You need money to meet the essentials of your life, such as food, shelter, and clothing. Money also helps you to enjoy life if you spend it wisely and have enough of it to achieve your goals. If you spend every waking moment trying to determine how you can have more money, then it may take control of your life and become a source of constant stress. So, how do you stop letting money control your life? From removing shopping apps from your devices to getting comfortable with your numbers, here are a few helpful tips.
How to Stop Letting Money Control Your Life
Remove Shopping Apps from Your Phone
Try removing apps from your phone that offer online shopping. Nowadays, it's incredibly easy to spend money by just pressing a button on your phone. However, when you delete these shopping apps, you will notice that they are gone every time you try to open them, and you will be reminded of why you deleted them.
Miles Beckett, Co-founder and CEO, Flossy
Pay Yourself First by Saving
One often-overlooked tip I have found beneficial in my financial planning is paying yourself first.
Paying yourself first means taking a portion of each paycheck and saving it away before spending it. It's not only responsible, but it can keep money from controlling your life.
When you commit to putting back a portion of each check, no matter how small, the money adds up over time, leaving you less reliant on your salary or income to cover necessary expenses and emergencies.
Setting aside money for savings will help stop the cycle of frequent borrowing and debt that so many find themselves in today. Paying yourself first is an effective way to control your finances and become more secure with your investments without having to avoid every affordable luxury or purchase.
Lorien Strydom, Executive Country Manager, Financer.com
Avoid Comparing Your Situation to Others
One way to stop money from running your life is to focus on yourself rather than worrying about others. So often, people compare themselves to others and their success, which makes them insecure and willing to spend a lot of money on material things to compensate for their perceived failures. One great way to avoid comparison is to restrict your time on social media. Then you can live your life, concentrate on yourself, and keep your finances in order.
Drew Sherman, Director of Marketing and Communications, Carvaygo
Reduce Lines of Credit
Managing your lines of credit can become a daunting task after a while. If you have several credit cards along with car and mortgage payments and all of the other monthly expenses, you will have to devote significant amounts of time navigating through all of it to make sure your payments are made in a timely manner. You need to reduce those monthly payments as much as you can.
If you need to start small, pause a couple of streaming services, and pay off a Macy's card, then do that. Pay off those smaller lines of credit quickly so you can manage your remaining debt better. Pay off and eliminate the smaller debt so you will have more money to take on the bigger debt.
Sean Doherty, GM, Box Genie
Try Service-based Travel to Have Unique Experiences
One tip to prevent money from controlling our lives is to prioritize experiences over possessions. Instead of buying that shiny new car or opting for the high-end vacation package, try something like service-based travel. Not only will it make more of an impact on the world, but it can provide unique experiences and help us develop empathy and knowledge regarding those around us who do not have many possessions.
Service-based travel encourages travelers to volunteer with local organizations, providing an opportunity to interact with and learn from different cultures while making a meaningful contribution.
Kate Duske, Editor in Chief, Escape Room Data
Minimize Consumption
Minimizing consumption is likely the best tip to stop letting money control your life.
By doing so, you take away the significance of money and turn it into the means of achieving a much higher purpose, that is, positively impacting our environment and other human beings. You become more aware of the harmful effects consumption can have, which range from increased pollution to unfair labor wages, and it makes you a better person in turn as you prioritize helping others, forming meaningful relationships, practicing kindness, and caring for our world instead of being distracted by mindless consumption.
Remember that when it comes down to it, more consumption does not give us greater joy, and it comes with the price of harming the planet and the creatures that live on it; instead, find value by focusing on what truly matters.
Piotrek Sosnowski, Chief People and Culture Officer, HiJunior
Prioritize Your Values
Understanding your values is important in stopping money from controlling your life. Your values are the beliefs and principles that guide your decisions and actions, shaping how you prioritize different aspects of your life. By being aware of what you value most, you can ensure that your money is being spent in a way that aligns with your priorities and supports the life you want to lead.
To understand your values, consider what is most important to you. What do you believe in, and what do you stand for? What brings you joy, fulfillment, and purpose? Maybe it's family, faith, or freedom. Once you have a clear understanding of your values, you can start to decide how to allocate your money to support them.
By prioritizing your values, you can make sure that your money is being spent in a way that reflects what truly matters to you, reducing money's power over your life.
Diana Royanto, Content Writer, Milkwhale
Try Out a Hobby
It might seem strange, but picking up a hobby can be a great way to get out from under the credit card. Some hobbies do come with a starter cost, but overall, these activities are more about enjoyment and less about their cost.
You can invest in a hobby knowing that the return is something that brings you happiness, contentment, and stress relief rather than simple material gain. Not only will this help you relax, but it can help you solidify the idea that money isn't the only thing that can bring you happiness.
Try finding the small, low-cost things that bring you joy and expand on them. They don't need to be costly or flashy to bring you satisfaction. They really can help you stay grounded. Finding joy in a simple hobby you love can give you an easier time avoiding using money to fill the void.
Max Ade, CEO, Pickleheads
Spend Smart and Let It Occupy You
If you can make your spending last longer and go for long periods of time without having to spend, the better chance you have of forgetting about it and not letting it control your life.
For example, a subscription to the T.V. streaming service of your choosing could save you money. Instead of going out and spending money, a T.V. streaming service can keep you entertained at home and won't lead to more spending. This can allow you to save money and get ahead of things. Then, with less money being spent and more money in your bank account and occupying your mind with good entertainment, you can worry less. For others, a good video game could take up this time.
It varies from person to person, but it is important to find what interests you and spend your time with it rather than going out there and searching for something to occupy your time (which could lead to more spending).
Aaron Winston, Strategy Director, Express Legal Funding
Make Finance as Boring as Possible
The human mind craves novelty and excitement, and we are bombarded with marketing-led financial products daily. Every day, some new, exciting fintech product, investment vehicle, or innovative challenger bank tries to gain your business. However, these all rely on the same principle, making finance exciting when it should be boring.
Research shows that a set-and-forget approach to finance almost always yields better results than meticulous active management, especially with investments. Instead, automate your savings, investments, and expenses, so they require as little attentional resources as possible. Although you cannot alter your innate need for novelty and excitement by making finance boring, you can seek it elsewhere, improving your financial outcomes and quality of life.
Ben Schwencke, Business Psychologist, Test Partnership
Make a List of Free Things that Bring You Joy
Make a list of things that don't cost you anything that brings you joy. You'll be surprised to see how many things you can do daily that make you happy. It can be as simple as standing in the sun and relishing the warm rays on your face, taking a stretch every 30 minutes when working, sending a short message to a friend on your lunch break, reading a good book, or playing with your cat. When you start incorporating so much joy into your life, you begin to feel rich - regardless of how much money you have.
Laurel Robbins, Founder, Monkeys and Mountains
Get Comfortable With Your Numbers
When we don't know enough about a subject, that's when it usually feels like it's taking over our lives, especially when it's a subject that is integrated with our daily routines like money.
Familiarizing yourself with your expenses, income, and savings and creating/following a financial plan will help you control your finances instead of letting finances control you.
Inbar Madar, Founder and Business Consultant, M.I. Business Consulting
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