5 Habits I Picked Up While Pursuing Financial Independence

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A Benefit of Financial Independence

On the path towards Financial Independence, I have been making a lot of changes in my life. My husband and I have been creating slowly adjusting our lifestyle in order to create a bigger gap between how much we earn and how much we spend. I’ve come to realize that financial independence helps create great habits in our lives! 

Even though financial independence is about reaching a point of freedom from needing to trade time for money, there are a lot of other great “consequences” to taking the journey toward financial independence.

These are habits that don’t necessarily have to do with saving money or reducing spending, even though those are definitely habits that are formed through this endeavor.

Rather, the habits I have picked up are focused more around a the lifestyle I am trying to create. I’m sure we could have picked up these good habits from anywhere, but changing my mindset and defining my “why” behind my financial decisions has resulted in formation of these habits! This is definitely a huge benefit of pursuing financial independence.

Related: Tips To Help Build a Financially Strong Marriage

Habits I Picked Up While Pursuing Financial Independence

1. Getting active

As we have cut back on a lot of the activities we used to do that cost money, we have had to get creative in finding free entertainment. One of the blessings of living in such a beautiful state as Colorado is that there are tons of places to go explore in the mountains. 

We have become huge fans of dispersed camping; which is basically free camping. While exploring, we try to spend as little money as possible. This means packing our own meals and finding activities that cost little to no money. Like hiking! 

We have also gotten into other outdoor sports and activities like pickleball, yard games, and walking around our neighborhood. 

Staying active is a form of health insurance. It helps keep us healthy and will hopefully cut down on doctor’s visits in the future!

2. Diet and nutrition

Food is another area in our lives that we have been intentional about reducing our expenses. This doesn’t mean that we are now eating super cheap junk food. Because just as being active is a form of health insurance, so is eating well. Rather, it means that we are getting more creative with the food we do make. 

We have heavily reduced our eating-out expenses by preparing our own meals at home. This means eating foods that are better for us because we have control over what goes in them. We also use different cash back apps and look for opportunities to earn money while we grocery shop.

My husband is a wonderful cook and he really enjoys learning new meals. Some of our favorite meals that he has prepared have been spaghetti squash dishes. 

The investment into eating well not only helps cut back food expenses, but it is also an investment in our long term health. 

3. Having more open conversations

A common misconception about money is that we should not be talking about it with others. However, if we don’t talk about money, how are we ever going to learn to get better at handling it?

Since pursuing financial independence, I feel like we have been conquering these tough conversations. Not only that, but it has helped to open the doors to having other deeper conversations with our friends about our goals and dreams in life.

I enjoy not feeling afraid of the subject of money. Being comfortable with conversations about money is key to having a financially strong marriage. It will also open up doors to new friendships and teaching opportunities.

4. Focusing on things that bring life

Family

We don’t have kids yet, but one of the reasons we are pursuing financial independence is so that I can have the option to be a stay at home mom if I’d like to. We also love spending time with all of our relatives, and most of them don’t live near us. So this means traveling to spend time with them. In our pursuit to become independently wealthy, we are learning to focus more of our time on our family.

Serving

We highly value serving others. Whether it is through service projects, serving in the church, being hospitable to guests, or making ourselves available to our friends and family. Both of us find time to serve those around us and would love to be able to give more of our time. The values from our faith align with our pursuit of financial independence.

Creativity

I have recently become more in touch with my creative side since starting my blog over a year ago. When I started the blog, I realized that I have let go of some of my creative passions. However, since embarking on the journey towards financial independence, I have reconnected with my more creative side. It brings me a lot of joy to make things. 

5. Thinking twice before purchasing

We have stopped paying for a lot of things after reevaluating what is and is not important to us. And after realizing that we don’t need new things to be happy it has been freeing! It is so liberating to not get sucked into consumerism.

Target used to be a big-spending trigger for me, but now I can easily walk in and out of the store with only the thing I went in for! (I have, however, cut back on going into Target because I can still be swooned by the $1 section) 

When I feel like I need something new, I write it down and after a few days if I still feel like I need to buy that new thing I will buy it. This helps to reduce the number of impulse purchases. If the thing I want is something that can wait a while, I’ll even do some research to find deals or coupons for it. 

Overall, when it comes to new item purchases, we try to really think it through before going and buying that thing. And instead, try to only spend on the things that matter most to us. 

Financial Independence is About Being Intentional

Financial independence is truly about intentionality. It is about asking yourself “What really matters to me, and how do I want to spend my time?” And then changing your mindset to reflect those answers.

Even though we are not financially independent yet, we have received so many benefits from the pursuit alone. We have been more intentional with creating a life that we are happy with and making sure that it aligns with our values.

As we continue on our journey towards financial independence, I am looking forward to picking up more good habits. Picking up these habits has been one of the great benefits of pursuing financial independence.

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