Habits are always a touchy subject for some people. They can have both positive and negative influences on our overall health. Saving for retirement automatically, spending a few extra minutes thinking over purchases, paying off your credit card as soon as you use it - these are good habits that will help us. What about the bad habits? Drinking, smoking -things that, for the most part, you know are bad for you, but you continue to do them anyways because of, likely, a physical addiction.

You always hear about the bad habits from people telling you that if you stop, it will help you out. Stop drinking, you’ll spend less money and you won’t risk as much being injured in a drunk driving accident. Stop smoking, you’ll help prevent cancer and you’ll cut back on $5 a day if you’re smoking a pack a day. It’s the habits that don’t seem bad for you that, financially, can be devastating. Take, for example, a morning coffee stop at Starbucks - or another coffee place. On average, a coffee probably costs you $4. Over the course of a week, $20. Over the course of a year, roughly $1000. Now $1000 may not seem like a lot to some people, but when you’re living on minimum wage like me (post coming later, so heads up!) those $4 mornings can get quite pricey.

I recently gave up drinking alcohol for three and a half months. Even though I’m underage, I’m in college and drinking is a big part of college life here at my school; it’s a great social outlet. Besides the obvious legal and physical ramifications of drinking, it was taking its toll on my bank account. Over the summer, I spent far too much money on alcohol - I’ve estimated that, since I stopped drinking one month ago, I’ve saved about $200-$300 that I would have otherwise spent on alcohol. That’s a pretty hefty chunk of change for any college student, and I’ll be happily shoving that money into my Roth IRA. Kicking bad habits improves physical and financial health. I have no question that whatever a bad habit is, getting rid of it will help you financially and physically.

That being said, it’s vital that good habits are developed to help you improve your physical/emotional health, and your financial health. Saving for retirement is something that I - ignorantly - thought most people would be doing. Having my father be a Certified Public Accountant has put some huge discipline on me when it comes to my finances, so I’ve been saving for retirement in a Roth IRA for a number of years already. If you don’t already have a retirement account, open one as soon as you can. It’s a great way to protect your money from, well, yourself, and also have it grow exponentially. This Roth IRA calculator is a rough estimate of how much a Roth IRA will be worth given your current age, your age of retirement, yearly additions (max this year is 5K, although that number will be increasing), marginal tax rate, and expected rate of return. I myself should have over $1.5M in my Roth IRA alone by the time I am 60 - I was going to say the time I retire, but I hope to retire far earlier than that.

Saving can be difficult when it’s something you have to think about. I will be the first to admit that if I have cash in my wallet, I am going to spend it, and it’s very likely that it’ll be on something I don’t need. For that reason, I’ve set up automatic transfers from my checking account to two of my other savings account to take a total of $400. When I made my budget (they are a good way of helping measure your financial progress), I had to figure that I had $400 less a month to spend on something - fun money, bills, etc. It’s made me rework some of my variable expenses - cutting back on drinking alone helps me save over half of this money. Automated transfers are an invaluable resource to help you stash away money. You no longer have to think about it, you just automatically do it - and help yourself in the long run. If you can’t save $400, save $100, save $10 - any amount is better than spending it on variable expenses that are luxuries. If you can save more, do it; if you invest wisely, your money will grow for you.

Paying off your credit card bill immediately and thinking about purchases don’t really need much said about them. They’ll help keep your debt and unnecessary purchases under control, which will help you be able to kick in more money to your savings.

Instead of working for your money, make your money work for you. Kick the bad habits, promote the good ones. If you can’t kick a habit completely (I am only giving up drinking until I turn 21, and then it’ll be in moderation to save my liver and my wallet), cut back as much as you can. Stretch your comfort for a while. Most of the time we continue a bad habit because it’s a comfort for us - our coffee gives us energy for the day, but so can something else. Satisfying a physical addiction can be comforting. But if you can stop and still be moderately comfortable, you’ll find, like me, that you don’t need alcohol or nicotine or your morning coffee to feel good. If you’re struggling to get ahead, I bet that you won’t unless you evaluate your actions and figure out what needs to go and what needs to stay.