One of the best healthy money habits is to invest your money. Nothing else beats it. You don’t get wealthy by increasing income, you get wealthy by investing your money. Consistently contributing a portion of your paycheck towards quality assets will make you rich.
However, investing once does not mean anything. Investing over years and years, and even decades is what means something. It took me SIX years before I felt comfortable with money and my finances. Every paycheck, I contributed towards the stock market, hoping it’ll pay off some day.
And it did. After seven years of contributions, I have over $450k to show for it. It didn’t happen overnight. It took meticulous planning and deliberate action to get here. Healthy money habits can be used by millions across the world. Yet so few use it because of how time consuming it is.
People want results today and now. That’s not right. It takes months and many times, years to get to solid financial footing. Some don’t see results for almost a decade because it depends on the state of the market then. I was fortunate to have been a part of one of the greatest bull runs in history.
Now that it’s stopped, I’m deploying more prudent financial decisions that’ll protect my capital over the long term. I don’t mind sacrificing financial returns in exchange for capital preservation. There’s no point in trying to be the richest person in the grave.
Being wealthy enough is good enough. Billionaires couldn’t spend all the money they earned, even if they wanted to, anyway.
Healthy Money Habits: 9 Habits to Get Rich
Below are the 9 healthy money habits to make you and your family richer and have financial security. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen eventually. As long as you never give up!
1) Investing Money
The first step to becoming wealthy is to invest. There’s not a single wealthy and rich person on Earth who didn’t invest their money. There’s a reason for that. Getting rich from 9-5 income is only achievable by the 1% of the 1%. The executives of the world.
Investing money is one of the healthy money habits that’s an absolute must. It gives the extra boost to your income that it needs. There are companies who refuse to give a pay raise to their employees. Not even the standard 2% inflationary raise. Nope.
A *zero* percent raise. That’s nuts! It’s impossible to depend on an employer who’s only interested in keeping as much money as they can. That’s why employees need to build an escape now more so than ever. Investing will set you financially free.
My investments have paid for 100% of my rents in 2023. There’s something freeing about your money paying for your bills.
2) Healthy Money Habits: A High Savings Rate
I personally saved 50%+ of my income every year for seven years straight. Without fail. My quality of life suffered by sacrificing quality of life today. However, it was for a better life tomorrow and that was worth it to me. A high savings rate is one of the healthy money habits that’s an absolute must.
I was lucky because I didn’t have a family when I started my personal finance journey. Therefore, I could live in run down apartments buying really bad food because it was for my future. However, being single is no excuse.
It could even be easier to have a high savings rate with a family because there’s dual income.
Healthy money habits include a high savings rate because savings is what lets you have investments. Saving 50%+ of your income propel and skyrocket you to wealth more than spending a majority of your income. It may hurt for a few months and even years, but it’s worth it.
It’s better than the one who declares bankruptcy because they unexpectedly lost their job and can’t pay their credit cards. Inflation sucks, but the deals are still out there.
3) Constantly Looking for Ways to Increase Income
Side hustles, changing jobs, and asking for raises and promotions constantly is key (related: changing jobs checklist). Your bosses don’t just give you that raise, you have to ask for it. Obviously, this depends on the economic conditions at hand.
You can’t ask for a raise or a promotion if the company is financially hurting.
I didn’t ask for a raise in the onslaught of the 2023 labor market. Companies were ruthlessly laying off employees because they had to save costs and protect profits. At the end of the day, companies service shareholders and not employees.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t look for a raise on your own by pursuing side hustle projects. $100 here and there can turn into $1000s down the road. Side hustles should have unlimited potential, not limited potential where you’re trading dollars for hours.
Even though it took me years of hard work to get here, my side hustles were definitely worth it to increase my income. It was one of the best healthy money habits I deployed.
4) Side Hustles
Side hustles aren’t just to diversify your income sources. They’re to diversify your skillset as well. Due to my side hustles, I can now even move to the marketing department of my company if I want to. My Twitter account allowed me to understand social media marketing.
I only spend about 10 hours per week, at the most too. Side hustles are a great hobby of mine and I built it up to the point where I have enough expertise to sell my services, if I want to. Side hustles are one of the best healthy money habits you can deploy into your life.
Because no one else can take it away from you. What’s great is that side hustles do not take a lot of money. I personally only spend $25/mo for my side hustles. For both Twitter and my blog. That investment paid off in spades because I earn more from my side hustles than that.
The possibilities are endless when you start a side hustle with unlimited opportunities. The upside is what everyone is after.
5) Ignoring the Joneses
The Joneses declared bankruptcy. Even the Joneses can’t keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses want to live in the shiniest apartments and buying the fanciest clothes. That’s not right. There’s no point in buying a new car every year or even every two years.
There’s not enough space in the garage for them, anyway. Healthy money habits means ignoring the Joneses no matter what they do. If they got a brand new laptop and a brand new computer, then that’s great for them! There’s no need to one-up them.
This is different from buying products that you need to replace. There’s nothing wrong with buying a car every now and then if you need them. I personally got in a car accident in 2022. Therefore, I bought another car because I need a car to transport myself around.
Healthy money habits means minding your own business and not caring about what others are spending their money on. You are carving your own path.
6) Surrounding Yourself With the Right Group
If you hang out with four poor people, you will be the fifth. The same thing goes for wealthy people. There’s nothing wrong with having social friends. However, if you’re at a point in life where you want to build wealth, achieve upward mobility, and make as much money as you can, then that’s the friend group you should spend the most time with.
