Ever Wonder Why You Will Never Be Financially Free? Here’s Why!

Financial freedom is not easy to achieve, but it is certainly achievable with the right tools in place. Most of the time, it requires a working budget and some minor (or sometimes major) behavior changes. There are three major behaviors that can hinder your progress towards financial freedom.

1. Impulsivity

Impulsiveness is probably the biggest hinderance to financial freedom. This is because when you make impulsive decisions, you aren’t thinking about the purchase. You are thinking about the purchase in the moment, and not thinking about it related to anything else. In reality, every purchase needs to be well thought-out. It should be determined where it impacts the budget, as well as other factors. For example, do you want to maintain it, store it, etc.?

The first step in correcting this is awareness – being aware that impulsivity causes you to spend more money is the first step. Once you are aware of it, you can watch for when impulsiveness strikes. Sometimes it happens at the checkout line, sometimes it happens on a whim. The next time it strikes, ask yourself, “do I really need this? Do I want to store it? Do I want to maintain it? Can I borrow it or rent it?” Stopping to think about the purchase before impulsively buying it will allow you to stop it in it’s tracks.

2. Laziness

In the nicest way possible, laziness is the second biggest behavior impeding your financial freedom. Whether intentional or not, a lack of willingness to stick to a budget or a plan can cause major derailment. There a couple of things you can do to combat this behavior. First, set up systems for yourself that make sticking to a budget or a financial plan effortless. For example, we have multiple bank accounts for our different budget areas, and automatic transfers set up each week to those different budget areas.

The second thing you can do to combat laziness is to remember your goals and motivation. Staying on the path to financial freedom is not easy. Remembering why you are doing it in the first place can help you keep on track. Our motivation was the desire to be debt-free, and what that would look like for our family. We remembered that the way we were living, on our strict budget, was only temporary, and would pave the way for a better lifestyle in the future.

3. Lack of Discpline

Although it sounds similar to number two, lack of discipline is different than laziness. Laziness is a lack of effort, versus lack of discipline, is the lack of skills to be consistent in a behavior. In order to fix this area, it takes practice. Setting up systems is the first step in being effective in discipline. The next step is just practice. Your first month on a budget, you are not going to stick to it 100% of the time nor will you be perfect at it. But as time goes on, you will get better and better at sticking to a budget.

There you have it! These are the three main areas we see that hold people back from being financially free. Which one holds you back the most? What else holds you back that we did not talk about? Let us know in the comments below.