Personal Finance – How to Change Your Financial Habits and Earn Financial Freedom

No one deserves to have financial freedom, but just about anyone can earn it if they know how to change their habits and if they have a definite plan to follow. However, earning financial freedom is not something which most of us learn to do during our lifetime and the most pressing reason is a lack of knowledge as to how to change financial habits. In this article, we'll be looking at a simple system for habit formation based on the principles of Powerspending.

However, first it's important to understand the nature of habits and why sheer willpower is not enough to change them …

Financial Habits are Emotionally Reinforced

Changing your financial habits is not a logical process and it has nothing to do with willpower or with money. Habits are emotionally reinforced and there's no way that you can deny or get rid of your emotional drives … they are the very thing which make you human. Instead, you need to understand the emotional drives behind your financial habits and find a way to redirect those emotions so that they'll work in your favor. For example, many people overspend because they are not happy with some area of ​​their life (most of the time it's their job).

As a result, they find themselves spending money on expensive toys and wondering why they can not discipline themselves to get control of their spending habits. So as you work on changing your habits, understand that a strictly logical approach just is not enough.

The Four Pillars of Powerspending: How to Change Your Habits

There are four primary steps to changing a habit: knowing, unknowing, skills and desire. First you must know why your habits are what they are and what beliefs are supporting that habit. The next step is reconditioning yourself with empowering beliefs which will encourage new actions. Next, and VERY important, is that you need the skills for acquiring the new habit. This is why having a written plan to follow is so important.

Learning a new skill is not easy, and without a specific structure to follow, you're going to have a very hard time sticking with that skill until it becomes subconscious. So once you identify what you need to "unlearn" and the new habits you need to develop, get a written plan and check back with it every day. Finally, you need to consistently reward yourself for the new behavior and to keep yourself emotionally engaged in the forming of the new habit and the rewards which it brings.

As you faithfully follow this process, your new habits will become easier and you'll eventually wonder how they could have ever been difficult.

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