New years’ is just around the corner. And along with it, a flood of new years’ resolutions about finances. People around the world will make resolutions to make more money, save more money, and just improve their finances in general. Something like 45% will fail within 6 weeks. Within 6 months, a majority will have failed. They’ll have failed because they’ve given up. They’ll have given up because they didn’t take action (or enough action) to make the change that they were seeking.
In short, they are waiting on their finances to change. Somethings are worth waiting for. Red lights, for instance will change if you only wait long enough. The weather, if you wait long enough is likely to change as well. But, your finances aren’t going to change if you only wait on them to. If you want them to change, you’ve got to make a directed effort to change them.
If you’re planning on making a resolution this year, and it doesn’t have to be directly related to finances, make one additional resolution. The resolution to make an effort to fulfill your resolutions! Make changes, learn about the steps you need to take to get things moving in the direction you want them to go. Stop sitting around and waiting on your finances to change for you. You change them!
Sites like this one are chock full of information on improving your finances. For most sites, you can easily subscribe to email updates. Here, you can simply enter your email address in the box under “Subscribe” in the top of the sidebar and click on the “Subscribe” button.
Here’s a few posts to get you started. (hint: you don’t have to wait until new years to start making changes to change your finances)
Got debt? Get the debt repayment moving with a Debt Avalanche!
Once you get the debt repayment moving, you’ve got to stay gazelle intense!
Debt gone? First, congratulations! Now, get your money working for you. Perhaps investing in something like a Lending Club account?
Whatever you decide to change this year, make your resolution a true resolution and keep going with it. If you’re still going strong on it at 6 months, you’ve already done better than the majority of your resolution-making peers!
Will you be making resolutions this year? Have you in the past? And did you stick with them?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
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“Red lights, for instance will change if you only wait long enough.” – you’re lying!
What’s the resolution break rate for fitness? 99%?
I have not made resolutions in the past but lately I have been on the kick to paying down our cc debt…I think I may make one this year that revolves around that…it feels nice seeing those balances going down…esp around the holidays.
I’m debating whether or not to make resolutions but I might actually make some goals, not resolutions this year.
I make annual goals and then break them down into monthly goals. For instance, I wanted to grow my net worth 25% so I made it a goal to raise it by 2% per month. I think that we start out the year with resolutions (or goals) and fail because some of them are very big and we don’t see the change as quickly as we would like. I suggest breaking them into smaller goals to keep your motivation up.
Every time I put a list or resolutions together, they lose ( or I lose) steam for me by the end of January. Maybe I need to set more precise goals and not so general in nature.