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What are your financial resolutions for the new year? If you’re like many people, you intend to pay down debt, start that emergency fund, start investing, find a job that pays more or purchase that new home or car. Like any resolution we make at the start of the new year, they’re never easy to keep. Keeping a resolution takes hard work, discipline, and focus. Keeping a financial resolution takes all of that and then some.
Here are four sure ways to keep your financial new year resolutions:
1. Understand Your Why
First and foremost, understand why you’re working toward the goal. For you to want to stay disciplined in the cause, the goal has to mean something to you. So, be very selective about the goals you decide to take into the new year. Your resolution should be something that motivates you to want to stay focused. If there’s no driving motivator for why you’re reaching a goal, then it won’t matter to you if you never fulfill it.
For instance, if you already have an emergency fund and money left at the end of the month for additional comforts as you like, then you really won’t feel the pinch if you don’t find a higher-paying job because all of your needs and wants are currently being met. But, if you have zero savings and are constantly relying on credit cards to get you through the month, you’re going to search every job site possible, trying to find a job that pays more because you know you’re slowly getting deeper into debt. If you don’t have a higher-paying job by the end of the year, your life will be a mess. Given that, you’re fully motivated to seek your teeth into finding a new line of work.
2. Find an Accountability Partner
Accountability partners are great for holding each other accountable. Also, if you’ve verbally stated your financial resolutions for the new year, you’ve got people watching and waiting to see you hit your mark.
Knowing that people are either watching to see if you succeed or holding their breath to see your downfall makes all the difference in the world. You can’t quit now! You must go full speed ahead to either show the naysayers that you’ve got this or not disappoint those who believe in you. Either way, you’re fully motivated now to win.
3. Monitor Your Credit
Keeping an eye on your credit score can play a major part in reaching your financial resolutions. If more purchasing power is what you’ll need in the new year, you’ll want to build up your credit score and keep a watchful eye on it. Request free credit reports from each of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion) always to know where your credit stands. Monitoring your credit regularly also lets you know if you’ve been a victim of identity theft or fraud. Many people’s financial lives have been ruined due to the fraudulent and selfish tactics of others. Knowing what’s in your credit report gives you power over your credit.
4. Start Budgeting
At some point, you have to know that your finances won’t begin to take a positive turn until you apply common practices to improve your financial life. One of the best-known practices for this is budgeting. When you build budgeting into your routine, you’ll better understand your financial well-being. Budgeting doesn’t have to be a dreadful task; there are many apps to choose from that will help you keep track of your expenses and monitor them against how much income you actually have coming in.
Manage Your Money Better
Many people have no idea where their money is going. Budgeting allows you to see how you’re spending your money, which opens up strategic thoughts on reprioritizing your spending or cutting back on areas that make sense.
Managing your money correctly empowers you to save more, spend less, and keeps you in control. Here’s how:
Stop Paying for Things You No Longer Need
Rocket Money is a great option to help you manage all of your paid subscriptions. It can be extremely difficult for some of us to keep up with it all. We forget when trials end and are left paying a monthly fee for years at a time, or we willingly pay a monthly subscription fee for a service we no longer need. While one monthly fee may not seem like a lot, these fees add up over time. And if you have multiple subscriptions that you shouldn’t be paying, it could cost you a financial resolution.
Rocket Money helps by:
- Allowing you to view them all at once to see what you’re paying every month
- Knowing what’s due to pay on time, thereby avoiding late fees and overdraft fees
- Canceling unwanted or unneeded subscriptions for you. This saves you the hassle and time of having to do it yourself. These fees are now back in your wallet, freeing up additional money you can use toward your financial resolutions.
Get a Better Insight Into Your Spending
Rocket Money also gives you a breakdown of how you spend your money and provides recommendations for improvement. You’ll get notifications of upcoming events or circumstances that need your attention, so you’re never caught off guard.
- Identify categories where you spend most of your money
- Identify areas in which you may want to adjust your spending to increase your savings
- Notify you of upcoming charges or warn you when your balance is low to avoid overdraft and late fees
Rocket Money essentially has all the tools you need to reach your financial resolutions faster and effortlessly. In addition, it’s quick to get started (one minute), is FDIC-insured, and can make you a personal finance wizard who is always in control.
The Bottom Line
Keeping New Year’s resolutions is not easy. Most of us rarely meet our goals. We’ve given up before the end of the year’s first quarter. But when you make financial goals with a strong why, find someone to hold you accountable, monitor your credit, and budget regularly, you stand a good chance of not only keeping that financial goal but surpassing it. These tips are no one-and-done remedies; these are powerful practices that, if done regularly, can completely change your life for the better.
Read More: Need More Motivation? This Company Pays People to Lose Weight
