pressure, and increase your metabolism.

Having good money habits is sometimes not enough. There are a number of excellent reasons to start to think about your life the same way you might approach your finances.

Check out this infographic for more thoughts and ideas (as well as the metrics to back them up).

Please include attribution to LexingtonLaw.com with this graphic.