Starting a new routine in any area of life can be challenging. Whether it’s a change in your finances, exercise habits, health or any other type of new routine, one of the best ways to increase your chances of success is to make it a part of your existing routine. Making small changes to what you’re already doing increases your chances of sticking to any new habit. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the ways you can incorporate finance into your daily routine.
setting yourself up for success
If you are planning or have already set a goal or resolution to improve your finances, mint can help. Peppermint makes tracking your finances feel less like torture and more like a natural part of your day. Instead of feeling like it’s just “one more job” that you have to do every day, you can take over your finances in the background of several moments. This makes it much more likely that you will continue on the right track.
making steady progress
The hardest thing to do in making progress is to make steady progress. It is really difficult to stay in one place. So if you’re not always moving forward, you may find yourself moving backwards. All you have to do is keep up the pace—and luckily, Mint makes it easy to do so.
One thing you have to pay attention to is making a mistake and then giving up on your new financial goal altogether. It’s unrealistic to think that you’ll never slip once—so if you set the mindset of perfect or nothing, you’re more likely to end up with nothing. Instead, remember that the road to financial health is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’ve run out of budget for one month, don’t give up – instead review what went wrong and try to improve the next month.
keep track of your spending
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to set yourself up for good financial health is to keep track of your spending. That means keeping track of not only your big ticket items like rent, mortgage, utilities and other loan payments, but everything. There are many different ways to keep track of your spending, and each of us may prefer a different approach. The important thing is to find the method that works best for you and stick to it.
You can go as low-tech as a paper spending journal where you write down each expense and then categorize it into a budget. If you prefer something more advanced and automated, Mint can be a great option. When you link your bank account and credit card to Mint, it will automatically track your purchases and classify them for you based on the merchant. You can also set a weekly or monthly budget and receive alerts when your spending exceeds or exceeds your budget.
Using Peppermint to Track Your Spending
A good way to use Mint to incorporate your finances into your daily routine is to set up a reminder to review Mint regularly. Once or twice a week is probably a good cadence for many people, but if it’s easier, you can also review it daily. Find something you do regularly and also check your Mint account. It could be during your lunch break, your morning coffee or anything else you are already doing regularly.
When you review your Mint account, there are a few things you’ll want to pay attention to:
- Watch out for any fraudulent or unauthorized charges – If there’s a charge you don’t recognize, you’ll want to check where it came from
- Check for any misclassified purchases – Mint uses the merchant where you shop to specify it in the budget category. Check and make sure all your purchases are being assigned correctly
- review your budget – Take a look at your budget and see how your spending is growing so far. Make any adjustments that make sense.
Bottom-line
Making any change in your life requires mental and physical adjustment. Changing up your finances is no exception, and the best way to make a change is to incorporate checking your finances into something you’re already doing as part of your daily routine. Mint can be a great tool to help you keep track of your finances and stick to your budget. And remember, no matter where your day takes you, it’s always time for mint.
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dan miller (91 posts)
Editor is a freelance writer and founder of PointsWithACrew.com, a site that helps families travel for free/cheap. His home base is in Cincinnati, but he tries to travel the world as much as possible with his wife and 6 children.
