Forget New Years, Start Making Your Financial Resolutions Today
With less than six weeks until the end of the year, many people start planning to turn the page to the new year: vacations during winter break, planning holiday/new year’s parties, thinking about new year’s resolutions. It is the last item that deserves more careful consideration, specifically with resolutions revolving around finances. Many people make financial health a big part of their resolutions–paying down debt, starting a retirement fund, increasing savings, etc. With money and finances being such an important aspect of everyday life, maybe it is time to think about your money in just that way: every day.
Every day the state of the economy changes. Every day the state of peoples’ individual financial health changes. If you follow that line of thinking, then every day you should be making efforts to either maintain your financial position or to take steps to fix your financial position. Making a resolution one time at the beginning of the year is great because you are at least making some concerted effort, but too often the luster of such ideas wears off and people fall back into their poor habits, forgetting about their “resolutions”. Financial well-being is a step by step, one day at a time process. It takes determination and persistence especially in the beginning, but as time passes it gets easier until you get to the point where some tasks become second nature (transferring unspent cash into a high-yield savings, clipping coupons from the Sunday paper, funding a retirement account, etc.)
Make it easier on yourself, start today or at the exact moment that you have the realization that something is either working or not working for you. The saying “Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today” holds true especially when dealing with finances. Correct a problem today and you greatly reduce the chance that it will get bigger or reappear in the future. Continue on with a course of action that is working for you today, and it will become more routine and easier to follow going forward.
Don’t put off dealing with a situation, either good or bad, thinking that it will always be that good or that it will be better to start fresh with the new year or even the next new month that comes along. Problems don’t go away on their own, and the longer you wait to take corrective measures, the longer it will take and the more difficult it will become.
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November 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
This is an excellent post, Eric. One of the reasons I was unable to get out of debt for so long is that I kept putting it off until some mythical date in the future. That date would come, I’d fail to start, and then I’d wait for another date. The times I’ve been most successful — at money, fitness, anything — have come when I’ve just started now instead of waiting. I’m going to have to write about this. (I’ll be sure to link back here.)
November 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Thanks JD. I have been hearing so many people saying how they will quit smoking, go on a diet, be more prudent financially, etc. beginning on January 1 I kind of get tired of it. I always say that if you decide to do something now, you will be inclined to follow through rather than waiting for a future date and allowing for other things to interfere. You’re always welcome to take anything from my blog or my comments on yours to write about anytime!
December 4th, 2008 at 8:08 am
[...] Advisors presents Forget New Years, Start Making Your Financial Resolutions Today posted at Let’s Blog Money, saying, “With the new year just around the corner, people [...]