This week, we celebrate Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year to reflect on what you and I are thankful for. Practicing gratitude is all the rage these days and I’m so happy about that. Not only does genuine gratitude make us happier, being grateful can also make a meaningful difference in your finances and retirement. 

Studies on gratitude show that a regular focus on what you are grateful for is one of the simplest and most effective habits you can cultivate to improve your health, happiness, and overall well-being. 

Here are a couple of benefits of gratitude from the research that are connected to your finances and money, specifically: 

• Gratitude reduces a lot of negative and toxic emotions, like envy, resentment, frustration, and regret. 
• Gratitude reduces social comparisons, which I have talked about at length on the One Minute Retirement Tip. Comparing yourself to others can make you envious and resentful toward people who have more money, a nicer car, better vacations, nice shoes, new clothes, and higher paying jobs than you. The research shows that comparing yourself to others is a major factor in reduced self-esteem. When you’re grateful, you can free yourself from the comparison trap. Since you’re thankful for what you already have, it becomes less important to you what others have and you’re less likely to be consumed with jealous and resentful. 

When you are more content with what you have because you’ve made it a regular, daily habit of being grateful, you can better resist the temptations of materialism and wasting your hard-earned dollar on stuff and experiences that don’t bring you fulfillment. 

The ungrateful heart is never satisfied and will spend a lot of money in an effort to seek fulfillment through having more. The hole can never be filled because once the pleasure of the moment wears off, we’re right back to wishing for what we don’t have - the fence we don’t have, a new car, a bigger house, and better bottle of wine, a first class plane ticket. 

But the grateful heart, spends money with a different mindset. Not spending to fill a bottomless pit in his or her heart or to keep up with the Joneses, but spends with intention. The grateful heart is never lured into the lie that money can buy happiness, because they are already content and thankful for the things, people, and resources they currently have. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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