Read Time: 4-minutes
Happy Saturday,
Here is this week’s edition of 6-Point Saturday — financial insights to help you make smarter money decisions.
Table of Contents*
*Clickable in the online version.
Point #1 — Your Money and “The Seinfeld Strategy”
”Brad Isaac was a young comedian starting out on the comedy circuit. One fateful night, he found himself in a club where Jerry Seinfeld was performing.
In an interview on Lifehacker, Isaac shared what happened when he caught Seinfeld backstage and asked if he had “any tips for a young comic.” Here's how Isaac described the interaction with Seinfeld…
He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall.
The next step was to get a big red magic marker.
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.
After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day.
You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”
What you might miss about setting goals for the new year is the part I emphasized above.
It’s usually pretty easy to imagine a goal panning out perfectly. But you might not spend much (or any) time imagining the obstacles, temptations, and distractions you’ll face along the way. Or the necessary adjustments you’ll need to make.
Then, after several weeks, you can start to doubt your discipline or motivation when the goals you imagined aren’t materializing.
But the underlying problem may not be either of these issues…
It could simply be your expectations around goal achievement.
So don’t write off your 2026 goals yet…
Because the focus in the new year is usually on setting goals. Not designing habits.
Seinfeld figured this out by reverse-engineering his goal of becoming a better comic down to writing every day.
Whether your goals are to:
Stop impulse shopping
Build a weekly money review habit
Decline invitations to events you value less & where you overspend
Maintaining proper expectations around the process of achieving your goals is critical.
And there’s a ton of related research backing this up (covered in Point #4).
So, let's look at 3 steps to breathe fresh life into your 2026 financial goals by focusing on jumpstarting your habits.
Point #2 — 3 Steps to Jumpstart Your 2026 Goals
1. Improve Your Expectations
The first step is to recognize your expectations might be just a tad too high. Yes, you want to achieve these new goals. Yes, you’d like to achieve them.
But when you’re trying something new for the first time, you need to have reasonable expectations.
So, give yourself some grace.
The initial phase of habit-building might look a bit “messy.” But as long as you keep an experimental mindset, and learn about what’s driving outcomes, your results will start to improve over time.
2. Assess Your Performance
Next, quickly think about what’s gone well and what hasn’t. I like to prioritize an inversion approach, or identifying any traps that keep you from hitting your goal.
What tripped you up? What got in the way? Do you have certain things you’ve simply been in the habit of prioritizing that no longer serve you?
Then, ask yourself, what went well? What conditions led to that performance?
Maybe you successfully saved $200/week because you automated transfers before you even saw the money. Or maybe your weekly money review habit stuck because you paired it with Sunday morning coffee, something you already enjoyed.
The goal here is to identify the environmental and behavioral patterns that either supported or sabotaged your financial habits.
3. Use The 4 Laws of Habit-Building
In the bestselling book Atomic Habits, author James Clear lays out 4 laws of building strong habits. If you ever start to feel like all hope is lost, you can think of these laws as 4 levers you control to diagnose issues and make adjustments.
Here’s how each law applies to your financial habits:
1. Obvious — Make your financial habit visible and unavoidable.
Want to build a weekly money review habit? Schedule a recurring event in your calendar.
Want to stop a bad habit like impulse spending? Delete shopping apps from your phone & unsubscribe from promotional emails.
2. Attractive — Pair your financial habit with something you enjoy.
Plan your weekly review after your workout, when you’re feeling accomplished.
Review your budget every Sunday morning while drinking your favorite coffee.
3. Easy — Reduce friction to make the habit as easy as possible.
Automate everything you can (savings transfers, bill payments, investment contributions).
Start “absurdly” small: commit to reviewing one issue per week, not overhauling your entire financial life at once.
4. Satisfying — Create immediate positive reinforcement for completing the habit.
Track your progress visually (like Seinfeld's calendar X's). Cross off each week you complete your money review.