Healthy money habits means getting rid of friends who are taking you down. They don’t have to add positive value to your life. However, friends should never add negative value to your life. My friend group wants to achieve upward mobility, move up with their careers, and the like.
That’s the kind of friend group I cultivated and I love all my friends. If they need help? I’m there. Your friends influence your actions, decisions, and mindset more than you think. I’m fortunate to have met lifelong college friends who I keep in contact with to this day.
We talk about wealth building strategies all day long. It’s how we invest our way to financial freedom and move up in life.
7) Healthy Money Habits: Buying Quality Products
Hoarding cash is not the answer. The biggest change in wealth happened for me when I realized how to spend $1k to make $10k. It’s not about buying quality financial assets that’ll make you more money. It’s about buying real goods that have the potential to improve your life.
Healthy money habits means knowing how to spend money on products that give you more value than the cost. Examples include quality electronics products such as a phone or a laptop. Or buying quality foods because they agree with your body.
Buying a quality product once is infinitely better than buying a cheap product multiple times. Building wealth is not about saving the most amount of money possible. It’s about allocating money to what gives you the most ROI. ROI is not always financial.
I gladly pay an additional $5 per meal if it gives me a better way to digest the food. My health is what I use to compete against the world.
8) Having No Debt
I personally got on the cheap debt train in 2021. I took on 0% debt that came with a 3% origination fee. Even though it was the cheapest debt I could ever possibly have, the psychological damage that came with debt wasn’t worth for what I was getting in return.
Every day, I felt chained and indebted to someone. I owe someone else money and I have to come up with the money at some point. Someone else controlled my actions and mindset just because I knew I had to pay this money. The day I repaid 100% of the money, I felt free.
Healthy money habits include having no debt. No matter how cheap it is. Using debt for real estate investing is one thing. However, using debt just because it’s cheap is another. The rewards just aren’t worth it. A $10k debt could earn you possibly an extra $1k per year.
That $1k per year isn’t worth the headache of having the debt in the first place. A debt free life is the best life.
9) Never Giving Up
Building wealth and getting richer is a grueling journey. I’m on my seventh year of the journey and it’s demoralizing knowing that I have many more years to go. Healthy money habits means never giving up. It’s about setting the right expectations to build wealth with.
It doesn’t happen overnight and it takes grueling years of work to get there. And even when you think you got there, there comes an unforeseen bear market that puts everything out of the path. When you see money as a game is when the world opens up.
Money is just a tool to elevate your life with. I lost the most amount of money I could’ve ever lost in the bear market crash of 2022. However, I still didn’t give up. I put my head down and kept working, even with the threat of a layoff hanging over my head.
Giving up is only for chumps. It may take more years than anticipated but the end result is always worth it.
Healthy Money Habits: My Story
I started my wealth building journey in 2016. I was so excited that I got my first job that I maxed out my tax advantaged accounts as much as I could. After years and years of toiling, adding value to my employer, and increasing my income in multiples, I’m finally in the $400k mark at 28.
That’s nowhere near my goal of reaching $1mil by 30, possibly even 31 or 32. There’s more game left for me to play and I’m bracing to take even more years than 3 – 4 years to possibly get there. Even so, I’m still putting my head down and making it work.
I’m still never losing hope and faith that one day, everything will work out. I still save and invest a vast majority of my income. Whenever there’s a buy one get one free deal, I jump on it. No matter how tired I am of doing so. I personally lived in very cheap apartments over the years.
My rent never reached higher than $1,125 per month. And I intend to keep it that way. It takes discipline and dedication to keep employing the healthy money habits, day in and day out. I am no longer surprised that so many people quit the financial independence journey altogether after just 3 – 5 years.
I know all of my efforts will have been worth it at some point. When that day comes, all the times that I struggled throughout the journey will be appreciated even more. I would never give up. The earliest I would give up is after giving it a solid 10 years of effort.
Will I get there? I’m not sure, but I’m going to try my hardest to get there.
Healthy Money Habits Should be Used All the Time
Healthy money habits aren’t easy. They take years to form and even when they form, you won’t see results until years after the fact. Many of my friends are high income earners at $200k+ and they can’t bear to employ the healthy money habits because even with a high income, saving money is hard.
Even when you are already wealthy and a millionaire, the sound money habits should never be ignored. Many became obscenely wealthy and lost everything because they forgot their roots. They thought they “made it” and started spending money like there’s no tomorrow.
There’s nothing wrong with spending money but there’s everything wrong with frivolous spending. Even though I am very tired of looking at prices, thinking of ways to save money, and investing a majority of my income, I still do it. Because I have faith it’ll work out one day.
There’s nothing more that I would love than to stop working and spend money like there’s no tomorrow. However, I don’t because I don’t ever want to forget my healthy money habits roots that got me to where I am today. I personally enjoy building wealth and getting richer.
There’s nothing wrong with saving as much money as you possibly can. There’s also nothing wrong with wanting to make more money. No matter how wealthy you are. Money isn’t everything, absolutely. However, wanting more of it isn’t a bad thing either, as long as personal life isn’t sacrificed.
Even though it may take years of hard work, it is completely worth it.
Healthy Money Habits: 9 Habits Shortlist
- Investing money
- Healthy money habits: a high savings rate
- Constantly looking for ways to increase income
- Side hustles
- Ignoring the Joneses
- Surrounding yourself with the right group
- Healthy money habits: buying quality products
- Having no debt
- Never giving up
