9 Micro Habits to Completely Change Your Finances

We often say, "Save a little bit of today for a more beautiful tomorrow," but how do you save a little bit in today's world? We're walking through micro habits, the little things that you can do every day to make a big difference in your financial future. From discounts to paying bills to health, we have a wide range of topics that any Financial Mutant can find useful. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DRINKAG1.com/MONEYGUY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey Spotify listeners. When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18 plus.

• 0:52Brian Preston?

  If you've already given up on your New Year's resolutions, don't feel bad. Resolutions come and go. It's much better to focus on your habits.

• 1:00Speaker 03

  Brian, I am so excited because today, we're going to talk about nine micro habits to help you better with money in 2026. And not only are these habits easy, some of them are actually even fun.

• 1:13Brian Preston?

  With that, let's jump right in.

• 1:21Speaker 03

  So Brian, before we can actually talk about the habits themselves, let's define what a micro habit is. It's a small, consistent action built into your everyday routine to help you reach some longstanding goal. It's not a big thing. It's a micro, a little thing.

• 1:37Brian Preston?

  Well, I think, because we wanted to do this show because I think a lot of times, people just don't get out of the starting

• 1:44Speaker 03

  Out of the starting blocks, yeah.

• 1:45Brian Preston?

  gates because they're so worried about how big of a lift is it going to be? So we're like, well, let's reverse engineer. So let's give something so simple that people can do, but it will still have a significant impact on their financial life.

• 1:57Speaker 03

  And so some of these, this is kind of all across the board, from reaching big goals to maybe even reaching smaller goals. Like, how do I control the two levers inside of my financial lexicon? How do I think about increasing? Income or how do I think about decreasing expenses in this very first micro habit Brian is one that if ever there were someone who had a mutant ability to do this it's Brian Preston. It is question the price.

• 2:25Brian Preston?

  This is almost like a lifestyle decision for me is and let me tell you how this goes down. I really do believe and this is where financial mutant, I do believe every dollar that comes into our possessions as mutants should go three to 5% better than our peers and I live that life when I'm out and about. I mean, even, I mean, if you like, y'all know, I go to Disney all the time. Every restaurant I go into, I say, hey, what's the discounts here? Is it annual pass? Is it, what is it? Is it the right credit card? Tell me what it is. And then when I go to like any type of like clothing place, I'm even like, hey, do y'all have a cool guy discount? And they're like, what is that? I'm like, you know, y'all have probably a button over there that you can push. They'll cut 5% off and then, you know, 90% of the time it does not work.

• 3:10Brian Preston?

  But every now and then I'll get enough affirmation that says, okay, this still works.

• 3:15Speaker 03

  So one of the ways that you pay less is you literally ask for a deal. I do the same thing. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always net without fail, always ask, is it still happy hour? What are the happy hour specials? Can I get a cheaper app, a cheaper drink or whatever? So obviously asking for a deal, asking for the cool guy discount that you called it is a way to pay less.

• 3:35Brian Preston?

  I should say the money guy discount is what we should do if we were to go brand this thing.

• 3:38Speaker 03

  But that's not the only way that you can pay less. Another thing that you can do is that you can negotiate. A lot of people don't recognize that when there are prices for goods and services, they're often not set in stone. Many times there is some wiggle room where you could get a better deal than listed.

• 3:53Brian Preston?

  Well, and we've talked about this for years is the ungrateful service providers. I mean, you think about your, any of your insurance providers, your utilities, all the subscriptions, those things, a lot of times they have some element of negotiation that you can do if you're willing to vote with your feet.

• 4:08Speaker 03

  You just have to figure out how to make it a win-win. When it's medical bills, you can call and say, hey, I've, I've got this medical bill and I really want to pay it off and have enough cash that I could pay this much today. But if I have to pay the full amount and I need to stretch it. Out and do payments. If you can figure out how to create a win-win scenario for your negotiation, you're much likely to set yourself up for success to get a better deal. And that's one of the ways that you have to get creative. You have to figure out, okay, what are some ways if I can't get a deal necessarily, or maybe I can't negotiate a lower price? What are some things I can do to actually get the cost of this good or of this service lower?

• 4:45Brian Preston?

