For some people, having healthy financial habits comes completely naturally to them. For others, it can be something they have to actively teach themselves if they want to manage their money responsibly. Staying disciplined with your money is important for a number of different reasons. If you’ve ever thought about starting a family, having financial stability will help you support them better and ensure you never have to worry about facing financial constraints.

Managing your finances is also important if you have any career or personal aspirations that you want to fulfil, as you will be less likely to run into financial hurdles along the way. The good news is, even for those who have to teach themselves to be financially disciplined, the process is fairly simple, and it doesn’t take much time to pick up. Here’s how to teach yourself financial discipline fast.

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Schedule Your Savings

While important monthly outgoings for things like rent and a mortgage are crucial to prioritise each month, your savings are every bit as important. Building a strong savings strategy starts with treating your savings as an essential monthly expense, which will quickly break poor spending habits and create long-term financial stability. Even if it’s a small contribution each month, as long as it’s something and it’s consistent, you will start to develop better spending habits. Nowadays, the majority of online banking apps allow you to set up a direct debit that will automatically transfer a dedicated amount of money from your current account into a savings account.

Although opening a dedicated savings account to deposit money into is highly recommended, if you’re new to savings accounts and want to save as much as possible without incurring withdrawal fees, you can put money aside on a regular basis and have completely free access to it with banking partners like Monzo. It allows you to create dedicated pots and separate your incoming finances based on what you will use them for. You can also choose to lock these pots for a certain period of time, which restricts you from spending the money that’s in them.

Monitor Your Outgoings

If you’re serious about improving your financial habits, monitoring your monthly outgoings should be non-negotiable. Regularly checking up on how much you’re spending each month will help you budget your income more accurately – as well as stop you from overspending. Monitoring your outgoings also lets you identify expenses that aren’t as necessary as others, and where you can make additional savings that are easy to do and keep up with. If you’re someone who’s in the process of making debt repayments, understanding where your expenses are coming from each month can leave more money available to pay off high-interest loans more quickly.

Create A Realistic Budget

Budgeting isn’t as complex and time-consuming as many like to believe. Once you’re aware of how your money is spent each month, the next step to financial discipline is creating a realistic plan of how much money you can afford to spend each month, based on how much you’re planning on saving. A popular method for budgeting is the 50/30/20 plan. It outlines how 50% of your income should be delegated to essential spending, which covers things like housing bills, utilities and groceries. 30% of your income can then be spent on holidays and entertainment services, followed by 20% of your income that should go to savings or debt repayment.

Build An Emergency Fund

While your savings can act as a pool of extra money without a fixed purpose, they shouldn’t be used as a fallback whenever you need additional funds after maxing out your income. The more you can continue to build your savings account without making any withdrawals, the better your long-term financial stability will be. It’s a good idea to always save a sustainable amount of money each month that can be used as an emergency fund. Make sure the amount you choose to save is realistic and achievable – so that you won’t be tempted to use it for month-to-month spending.

It’s important to store this money somewhere that is easily accessible and not in a savings account where you will be charged to withdraw the money. You never truly know when a situation could arise where you’re required to make a high cost that you haven’t budgeted for. It’s understood that saving a smaller amount of money consistently is much better than putting away more, less frequently. In general, most people aim to accumulate enough savings to cover 3 to 6 months’ worth of their essential outgoings, but you should focus on an amount that you can afford and consistently keep up with.

For many people, learning to manage their money responsibly starts with regularly reviewing their outgoings and finishes with financial security across investing, property development and long-term wealth building. As long as you have a committed attitude and a strong reason for wanting to be better at managing your money, you too can quickly learn what it takes.