The single financial habit that has the highest leverage on lifetime wealth, in my experience: reviewing your expenses annually and eliminating spending that doesn't reflect your current values.

Not monthly tracking, which many people find exhausting. Annual review — once a year, look at every recurring charge and every major spending category from the past 12 months.

What I look for: subscriptions I forgot about, services I use but could replace cheaper, categories where spending grew year-over-year without a corresponding increase in satisfaction, and things I'm paying for out of habit or inertia rather than genuine appreciation.

This year's review caught: two subscriptions I'd forgotten about ($180/year combined), a streaming service I'd replaced with another ($120/year), and a gym membership I'd been ignoring in favor of running outside ($600/year).

Total annual savings: $900. Invested at 7% over 20 years, that's approximately $35,000. An annual process that takes 2 hours produces $35,000 in future wealth. Very few other uses of time offer comparable return.