  Well, that's what we we came up with a few ideas. You can buy in bulk. Also, it's not uncommon to find out that some things are price controlled. I mean, a lot of the you wear fancy workout clothes. Sure. A lot of that stuff is is price controlled. So maybe it's where you need to buy. You know, I've given the example where I've bought like price controlled things at REI for for some of my activewear because they always are running discounts. They have rewards and other things. And then when I'm buying like speakers or other things, if I know Sonos is going to be price controlled, I can go to Crutchfield and use my reward points to get a 20%. You know, essentially they'll trade in. I can buy for $40. I can get a $50 gift certificate

• 5:29Brian Preston?

  with my credit card or reward points, and I'll use that on price controlled stuff. All this stuff works.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  I was another thing I've seen you do, Brian, is you can also look for price matching. If you're at a retailer or if you're at a store, you can very quickly go on your phone and say, hey, I can buy this from this online retailer for this price. Would you be willing to sell it to me for this? For XYZ? Or maybe you're just looking for strategic timing. I know for me, I wear tons of collars and coat dress shirts. I wear tons of legends. I know that both those brands are going to have significant deals throughout the year. So I always wait until there's some big deal period going on before I place my orders. And I love doing that because then I can get the goods that I want, but I'm not paying full retail. I'm not paying full market for that. And there are seasonality

• 6:17Speaker 03

  trends to when you can buy certain things at a discount, a little bit less expensive than normal.

• 6:23Brian Preston?

  That's why if you use this coupon code right now for those, see how this stuff would write itself? These brands just need to get on board. And make this stuff happen.

• 6:31Speaker 03

  Come on callers and co and legends.

• 6:32Brian Preston?

  Bringing it back to the show though, is that there really is a best time to buy. Look at the seasonality of some key purchases. Now, when we were talking about this in show prep, some of this stuff, you're like, this doesn't seem like this ought to be when it's the cheapest. But it is because like, think about back to school supplies. You think about August, how are the back to school supplies so much cheaper? It's because a lot of retailers will use this to get you in the door to sell you other stuff. So you're getting great deals. So you should take advantage of that.

• 7:02Speaker 03

  So it's just like most other things. If you're willing to put in a little bit of extra time, a little bit of extra effort, you can get a deal. But we've talked a lot about consumption. How do I consume, consume, consume? Another way that you might be able to keep more dollars in your back pocket, and this is a little bit of a bonus habit. Pause your purchase, even if you want something, or maybe you're walking to the store and you see an item. Rather than buying it right there on the spot in the moment, perhaps you give yourself a 12 hour, 24 hour, 36 hour cooling off period. To make sure that it's a purchase you actually want to make and not some impulsive purchase that you're going to regret in the future.

• 7:39Brian Preston?

  Well, there's a lot of things in life. It's just like, you know, sleep on it. Yeah. This is the reality of the situation. Sometimes when you, you know, you get all fired up and you write up an email that you're like, no, I'm going to sleep on it. You could do the same thing with your purchasing power too. That way you can make sure that it's not the passion of the moment that's causing you to buy this thing. It's actually the need for your life. So giving it a little bit of time to kind of differentiate the emotional side versus the need is really helpful.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  All right, let's talk about micro habit number two. Now, this one might not seem micro because we talk about it all the time, like it is a huge deal and it is. But you can do it infrequently, meaning you can do it once a year and it doesn't have to be incredibly difficult. And that's do a net worth statement. If you've not done one, if you've never written down a net worth statement, you should do it right now today.

• 8:29Brian Preston?

  Well, this is one in the show meeting, we were like, man, that seems like that's got a little bit of extra. Cause a lot of these are micro choices that it just, it's basically getting the ball, the pebble rolling down the hill. This one has a little bit more of a lift, but that's how much we believe in it. Guys, don't sleep on this because if you need to understand, you need to know what you own, what you owe. That way you can have a decision with your net worth of how to best make financial decisions to navigate this crazy world and wonderful world of personal finance.

• 8:59Speaker 03

  Yeah. How can you know where you're going or if you're on track if you don't know where you are today? So you already said this, you list out the things that you own. In your circumstance, this may be the value of your checking accounts, savings accounts, money markets. It might be your investment accounts, your 401ks, your Roth IRAs. It could be business interests. It could be the value of your real estate, whether that be your primary residence or maybe your investment properties. You want to list all the things out that you own. That goes on one side of the net worth statement. Then on the other side, you want to list out all the things that you owe. So these are consumer debts like credit card balances, personal loans, car loans. Maybe it's student loans or home equity lines of credit.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  It's everything that you don't own just yet, but you're making payments on. And if you can list those two things out, you subtract what you owe from what you own, that tells you exactly what your net worth is.

