[Music] so our world today has more access to knowledge than ever before but knowing what you should do doesn't mean that your habits and your behaviors change along with it so today we're going to talk about five common sense things that you already know but you're not doing so before we get started make sure to hit subscribe and share this episode with a friend so Ramsey we always say that personal finance is 80% beh behavior and it's 20% head knowledge because the truth is is that majority of personal finance to win with your money it doesn't take a ton of head knowledge it takes you actually doing the thing and so when it comes to Common Sense like this is a great way to live your life when it comes to money and what's hard though is we know what to do but actually doing it and putting into practice is what's difficult and we're all human and we have daily habits you know that aren't executed perfectly every single day and we're doing everything exactly right but I think what matters is over time there's consistency in our habits that creates the life that we want okay so now here's my list of things that you probably already know but you may not be doing number one is to live on less than you make this always sounds like groundbreaking advice when I say it sometimes I'll be like you know live on less than you make and everyone's like oh it's so simple but it's hard as the average American isn't doing it because we have leveraged ourselves and we have created a life that is more than what we are bringing in and when you get in the habit of living on less than you make you make different choices with your money and different choices when it comes to what you purchase as well you know I think about my parents sometimes and my mom has always been a saver always always always and like they're doing fine now in life right they can do it but I look at her habits she's still kind of lives under this assumption and some of the way she does things is like oh yeah I'm just guaranteeing that we're living on less than we make like she still like rents books from the library right checks them out at the library like those kind of things but you see someone's habits and you just realize oh yeah this has been a part of who they are and honestly it's a great thing so longterm you guys your habits are going to dictate so much of this and how you look at things and how you purchase things so living on less than you make is so key number two common sense but very important save for a rainy day yep we always laugh around here Ramsey cuz we're like it's going to rain it's if it's going to rain it's going to rain things are going to happen you guys there's going to be job losses there's going to be Health scares there's going to be a roof that leaks like things are going to happen in life and having the money set aside for those rainy days is so important but for a lot of Americans having money saved is just not a reality 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency in cash so getting this emergency fund again Common Sense safe for rainy day but doing it and actually having it is what's difficult so what I want you to do is get a $1,000 emergency fund ASAP then once you pay off all of your debt everything but your house then you're going to bump up that starter emergency fund to 3 to six months of expenses and this account is not to be invested it's not for your money to make money that's not what this is for this is literally for the rainy day so you can keep this in a money market account a high yield savings account somewhere that you can get to it but it is set aside for a rainy day number three is to create and stick to a budget mhm yeah this is like common sense right A lot of people talk about budgets and how important it is and we know probably should do better at this or I should you know be budgeting like there's all these feelings around this and it's not that you should out of like a shame complex but it's understanding that yes knowing where our money is going is probably a good thing right it's probably common sense like this is a good thing to have this is a good habit to create in our lives and if you haven't already then yeah kind of get a get amongst the business of doing it because if you live your life where you just spend maybe save maybe do this you don't really know then what happens when you do that over Decades of your life you get to retirement you're like man I'm not exactly where I want to be right so it is this like planning out month-to month but you're doing it for a bigger purpose and a bigger goal and it's really about taking control of your money so be budgeting if you feel like we are paycheck to paycheck but also be budgeting even if you have paid off debt maybe you know you're on baby step seven and you're you know paid off your house like you're doing all of it still be in the habit of telling your money what to do now another kind of Maintenance thing to do that I have to prevent crisis in my house is delete me cuz listen we spend so much of our Lives online we are on social media we shop online we Bank online everything we do pretty much is on the internet these days and so are our names our addresses work history phone numbers email addresses and they are out there for bad guys to exploits so we need to protect ourselves and that is why delete me is so great delete me finds and removes your info from hundreds of data broker websites that buy sell and trade your personal data so take control of your online privacy today and find peace of mind with delete me sign up today at joinme.com Rachel for 20% off or click the link in the description all right number four when it comes to Common Sense personal finance is to be honest about needs versus wants so needs versus wants again is a conversation that a lot of people talk about but what's really difficult is the way we live our lives today in 2025 we take some of our you know wants and create them as needs when they're really not like when you look at your Essentials what you really really really need is food shelter utilities Transportation like that's it right you don't need cable you don't need subscriptions like you don't need these things I mean if we were to be like real honest it's like you know smartphones like do you need that to survive in life today it would be more difficult right not as convenient but no like you could so like really really really stripping back and saying hey what do we actually need so what that's going to do is re-evaluate where you're spending your money and I think that this is really important because again when you live a certain lifestyle and a certain way of doing things for like years and years and years this is like the norm and to go below that Norm feels so uncomfortable so scary but sometimes it is very needed especially if you're wanting some quick wins like getting out of debt saving up an emergency fund some of these Essentials when it comes to our money so being able to kind of pull back and look I mean Wednesday we are like completely re-evaluating our cable cuz if you're anything like us well actually a lot of y'all probably don't have cable cuz everyone's gone to subscriptions we're still old school and have cable and it's like we have like our Comcast box for our living room and our room and the playroom and we see how much money we spend every month on this stuff and it's like our kids half the time they're not even watching it I mean they're really not even my kids don't watch cable they watch Disney plus right or Netflix so we're literally paying for something and so we've been talking about it for a long time and it's me cuz I'm like I just don't like change it's kind what we're talking about earlier when you just know how to do something I'm like I would rather just have the comfort of the norm even though we're losing a lot of money every single month right like a couple hundred bucks probably and it's like what are we doing so Wiston has convinced me so we may be a YouTube live TV whatever it's called the internet we're we're we're doing that y'all think we're doing it we're doing it but it's going to be good again it's so comfortable when you know something the way you know it but stretching it's good though it's good we're all doing it all right number five is don't spend money you don't have again pretty common sense but this going to be very difficult and so if you don't have the money don't buy it and this is everything from Cars you know charging things on credit cards I mean all of it even a degree I would say for college a house is the one purchase that I would say like I'm not going to yell at you to go into debt for a mortgage but everything else you guys like if you just live by this rule of no debt it's amazing what can happen cuz when you don't owe money out with your paycheck you get to keep that money and you get to save it or spend it or give it and do what you want with it and so yes it creates more patience but it also creates more peace in your life in the long term so remember if you don't have the money don't buy it now this is all pretty high level if you will but these important money principles are such a key to you succeeding when it comes to your personal finance goals listen I cannot recommend FPU Financial Peace University enough this is um our nine lesson course that basically goes through a lot of the stuff but it helps you get on the right track when it comes to your money so I'll leave a link down below if you want to check it out and for more common sense money mistakes to avoid make sure to check out my episode on what's the catch with 0% interest you can click here for that or if you're listening on podcast I will leave a link down below all right you guys remember to take control of your money and create a life you love
