At the beginning of our marriage, before I had any idea of how to manage our finances, I frequently worried about money. Maybe that’s natural for a newly married couple with $70,000 of debt and still looking for employment. However, that wasn’t how we wanted to live.

What I wanted were clear, calm thoughts and the ability to fall asleep at night with a quiet mind. What I had was a minor obsession with paying off our debt and worrying about every little purchase.

It is possible that my level of intensity was necessary for a season, but chronic stress is hard on your body, and I know it certainly isn’t a state of mind I could sustain today in my mid-30s with four young children and a busy schedule.

Of course, not everyone has a choice about whether to worry about money. As a volunteer for a need-based aid committee at our church, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with many people in financial trouble because of circumstances outside their control.

In most of those stories, however, it was possible to see how their choices left an opening for financial stress. At the very least, it was made worse by decisions they had made earlier to live a little too close to the edge of their means.

Regardless of poor decisions, everyone deserves help—none of us makes perfect decisions all of the time, and bad luck isn’t evenly distributed.

For most people reading this article, financial stress can be avoided most of the time. If it’s not the case from where you stand today, it can become possible with the proper habits implemented over the next five to 10 years.

What are these habits?

5 Everyday Habits of People Who Rarely Stress About Money

People who successfully avoid financial stress implement the following habits and mindsets well:

1. They Avoid Impulse Purchases

One of the best decisions we made while paying off debt in our first few years of marriage was to make “not spending money” the default.

Impulse purchases are hard to stop once you break the seal of resistance. It’s nearly impossible to keep yourself from spending $3 here or $8 there when you know the money is in your account.

You don’t need these little treats for a happy life. It’s more likely you’ll become quasi-addicted to them and find that you’re unhappy without them. Instead of enjoyment, they’ll become unsatisfying expectations.

2. They Live Below Their Means

After tackling our debt and knocking it out in three years, we slipped into a more casual approach to budgeting. I calculated that our expenses were roughly even with our income, which I thought was fine. However, for a couple of years in a row, we saw our savings account get lower and lower.

The problem was that we were living at the very edge of our means. As money came in, we spent it. We never really accounted for significant and unexpected expenses, such as having a baby or needing to buy a new car.

Without a buffer zone in our budget, these “surprises” always cut into our savings.

3. They Know Exactly How Much and Where They Spend

Eliminating financial stress means knowing that you’ll always have enough money in your account to handle everyday expenses and a large enough buffer to handle nearly any surprise.

You can’t have that confidence without knowing exactly how much you spend in each category of expenses over the course of a year. For example, our natural gas bill is $150 to $200 higher in the coldest months of the year—if I didn’t know that, it would be easy to accidentally spend that money in other categories and fall short in the winter.

4. They Consider Taking On Debt Only in Emergencies

When it comes to debt, I’m not as intense as Dave Ramsey, who doesn’t use a credit card and even purchased his home with cash.

However, when it comes to normal consumer debt or allowing my credit card purchases to start accruing interest, I’m in lock-step agreement.

For me, taking out large sums of debt is a big “no-no.” I will do anything in my power—picking up extra work, making my own repairs, doing without important items, and eating inexpensive food—to avoid it. I think most people regard debt too casually and, when it comes down to it, aren’t willing to make tough sacrifices.

My motto is: It’s better to sacrifice a want than to let money worries steal my joy.

5. They Save and Invest a Little Money Every Month

Money worries will never be far behind if you don’t build a sufficient cushion to protect against the unexpected.

The only way to do that is to set aside a fixed amount of money each paycheck and invest it for a good return. Maybe you put it in a certificate of deposit, a high-interest savings account, or even an index fund—what’s important is that it is in a separate account and earning a compounding return.

The tricky part, naturally, is setting aside the money. If you wait until the end of the month and see what’s left over, you’ll likely find nothing there. Our instinct as humans is to spend what we have.

You have to make the difficult choice up front and find a way to stretch the rest to cover your expenses. Living that way forces you to get creative and likely do without. But that’s OK, because you’re building for a better future, and sleeping a little easier along the way.