The first few mornings after daylight savings time are brutal for me. I’m not a natural morning person and having to wake up an hour earlier doesn’t come easy for me. Part of me wishes I was a morning person that would rise early and be productive while the rest of the world is sleeping. There have been many times where I try to talk myself into a morning workout routine. The thought of waking up at 5:00am and hitting the gym sounds like such a great way to get the day started; that is... until the alarm goes off. While I’ve failed in my numerous attempts to try and start my day an hour earlier, I always seem to make daylight savings time work. It’s not easy, but being forced into shows it can be done. It’s amazing how resilient humans are and how quickly we can adapt to changes in our life and schedule. As soon as I get used waking up an hour earlier, I start to appreciate the benefit of it staying light out longer.

Making a small, positive change in your finances can be as dreadful as having to wake up an hour earlier. Since there are no mandated days in which we are required to start saving/ investing more, we become complacent and it never happens. While there has been progress on this issue with companies allowing automatic increases in 401(k) contributions, not everyone is taking advantage of that opportunity. Let’s make Daylight Savings a time in which we actually increase our rate of savings. It’ll be painful at first, saving 5% more in your 401(k) or putting an extra $100/month in savings; possibly even more painful than having to wake up an hour earlier. You’ll learn to adjust and eventually you will see the rewards of the short term pain. By learning to live off of less, you be able to take pride in your rising saving/ investment balances. By making a sacrifice of waking up an hour earlier, we are rewarded with the flexibility of being able to do more activities outside in the sun. Make the sacrifice to save more, and be rewarded with the flexibility to have more freedom with your time in the future