Do bad money habits constrain your financial progress? Many people fall into the same financial behavior patterns year after year. If you occasionally succumb to these financial tendencies, then 2019 is a good occasion to alter your behavior.
#1: Lending money to family and friends. Generosity is a virtue, but personal loans can easily be transformed into personal financial losses for the lender. If you must loan money to a friend or family member, charge interest and set a repayment plan with deadlines. Better yet, don’t do it at all. If your friends or relatives refuse to budget, think hard before bailing them out.
#2: Spending more than you make. Living beyond your means is a path toward significant debt. Wealth is seldom made by buying possessions; today’s flashy material items often become the garage sale junk of 2027. That doesn’t stop people from racking up consumer debts, however; a 2017 study conducted by NerdWallet determined that the average U.S. household carries $15,654 in credit card debt alone.1
#3: Saving little or nothing. Good savers build emergency funds, have money to invest ...
