In reading this blog, you have now got 5 important money habits to work on for building great habits in relation to paying your home loan off faster.

1. The single most important money habit (I’ll let you in on this secret real soon)
2. Open your online banking account
3. Look at your income and expenses
4. Track your home loan
5. Forecast my bills habit

There are so many money habits out there

What happens when these become habits and you’d like to work on a new money habit? Or what happens if you have other habits you would like to work on instead?

One great clue for which money habits or rules you could work on is recognising when you have a regretful purchase.

Yes, we’ve all had them; bought something at the store that we regretted buying later.

Things like eating out (what—how did I just spend $100); or purchasing a whole heap of little items in the space of 2 hours (like lunch, plus a juice, plus an ice-cream, plus a coffee, plus a notepad, and a pen of course! It all adds up!); or even overspending when you are having fun (like going to the movies and buying a drink with the plastic gimmick movie cup you had to have, popcorn, a choc-top or maybe more).

When you have a regretful purchase, notice how you feel, write it down somewhere and commit to changing that behaviour.

When was the last time you had a regretful purchase? What was it and has it happened before? What are some money rules or habits you could work on to prevent these regretful buys?

Brainstorm some ideas here for what money habits you could work on.

You might even like to work on other money habits you have or would like to create. If you’re not sure what your money habits are, here is a simple exercise that will help you figure them out.

Over the next two weeks write down all of your purchases that you have made. If you have gone grocery shopping, there is no need to list all of your items, just write down those things that you purchased that you did not intend to purchase (or group them as ‘unintended groceries’ and give a total amount spent). Then write down:

• The date, time of day you purchased
• How much it cost
• Where you purchased it
• What you purchased that you intended to purchase
• What else you purchased that you weren’t planning to buy—when we go to the grocery store, we almost always come away with more than we planned to buy e.g., did those items sneak into the basket at the grocery shop or were you always planning to buy them!
• Were any of these regretful purchases?

Then look at your list. Can you see a pattern for how you have been spending money in the last two weeks? For example, do you shop for clothes that you did not intend to purchase? Did you go grocery shopping many times during the week? How many times did you eat out or order take-away during the last fortnight? Which days were these?

Pick one of those items that you regret buying.

So, now that you know what you want to change, how can you go about changing those behaviours?

Try the want-one-now strategy. What do you want to change? What’s one thing that you can do to achieve this? And what is the easiest thing you can do to start achieving that one thing; something so easy you could start it now?

Coming up in the next chapter we have nine top tips for saving you money while you have a home loan.