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Top Tips to Keep Your Financial New Year’s Resolutions
If you are like me, it is easy to set a bunch of new year’s resolutions for the new year, only to struggle to keep them until the end of January. Did you know that making New Year’s resolutions possibly started 4,000 years ago by the ancient Babylonians? And I bet they didn’t do a good job of keeping their resolutions either. In fact, I saw a t-shirt that said, “My new year’s resolution is to do last year’s resolution, which was also the previous year’s resolution. Today, I’d like to share with you a resource that should help you as you consider making your New Year’s resolutions. Though the following video was created last year, the truths mentioned are still true.
New Year’s Resolution Facts
This is the time of year where most people make New Year’s Resolutions. According to the University of Scranton, only 8% of those who make New Year’s resolutions actually keep them. In fact, research conducted by Strava using over 800 million user-logged activities in 2019 predicts the day most people are likely to give up on their New Year’s Resolution is January 19. Well that’s depressing. Wouldn’t it be better to just not have resolutions, that way there isn’t the associated guilt of not keeping them?
As Zig Ziglar says, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
I’ve found that one of the best ways to meet your financial goals is to break them down into smaller chunks.
I tend to start with writing down annual goals (including some stretch goals) that are a little beyond my reach.
Let’s say you want to pay off a $50,000 loan next year, you can break that down into quarters, months, and even paychecks. Remember, there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.
Intelligent Investing believes in minimizing financial stress to maximize your lives. We created this financial freedom plan that includes monthly tasks as well as things to consider buying and things to avoid buying each month.
For example, the Financial Freedom calendar suggests that in January you should consider automation. Recently, I decided to automate all my bills to be paid and I can already tell you that the stress has been reduced instead of wondering, did I already pay that bill? When is that one due?
We love organizing our clients’ “financial junk drawers” and would love to organize yours as well. Feel free to share this Financial Freedom Plan with others.
A Resolution You Can Keep
One last resolution to consider…becoming more financially educated. You can start by simply subscribing to our Intelligent Insights Newsletter. You can also subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.
If you are ready to get some accountability partner and are looking for a new financial advisor, we’d love to have a complimentary call or coffee with you. Click here to get started.
