8 Habits to Develop to Achieve Your Financial Goals Sooner Rather Than Later

Picture this: You’re scrolling through your feed, and you stumble upon an old acquaintance who’s just bought their dream condo or finally launched their small business. You remember that you both were in similar financial situations not too long ago. For a moment, you start wishing you had what they had. 

But here lies the rub. Self-driven financial success doesn’t come easy. Most of the time, you either have to grind and wait a long time, put everything on the line, or do something in between. Suffice it to say, it probably won’t come to you unless you work for it.

For many people, the problem is not knowing where to begin. The path is different for everyone, and there are no guarantees. Still, there are commonalities among the financially successful people that we can learn from. Develop these helpful habits to start your wealth-building journey on the right foot:

1. Choose a Good Savings Account

A reliable savings account is the foundation of a safe financial journey. However, your employee payroll account probably won’t cut it. To efficiently build wealth, you want a savings deposit account with competitive interest rates, low fees, and digital convenience. 

While traditional banks do have some good options, emerging digital banks like Maya are currently among the best in terms of interest rates. The other good thing about these options is that they tend to have easy-to-navigate, transparent apps and easy fund management right from your phone. The app alone will save you time spent waiting in a bank as well as increasingly high over-the-counter fees.

2. Set Clear and Realistic Long and Short-Term Financial Goals

You can’t hit goals that you never set in the first place. Setting clear, measurable goals like “save PHP 100,000 for a travel fund in one year” or other more specific goals will keep you from buying impulsively and motivate you to save up. 

To make the process easier and more concrete, you can use features like that of Maya Personal Goals to create temporary sub-accounts dedicated to particular short-term financial goals and contribute to them consistently; when you’ve hit your savings goal on its due date, you can collect a guaranteed 4% interest rate on the sum of your contributions. 

With time and a structured approach, you will develop the discipline and patience needed to hit bigger and bigger goals. Like with Maya Personal Goals, it helps to follow a time-bound structure for saving.

3. Make it a Habit to Track Your Expenses

A clear sign of poor money habits is not knowing where your income goes. That’s exactly why tracking your expenses is so important. Try to keep all your physical and digital receipts, and use budgeting apps to categorize your spending and spot patterns that are derailing your wealth-building journey. 

Once you start doing this, you may realize that you’re spending too freely on things like food delivery, alcohol, or midnight online shopping sprees. When you start tracking, these things can truly become conscious choices rather than budget-impacting impulse purchases.

4. Build a Separate Emergency Fund

As soon as you have breathing room, consider opening a separate bank account separate from your primary savings and use it as your emergency fund. Unless you’re unusually lucky, medical bills, sudden job loss, or other disasters will eventually slow down your wealth-building journey, and having something to cushion the blow will be of immense help. 

Aim to save at least three months’ worth of living expenses or, if you have a bigger income, the equivalent of your monthly salary. Generally, you don’t want to exceed six months’ worth of income, since that extra cash will likely grow faster in investments rather than in savings. 

5. Set Reminds to Top Up Your Savings and Other Funds

Set reminders or set your apps to consistently top up your savings, emergency funds, and investments on your salary dates so that you have the money to sink into them. Delaying might lead you to spend cash allocated for other areas on unimportant things, thus slowing down your journey even further.

6. Live Below Your Means

To continue off the last habit, it’s tempting to spend on luxuries, especially as the stress of work and family life sets in. You shouldn’t deprive yourself of the better things in life, but you should take care to be intentional with whatever income you have coming in. Choices like cooking meals at home, waiting for sales and discounts, or opting for secondhand items all add up and help build character as much as they build wealth.

7. Invest Early

As soon as you have money left over after your savings and emergency fund commitments, consider spending on investments. The sooner you start investing, the more your money grows through compound interest. 

It gets complicated once you explore more complex types of investment vehicles, but you don’t need to be an expert to get started. You can always just start with relatively safe investment types, like mutual funds, unit investment trust funds (UITFs), or beginner-friendly time deposit accounts like Maya’s Time Deposit Plus. Then, you can study more specific areas like stocks, real estate, or emerging digital assets if you feel you can manage the risks.

8. Increase Your Income Streams

Relying solely on your salary can be limiting, especially if you live on a median Philippine salary. Outside of investments, also consider side hustles like freelancing, online selling, or content creation. If you have a talent or hobby, turn it into an income source to offset the cost and, perhaps, earn a positive income that can go towards your savings.

Bonus: Surround Yourself with Financially Savvy People

The road to financial success is a lot lonelier than you might expect, especially when you’re with people who do not value wealth-building like you do. But if you surround yourself with friends or mentors who are good with money, the journey will become that much lighter, and you might get to where you want faster than you expected.

Remember to Stay On Target

In truth, hitting your financial goals is almost entirely about discipline. It doesn’t matter if you’re aiming to own a first home, start a business, or retire early. The key is to start today and manage your finances as consistently and responsibly as you can. 

It won’t be easy, but it does get better. Keep your eye on the future and you will thank yourself later when the time comes.