Adjusting Your Process to Increase Wealth

When many people set financial goals, they tend to go for big changes to try to see the most impact. This is the case with a lot of areas of life, like crash diets instead of consistent lifestyle tweaks, or a complete industry shift instead of a smaller career move. But sometimes, it’s the less drastic changes that pave the way for long-term progress. Here are some easy adjustments that can help increase your wealth:

Simply having a goal in mind isn’t going to change much. It’s the daily decisions that become habits that really make the difference. We talked about how to set smarter goals in our last blog post. Using those tips will give you a goal game plan, but it’s your daily actions and processes that change your life (and your money) over time.

For example, let’s say you’re paying off some significant student loans. If you’ve paid $300 every month since those bills started rolling in, look into putting a little more to those loans every month. Chances are you’re making more now than you were then, and you’ve got a little extra wiggle room to chip away at that debt. This is a more effective approach than saying, “I’m going to pay down debt this year.” That leaves too many questions unanswered, so committing to paying $100 extra or so every month is a much more practical habit to stick to.

Increasing your wealth isn’t about hoarding your money or even cutting down on your expenses. While that can certainly be part of the equation, it isn’t the whole picture. You also need to balance your time and your money. If you have a demanding career, it can be well worth the cost to invest in services like a financial planner to help you navigate your money. Or, like we mentioned above, allocate more funds to a debt to save you from massive interest costs in the long run.

This could also be something that would advance your career, like a class, certification or conference you’ve been putting off because you didn’t want to spend the extra money. Consider the long term return on that investment – it might be worthwhile to finally work that cost into your budget and cross it off your to-do list.

This counts for day-to-day purchases, too. If you’re in a constant “save, save, save” mindset, you might waste more money buying the budget option as opposed to the higher quality choice that could serve you better. Again, a subtle mindset shift in your spending and budgeting decisions has the potential to save (or make) you far money over time than solely focusing on spending less.

Your life stage and situation will determine how much risk you can take on realistically, but if you’re playing it totally safe, you’re missing out. You don’t want to be too risky with your investments, but you also don’t want to keep them in assets that lack long-term rewards. Take some time every year to rebalance your portfolio and make sure it still aligns with your goals.

Check out our posts on investing, misconceptions about working with a financial planner and rocking your budget and savings goals for more information.