Small changes that yield big results in your finances

I love finding micro changes that make a big difference in my life.

Even though these are small changes, I don’t want to mislead you– they aren’t easy. It takes a lot of effort to get these changes started.

But they are worth it! So let’s dive into the 5 small changes that will make an impact on your finances.

Getting good at negotiating

For some reason, we tend to associate negotiation with big-ticket things: buying a house or car and discussing your salary.

But negotiating is a practice and skill we can start to hone through intentional practice. I personally like practicing my negotiating skills when I am flipping furniture.

It really helps to normalize negotiating and make it a normal part of life.

We want this to be normalized. The worst thing is to go into a bigger negotiation like your pay and feel like a fish out of water.

Automating your investing

Look, I know we hear the benefits of automating allll the time.

There are so many perks. I also understand that sometimes automating is easier said than done. Especially if you can’t seem to get ahead financially or are in a situation where you look at your utility bills and can’t pay them on their due dates. Cash flow management is tough.

But if you are in a situation where you can, automating your investing is a great way to build up wealth and peace of mind.

• Not sure how to start investing? Check out this tutorial for the very first step to investing– setting up your brokerage account.

Having the “we have food at home” convo

I find myself having the “we have food at home” convo often when I get super busy (or super lazy!😆).

Food is such a big part of our budgets and exercising a bit of restraint when it comes to eating out can help you budget a lot. Our money goes so much further when we are grocery shopping vs eating out.

I personally notice my eating out expenses are kept to a minimum when I’m diligent about meal prepping.

• Need help with meal prepping? Check out this post for some tips!

Practicing gratitude

This is one of the single greatest things you can do for your finances and life. Practicing gratitude keeps us focused on the present and living in an abundance mindset feeling like there is always enough.

I can tell when I don’t practice gratitude. I feel a bit more stressed, and anxious, and find myself falling into the comparison trap more than normal.

Practicing gratitude is more than just a list of things you “should” be grateful for. Go deeper. Lean into the feelings behind your gratitude and you’ll notice a different shift. I can tell if I am feeling gratitude because I get this butterfly effect in my belly. It’s hard to explain (and kinda weird) but that’s how I know. 😆

EXAMPLE: Thinking about the feelings you have when you wake up and your partner made the coffee in the morning is so much stronger than simply writing down “I’m grateful for my partner.”

• Read this blog post for more tips on the effects of gratitude.

Making decisions quickly

Making our decisions too slowly slows us down so much. The goal here is to make a decision quickly and OWN that decision for your life. Too many of us ponder on decisions for such a long period of time and then never actually take that step.

I see this a lot with coaching clients. They come to me and say they want to invest outside of their 401k but haven’t taken the step to do it yet.

The majority of the time indecisiveness is disguised as:

• “I just need to research more.”
• “I don’t have time to figure it out right now.”
• “My partner said they will help me with this.”

What’s really happening? They are giving themselves too much time to make a decision. Try to practice making decisions quickly and trusting that it was the best decision for you at that moment.

Trying to start a business before your plan is fully thought out will be much more beneficial than staying in the research phase for 3 years.

Decisiveness is a great skill to improve on.

What do you think? What are some small changes you would add to this list? I love learning from you!