“Consistency is Attractive”

In the age of social media, it’s so easy to get caught up in what the latest trends are and then adjust to ensure your life is oriented towards those trends.  Older generations can claim that it is a “millennial” issue but keeping up with the Joneses has been around for decades (if not centuries), it’s just more easily accessible these days.  The truth is, whether we are talking about relationships, jobs, or our finances, the idea of consistency may seem boring but is extremely attractive and fruitful in the long run.  If it’s relationships, maybe consistency is continuing to show up and be available for conversations with friends and loved ones.  For work, maybe consistency looks like showing up on time every day, doing your job diligently, and bringing laughter into your workplace.  For finances, consistency can be many different things, but we will explore a few of them this week.

Consistently Saving

We’ve all heard it – “If you save XX amount of dollars each month for the next 40 years you will be a bazillionaire” (technical term).  It’s fun to know how much money consistent savings could provide for your future, but it isn’t easy to put it into practice month in and month out.  The people that tend to do this the best are those who have figured out how to automate their savings through direct debits on their accounts.  If savings are not automated, then missing a couple months out of the year is very likely and can have large long term affects.  Example: Someone saving $500 per month at a 7% return for 30 years would have just over $600,000.  If that same person missed saving that $500 per month for 2 months each year (just from lack of focus), the end result is just over $500,000 or a $100,000 difference!

In addition to automation, consistent savers do a good job of not trying to time the market.  They tend to watch less news and remember that time in the market is so much more important than timing the market.  The markets will go up and the markets will go down, but the consistent savers remember that the long, weighty evidence of history shows that markets tend to go up over long periods of time.

Consistently Giving

Saving motivates some and is extremely boring to others.  That is why it’s important to find ways to make your money work for others.  Maybe it’s a random act of kindness to pay for the person behind you in the drive thru, or maybe it’s donating to a cause that you are passionate about but finding ways to help others with your money is very rewarding.  Plus, setting up your charitable giving in the right way can have tax benefits as well!  If consistent savings doesn’t scratch the itch for you, I encourage you to find an element of consistency that is “others” focused and see if that spurs you on!

Consistently Celebrating

Admittedly, this is not one that comes naturally to me, however, on each of our financial journey’s it’s important to take a step back every once in awhile and celebrate little successes along the way.  Just like a food diet might encourage a “cheat meal” every now and then, it’s important to celebrate with our finances too.  These celebrations don’t always have to be huge amounts of money either.  Find something that is fun for you and build it into your financial journey on a consistent basis!

Consistency is one of our 3 pillars at Van Gelder Financial.  If you, or someone you know, is looking to gain control and consistency with their finances, then reach out and speak with us today!