5 Money Habits That Will Change Your Life (If You Actually Do Them)

So our world today has more access to knowledge than ever before, but knowing what you should do doesn't mean that your habits and your behaviors change along with it. So today we're gonna talk about five common sense things that you already know, but you're not doing. So before we get started, make sure to hit subscribe and share this episode with a friend. So at Ramsey, we always say that personal finance is 80% behavior and it's 20% head knowledge. Because the truth is, is that majority of personal finance to win with your money, it doesn't take a ton of head knowledge. It takes you actually doing the thing. And so when it comes to common sense, like this is a great way to live your life when it comes to money. And what's hard though, is we know what to do, but actually doing it and putting it into practice is what's difficult. And we're all human and we have daily habits that aren't executed perfectly every single day and we're doing everything exactly right. But I think what matters is over time, there's consistency in our habits that creates the life that we want. Okay, so now here's my list of things that you probably already know, but you may not be doing. Number one is to live on less than you make. This always sounds like groundbreaking advice when I say it sometimes. I'll be like, you know, live on less than you make. And everyone's like, oh, it's so simple, but what's hard is the average American isn't doing it because we have leveraged ourselves and we have created a life that is more than what we are bringing in. And when you get in the habit of living on less than you make, you make different choices with your money and different choices when it comes to what you purchase as well. You know, I think about my parents sometimes and my mom has always been a saver. Always, always, always. And like, they're doing fine now in life, right? They can do it. But I look at her habits, she still kind of lives under this assumption and some of the way she does things is like, oh yeah, I'm just guaranteeing that we're living on less than we make. Like, she still like rents books from the library, right? Checks them out of the library, like those kinds of things. But you see someone's habits and you just realize, oh yeah, this has been a part of who they are. And honestly, it's a great thing. So long-term, you guys, your habits are going to dictate so much of this and how you look at things and how you purchase things. So living on less than you make is so key. Number two, common sense, but very important. Save for a rainy day. Yep, we always laugh around here, Ramsey, because we're like, it's going to rain. It's not if it's going to rain, it's going to rain. Things are going to happen, you guys. There's going to be job losses. There's going to be health scares. There's going to be a roof that leaks. Like, things are going to happen in life and having the money set aside for those rainy days is so important. But for a lot of Americans, having money saved is just not a reality. 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency in cash. So getting this emergency fund, again, common sense, save for a rainy day, but doing it and actually having it is what's difficult. So what I want you to do is get a $1,000 emergency fund ASAP. Then once you pay off all of your debt, everything but your house, then you're going to bump up that starter emergency fund to three to six months of expenses. And this account is not to be invested. It's not for your money to make money. That's not what this is for. This is literally for the rainy day. So you can keep this in a money market account, a high-yield savings account, somewhere that you can get to it, but it is set aside for a rainy day. Number three is to create and stick to a budget. Yeah, this is like common sense, right? A lot of people talk about budgets and how important it is. And we know probably should do better at this or I should, you know, be budgeting. Like, there's all these feelings around this. And it's not that you should out of like a shame complex, but it's understanding that, yes, knowing where our money is going is probably a good thing, right? It's probably common sense. Like, this is a good thing to have. This is a good habit to create in our lives. And if you haven't already, then yeah, kind of get amongst the business of doing it because if you live your life where you just spend, maybe save, maybe do this, and you don't really know, then what happens when you do that over decades of your life, you get to retirement, you're like, man, I'm not exactly where I want to be, right? So it is this like planning out month to month, but you're doing it for a bigger purpose and a bigger goal. And it's really about taking control of your money. So be budgeting if you feel like we are paycheck to paycheck, but also be budgeting, even if you have paid off debt. Maybe, you know, you're on baby step seven and you're, you know, paid off your house, like you're doing all of it. Still be in the habit of telling your money what to do. Now, another kind of maintenance thing to do that I have to prevent crisis in my house is Delete Me. Because listen, we spend so much of our lives online. We are on social media. We shop online. We bank online. Everything we do pretty much is on the internet these days. And so are our names, our addresses, work history, phone numbers, email addresses, and they are out there for bad guys to exploit. So we need to protect ourselves. And that is why Delete Me is so great. Delete Me finds and removes your info from hundreds of data broker websites that buy, sell, and trade your personal data. So take control of your online privacy today and find peace of mind with Delete Me. Sign up today at joindeleteme.com slash Rachel for 20% off or click the link in the description. All right, number four, when it comes to common sense personal finance is to be honest about needs versus wants. So needs versus wants, again, is a conversation that a lot of people talk about, but what's really difficult is the way we live our lives today in 2025. We take some of our wants and create them as needs when they're really not. Like, when you look at your essentials, what you really, really, really need is food, shelter, utilities, transportation. That's it, right? You don't need cable. You don't need subscriptions. Like, you don't need these things. I mean, if we were to be like real honest, it's like, you know, smartphones. Like, do you need that to survive in life today? It would be more difficult, right? Not as convenient. But no, like you could. So like really, really, really stripping back and saying, okay, what do we actually need? And so what that's gonna do is reevaluate where you're spending your money. And I think that this is really important because again, when you live a certain lifestyle and a certain way of doing things for like years and years and years, this is like the norm. And to go below that norm feels so uncomfortable, so scary, but sometimes it is very needed, especially if you're wanting some quick wins, like getting out of debt, saving up an emergency fund, and some of these essentials when it comes to our money. So being able to kind of pull back and look, I mean, Winston and I, we are like completely reevaluating our cable because if you're anything like us, well, actually a lot of y'all probably don't have cable because everyone's gone to subscriptions. We're still old school and have cable. And it's like, we have like our Comcast box for our living room and our room and the playroom. And we see how much money we spend every month on this stuff. And it's like, our kids half the time, they're not even watching it. I mean, they're really not even, my kids don't watch cable. They watch Disney Plus, right? Or Netflix. So we're literally paying for something. And so we've been talking about it for a long time. And it's me, because I'm like, I just don't like change. It's kind of what we were talking about earlier. When you just know how to do something, I'm like, I would rather just have the comfort of the norm, even though we're losing a lot of money every single month, right? Like a couple hundred bucks probably. And it's like, what are we doing? So Winston has convinced me. So we may be a YouTube live TV, whatever it's called, the internet. We're doing that, y'all. Like we're doing it, we're doing it. But it's gonna be good. Again, it's so comfortable when you know something the way you know it. But stretching, it's good, y'all, it's good. We're all doing it. All right, number five is don't spend money you don't have. Again, pretty common sense, but this can be very difficult. And so if you don't have the money, don't buy it. And this is everything from cars, you know, charging things on credit cards. I mean, all of it, even a degree, I would say for college. A house is the one purchase that I would say, like I'm not gonna yell at you to go into debt for a mortgage. But everything else, you guys, like if you just live by this rule of no debt, it's amazing what can happen. Because when you don't owe money out with your paycheck, you get to keep that money and you get to save it or spend it or give it and do what you want with it. And so yes, it creates more patience, but it also creates more peace in your life in the long term. So remember, if you don't have the money, don't buy it. Now, this is all pretty high level, if you will, but these important money principles are such a key to you succeeding when it comes to your personal finance goals. Listen, I cannot recommend FPU, Financial Peace University, enough. This is our nine-lesson course that basically goes through a lot of this stuff, but it helps you get on the right track when it comes to your money. So I'll leave a link down below if you wanna check it out. And for more common sense money mistakes to avoid, make sure to check out my episode on What's the Catch with 0% Interest. You can click here for that. Or if you're listening on podcasts, I will leave a link down below. All right, you guys, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.