Three Key Traits for Sticking to a Budget
Sticking to a budget can be as simple as following three basic personality traits, according to About.com’s Financial Planning site. They make it sound so easy - I know it’s not - but perhaps giving some thought to the three personality traits they describe could at least help you go further towards creating a budget and following it.
- Have a positive attitude: This advice can apply for pretty much everything in life, but where budgeting is concerned, a positive attitude means focusing on the rewards that following a budget can bring. For example, focus on how happy being more financially secure will make you feel or the joy when you’ve completely paid off your credit card debt.
- Remain motivated: When the will to stick to the budget starts to sag, consider giving yourself rewards for sticking to it or even increasing your goals. That is, give yourself a challenge to save an extra amount one month - sometimes setting yourself tougher goals for a short-term can motivate you by giving you a big success sooner than you’re expecting.
- Have realistic expectations: Start with small “bite-sized” goals and short time frames - start the budgeting process step by step, rather than immediately striving for large lofty goals like “being debt free within two years”. Make your budget goals realistic and frequently reachable, then make some more.
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 5:26 am and is filed under Budgets & Money Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
