|
However, unlike the "head in the sand" personality
type, this person likely wants to know where the money is going
and may be frustrated by an inability to stop spending. The key
to changing is to start paying attention to the things you do, advises
Astre.
"Be aware of your spending patterns and keep a notebook,"
he adds. While you may not change your spending habits overnight,
take a realistic first step, telling yourself: Within three weeks,
I'm going to know exactly where my money goes.
Chaotic cash -- The bills
in your wallet are all crumpled up and in no particular order. There's
change in the bottom of your pocketbook or even in the floor of
your car. Someone who treats money cavalierly often does not respect
money or may not even care about finances, says Thakor. If you leave
money around, you're basically saying it's not important enough
to put it in a safe and protected place.
Sometimes that lack of respect comes from a subconscious
level, says Astre.
"Very often people sabotage themselves because
they think they don't deserve money. It's a thing where, 'my parents
worked hard all their lives and now I'm making $150,000 and I don't
deserve it.' So subconsciously, they sabotage themselves," he says.
The key to changing this behavior is recognizing the buying power
of the money you've been discarding. Try adding up all of the miscellaneous
bills and coins on a regular basis. You might amass enough money
to start giving your "spare change" a little respect.
Unruly receipts -- Your
wallet is stuffed with receipts, but there's no sense of order to
them and you never really do anything with them. This is the person
who is trying, says Thakor.
"You want to know how to keep tabs on
your money -- otherwise you would have thrown the receipts away.
But you just can't take it to the next step to get them all organized
and do something with them. You are like the person that buys all
the latest exercise equipment but doesn't get around to using it," she says.
In order to change this behavior, you've got to get
organized. Take a day to come up with a filing system for your receipts
so you know what to do with them at the end of the day. If you're
never going to use the receipts to track your spending, what's the
point of keeping them in the first place?
File-folder funds --
All of the bills in your wallet are lined up from largest denomination
to smallest (or vice versa). You have an idea of how much money
you have at all times and you know what's available to spend.
"These
are the people who have a firm grasp on how much they are spending
and how much they are saving," says Thakor. If you exhibit this
behavior, you probably have good financial habits. However, there
still may be some potential for financial misteps.
Taken to the
extreme -- having all the dead presidents right-side up and facing
the same way in order of date, for example -- could mean you "could
have a problem allocating enough money toward fun," Thakor says.
Identifying what your behavior is telling you about your beliefs about money is only the first step. Continuing to monitor your financial habits is key, says Kessel. Make note of the changes you make to your behavior as well as the times you fall short.
"One of the biggest mistakes people make is they think, 'now I have this new wisdom about my money life and therefore my problems are solved,'" says Kessel. Change takes time, Kessel advises, "but the moment you have a new awareness about what was driving your money behavior, your thinking begins to shift."
|
