To get a stronger body, you have to exercise. It is not a one-time thing, but a habit you create that leads to a healthier, stronger, and faster body. You have to eat right, work out, and take care of your body in order to reach your fitness goals.

The same is true for your finances too. If you want healthier finances, you need to take care of it. You need to feed it right, work it out, and take the right steps to prevent accidents or injuries, things like that. Whether you want to keep your finances healthy or make them stronger, here are some exercises you can do.
 

What is Your Financial Fitness Goal?
 

Before heading to the gym for the first time, you need to know what your purpose or goal is. Are you trying to lose weight? Get stronger? Train for a marathon? All of these require different approaches for exercising. 

Financial fitness is no different. You need to know what you goal is so you can use the right exercises to get there. Building up your savings or paying off your debts are very different goals that require different tools and methods to reach.

Know what you want to do before you start messing with your finances. Mistakes can cost you money and time if you take the wrong path to reach your goal.
 

Have the Right Resources
 

Just like a body working out, you need the right tools to exercise your finances. If you want to get faster at running, you wouldn’t work on bench presses, you would focus on leg exercises. The same is true for your finances too.

If you want to build up your savings, there are a few resources you could use. The basics is having a savings account to keep your money safe. That is like the base level of exercise like going for a walk. If you want to work harder at it, you can use investment tools like Pioneer’s Term Certificates which earns you higher dividends on your savings. 

Similarly, if you want to buy a house, you need to use multiple different resources. You need to find the right mortgage for you, utilize your credit, save up for a down payment, and more! 
 

Keep Your General Finances Healthy
 

There are a few things everyone should be doing to keep their finances healthy. While you are working towards a goal, you shouldn’t ignore these items or you could find yourself in trouble down the road. They are:

• Keep your income higher than your expenses
• Pay your bills on time and in full
• Make monthly payments on your debts
• Deposit money into your savings
• Use a credit card and pay it off fully every month

Depending on your situation, there might be more items you need to handle to keep your finances strong, but these cover the major items. Keep your spending in check, keep building your savings, and utilize your credit to keep it growing.
 

Make Lifestyle Changes
 

Just like trying to get healthy, getting financially fit will require some lifestyle changes. For example, if you are trying to save money, change your routine to stop spending money on non-essentials like eating out. 

Committing to this lifestyle change is like going to the gym for the year. At first, it is easy to stick to, like gym visits during January because of a New Years resolution. But after a bit of time, you might find yourself slipping, giving excuses to go back to normal. You need to fight those and stay committed to the lifestyle.
 

Make it a Habit
 

Eventually, with enough time, your financial exercise will become a habit. A normal part of life. This is exactly what you want because getting financially in shape takes time, just like working out. You can’t expect it to change overnight. 

There are a few tricks to building a habit. You can make it part of your daily schedule, have someone help keep you accountable, or automate what you need to. For example, myPioneer Online and Mobile Banking allows you to pay bills and set up transfers automatically. If your goal is to save money, you can set up an automatic transfer every time you get paid for some of it to go to your savings.
 

Get Perks for Financial Fitness
 

While getting financially fit is its own reward, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some extra perks on the side. Depending on the goal, you can find different tools and perks that can either help you reach your goal quicker or something a little extra alongside it.

For example, if you are trying to build your credit or get a credit card with a great rewards point system, you can do that with Pioneer’s VISA Platinum Credit Card. By using it regularly and paying it off, you are building your credit score and earning Rewards points you can redeem for gift cards, vacations and more!

You could also get tools that assists with reaching your goal. If you are trying to build your savings and are a Pioneer member, you can open a Loyalty Savings account. Then, when you get your dividends or cash back from using a Pioneer Reward U or WOW Cash Back Checking account, it goes into your Loyalty Savings, earning you higher dividends than an average savings account.

Open a Loyalty Savings Account