• 9:56Brian Preston?

  And here's what I love about when you do a net worth, it actually leads to, and it also gives us a chance to kind of share what we do with our own. Is I want you to go to learn.moneyguy.com. This is actually our net worth tool. And this is the payoff is that not only do you now know what we talked about, what you own, what you owe, but you get to actually have a dashboard now to see, hey, how much of my money is in Roth money? How much of it is in tax deferred? How much is after tax? How is my assets or my net worth, especially my investments, compared to my income? It also lets me see, you know, how much of this is replacing what I make? If you look at how these assets are building up in the background, all these things are very important when you're on your journey to paying off debt,

• 10:39Brian Preston?

  to build financial independence, you need to have some type of navigation ability so that you know you're going in the right direction.

• 10:45Speaker 03

  All right, Brad, we're talking about micro habits that can change and improve your financial life. Micro habit number three is a big one and it's pay yourself first. I think this is counter to what most people think. Most people think, okay, I'm gonna budget and budget and budget and whatever's left over at the end of the month, I'm just gonna save that. I'm just gonna put that to work. But oftentimes when we get to the end of the month, there's no money left over. There's nothing left to pay ourselves and so we get squeezed out of the equation.

• 11:13Brian Preston?

  Hey, don't take our word for it. If you're just waiting for money to be left over and you think you're gonna have success, the stats don't show that either. Cause look at this. 75% of millionaires said regular consistent investing over a long period of time leads to success. And this is why you gotta make it automatic for the people with the fact that if you can automate the process, it really does make it all so much easier because it shows that it's also a priority in your life versus it just letting it be something that just happens. Cause we know if that's what you're waiting on, it just will not happen and you're gonna find yourself being like the typical American.

• 11:49Speaker 03

  So what are some ways that we pay ourselves first? Well, maybe it's just electing to participate in our 401K or our 403B or an employer sponsored plan. Maybe it's knowing, okay, the Roth IRA limits this year, $7,500. So I'm gonna take 7,500 and I'm gonna divide by 12 and every month before anything else happens, I'm gonna have that contribution automatically flow out of my account. And if you can automate, if you can set this up early on, it's amazing how much easier the journey can be if you figure this out sooner rather than later.

• 12:21Brian Preston?

  Well, this is, cause it ties into automation is also my favorite way to say it is always be buying is, cause if you can set up your process to start buying a monthly amount every month, especially if you do this early and often, you start young, take this into consideration. For a 20-year-old compared to a 30-year-old, the 20-year-old's money is four times more powerful. Cause look at, how can we say that? To build a million dollars by retirement, a 20-year-old only needs to save $95 a month. A 30-year-old needs to save $340 a month, four times as hard. Think about a 20-year-old compared to a 40-year-old. It is now Ten times harder. Instead of saving ninety five dollars a month, you have to save over a thousand dollars a month.

• 13:06Brian Preston?

  Do y'all see how if we just could teach everybody in high school, the power of starting early and doing this often, how much better the entire world would be for American finances?

• 13:18Speaker 03

  And what you want to do is you want to remove friction. That's what paying yourself allows you to do. It prevents things from getting in the way of you and your savings goal. So if you can set that up early on, it's going to set you up for success. And another thing that you can do, another habit that you can implement, and the earlier you implement it, the likely higher probability of success you will have, is habit number four, write it down. And you may be what? Okay, well, when you guys say, write it down, write what down? Well, we think that when it comes to accomplishing goals, you have a higher likelihood of success. If you actually put pen to paper, or I guess maybe thumb to screen, or finger to keyboard,

• 14:02Speaker 03

  and you actually document what your goals are, there's a good chance you're going to be more likely to stick with it to achieve those goals.

• 14:08Brian Preston?

