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Happy New Year! It’s time for our 2026 resolutions. Let’s get healthy, make fitness goals and of course, let’s wrap our head around our spending, right? All are great opportunities to forge a path to a better year, but let’s tackle the financial side of our resolutions and learn what drives us to spend.
What are the stumbling blocks that lead to overspending and the inability to create or maintain a budget? Is it emotional? Is it peer pressure? Are we comfortable with debt? Is debt considered part of daily living? Most reasons overlap, but often emotion, culture and behavior guide our decisions in purchases, paying off debt, and planning for the future.
1. Emotional spending plays a major role: Boredom, stress, impulsive buys, reward or treat spending. Instant gratification rules over future consequences.
2. Social peer influence is powerful: Keeping up with friend’s lifestyles, event-driven spending like vacations, weddings, etc. Often, we only see what others are spending, but we never see the actual debt they are accumulating.
3. Overspending feels normal: Minimum or delayed payments hide the total cost when breaking up total expenses over time. The “Everyone has debt!” mindset to include all in the same setting has become the mantra.
4. Going too far too fast: Making unrealistic budget goals to solve all financial problems at once leads to stress and disappointment. Small, consistent changes have a greater outcome for success than too much restriction.
Let us remove the unfair perception of overspending as a character flaw and begin to see it as a challenge to overcome. Set aside time to evaluate what drives you personally and how those issues can be addressed. Options may vary such as finding an accountability partner to help keep track of your goals and/or setting up spending alerts from your online banking app like we provide at cnext. bank.
Your goals matter to us at Century Next Bank. Let us help you reach them. We are here for you and support is just a conversation away.