Share your wins with an accountability partner. External validation can make the habit feel more rewarding.
Your Move: Consider one financial habit you've been trying (and struggling) to build. Which of the 4 laws is weakest in your current approach? What’s one small adjustment this week you could make to strengthen it?
Point #3 — “I’ve been trying to stick to a budget lately…”
“Does anyone actually enjoy budgeting or is it just me struggling?
I’ve been trying to stick to a budget lately, and honestly… it’s rough. I make a plan at the start of the month, try to save a bit, and keep track of my spending, but somehow it never goes the way I expect. Random expenses pop up, I treat myself once in a while, and suddenly my “perfect” budget is ruined.
I know budgeting is supposed to make life easier, but sometimes it just makes me stressed.”
If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone.
Many people begin working towards a new goal with unreasonable expectations. This poster expected perfection, and they saw any deviation as a failure.
So, their budget became a source of stress and dissatisfaction instead of providing clarity and fulfillment.
Month 1 probably won’t be perfect. Month 2 may not be either. But if you track what actually happens, make adjustments, and give yourself grace for your learning curve, your budget will begin to work.
A few experiments this individual could try:
First, automate an emergency fund: even if it’s just $25/week. Those “random” expenses that feel like budget-killers are actually predictable at a higher level. Car maintenance, medical co-pays, holiday gifts. They happen every year. A small automated buffer makes them manageable instead of feeling catastrophic.
Second, reimagine your mix of spending: Take a moment to consider: What spending brings you the most joy? What would it feel like to double your spending on that thing? Now automate savings toward it: a concert, a weekend trip, that premium coffee subscription. Even $20/week adds up. You’ll see progress, and suddenly “budgeting” feels like building toward something exciting & enjoyable, instead of restrictive.
Finally, make the process enjoyable. This relates directly James Clear’s 2nd Law of making the habit attractive. If you love having candles around, light one during your budget review. Put on your favorite playlist. Make your favorite coffee. Pair the “boring” task with something you genuinely enjoy.
Point #4 — How to Triple Your Odds of Success
You might be thinking: “Okay, focusing on habits instead of outcomes sounds nice… but does it actually work?”
Psychologist & best-selling author Adam Grant recently shared a 2024 review of 27 studies on the effectiveness of various goal-setting strategies, summarized by Inc.com’s Jessica Stillman:
“The results were clear: ‘Process goals had the largest effect on performance compared with performance goals and outcome goals.’
Or as Grant sums up the findings: ‘Behavior change goals are three times more effective than outcome goals in boosting performance. Growth depends on altering the actions we can control.’”
When you have the right expectations about what drives results, everything gets easier.
Bottom Line: Set process-based goals, not just end-result goals, and triple your chances for success.
Point #5 — Quotes of the Week
Which of these quotes resonates most with you?
“Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, focus on the process not the prize.”
Point #6 — My Questions of the Week
Think back to a time when you successfully built a new habit (financial or otherwise). What made it stick? Was it automation, pairing it with something you enjoy, or something else?
Reply to let me know! I read every response.
Thanks for reading — I hope you found a helpful idea or two.
I’ll see you next Saturday with more.
Have a great weekend,
Benjamin Daniel, CFP®
Founder, Money Wisdom
P.S. Want to take control of your money, stop stressing about your expenses, & feel confident about your financial future? There are 2 ways I can help you:
Financial Health Check: Get your biggest money questions answered, understand where you stand financially, and get a personalized action plan from a CFP® professional. Book a free Intro Call here to see if you’re a good fit.
Financial Coaching: If you’d like some accountability in getting your finances into shape, engage in financial coaching. Build the habits & systems to help you start building wealth, pay off debt, and feel confident about achieving your goals. Reply to this email and say “Coaching” to join the waitlist.
Disclaimer:
This material is not investment or tax advice. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining to act as a result of reading this material can be accepted by the publisher.
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