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Preparing for retirement isn’t exactly exciting. It’s not like tracking a hot stock or watching a new crypto coin spike in real-time.
Instead, we just save and wait for a payoff that’s thirty years away. The habits we’re told to adopt aren’t exactly sexy either. In fact, most days it feels like you’re doing nothing at all.
But that’s okay. Real wealth is built slowly and steadily. It happens when you automate your savings, max out your 401(k), or choose not to panic sell. Those and other habits may be mundane, but they’re exactly what make you rich in retirement.
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“The most important habits are boring, and that’s why they work,” says Benjamin Howarth, a financial advisor at Barnum Financial Group. “You want to be intentional about what you are doing.”
8 boring habits your retirement will thank you for
From compounding to conversions, here are eight boring habits that will make you rich in retirement.
1. Contribute as much as you can to your retirement accounts.
What you should do: Don’t blow off saving in your company-sponsored 401(k) or an IRA because you’d rather spend the money elsewhere. The earlier you begin, the bigger the nest egg you’ll amass. If you can’t contribute the full IRS limits, which are $24,500 for a 401(k) and $7,500 for an IRA in 2026, at least strive to hit your employer match. If you don’t, you’re leaving free money on the table.
Why it’s boring: Contributing to your 401(k) or IRA, especially when retirement is decades away, can feel like you are saving without an immediate payback. You can’t spend the money in your 401(k) on a vacation or buy a new car. You’re choosing a line item on a spreadsheet over a tangible reward today.
How it makes you rich: By maximizing your contributions early and often, your portfolio will have plenty of time to grow and compound either on a tax-free or tax-deferred basis. Stick to this boring routine for thirty years, and that regular contribution can easily transform into a seven-figure retirement nest egg.
Let’s say you are 40, earning $100,000 per year, and have $250,000 saved in your 401(k). Even if you do absolutely nothing else, you’ll still net over $1.35 million by age 65, thanks to the power of compounding and a 7% average return. But if you actually lean in — adding a 5% contribution with a standard employer match — that nest egg doesn’t just grow; it nearly doubles to $2.51 million.
2. Automate everything
What you should do: Whether you’re saving for an emergency fund, putting away money for retirement, or paying bills, automating it is the key to staying on track. It’s the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it move that ensures those boring habits become routine year after year.
Why it’s boring: After the initial setup, you basically stop interacting with your money. For some, that’s less fun than manually moving cash around or scrutinizing every bill. It removes the dopamine hit of taking action because the action happens behind the scenes while you’re sleeping.
How it makes you rich: The more you save, the bigger your nest egg. Automating your contributions ensures you don’t spend your future on a dinner out. By automating bill payments, even the minimum each month, you protect yourself from late fees and interest.
More importantly, automating keeps your credit score pristine, which is what allows you to snag a low interest rate on a mortgage or car loan. Over a lifetime, that lower interest rate can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
3. Create a permission to spend budget and stick to it.
What you should do: Whether you have a lot of money saved or are living paycheck to paycheck, having a budget that permits you to spend on discretionary items allows you to have it all: a fully funded future and enjoyment today.
Howarth is a big advocate of the bucket approach, in which your money is divided between fixed expenses, including saving for retirement, an emergency fund and discretionary spending. If the first two buckets are filled, the third bucket is yours to do with it what you may.
Why it’s boring: Instead of spending on a whim, it requires you to look at your buckets and be honest about spending when your fun one is dry. It isn’t exciting to say no to an impulse buy because your spreadsheet is telling you to, especially when there’s money in your bank account to fund that whim.
How it makes you rich: By having a budget and sticking to it, you ensure you are checking off all the boxes: saving for your future and paying your bills on time. It protects your long-term investments, enabling them to grow for decades uninterrupted while you still get to live your life today.
4. Fight lifestyle creep
What you should do: Every time you get a raise or bonus, it’s only natural to want to spend it or upgrade your lifestyle. But don’t. Engage in some delayed gratification instead to prevent lifestyle creep. Instead of buying a newer car with your bonus or moving into a bigger home, take at least half of the new money and divert it to your savings or investments.
Why it’s boring: It’s a tough habit to embrace because there’s no immediate applause for staying in your current house or driving the same car while your income rises. Boring? Yes. But also very rewarding.
How it makes you rich: Lifestyle creep forces you to work longer just to maintain a more expensive life. By keeping your overhead low while your income grows, you widen the gap between spending and saving. When you invest your raises, you are not only saving more, but you’re shortening the time it takes to achieve your financial independence.
