Financial Habits Are The only The very first thing To Reaching Your Goals

Singapore has one of the most well-educated populations in the world, a really generous tax regime, and low unemployment rates. With all of these, you would think that achieving financial independence shouldn't be difficult for the average Singapore worker.

Yet, it's not uncommon to hear complaints about the rat race, being perpetually broke, and struggling with the increasing living costs. So, what gives?

Perhaps the key to achieving good financial health that's seemingly always just out of reach, isn't unlike that dream six-pack beach body – that's, cultivating the little but foundational habits required for us to succeed. Let's explain.

Here's Why We quite often Fail At Achieving Our Long-Term Financial And Life Goals

You do not have to look far to locate an abundance of diets and workout routines, each claiming to have proven results and a convincing logical basis. But if this is the case, why is becoming fitter a brand new year's resolution that most people perpetually cannot seem to fulfil?

The field of behavioural economics inform us that big changes would be the result of small, seemingly insignificant steps each day, week, month, and through the entire year. The results in our positive (or negative) efforts compound, resulting in us achieving great results we can only perceive as time passes.

For example, every cup of bubble tea you do not drink, or training session you decide to perform even if you don't feel like it, eventually leads to better physical fitness. However, the possible lack of immediate gratification and indication that you are on the right path quickly leads to the sapping of motivation and abandonment of the plan – at least until next year when it gets added back to the list of regrets resolutions.

Without Good Financial Habits, We can't Achieve Our Financial Goals

We cannot afford to disregard the fact that it's in identifying what daily actions we have to take, which get us where we are right now, to the financial targets.

For example, achieving our goal to accumulate a certain amount of emergency savings or investment war chest is based on postponing purchases we want (but don't absolutely need), and shaving off expenditure whenever possible, while monitoring various aspects of our finances to make sure we're not racking up costs unknowingly.

Cents accumulate into dollars, and dollars accumulate into 100's of dollars. A large number of small decisions we make in a day accumulate into eventually achieving our financial targets.

Using Tools To assist in Cultivating Positive Financial Habits

So far, we've probably not told you whatever you don't already know, at least intuitively. The seemingly unsurmountable challenge is based on actually doing what we know.

To help you stay motivated and on track to hitting your financial targets, platforms like the newly-revamped DBS NAV Planner could be a game-changing tool . For the uninitiated, DBS NAV Planner is an intuitive digital tool that helps you track, protect and grow your money, designed around an extensive financial planning framework.

Here's are 6 features of DBS NAV Planner to help you form positive financial habits, take appropriate actions, and grow on track to achieve your purpose.

#1 Unified Dashboard To watch Every aspect of Your individual Finances

The focus of the DBS NAV Planner is the NAV Planner Dashboard. For DBS/POSB customers, you can access the dashboard once you sign in via internet banking or digibank, and then click the Plan tab on top.

It provides you with an immediate high-level summary of your liabilities and assets, aggregated across your savings accounts, investment portfolio value, as well as insurance policies. Furthermore, you can observe your recent income and expenses, giving you a feeling of your cashflow situation right now.

All this information across your DBS and POSB accounts, including past data, is displayed within the NAV Planner automatically, and also to make it much more accurate, you are able to input information using their company non-DBS/non-POSB accounts, for example savings accounts using their company banks, your robo-advisor portfolio, or insurance policies from other insurers which means you obtain a comprehensive view of all of your finances in one place

#2 Allows You To Cultivate Discipline In Your Spending By Setting Personalised Budgets

Within the NAV Planner, you are able to set specific budgets for various spending categories, for example Bills, Utilities & Taxes, Shopping, Dining, Entertainment & Leisure, and much more.

After setting your target budgets, DBS NAV Planner will automatically demonstrate how you're doing and let you determine if you're still inside the budgets you set on your own.

With this feature, you can aquire a better concept of in which you have a tendency to overspend, and see instantly whether your actual spending habits matches your life priorities and goals.

#3 Celebration Of Big And Small Achievements Alike

One reason why people makes impulse purchases or succumb to wanderlust, despite the fact that that may not be the best idea for their wallets, is because spending money feels good, right now.

On the contrary, you do not really get immediate gratification from buying insurance, making an investment, or saving more money.

DBS NAV Planner helps give you the encouragement and perhaps validation you'll need allowing you know whenever you hit a milestone, start to show a positive trend, or achieve among the goals you place on your own.

This gamification of your family finances is an appreciated feature, which can be the best way to positively reinforce your time and efforts, leading to more of such efforts in future.

#4 Happy to Keep You Inspired & Motivated

Tools and solutions are only useful should you comprehend the requirement for them, and how to utilize them for your own personal situation.

The good thing about the DBS NAV Planner is it posseses an extensive library of articles that get surfaced to you inside the platform inside a context-sensitive manner, allowing you to take charge of the items you want to learn, when you wish to understand.

You can see short explanations on the number of concepts like investment risk, types of insurance, and calculating loan rates of interest, or explore full-length articles which go in-depth into those topics.

#5 Provides Guidance On Steps You Can Take To Address Shortcomings

As the saying goes, should you keep doing the exact same thing, it would be insanity to anticipate spun sentences.

We've explained the strength of compounding small, positive behaviours, however the same applies for mistakes that people don't rectify. To assist us avoid mistakes, the DBS NAV Planner highlights areas where sub-optimal decisions that are being made, for example insurance coverage gaps or even the lack of sufficient emergency savings.

By flagging potential issues automatically, you will get guidance on the following steps to take to enhance your financial health. DBS NAV Planner has the additional advantage of anonymity and privacy, since you don't need to disclose personal data to some personal banker or insurance agent.

#6 NAV Planner Is Always With You

As mentioned earlier, the important thing to long-term, sustainable changes is to keep doing it, so that small, positive changes get the chance to compound into something that includes a big impact.

Towards this end, you will be glad to understand that DBS NAV Planner can be obtained on the web through the Plan tab in your DBS/POSB internet banking, as well on the DBS digibank app iOS and Android.

With this, you are able to look up on the condition of your current finances, and check your progress towards your financial goals – whenever during the day, and wherever you are.

Give Your Financial Goals Another Go

Whatever tools you use to assist cultivate good financial habits, hopefully that this article gave you ideas and inspiration to take another crack at the financial targets, in small but significant step. Read this infographic to find out how to develop financial habits which will actually last: