Financial Checkup – Behavior

Principle 1 – Behavior
Managing our behavior is the first step to good financial and physical health. My dad is a family practice doctor. He can offer preventative counseling, diagnose his patient’s problems, give them tools and steps to improve their health, and monitor them with regular checkups.

Despite all of the help he provides, many of his patients still struggle with their health issues. Why, because they don’t change their behavior. He lays it out for them, all they have to do is follow his counsel, but unfortunately many of them don’t follow through.

Many of us have similar problems with our finances. The basics of personal finances are all around us in books & magazines, on television, on the radio, and on the Internet. We can choose to take advantage of this information or not. As I see it, there are two behaviors that prevent us from being financially healthy:

• We don’t go to the “financial doctor” for our initial checkup. We’re overwhelmed or uninterested in the topic of our finances. We have a mindset that we can’t or don’t want to learn more and we don’t seek the knowledge or the help of professionals.
• We don’t build and maintain healthy financial habits. You could say that we don’t visit our “financial doctor” for regular checkups. We may get started but are distracted or discouraged and don’t continue.

Stay tuned for the next principle in Financial Checkup – Motivation

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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