The key to boosting your net worth is simple—spend less than you make, but doing it can be challenging.

Capitalism has brought us many benefits—we have more choices than ever before, and everything we might want is available for a price. But if we are being cynical, we could say that capitalism thrives best when everyone is in debt but has sufficient resources to pay back the money they owe and ideally get to a position where they can take on more debt.

With our desire to increase our spending, here are 10 habits that can boost your net worth.

Related: Top 10 Tremendous Wastes Of Money

10 Make Every Dollar Count

You can cut your day-to-day expenses with careful planning and shopping. Groceries are the best example. Before you go to the store:

1. Make a list and stick to it.
2. Look for offers and buy more things you regularly need when the price is right. You can always freeze or store extra products.
3. Buy store-brand goods instead of name-brands that often sell at a premium.

The other ways to save money on your shopping expenditures include:

• Don’t be tempted by extras you don’t need. There’s nothing wrong with a treat now and again, but the cost should come from your regular budget.
• Try using cheaper cuts of meat than you usually use.
• If you are making a meal for two or four, make extra and freeze it to make another meal.
• Look for offers, and haggle over more expensive items. For example, if you need a new freezer, the store will often offer a discount on display models.
• Cancel unused or unneeded subscriptions such as Spotify or HelloFresh.

One other area where you can save a lot of money is by pooling resources with your neighbors. Why does every house with a lawn have a lawnmower? Why not come together and share one for the block?

9 Invest in the Future

If you’ve got money to spare, you may be willing to gamble on the stock market. It’s unlikely that you’ll find the next Microsoft before anyone else, but some investors make a lot of money from the market. But, to do this, you need to know about market trends and predictability.

You can build a reasonably safe portfolio of shares. If you think the stock market is for you, you can research low-risk options on the internet, but beware of hidden trade fees. Possible investments include treasury bonds offering solid, if not exciting, rates of return. Gold, and other precious metals, are a traditional standby.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on your original investment, but this should be money that you can spare and leave to accrue earnings.

8 Keep Learning

Lifelong learning might seem to have little to do with net worth. However, if you study the habits of the rich, you’ll find that most of them are keenly aware of the world around them and keep up to date on trends and tendencies.

You can check out online platforms such as Coursera or edX to find various online courses that keep your brain active. There are courses on every subject under the sun, from astrophysics to zoology, and many that help students understand finance. On both platforms, there are many courses that you can take for free.

We know that a good education is a solid investment, yet many of us stop learning once our college days are over. We shouldn’t stop.

7 Build a Nest Egg

If you squirrel money under your mattress, it will be handy in an emergency, but inflation will gnaw at its value. A better option is to open a savings account. As you explore various banking systems, check the interest rate and if the institution charges you for your account maintenance.

Once you have found an account that suits you, try to get into the habit of putting a small sum into it every week or month. Getting into the habit of saving a small sum regularly is better for your current budget. When you feel ready, you can increase your weekly/monthly savings. You should also encourage your kids to put money in their own savings accounts.

You will come across some financial advisers who suggest that your savings should hurt. They mean that you should save more than you feel comfortable with and that making this a habit will curtail your usual expenses. There’s some truth in this, but if you save more than you can afford, you will probably find that you are dipping into your savings account to meet regular bills. This is not ideal.

6 Look for Alternative or Additional Income

All of us have skills, and often those skills are underused. Whether you already have a job or not, you might want to develop an extra source of income. Why not use your skills to make a little extra cash?

For example, you could look at Craigslist and advertise your dog walking services there. The age of the internet has brought opportunities to turn your skills into money-making ventures. Even if your local economy is in the doldrums, you might find opportunities in areas you hadn’t considered.

An extra revenue stream is a great way to boost your net worth and goes toward reinforcing your income should you hit troubled times.

5 Network to Gain More Opportunities

A proverb tells us: “It’s not what you know but who you know.”

It may sound cynical, but it’s how most of us operate. You’re more likely to turn to someone you know for help than a stranger. If you have abilities and are looking for a way to make some extra cash, you might need to broaden your range of acquaintances. Let people know that you are available and good at what you do.

At first, you might find yourself doing favors for friends and then friends of friends. There’s nothing wrong with that, but make sure that they know that you expect them to pay for jobs that take up your time. Ideally, they know this in advance—it’s embarrassing to ask someone for money when they thought you were helping out for free.

Our short video gives you some ideas on how to extend your network.

4 Look after Your Body

If you are out of shape and live on a diet of pizza, consider changing your lifestyle. Physical fitness and good nutrition make you feel better and stay sharper. You will have more energy and be able to spend more quality time working on building your net worth.

Keeping fit and watching what you eat soon becomes a habit and can significantly cut your medical bills and even fast food spending. Once you start a routine, you will quickly get used to it. Start slowly—maybe a short walk after lunch. You will soon see the benefits.

3 Catch Some Serious ZZZs

Many successful people stick to a routine. And an important part of that routine is a regular sleeping pattern. Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist from UC Berkeley, said: “Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain. Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it.”