  Well, I know, and the the sub point we put here is intentions into actions, but it's really you're turning the daydreams into actual plans. That's the big takeaway for me is that you're really daydreaming if you're not writing this stuff down.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  So you and there's any way you can do this. Obviously, you can physically write it, but you can use a journal or you can use a notes app. Just some way you want to actually document, this is what I want in the future. This is the direction I want to move. This is the thing that I want to achieve. And by writing it down, you immediately create an environment where you begin to hold yourself accountable to that goal. It's one of the reasons why we love doing net worth statements. A net worth statement is basically writing down your goal that I am at this point today, and when I do this next year, I want to be in a better position. So if you're not writing down your goals, you should. But goals aren't the only things you should write down.

• 15:00Brian Preston?

  Yeah, and this one's near and dear to my heart. I actually do a daily gratitude journal. At night, I'll write down the three big things from the day that just I'm thankful for. And this is, guys, we've talked about this many times. If you're good with a little, you're going to be great with a lot. And something you can focus on a skill set. So it's just like exercising a muscle. You get better and better at is if you actually will write down the things that bring you happiness. And here's the other thing. In addition, put the why did this make you happy? Like, sometimes I'll say, hey, I went to the gym, had a great workout. And I'll, and I'll put the whys, because health is wealth for me. And then I'll put another one, I'll put like, I had a great meal with the family. Um, why is that important?

• 15:40Brian Preston?

  It's because my oldest daughter was there and I don't take for granted that I'm always going to be able to have these memories. That's the stuff that will connect with something. And if you can do this, it's going to shift your perspective. It's going to create and tie into something that's deeper in you. That will also probably die, tie into your happiness, fulfillment. A lot of powerful stuff is going on under the surface if you can get into this habit.

• 16:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, and you don't have to make it complicated. You can keep it simple. It could literally be, just like Brian said, every night, a list of three things. I'm grateful for this, I'm grateful for this, I'm grateful for this. And what it does, it shifts your perspective to now not focus on the things that you do not have, but rather focus on the things that you do have. And what's going to happen is if you do this, you are not only going to be able to remind yourself of what you're grateful for, there's a really good chance that you're going to want to start communicating to others. Man, thank you for that great meal that we had. Thank you for that opportunity. Thank you for the fill in the blank. And then your gratitude, your thankfulness, your gratefulness becomes contagious to the world around you.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  And that is good for everyone. So if you're not writing down your goals, you're not writing down the things that you're thankful for, you're missing a huge opportunity to impact the world around you.

• 16:56Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, I know we put it on here as the note, and I'll say, this is how powerful it still is. Thank you notes don't get enough love.

• 17:02Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 17:03Brian Preston?

  Like, traditional thank you notes. And what's funny is, at the beginning of the year, one of my gratitude entries was I got two thank you notes. One from a cousin of mine who came to our, our place in Florida on Thanksgiving. And then another one from a dear friend that I sent the, his mother-in-law, one of our millionaire missions, personalized. And she wrote me the nicest thank you note. Um, that stuff, I mean, it, there's something about the tactile feeling of thank you note, reading it, knowing somebody actually sent this and did this. Guys, writing it down, doing these extra steps is really powerful micro steps.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  All right, we're talking about micro habits that you can develop to improve your financial life. This next one, again, is sort of an interesting, but we say you ought to consider batching your bill payments. One of the things happen is life gets busy and things start happening and all of a sudden, the more complicated your financial life, the easier it is for things to just begin to fall through the cracks. So, one of the ways that I personally prevent this from happening is I pay all of my credit card bills on the exact same day every single month. I don't try to think about when the payment cycle is. I've already switched it so they all are due on the same day. So, at the very end of the month, every single month, I just go in and pay all my bills. So, it's one less thing. It's muscle memory. It's something I don't have to think about.

• 18:24Speaker 03

  And by doing that, it prevents me from getting into the bad spot of, oh, no, no, I missed paying that one bill. Well, now I gotta pay an interest charge. Now, I'm carrying debt from one month to the next. If you can remove friction, remove your opportunity to make mistakes, you're likely going to set yourself up.

• 18:40Brian Preston?

  I love that. You batch, you're so much more organized than I am because I'm just a knucklehead that actually every week I'm like paying off credit cards. But I will say another honorable mention on this one, I know we have some additional details to share, is turn on the auto pay for at least the minimum for you, especially with credit cards and other just reoccurring debts that because people, sometimes things happen. And if I can save you from paying a penalty or an underpayment, you want to set up some type of minimum automatic payment. But then I do like the idea of paying it off because this ties into, what do we say about credit card use? Is credit card use is A-OK, but credit card debt, no way.

