We all want to live a life free of financial stress. To be free of financial stress means getting a good night's sleep without worrying about money and bills. Above a certain level of income, financial habits determine your financial wellness. 

A habit is a regular pattern of behavior and occurs with little mental effort. For example, everyday routines might include brushing your teeth or looking for a sweet treat with your coffee. It's difficult to break a habit since it involves minimal mental effort and is ingrained in our subconscious.

Financial habits are simply habits. Going out to lunch in the office is a habit that costs money, and keeping the streaming service is another habit with financial consequences. Changing a habit takes mental effort, but continuing an old habit requires minimum mental effort.

Financial habits are about self-control, “the capacity for self‐control and intelligent decision making involves a common, limited resource that uses the body's basic energy supply. When this resource is depleted, self‐control fails and decision making is impaired.”

Fortunately, there are well-known ways to assist people in increasing self-control and decision-making. A guide and support groups are the secrets to changing and sticking to better habits. Weight Watchers uses this basic idea to help people lose weight and keep the weight off. Alcoholics Anonymous uses the same principle to recover from alcoholism. 

The success of Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous is tied to their understanding of human nature and how to transform it effectively. Both organizations share the following principles to guide their members toward success:

• A support group -- being a part of a group with a common purpose, feeling less lonely or judged. 

• The leader -- A person that benefited from the program, someone who struggled with similar challenges, runs the group meeting.

A financial coach, also known as a money coach, provides you with strategies and accountability to organize your finances. We created a financial coaching marketplace, Savings Jar, to make those personal finance best practices and accountability more available. Savings Jar’s financial coaching marketplace is the best place to find a trusted financial coach. 

The financial coach is the guide that leads individuals and families on the path to building good financial habits. Like Weight Watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous, the financial coach is a trustworthy individual who has experienced financial difficulties and gives the support and autonomy required to develop solid financial habits for life.

How does Savings Jars' help people develop long-term financial habits? 

Savings Jar helps people in two ways:

• They created a marketplace for individuals and families seeking financial growth to connect with a financial coach. Visitors can browse through the profiles of several financial coaches, read about the coach's experience, and schedule a call to learn more about the coach.

• Saving Jar offers manuals for anyone interested in doing excellent financial habits yourself. These manuals cover everything from teaching your children about the family budget to planning for retirement.

With Savings Jar, you can begin working with a financial coach to pay off debt, complete that goal, and select a coach for the next objective, such as purchasing your first home. Working with a financial coach, like any coaching process, is about continuous growth to assist our clients in getting a good night's sleep without worrying about money.