Rather than giving up traditional vices like red meat and chocolates for Lent this year, why not consider putting behind you those bad financial habits that can cause you long-term harm? In the same way that bad eating habits can become detrimental to your physical health, bad money habits can also be a source of poor financial health down the road.

Here are three bad money habits to give up now:

Irresponsible use of your credit card

Leaving a balance on your credit card each month is something that many people do. However, this seemingly innocuous habit could put you in dire financial straits, especially if the balance gets too large and your income does not permit you to make monthly payments that are large enough to quickly eliminate it. Do you know what the interest rate on your card is? It might shock you to know that interest rates can be as high as 50 per cent! Unless you make a serious plan to not just lower the balance, but to clear your balance, every month you will be paying compounded interest daily on that balance. If you’re only making minimum payments toward it and still using the card to purchase things, that balance will be we very hard to eliminate. Remember that a credit card, though able to bring the world to your fingertips, does not give you carte blanche to spend recklessly. A credit card is really an unsecured loan and so, if not used responsibly, can affect your long-term financial health. After all, if you’re paying down credit card debt indefinitely, how will you be able to save for your financial goals? And if one of these goals is, let’s say, home or business ownership, poorly managed payments on your credit card debt can impact your credit score in the long term, affecting your ability to secure a mortgage or a business loan.

Commit to clearing your debt, going forward, by putting yourself on a credit card diet. Use your card only when necessary or only for purchases that are within your budget and then repay the debt in full each month by the due date. If you must make a large purchase that you won’t pay off in a single payment, ensure that you have a plan to reduce that balance in a few large payments before you make the spend. In other words, cultivate the habit of spending only what you can afford.

Not creating or sticking to a budget

There are still people who don’t see the need to set a monthly budget and stick to it. There’s even a school of thought that says budgets are for poor people. Are you one of those people who think this way? Sure, you might have a vague notion about the things you want to do with your money, but without an organised and systematic plan, you are basically ensuring that your medium to long-term needs won’t be met, or at best met in a random, haphazard way. When you set a budget and stick with it, you control the financial decisions that will keep you on track to meet your goals.

An easy way to do this is to create a percentage-based budget. First, calculate your monthly take-home income. If it fluctuates, average what you’ve made in the last six months. Live by the principle of ‘paying yourself first’; before you purchase anything, take 20 per cent of your income and put that strictly toward your future, whether contributing to a retirement plan or your investment account or both. If you are just starting out, you may want to start at 10 per cent of your income and build up to 20 per cent over time. After that, budget roughly 65-70 per cent of your income for your expenses, that is, your necessities (recurring monthly charges like rent, mortgage, car payments, utilities, grocery, and other household expenses). Budget roughly 10 per cent for discretionary spending (like entertainment, cable or Netflix subscriptions, gym subscriptions, etc). You can make tweaks accordingly, depending on what best suits your lifestyle and current financial circumstances. As you get older and your income grows, it may be possible to invest more and/or allocate more towards entertainment. Just as long as you have a blueprint to follow each month so you can see where your money is going.

Not investing for the future

If you’re a young person, the temptation to spend all you earn (and sometimes more) will be great. You might think you have all the time in the world to start investing. But it will become evident that time really does pass quickly. In fact, there are far too many people now facing their golden years who find themselves without adequate funds to go into retirement. Rather than using their senior years to break free of the rat race, many are finding that they are forced to remain in the workforce much longer than they would have liked.

Thinking about your retirement years is something you should start to do from as early as your first job. Effective retirement management takes decades of saving and planning. Although parties and so on are enticing, don’t be short-sighted. Maybe you do put money into a savings account. Remember, inflation will lessen the buying power of money over time, so savings held in cash that are earning low interest will lose value over time. If you’ve been delaying investing, now is the time to educate yourself about starting an investment portfolio that will protect the value of your money as the cost of living increases.

The good news is that bad habits can be broken. The first step is to see how your bad money habits are hurting your financial well-being. This Lent, begin making adjustments, not just for the season, but also beyond, so that you can be well on your way to a solid and rewarding financial future.