Like keeping fit, getting into the habit of regular sleep will make you feel more alert and healthier. You will feel better able to meet the challenges of the day and work more efficiently. Quality work can lead to improved earnings and a better net worth.

2 Plan, Plan, Plan

Another habit that successful people cultivate is planning. You don’t need to have every minute accounted for; you will need some flexibility. But you should have a rough idea of how to use your time. This will allow you time to make space for activities that may increase your net worth while spending less time on activities such as watching the latest must-see show on Netflix.

1 Debt Be Gone

The main drag on most people’s income is debt. The average household debt in the United States is around $165,000. For most people, this is a weight that seems to pull them backward, causes a lot of worries, and stops them from increasing their personal wealth.

Debt is a double-edged sword. It’s difficult to manage modern life without it. The problem is that many of us take out debt—usually on credit cards—to cover purchases we don’t need to make. Marketers spend a lot of time, money, and effort trying to persuade us that we don’t need to save. What we want, we can have now. It’s a trap that many of us fall into.

Our video gives us some ideas about how to cut our personal debts. Debts are expensive and should be cut whenever possible. We don’t like to think about our debts, but we should—they won’t go away of their own accord. If you are having trouble with personal debt, you can contact your local credit counseling organization for help and advice or visit the website www.debt.org.

Mankind has been looking for ways to improve their sex lives for about as long as they’ve had sex lives. The history of aphrodisiacs goes back thousands of years and every ancient culture had its preferences. Oysters, chocolate, strawberries, the horn of some random animal; you name it, people have tried it. But there is some science involved here, too. Some things really do offer a boost, even if it doesn’t work for humans, or it’s not even intentional.

10. UV Light

UV rays from the sun are dangerous and can cause cancer, so we’ve all been told for years to wear sunscreen. Research in 2021 put our need to protect ourselves from those harmful rays in jeopardy when it came to light that they also do a good job of boosting the libido of both men and women.

Ultraviolet radiation affects the human endocrine system, which in turn is responsible for the production of sex hormones. It increases testosterone in males but the effect on females is profound as well. When test subjects were exposed to UVB radiation, they noted an increase in sex drive across the board, as well as increased male aggression. 

The exact way UV rays cause your endocrine system to increase the production of sex hormones is not known. Women who are exposed become more receptive towards males and their attractiveness is rated as having increased. It also increases the estrus phase and even follicle growth. 

9. Cotton and Wool Pants Increased the Sex Drive of Rats

You may have heard that, as a man, you can make some wardrobe changes if you want to potentially increase your fertility when you’re trying to have a child. Boxer shorts apparently keep your undercarriage at a more reasonable temperature, thus potentially raising your sperm count compared to if you wore briefs. But is that all clothing can do for you? The answer is no. At least not if you’re a rat.

Lab experiments have shown that if you put little pants on rats, you can increase their sex drive while also establishing the plot for what would surely be a hilarious YouTube video. Specifically, the pants need to be wool or cotton. Polyester pants will have the opposite effect. 

The hard-hitting research deduced that the reason for this change in behavior is potentially rooted in the fact that rats wearing polyester pants seemed to generate more static electricity which was likely interfering with their genitals.A charge was actually measured in the rat’s genitals But the rats in cotton and wool pants suffered no such effects and, in fact, had increased urges compared to pre-pants levels. 

8. There’s a Cricket Aphrodisiac Virus

In what sounds like it somewhat borrows the plot of the movie It Follows, there is a virus out in the world that has, as a side effect, increased libido. Those afflicted become more sexually active and more promiscuous which is a benefit to the virus itself since it transmits through sexual contact. They have more sex with more partners and the virus spreads further and further, reproducing and growing as it goes.

Luckily for us, the virus is not one that affects humans. Instead, it’s a cricket virus. It may sound not entirely terrible at first, but you should also know that the virus, known as iridovirus, turns the insides of the crickets blue and will kill them within a few weeks of infection. So while it seems like there may be an initial upside, it’s definitely not worth it in the long run. 

The virus itself has been known for years, and the fact that it caused the cricket’s internal organs to swell until they died was well established. But it wasn’t until 2014 that a researcher noticed an observable increase in sexual activity among the doomed insects and put two and two together. The infected males initiated a mating song more than three times faster than normal once infected. Maybe they knew they were on a clock.

7. A Sonic Boom Caused Crocodiles To Initiate Early Mating

When an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, it creates a sonic boom, that loud explosion of sound the moment the plane is suddenly faster than the very sound it produces. It’s a cool phenomenon and you can see all kinds of videos of it on YouTube. For most of us that sound is nothing more than an interesting scientific curiosity. But if you’re a crocodile, it may be a lot more.

Back in 2010, there were reports that Israeli fighter jets creating sonic booms had caused some havoc on a local crocodile farm. The owner of the farm observed male crocodiles attempting to initiate the mating season earlier than usual which he attributed to the noises. It was his belief that the sonic boom was similar enough to the loud and somewhat terrifying mating calls of the crocodiles that they had mistaken it for other males encroaching on their territory. With 100 crocodiles at the farm, this likely caused quite a disturbing scene. 

