Today I thought we'd talk about post-COVID spending and savings habits. An article popped up in my inbox this week by Samantha Lamas, a content author at Morningstar on this topic. I'll put a link to the article in the show notes. We'll take a look her thoughts and see how they can help us maintain some of the good habits we may have developed during the COVID restrictions.  COVID may have helped you build some good money habits Now, as restrictions are being lifting, ti may be  some of us ditch  good new habits, and go back to spending more and saving less again. 

 As Samantha pointed out, making a new habit stick depends on how difficult is it to maintain better behavior, what’s your environment, and what incentive is there to maintain the new behavior? During the pandemic, COVID restrictions acted as sort of environmental fix where you were shielded from temptations of overspending at, in-person settings.  Not being able to spend as much, no matter how much you missed it, may have helped you save money during COVID for other goals that are also important to you.

 If you who would like to continue curb your spending and build your savings, there's three areas to explore. Identify the good behaviors you've picked up during the past year. Write down those you'd like to stick with in the future and why this is good for you. You’re What and you’re Why. If you like to stay in shape and go to sports events with friends and saved money on gym membership because it’s closed, you’re exercising outside, and training at home. Would you like to continue that money saving habit? Skip the gym membership and use that money to buy tickets to a few games . Link that healthy, free exercise habit you want to maintain to the goal of attending some sporting events with friends again. T

The second step is to prepare. It's important to acknowledge that this COVID environment may have helped us stick to our new spending and savings habits. Try to think what's important to you about these behaviors you want to curb. Then come up with a new strategy to meet those needs .Say you enjoyed going out and eating with friends fefore and didn't mind spending on an expensive dinner,you really enjoyed it. But you would like to save  for another priority. Thiink about what it is you really loved about that dinner out? What need does that meet for you? Is it the food itself? The service? Or was it you just really enjoy spending time with your friends? If its seeing friends, maybe  get together just as often, but at  budget friendly restaurants or invite friends over for a home cooked meal instead. Is it the food and atmosphere you love? Maybe you enjoy that experience a little less often in order to save for something else. 

Okay, so third thing mentioned in the Morningstar article is called the block to help prevent that is to literally create a barrier to the action you're trying to avoid.  An example of a block, could be you implement a three-day wait rule, where you agree to wait for three-days before acting on a money decision. This might help you from making spontaneous purchases that you then have buyers regret about later and give you some breathing room to think about your Why. 

And when you finally can get back out there again have fun and love life, with no regrets. 

Some content from “How to Help Clients With Their Post-Pandemic Spending and Savings Plans”, Samantha Lamas, Apr 19, 2021, Samantha Lamas is a content author at Morningstar

 https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1034108/how-to-help-clients-with-their-post-pandemic-spending-and-savings-plans?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=linkshare&utm_source=link