In 2007, I worked as a mutual funds advisor at ING. I thought I was a real hotshot and also started investing with my personal money. The first stock I bought was the company I worked for at the time. 

Within a year, I lost 60% of my money because of the financial crisis of 2008. When that happened, I did what most people do: I stopped investing altogether.

That’s our usual response when we experience losing money on a venture, whether it’s a failed business or a market crash: We stop and we become afraid. And that’s normal. It’s what most people do when a market crashes (whether that’s stocks, commodities, crypto, and so forth).

But you can’t succeed if you get out of the game.

The first thing I did to change my financial shape was to quit my bad money habits. At 28, I was walking around with $30K in student debt, no assets, and about $8K in savings to fall back on.

Three years after I got serious about wealth building, I was debt-free and was making six figures a year. One thing people never tell you when they talk about making money is that you can make all the money in the world, but if you’re bleeding money, you won’t get any wealthier.

Too many people are focused on getting ahead without understanding what’s holding them back. Or what got them in dire financial situations.

So to get in better financial shape, give up your destructive money habits first. That alone will help you to stop your money bucket from leaking. Here are 5 of those bad habits that I had to quit.