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Optimal Finance Daily - Financial Independence and Money Advice
3456: How to Stick to Your Budget - 9 Motivation Tips by Marjolein Dilven of Radical FIRE on Spending Discipline
00:10:35
Marjolein Dilven shares nine practical strategies to stay motivated and stick to your budget without feeling deprived or overwhelmed
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Carvana Customer
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LifeLock Announcer
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Carvana Customer
Way to go. So about that picture frame. Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested.
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Indeed Announcer
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Marioline Dilven
Up fees may apply. This is Optimal Finance Daily. How to stick to your budget 9 motivation tips by Marioline Dilven of radicalfire.com do you find it difficult to stick to your budget at times? Go through these nine motivation tips and you'll never fall off the budget bandwagon again. Currently, I have different financial goals I want to achieve. I still have $19,000 of student loans pending, I want to buy a house within two years, and I want to save 60% of my income this year. I love money. Saving money and making more money is my jam. But every now and then I'm completely unmotivated and I want to spend all of it. I'm sure I'm not alone. Many choose to live frugally, but it's not always easy to stick to. Can be hard to stick to your budget. Finding motivators is essential in this, so you'll continue to work towards your goals at any time. Without this motivation, you'll be tempted to give up your financial goals easily. Over the last few years, I've found many ways to stay motivated that I'm going to share with you. Here are my tips on how to stick to a budget and stay motivated along the way. How to stick to your motivation Tips Pay yourself first. My number one hack to sticking to your budget is paying yourself first. If you have savings or debt payoff goals, pay those things first. When you receive your salary, this amount goes automatically towards your financial goals. In this way, it's harder to fail your budget. You've already put money towards your saving or debt payoff goal so that money can't be spent anymore. Great start of the month that is. Believe me. Keep it real. If you want to set up a budget, be clear about why you want to do it. If you want to go on holiday, that's a good goal. It's important to keep your budget as realistic as possible. Don't go too extreme like throwing out your entire entertainment budget or not going to events because you're afraid to spend money. Be realistic with yourself where you can cut back and where you can't. If you're feeling deprived by your budget, you'll be more likely to break with it. Cut out the things you can miss and keep the things you love. Number three Hang out with like minded people. Sharing your goals with others will work for sure. If you don't have any friends who are into budgeting and money, there are many ways to do it. Share it on social media. If you want to take it to the next step, start a blog. Blogging really helped me to keep track of my financial goals and it keeps me accountable. It's easy to set goals every month and to reflect on it because I feel like I owe it to my readers. 4. Make your goals visual. There are different methods to make your goals visual. You can cut out photos of magazines and paste them onto blank paper. You can use Pinterest to make a digital version or you can print out a single photo and keep it with you. My favorite way is to create a vision board because you can put up multiple pictures and hang them somewhere you see them daily. This specific form is up to you. Whatever motivates you most, you should choose your goal. Visualization should show you the exact reason why you want to stick to your budget. Place it somewhere you'll see it daily. This is a constant reminder that will keep you motivated when things get hard. Number five Set smaller goals. Setting smaller goals in between will help you steadily work towards your financial end goals. It's a nice way to challenge yourself. Make it a game. This will keep you motivated and on track. If you want to save $12,000 at the end of the year. This can be too overwhelming when you're saying that you'll save $1,000 each month. It seems much more attainable and realistic. It's still a lot of money, but this kind of goal setting both challenges you and keeps you motivated. Choose a goal that motivates and excites you to keep going. Stay away from goals that seem too big to even grasp because that won't help you in the long run. Number six Keep track. If you've set up your budget and have taken care of accountability, it's important to keep track of these smaller goals you're setting. Every now and then you should review your process. It depends on your personal preference if you want to check in weekly, monthly or quarterly. When you check your progress, you can make adjustments along the way and stay on the right track. I recommend you need a budget for keeping track of your budget and your finances. You can put all of your budgets in the categories that they provide and start doing it now. 7. Reward yourself and have fun. I love keeping up with what I've spent in a month, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much I've saved that month. I'm very much aware that I'm in the minority in that regard. For everyone who's not thrilled about sitting down to keep track of their budget, try to reward yourself for doing it. Make it fun. Give yourself a nice treat when you're working on your budget. Get a snack you love. Go on a walk. Go to your favorite bookstore. Do something you love. If you link it with something you enjoy, you will stick to it. Number eight Keep the goal in mind. One great thing that will keep you motivated is to think about the end goal. How will that make you feel when you've paid off your debt? When you've saved that amount of money, envision what it will feel like when you've reached your goal. Think about why you're pursuing that goal. Remind yourself to constantly use the vision board accountability and celebrate your goals. A little daydreaming can go a long way. And number nine Set yourself up for success. Once you've done all this, you're well on your way to sticking to your budget. One thing to keep in mind is that you should set yourself up for success. Don't make it too hard for yourself. Don't be the person that buys the cookies and tries to train their willpower, attempting not to eat them. Willpower is a limited resource. Use it wisely. Instead, set yourself up for success. If you have a hard time, not spending money at a shopping mall. Don't bring your credit card if you're always overspending on your groceries. Stick to your grocery list no matter what. It's key to think before you're getting yourself into a specific situation. How do I want to act now that I'm this new person with these money goals? You might want to meal prep, take your lunch to work, or take the bike instead of the car. You just listened to the post titled how to Stick to youo 9 Motivation Tips by Marioline Dilven of RadicalFire.com it's.
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Marioline Dilven
If you've been listening for a while, you're well aware that improving your finances involves tracking your expenses, budgeting and spending less than you earn saving and investing. It sounds so simple to say, right? If you want to have more money, then simply stop spending it. But how do you actually do that? I think it comes down to shifting your desires and mindset, and that's an intentional thing that I find I need to work on every day. It might be hard to believe when you have a spending problem that getting out of debt, saving and investing will provide the same satisfaction as buying new, shiny things or spending money with abandon, but that has certainly been my experience, and I think the key is to build more of a desire for freedom than you have for whatever is depleting your money. Today I had a friend back in New York City who was a fitness fanatic and also a ninja when it came to saving and investing. Whether she was talking about healthy eating and exercise or money decisions, she would always use the phrase find a greater want. I would think of this when my alarm would go off at 6am and I wanted to sleep in rather than go to the gym. I would remind myself that as much as I wanted to stay in my warm bed, I wanted the benefits of exercise much more. I was able to find the greater want when I was making a decision in that moment, and it made it much easier to get out of bed. And that's another episode of Optimal Finance Daily. Thank you for your support and for listening every day, of course. Have a great start to your weekend and I'll be back with another post for you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.