Reaching financial freedom can be as easy as a little planning and can improve your quality of life
Sometimes when we think about saving money and financial freedom, we think about getting good deals on what we buy and making wise investments.
However, saving money and building wealth isn’t just about the bargains we can wrangle through haggling or by shopping sales, and it isn’t just about setting money aside in a retirement account while paying down debt. The way you live your life can actually have a big impact on how much money you save in the long-term.
Build Financial Health Through Smart Living
The way we treat ourselves, our stuff and others all contribute to our long-term financial freedom. Here are 4 lifestyle habits that, if cultivated correctly, can pay big dividends over time:
- Good Physical Health Habits
Your physical health is one of the most important aspects of your lifestyle especially if you want to save money.
The way our healthcare system is set up, good health is expensive. Bad health, though, can be financially devastating. If you have poor health habits, you will be more prone to expensive diseases as well as ever higher health insurance premiums.
You can reduce the chances of expensive hospital stays and chronic diseases by exercising, eating nutritional foods, and avoiding habits like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption that can actively damage your body.
- Treat Your Possessions with Care
My partner and I have had the first car I bought for eight years. It’s paid off. It still runs well. We’ve had to perform only minimal repairs on it.
If we keep treating it right with regular maintenance, there’s a good chance that it will last long enough for our son to drive it in another eight years. We are careful to treat our clothes, furniture, television, and other items with care. As a result, they last longer.
We pay a little more for higher quality goods, and, with good care, they last a long time. This means we don’t have to keep buying new things.
- Continued Learning
An education can be a great thing. Learning how to improve your skills and increase your earning power can help you make more money over a lifetime. On top of that, continued education can help you learn how to more effectively manage your resources.
Learning can also contribute to your own enjoyment of life, whether you learn about other cultures, learn a musical instrument or language, or keep up with what is happening in politics. When you have information even if it wasn’t acquired through formal training at a university you have the tools to leverage opportunities that come your way.
- Treat Others with Respect
Follow the Golden Rule, and you will feel better about those around you, and likely be happier in yourself.
Not only that, but people who treat others well open doors that may not have been opened otherwise. Opportunities to help others abound. Many personal finance experts talk about how giving can actually help you live a better financial life. Plus, you never know who you are helping and how he or she could help you later.
Treat co-workers, clients, and superiors with respect, and you can build a network that could help your career.
What other lifestyle habits can help you on the path to financial freedom?
About Matthew Woodley. The founder of CreditRepairExpert.org which provides users with free and up-to-date information on how they can repair and improve their credit score. We’ve also reviewed the top credit repair companies to save you time and money. Make sure to subscribe to our blog to keep up-to-date with the latest news regarding credit repair.