• 19:20Brian Preston?

  I mean, this is all over the public discussion point right now is credit card interest rates being 20 and 30%. And I know there's legislation that was proposed last year. The president has talked about this. Guys, if the banks are making two to three times what you are hoping to make in the financial markets, you'll never get ahead. And then it breaks my heart when you see that 46% of credit card owners say they carry a balance at least once during the last 12 months. This should not be that hard. Maybe you're not a credit card person if you can't pay it off every month.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  And if you are a credit card person, because all of us make mistakes, set up systems, put things in place so that you don't fall into this trap. So that you're not one of those 46% of people caring about it, because it is so difficult to get ahead if you're paying interest to someone else. All right, Brian, we're talking about micro habits here.

• 20:18Speaker 00

  Hey, Spotify listeners. When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi. Sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies, 18 plus.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  Micro habit number five, and again, this is an ode to Brian Preston. This, I'm sorry, this is habit number six, is bedazzle your basic life. Now, it's interesting that this is a micro habit, because we talk about this again as kind of a big idea. What does it mean to bedazzle your basic life?

• 21:25Brian Preston?

  Well, I think this is a mindset one on when you're thinking about micro habits, is that I don't want you to live a miserly life. I want you to be a financial mutant. So that means if you can find inexpensive ways to maximize the joy you're getting out of life, do it. Because I don't want you to say, hey, I'm going to just live my best life when I turn to be 45 or 50 years old. No, that is a failure. That is not what we're talking about. That's living like a miser. But I do want you, if you can, you know, Have a cookout in the backyard where you invite friends over if you can go on a vacation, but maybe you do it in a super tight way. I mean, my wife and I have used the example a gazillion times, but we went to Italy when we were much earlier in our marriage.

• 22:08Brian Preston?

  But man, oh, man, I mean, we were dragging our luggage down cobblestone pipes. We were overhearing, like leaning in way too close on guided tours because we didn't have guided tours. I mean, there's all kind of unique things like that, but we still had the best blossoming memories where I look back on that trip and I've still loved the way we did it. So I don't feel like we had to do things to where we missed out on some key memories just because we were trying to be responsible with how we saved and built our assets.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  This is so silly and it's gonna seem so, but you know, I've got a family of five now, Brian. So if I want to take my family of five to the movie theater and we want to watch a movie, we want to get some popcorn and maybe get some candy and maybe get a drink or two, we're gonna spend a hundred bucks. Like it's gonna be at least a hundred dollars go to the movies. Whereas in reality, for my kids, if I say, hey, guys, let's go to the grocery store. Let's all go pick out some candy. I'll get a box of popcorn. We come back to the house. We turn on Netflix or Amazon Prime or whatever, watch a movie at the house. We are having the exact same experience at a fraction of the cost. If you can begin to implement those little micro habits, maybe what you're doing is you're not eating out once a week, but you're cooking a family meal together where everybody gets

• 23:19Speaker 03

  involved. You're not going out for ice cream. You're doing ice cream at home or whatever. Those things may be, you can create the same level of memories. You can create the same level of experiences without having to have the same price tag. And the more you can do this early on in your financial journey, the more you're going to be able to create the opportunities later in life where you don't have to begin bedazzling basic. You can actually at that time, live the bedazzled life.

• 23:45Brian Preston?

  I think it's interesting. You used the movies as an example. I mean, in the past, I haven't gone to a lot of movies recently, but in the past I used to go to movies all the time and it has gotten incredibly expensive. But yeah, in the last two years, we had a neighbor invite us over and in their backyard, they had just set up like a sheet.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  Projector screen, yeah.

• 24:00Brian Preston?

  A projector where I'm sure he used it professionally and Just threw it on there and then like a few Bluetooth speakers. And that, that was an awesome experience in the neighborhood and it didn't really cost anything. I mean, I think that is the epitome of the bedazzling your basic life is because that's going to be a memory that sticks with me. Whereas all the hundred dollar movie nights, not always going to be the most memorable.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  That's right. And if, if you can do this, if you can create that level of margin, what it allows you to do is begin achieving some of your other financial goals, putting money into other things and that creates opportunity for habit number seven. You can then start celebrating the financial wins that you have in your life because of those decisions that you're making elsewhere. It's okay to hit a financial goal, to have a financial achievement and to celebrate that financial achievement that you finally made.

