Your credit line(s) and/or bank account(s) may not have recovered from the haze of holiday shopping but that's what setting a New Year resolution is all about! Right?! This is the year you're going to get out of debt! This is the year things turn around!
That's fantastic, but not so fast.
I know how this works. We're all going to save more. For retirement. From each paycheck. At the end of each month. We'll spend less too, but only after so-and-so's birthday. Or best friend's wedding. Or after replacing yet another car tire. And while we're on it, we're going to exercise every day without fail, every other day, every other week, when nothing good is on tv, etc. C'mon! I'm the queen of that kind of talk, so I know. And it's okay.
There's always room for improvement. Setting goals then working toward them is admirable. However, it's easy to get derailed before even having a chance to begin. My New Year's Challenge to you is to set your goals and work admirably toward them, but do so by using resources you already have, free of charge or currently owned without buying anything new.
Some examples:
Don't get sucked into that new gym membership until you've used a friend's free guest pass a few times and you've worked it into your budget. If willing to go for it, cut something else back from your monthly expenses to balance it out.
By all means, eat healthier. If you use coupons, buy seasonally (and pre-cut/frozen), shop by unit price, and look for local deals you can make it work. Tally up how much you spend on not-so-good-for-you food each week and there is your new allocation for more nutritious items. Crunch the numbers before heading out to the grocery store with a whole new list of things to buy.
My financial goals for this year...
That's fantastic, but not so fast.
I know how this works. We're all going to save more. For retirement. From each paycheck. At the end of each month. We'll spend less too, but only after so-and-so's birthday. Or best friend's wedding. Or after replacing yet another car tire. And while we're on it, we're going to exercise every day without fail, every other day, every other week, when nothing good is on tv, etc. C'mon! I'm the queen of that kind of talk, so I know. And it's okay.
There's always room for improvement. Setting goals then working toward them is admirable. However, it's easy to get derailed before even having a chance to begin. My New Year's Challenge to you is to set your goals and work admirably toward them, but do so by using resources you already have, free of charge or currently owned without buying anything new.
Some examples:
Don't get sucked into that new gym membership until you've used a friend's free guest pass a few times and you've worked it into your budget. If willing to go for it, cut something else back from your monthly expenses to balance it out.
By all means, eat healthier. If you use coupons, buy seasonally (and pre-cut/frozen), shop by unit price, and look for local deals you can make it work. Tally up how much you spend on not-so-good-for-you food each week and there is your new allocation for more nutritious items. Crunch the numbers before heading out to the grocery store with a whole new list of things to buy.
My financial goals for this year...
