Video transcript below.

“If you do not know how to care for money, money will stay away from you.” That quote came from Robert Kiyosaki.

It’s no secret that many of us struggle from time to time managing our money, I know I’ve had my challenges in the past so today we’re going to discuss 7 money habits that are keeping you poor.

WATCH NEXT Saving First $100k is the Hardest But Then THIS Happens! https://youtu.be/C5LDkO3oYUw

Let’s start with number 1…

Eating out/ordering in

I’m starting this list with one that I know a lot of folks are guilty of. There’s nothing wrong with eating out, but too much can hurt your pockets. I do think I used to get caught up in eating out a lot whether it was going to waffle house in the morning or a local brunch spot or dinner downtown with some friends I know I would spend a lot of money. And now with a family even a trip to a fast food spot or a restaurant can easily run $60-$100. And ordering in is just as bad if not worse, because of the delivery fees and extra fees you have to pay. Again, nothing wrong with using Uber Eats or Grubhub if you can afford it or in a situation where you need to. I do sometimes, but not every day, not even once a week. Maybe 2 to 3 times do we order in. So that’s why it’s important to have some meals that you can make at home for yourself and or your family. This will save you a lot of money and even time because more often than not you can make enough to have leftovers for the next day. Meal prepping is another hack you can use to plan your meals each week. That’s next level, but I think you can do it!

Subscriptions/Memberships

When it comes to money habits that keep people poor, I see subscriptions and memberships being a contributing factor to that. In my life, I know I’ve had to get rid of some subscription, membership services whether it was Hello Fresh or some form of entertainment or even just being a member of a YouTube channel. That $2.99 or $9.99 subscription or membership fee that you pay per month could’ve easily been money that you invested or used to pay down debt and ultimately increase your net worth. Now, in some cases there is a good reason to keep your subscription service but you’ll need to do or not do what’s next on this list which is…

Not Budgeting

I’ll tell you this, after we got married it didn’t take us long for us to start budgeting and living on a budget. In fact, we’ve been budgeting every month since February 2017. But I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that budgeting was one of the pillars of our financial success. It got us organized and prepared as well as can be for the unknown, unexpected emergencies that we’ve experienced over the last 7 years. I think the key for us is 1) I actually enjoy budgeting and keeping track of our expenses. And 2) every year my wife and I plan/project the whole year as early as possible. So right now our budget is projected out to June. And each month is not 100% perfectly budgeted obviously, but as we get closer to each month that comes we get a better idea of what kind of expense are coming. Rent/mortgage, cell phone service, internet service and some expenses pretty much stay the same month to month so you can plan around that. But let me tell you I didn’t learn how important budgeting was until my early 30s and I wish I had the wisdom in my 20s to know this. And it’s never too late to start budgeting and for you I’ll link a video in the description of a budgeting tutorial you can check out where I show you exactly how to use the budget my wife and I have been using since 2017.

Online shopping

We have a rule in our house. No online shopping until the 10th day of each month. Why do we do this? In the past we would make these random one-off online purchases throughout the month on Amazon or Target and it did feel like we would spend more, sometimes buying things we really didn’t need. So, credit to my wife for this idea. We just start a list of items we want or need and as days pass we start to think about it more and more and decide ultimately if we need those items or not. For anything critical like laundry detergent or toilet paper then yes we go ahead and get those items. But consider trying this where you delay buying things online until the 10th or middle of the middle of the month to give yourself some time to thin over what you’re preparing to purchase.

Credit card debt

Let’s get one thing out of the way, I am not against you having credit cards provided you have a reliable source of income and aren’t maxing out your cards with no viable means to pay off the balance. I am against you signing up for a credit card just to carry a balance each month and get charged interest that only hurts you and your financial goals. I remember getting a credit card when I was 18 and getting a credit limit up to $10,000 and I was making $6.25/hr at my college rec center. That didn’t end well for me. But I’ve learned my lesson and since then have never carried a balance on any credit cards I’ve ever owned. Be aware of the traps of credit cards and I would say get into the mindset of prioritizing your net worth number more than your credit score.

Not Saving for Retirement (30% or More)

Here is something no one tells you when you’re young: if you start saving and investing a lot of your income, I’m not talking about just the company match in your 401k at 2 or 3%, I’m talking about 20, 30, 40% early in life you will have opportunities to become financially independent much faster. At 24 I got some really good, simple advice from some older coworkers to put as much as I can into my 401k until it hurts. Basically be smarter with how I spend my money and stop being wasteful. If enough of us learned this at the age of 22, 23, 24 can you imagine what life would be like at 50 and 60. Because the biggest regret I had was not that I couldn’t buy this or that or travel, because I still was able to, but my biggest regret was that I didnt start earlier and put away even more into a Roth IRA and a taxable account. But that’s ok because as I get closer to 40 i’ve learned to move forward financially and do what I can now.

Car note

You know what else kept me broke for a while that I’m sure many of you struggle with? A car note. “According to Experian’s third-quarter automotive finance report, drivers are spending over $700 and $500 each month for new and used vehicles.” And I understand better than most personal finance experts that people need cars to get to where they want to go and unless you have a trusted source to get a used car people typically go for a new car for the reliability. The best way I think to go about it is to try to pay off the car you have a loan for as quickly as possible. Cut the time you have to pay it off in half. The reason being is I want you to put that money into an investment account that is going to start growing and compounding. And something else I want to mention about cars, once you pay it off keep driving it and keep up with the maintenance until the wheels fall off. I had my 5-speed 2007 scion tC for 12 years before we donated it to get a bigger car for the 6 of us.