• 24:52Brian Preston?

  Yeah, this is one, look, I, I make sure, because one of the things about being disciplined and being a financial mutant is I do want to make sure that you're taking enough time to actually say, man, we did it. And we want to give you some examples of some things you might want to celebrate. Like the first year you max out your Roth IRA.

• 25:09Speaker 03

  It's huge.

• 25:10Brian Preston?

  Take a moment to just celebrate, hey, I maxed out my Roth IRA. When your monthly savings and investments exceed what your monthly debt payments are, that's a big win. Take a moment, take a deep breath in to recognize, hey, I did something special here. When all of your high interest debt, meaning the credit cards are paid off or you've paid off your student loan, if it was a high interest debt, that is something to definitely celebrate. And these are things where, I mean, what some of my favorite emails from clients is we, when we've had clients, right, it's not just saving 25% for retirement, but when they cross into like million dollars, two million dollars. I remember for me and my wife, when we started saving a thousand dollars, saving and investing a thousand dollars a month, we went out to eat.

• 25:51Speaker 03

  It's wild.

• 25:52Brian Preston?

  To celebrate. We went and had a nice meal to say, hey, this is a big moment in our life is because we have taken, we've focused and disciplined our life to live on less than we make. We should celebrate these good behaviors because this is what's going to propel us and these memories we're building is what's going to keep this thing powered for years to come.

• 26:10Speaker 03

  But the key here is appropriate celebration. This is what we're not saying. Don't pay off your last credit bill and say, holy cow, we're debt free. Now we're going to Bora Bora. That's not what we're saying. You want to celebrate in an appropriate fashion so that you do not undo all the hard work. So I love saving a thousand bucks a month or maxing out that Roth IRA. Yeah, go have that nice dinner. Go out and have that dessert. Go do that thing because our minds are so unique in that if we can create experiences that we want to replicate, meaning we have a celebration, like, man, I really enjoyed that. I was really great. It's going to incentivize us to do that behavior over and over and over again. And the more that we can make those

• 26:54Speaker 03

  good decisions over and over, the better our financial position becomes. All right, we're going through micro habits and all of them have been sort of, I wouldn't say like intuitive, but they've all made sense. But this last one is so important. Micro habit number eight. One that we say all the time is that we think that when it comes to finance, it comes to the resource we have. We ought to be willing to give generously.

• 27:20Brian Preston?

  Hey, my, my big take is I think we are wired to actually, you always hear the saying, it's better to give than to receive. And as a kid, you think that's crazy because you know how many Star Wars toys and figurines that you're hoping to get for Christmas that year. But as you get older and get a little more wisdom and maturity about you, I think you really do catch on that it is better to give than to receive. And, and we've actually, don't take our word for it. There's actually some health benefits to being generous. I mean, bonus benefits of giving associated with lower blood, blood pressure, less depression, lower stress levels. If you can get, make you feel like you have a sense of purpose. Remember how I said earlier, and it's, it definitely rings true with this. If you're good with a little,

• 28:03Brian Preston?

  this will be an amplifier to show that you're even better with a lot. And that's why I found people who have money. It really is an amplifier of who you are. So if you can, in an early age, start focusing on being generous and showing that money is only a tool. I think it will serve you well as you start stacking on the success later and it can really like bring to. When we start talking about what brings happiness and fulfillment to people, a lot of times it is relationships, it's generosity. This is the secret sauce that is going to let you know that money can only do so much. It's all this other stuff that feels like it's out here with generosity, with your friends that you keep, your spirituality.

• 28:44Brian Preston?

  These are the things that really give you purpose and really tap into what happiness is and how to create it.

• 28:51Speaker 03

  There was a study that was done where over 600 Americans were asked about how they earned and how they spent their cash. And the researchers found that those people that spent money on others reported a greater level of happiness than when they spent the money on themselves. And this was regardless of income, from low income earners to high income earners. So there's something is in our psyche that it literally is better to give than receive. And Thomas Stanley, in his book Millionaire Next Door, found that generous givers, those that were willing to give, those that were willing to share with and serve others, actually tended to build more wealth than those who do not. Now, I can already hear people saying, well, guys, things are tight.

