You see, nobody comes into life knowing exactly how to manage money. We all make mistakes and, hopefully, learn from them as we go.
If you feel like you’ve been trying to get your financial act together but things just aren’t clicking maybe it’s one of these reasons that you’re bad with money.
You Want Instant Gratification
Personal Finance is far from being an instant gratification type of thing. In fact, I think that’s what makes paying off debt, saving, and investing so hard.
When you’re working on your financial goals twenty dollars at a time it can feel like a constant uphill battle. What you don’t realize is that twenty dollars at a time can do absolutely miraculous things for you.
You’re Focusing on the Wrong Things
Good money management is not always about pinching pennies. Sure, frugal living can have great benefits but you need to look at the overall picture of your personal finances.
You shouldn’t deal shop for the sake of deal shopping (because you’ll end spending money on a bunch of junk doing that) and there’s no need to build an extreme couponer’s type of stockpile. You need to think about not only today but tomorrow.
If you’re “saving” money by getting deals then you need to put those savings into the bank.
You Don’t Have Strong Goals
Personal finance is all about patience. Unless you’re super wealthy it’s going to take years for you to hit the majority of your money goals. This is why it’s so important to have goals that really motivate you.
When I don’t have a strong financial goal my budget starts slipping and I’m a lot more careless. When I have a good goal I keep that in mind and make sacrifices that will ultimately pull me toward that goal.
Make sure you have financial goals that mean something to YOU.
You Like to Spend Money
Last but not least, you may just enjoy spending money. I have plenty of family members like this.
Spending money for the sake of spending money is a habit and all habits can be broken. Start by gradually trying to change this habit or find something to replace it with altogether.
This post isn’t meant to cut anyone down. We all make mistakes. But if you feel like you can never get ahead then your first step is identifying the problem. Once you know why you’re bad with money you can make a plan to fix it!