New Year’s Goals
The new year is almost upon us, and as tradition holds it is a good time to reflect on the past year, and plan for the coming year. Many of us right down a lengthy list of resolutions to make our lives better. Most of us do not hold to those resolutions through the month of January, and quickly slip back into our old routines.
Reflecting and making goals are valuable tools. Many of us fail to meet keep to our resolutions because our goals are too broad, and there are too many. This year, as you consider your financial life, put an action plan behind those broad goals.
Saving money and creating a small emergency fund is a worthwhile goal, but how will you get there? Decide how much you would like to save. If you have debt to pay off, many would recommend that your emergency fund stay small; one or two thousand dollars. Set an amount that you feel comfortable with.
How will you get there? Look at your spending. Where could you trim and save money? Could you make your coffee at home? Pack your lunch for work? Eat out less? Carpool? Decide where you are willing to trim the budget, how much it will save you, and purpose to do it. To be sure that the money gets to the savings account set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking to savings, or deposit a set amount yourself on payday.
Of course this is only one example, but the point is to put some meat on those New Year’s Goals. If you truly want to make changes in the coming year think carefully about your goals and make a plan that will help you meet them. If you have several changes in your financial life you’d like to make, I suggest implementing the changes one at a time. Making change gradually will help you make them a habit.