6. O-Shots and P-Shots Inject a Patient’s Own Blood Into Their Genitals

If you’ve never heard of an O-Shot, you can at least take some educated guesses based on what you’ve already heard on the list regarding what it might mean. Touted as something of a female equivalent to Viagra, the O-Shot is a libido booster for women that has been around for a number of years now though it seems to have fallen by the wayside in the last half decade. 

Back in 2014 it was still in clinical trials and promised to intensify all aspects of sexual experience for women from libido to arousal to orgasm. The procedure involved taking the woman’s own blood and then separating the cells from the plasma. Platelets were isolated, purified and concentrated, then re-injected into the genitals where they would begin working immediately.

A similar procedure, called the P-Shot, has been performed more recently on men with claims it shows benefits over a 6 month period. In this case it’s just said to treat erectile dysfunction rather than necessarily boost libido. However, it is being marketed as increasing sensation and restoring confidence and intimacy. 

The results of the O-Shot, which you can have done at various clinics and spas even today, have been questioned by medical experts. 

5. Tiramisu was Invented In Italian Brothels to Motivate Clients

If you’re a fan of Italian cuisine or desserts in general then you’ve probably enjoyed tiramisu at least once in your life. The dessert is traditionally made with coffee-dipped ladyfingers,a whipped, sweet layer of mascarpone cheese, and cocoa powder. You can use sponge cake instead of ladyfingers and sometimes coffee liqueur is used. A well made tiramisu can be quite tasty and, as it happens, it was meant to make you feel pretty sexy as well. 

While determining the origins of some foods is difficult, this is not the case with tiramisu. It can be traced right back to Italian brothels in Treviso where it was served to clients to give them a little pick me up during their sessions. The name literally translates to “pull me up” or “pull it up” so take from that what you will. 

Given that the dessert was made with generous amounts of sugar and alcohol, you can imagine how it might serve to give a boost to brothel patrons who needed both real energy and perhaps a shot of liquid courage to keep themselves motivated. The women would have liked it as well since customers who stay around longer are going to have to pay more. 

4. Some Parkinson’s Treatments Can Cause Hypersexuality

Have you ever seen a commercial for medication and noticed that part where they list the side effects? Most medications have pretty standard side effects. Some can get very serious. And a few are just really weird, like the increased urge to gamble. This is usually associated with drugs called dopamine agonists, which are used to treat things like Parkinson’s Disease. 

Along with gambling and compulsive shopping, hypersexuality is another side effect of these drugs that some patients may experience. It’s been estimated that it affects 2.5% to 3.5% of patients but the number may be higher due to people not wanting to report it. 

All of these side effects are related to impulse control which is altered as a result of how the drugs can interact with certain patients’ brain chemistry. Because of this, patients need to be monitored closely by their doctors and treatments may need to be altered.

3. An Appetite Hormone Increases Sex Drive in Mice

Right now in your stomach you have a hormone called ghrelin. It’s mostly known for increasing your appetite and letting your brain know you’re hungry. It also regulates caloric intake and body fat.  And it will also increase the sex drive in mice. 

Though the research wasn’t able to indicate whether the effect was the same on humans, the idea was that the hormone has an effect on your brain’s reward centers. You feel hungry and you eat and it’s like a little reward for your brain. Sex kind of works the same way and the hormone stimulates the brains of mice accordingly. 

When given a supplement of the hormone, mice put more effort into finding a partner and increasing their sexual activity. In female mice it was shown to increase the number of times the mice had sex as well as how long the act lasted. 

The hope for the tests was that, if the same effect is observed in humans, treatments for issues like sex addiction could be devised as a result.

2. Nerve Damage Can Lead to Never-Ending Sexual Arousal

The human body is a curious and confusing thing sometimes. How everything connects and works can be thrown right off thanks to a single accident. Then you end up like Joleen Baughman who was in a car accident, damaged a nerve in her pelvis, and ended up with persistent sexual arousal syndrome. 

While it sounds like a punchline, the reality of the condition is actually pretty horrifying. The sensation is never ending. That means Baughman was never able to relieve the feeling and was dealing with swelling that never subsided and constant pain because she was sensitive to any stimulation. Medication proved unable to offer any kind of relief and giving in to the urges and having sex made it feel even worse. 

1. Rabies Can Cause Hypersexuality

Rabies is not a pleasant disease. Most of us know it only as a disease that affects animals and makes them froth at the mouth and act crazy. Take it a step further and maybe it’s the basis for a horror movie like Cujo. But real life rabies is pretty terrifying, and it needs to be treated quickly. According to the CDC, once clinical signs of the disease appear it’s almost always fatal. 

While common symptoms include confusion, agitation, hallucinations and delirium, there are less common symptoms as well. One of those is an increased sex drive.

In one case, a woman bitten by a dog developed an increased libido that lasted for three days but no other symptoms at all. Shortly after her symptoms included hydrophobia which contributed to her death within seven days. 

Fifty-five cases have been recorded since 1970 and almost all of them have affected men. Men tended to suffer from different sexual symptoms while hypersexuality was the main sexual side effect in the few women studied. None of the victims received necessary treatment and they all died within one to 15 days.