The wildly popular ZenHabits blog recently featured a Canadian professor (U. Guelph), Ian Newby-Clark an expert on habit change. Habit change re: money is what my company, Your Money by Design, is all about ... leaving us all with fatter wallets as a result, of course!
Here are his 5 tips, with my comments pertaining to money.
1. Work on 1 habit at a time. I couldn't agree more. Many clients come to see me initially in a state of high anxiety, and are determined to do it all. At once. Get rid of their debt - now! fast! Start an ambition RRSP plan - I don't want to be a bag lady, and I'm sure I don't have enough! Oh, and go on a trip to Mexico in three months too! I desperately need a break! My role is to 'hold the horses' so to speak, and help ...
2. Create a plan and write it down. The plan needs to be sane, and it needs to be sustainable over the long haul. It starts with identifying where your net worth is at right now, and leads into where you want to be, financially.
3. Refine your plan. OK. So quickly getting rid of your debt while aggressively saving for your retirement and flying to Mexico next month may not be realistic. But you could go to Mexico, and move your debt to low-interest credit vehicles and set up your RRPSs with a reasonable monthly payment, and see how that works for a while.
4. Make mini-plans. How much will Mexico cost? What is your budget? Let's open a high-interest savings account at Citizens Bank and start setting money aside.
5. Repeat! Repeat! Repeat! Welcome back from Mexico! You're relaxed, refreshed and good to revisit your overall networth plan. Let's start tackling the debt a little more aggressively.

... you get the idea!