Creating great and lasing habits should be a goal that all of us should constantly be working on. How do you create lasting habits? The key word is consistency! What are the great habits that will help us reach our goal of financial independence? The habit of looking at the positive side of things is crucial. Staying positive can help you to see the opportunities in even the hardest times. Making a habit of holding yourself responsible is crucial. Holding yourself accountable for the mistakes that you have made with your finances can give yourself the opportunity to grow from them. Chose one or two areas that you would like to work on and focus on those things for at least 30 days. This may be hard for you if it is an area that you are struggling in. Asking a friend to help hold you accountable can be a priceless resource. Also, creating a vision board to help keep you motivated can help as well. There are a few basic habits that should be the primary focus of all the financial students. The first habit that all financial students should have is the habit of tracking all of their expenses. Knowing the money that is coming in every month and the money going out is crucial. Getting into the habit of always looking for ways to reduce your expenses and ways to increase your income can also be a valuable tool. Get in the habit of always asking for a better deal is a good idea for all of us. Distinguishing between needs and wants and reducing the wants purchases as much as possible. The key to financial independence is consistency. Creating great habits will help us to do just that.

This week is a reminder to keep an attitude of gratitude.

Kids and Money by Adam Mortimer

I believe that every parent should strive to teach their children the principles of living a prosperous lifestyle. Wise parents know that this knowledge is one of the greatest gifts that they could ever give their children. If we are trying to teach them how to handle their money, it is crucial that we are leading by example. Teach them that they can accomplish anything that they want to accomplish in life and especially when it comes to their finances. Teach them to avoid debt except for some things that cannot be avoided like a mortgage, car, or education. Everything else should be cash only. Teach them through example. Let them see you make wise financial decisions like saving for a rainy day. There is a saying by Harvey S. Firestone; “A man with a surplus can control circumstances. But a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often he has no opportunity to exercise judgment.� Every family should have a reserve of at least 3 to 6 months living expenses. Teach them the dangers of Debt, the power of compound interest, and living within your means and paying yourself first. Let them see the family budget. Let them see the money coming in and the money going out so they can better understand cash flow. All too often I hear students say that there parents never taught them how to manage money.
Talk to your kids about money. Not talking to kids about money is the worst thing that we can do as parents. Money should not be one of those things that we should not shy away from. Involve the family in saving up for things like vacations. Even if your kids are not able to contribute a lot, this will give them a real sense of accomplishment, and can help to build self esteem and confidence when it comes to money. Let your kids have their own savings account. There are a lot of great high yield savings accounts that would be great for this.
Never give you kids a sense of entitlement. Teach them to work for their money; do not just give them something unless they have earned it. Earning a dollar will help them appreciate it more than if it is just given to them. Is there a lawn that they can mow? Can they clean the kitchen and do the dishes. Teaching kids these fundamental principles can go a long way to raising independent adults.

This weeks tip is a reminder not to increase your debt during the holiday season.

Truly the saddest thing that could happen to us is for us to look back on our lives and realize that we mismanaged our time here. There are so many people that let the things that really do not matter take the time of the things that really do. There are so many distractions along the path of life that, if we are not careful, we will fall into the trap of wasting our lives away. It has been said that successful people and unsuccessful people have the same amount of time in the day. The difference between the two is how they manage their time. Time truly is our most valuable asset. If we start to think of it as a tangible asset it can help us to invest it wisely. Would you invest your money in something that produces poor or even negative returns? Where are we investing our time that will produce the most desirable returns on our investment? Recently, I was working with one of my students, and as we were reviewing what he had accomplished the week before, he confessed to me that he was not able to do all of his homework. When I asked him why he had not completed his homework, he said that he did not have enough time. I then asked him if he had watched any TV that week. He responded that he had watched about five hours of TV that week. I then responded that he really did have the time he just chose to spend it in different areas.
Allow me to illustrate a few principles of time management though this illustration. Imagine that your time is represented by a pickle jar, and that sand, pebbles, and rocks represent the things that you need to do in a day. The rocks represent the most important things that you have to do like eat and sleep. The pebbles are the less important things, and the sand represents leisure time and unnecessary things that we do. If you put the sand in first, and then the pebble, and then the rocks you will see that it will be hard to fit everything in. If you start with the most important things first, the rocks and then work your way down to the sand, everything fits. We can take this same principle and apply it in our lives. If we do the most important things first, we will be able to fit more into our day. Remember, never let the things that do not matter take the time of the things that do. If we do this we are bound to take a lot of the wasted time out of our day!

This week's tip comes from Adam Mortimer.

Thought: What does it take to excel at what you do? I have seen people that have reached great levels of success, because they apply the principles of becoming successful. They know what it takes to succeed. Take away everything from them and somehow they can make it all back and then some. What makes these people so different from the average person? Why do so few reach such high levels of success. I believe that the difference is in their understanding of what it takes to excel at what you do. Successful people understand the important principles of success, like the process of creation. It does not matter whether it is more wealth, health, or better relationships that you want, the principles are the same. They understand that thoughts are things and that if they want to have something, they understand that they must hold it in their minds first, and that they must be very clear about what they want. They know that they must see what they want so clearly that it feels as if they have it now. This is one of the great principles that successful people have mastered.
Working Smarter: Work is part of the equation, but just working hard will not get you to where you need to be. Imagine that two people need to move the same size rock the same distance. One person starts to push and push. The second person finds a stick to give him leverage thereby accomplishing more with less effort. Out of those two people who is working harder and who is working more effectively? Successful people know how to get the job done effectively; they know how to produce the greatest returns with the least amount of effort.
Persistence: Being persistent is a trait of successful people that cannot be overlooked. Successful people do not accept temporary defeat as failure. They understand that it is the hard times that they grow the most. In weightlifting it is that last lift where you really struggle that the muscle actually tears. By tearing the muscle you allow it to grow back even bigger and stronger. Successful people never give up!
Responsibility: People that excel at what they do, take responsibilities for their actions. They do not play the blame game. They realize that the level of success that they want to achieve in this life is completely up to them. That is a wonderful things for them because they realize that excelling at what you do really is a state of mind and a willingness to live the principles of success. If you live you life this way, you truly will excel at whatever you chose to do!