• 29:34Speaker 03

  I'm trying to make ends meet. I can't, I can't give in the way that I want to. Being generous does not always mean that it's a monetary thing. It doesn't always mean that you're writing a check. Perhaps in your circumstance, being generous is mentorship, volunteering time, helping serve others. It doesn't have to be a financial thing to still have the same positive impact that giving financially can have.

• 29:56Brian Preston?

  Bo, I think it's very, it's telling that we have, just like we have the financial order of operations, which is non-steps. We have nine micro habits. And number nine is, and this one's important because I resemble this one too, as well as you. I mean, goodness, right now, New Year's resolution, Bo, is full on teetotalling on everything in his life because he's prioritizing his health. And I think you guys, hopefully you've been able to tell, as I've transitioned into my 40s and then in transition into my 50s, I have made sure to really not only try to build financial independence, but I'm trying to build and live my best health life. As well, I'm focusing on what I eat. I focus on making sure I get exercise.

• 30:37Brian Preston?

  It's because guys, nothing breaks your heart more than anything is to see people who are being so responsible and good with their money. But it never actually, they don't live long enough to actually see their dreams fulfilled. You can control that by making sure that you're sitting in the front row and taking an active part in all the health decisions you are making in your life.

• 30:57Speaker 03

  You know, I think it was Warren Buffett in a commencement speech, he was talking to some young students to say, hey, imagine the way that you would treat a car if it was the only car that you were going to ever own for the rest of your life, right? Like what kind of car would you buy and how would you treat it? And what kind of decision would you make around that? Well, our health is that same way. We get one body, we get one spin, we get one chance to do it right. And so the earlier that you can figure that out, the earlier you can begin making meaningful decisions to improve your health. Because what good is it to make all these financial decisions, defer all this gratification, push all this stuff into the future? If you don't actually have the health at that time to be able to enjoy it now.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. That is a reality. So we're not saying sacrifice all of your present enjoyment for a future enjoyment, but there does need to be a balance. And when you recognize, man, the way that I think about my health, the way that I think about feeding my body, the way that I think about moving my body, the way that I think about recovering my body, doesn't just affect my body, but affects all the other areas and all the other aspects of my life. You begin to recognize that holy cow, health is wealth. And there are little systems that you can put in place to help with this. I know like for me, I love working out, but I am squarely in the middle of the messy middle, Brian. And so if I don't work out first thing in the morning, does not happen. It's not gonna, but I am also not a morning person.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  I would love to sleep in every single morning. So one of the things that I do every day is before I go to bed, I put on all my gym clothes and I lay them out so that I know that's one less decision I have to make, one less thing that I have to think about. And by introducing that small little micro habit into my life, when I wake up, alarm goes off and I see the closer and I'm like, well, gosh, clothes are already there. Well, put them on and go work.

• 32:44Brian Preston?

  Well, I also know you, you work out with a group of guys. That accountability probably helps too. When you know people are waiting for you, you will do things that maybe instead of hitting the, the snooze button, you get up and get out of bed and make it a priority. And that's what we, we want to focus. You know, we've covered a lot today. I mean, I think some of these, these habits that we've talked about, these micro habits, they could be, cost you $10, but then there's other things that I think as you see, as you have more success and you catch traction, you'll start seeing that these decisions that were initially $10 turn into $100,000 decisions. That's the way it's going to happen with a lot of your life is that you're going to find out is that creating wealth is relatively simple. But don't mishear me. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying it's simple.

• 33:29Brian Preston?

  And we're trying to give you some of those simple solutions and even better is, is you're starting to go on your journey. I want to encourage you to go to moneyguy.com/resources. We'll give you and load you up with completely tons of free stuff because we really do want to help you prioritize and even accelerate your success. Because we know if we do this right, your simple is going to get pretty complex because success breeds complexity. And when that happens, we're going to leave the porch light on for you. We're going to, you know, you don't have to do this all by yourself and figuring out that's something Bo and I talk about from time to time is that, man, it seems like the more successful we get, the more we have to go figure stuff out.

• 34:10Brian Preston?

  It doesn't have to be that way for you. You can actually work with somebody who's done this hundreds of times. So they know exactly what's going on. They know where the blind spots are. They know the things you're not thinking about. You can do a better way to handle your money and we'd invite you to go to moneyguy.com. Consider going to become a client. We'd love to take the relationship to the next level. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.

• 34:39Speaker 03

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Beau Hanson. Brian and Beau are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through The Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss.

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