5. Use your HSA as a Super IRA
What you can do: If you have a High Deductible Health Plan, max out your Health Savings Account, but don’t spend it. For 2026, you can contribute up to $4,400 per individual or $8,750 for families. Pay for your current doctor visits and prescriptions out of pocket, save the receipts, and leave the HSA money invested in the market to grow for decades. You can then reimburse yourself for those expenses tax-free whenever you want, even years later in retirement.
Why it’s boring: It seems counterintuitive. Most people use an HSA to pay for medical bills today, but you are doing the reverse. You are footing the bills with your take-home pay and then saving those receipts for decades. Hoarding money this way may seem pointless, especially since you’ll have to create a system to save the receipts and manage your health care expenses in the run-up to retirement.
How it makes you rich: An HSA is a great way to save pre-tax dollars today to fund your retirement later. It is the only triple tax-advantaged account available. The money goes in tax-free, grows tax-free and comes out tax-free for medical expenses.
By contributing to your HSA and treating it like an IRA, you are creating an additional income stream in retirement. Plus, after age 65, you can withdraw the money for anything and pay regular income tax as if it were a traditional IRA.
6. Consider a Roth conversion or Roth
What you should do: If you have the option, consider saving for retirement in a Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA. If you are in a lower tax bracket today than you expect to be in retirement, you may also want to consider a Roth conversion. It works like this: you move money from a traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth, pay taxes on the amount now, and it grows tax-free forever.
Why it’s boring: You may bristle at paying taxes now, after all, deferring tax liabilities is usually the objective. A Roth conversion may seem like your account is taking a hit to cover taxes. Plus, you have to file a lot of paperwork for something you won’t benefit from for decades.
How it makes you rich: You are prepaying your future tax bill. In retirement, that means a pool of money that is all yours without having to worry about paying the IRS. Plus, with a Roth IRA, you won’t have to worry about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), which can be a tax nightmare for retirees with a big balance in their traditional IRA.
7. Checking your account balances annually.
What you should do: Life happens, and while you may have needed that streaming service or high level of insurance last year, things could be completely different now. That’s why it’s important to review your financial accounts at least yearly.
Look to see if you are overpaying for things like your insurance, phone bill, or utilities, and make sure you aren’t getting hit with expensive fees from your bank, investment accounts, or credit card issuers.
Why it’s boring: Who wants to spend their time comparing different insurance plans, scouring credit card statements to find every streaming service, or feeling shame after realizing they pay for a gym membership they never use? Reviewing your accounts is a boring administrative task that requires you to carve out time to go over stacks of statements, bills and accounts. But it’s worth it!
How it makes you rich: Shutting down those phantom accounts and getting rid of wasteful spending doesn’t just rein in expenses; it frees up cash to grow and compound.
Consider this: saving $100 a month from a dull annual review puts an extra $36,000 in your pocket over thirty years. But if you take that same boring $100 and invest it with a 7% return, it grows into more than $122,000. That is a six-figure reward for a morning spent looking at bank statements.
8. Avoid panic selling with a plan
What you should do: Saving for retirement in a 401(k), IRA, or even a brokerage account is an important way to build a nest egg. Creating a sound financial plan is even better, especially if it stops you from making emotional decisions with your investments.
Your plan should be for the long haul and include a cash buffer so you aren’t forced to sell when prices are depressed. When the headlines start screaming about a crash or a recession, the best thing you can do is stick to that plan. Don’t stop your contributions, don’t move to cash, and don’t sell.
Why it’s boring: It feels passive and maybe even irresponsible when the markets are screaming sell. Doing nothing is incredibly dull; it lacks the action we feel we need when everything around us is in chaos.
How it makes you rich: Without a plan, it’s easy to panic and fall into the trap of selling low and buying high. But history has proven that investors who stay the course tend to recoup their losses and then some. A financial plan helps you keep your emotions in check so your portfolio can do exactly what it was intended to do: grow over time.
Don’t discount the mundane
Retirement planning isn’t about the hyped-up stock or the lucky crypto trade. It’s about the boring, daily discipline of following a plan when you’d rather be doing something else. It’s easy to get distracted by the noise of the market or by the desire to keep up with the Joneses, but don’t let it.
These habits aren’t sexy, and they certainly won’t make you the life of the party today. But if you can embrace the boring and stick to the routine, you won’t just be prepared for retirement, you’ll be rich when you get there.
