The Key To Keeping Your New Year's Resolution
So You Made a New Years Resolution? Did You Include This?
After 1 month
45% of resolvers have given up.
Roughly 40% of Americans made a New Year’s Resolution on January 1st. And for good reason. We thrive as a society, because we constantly work to improve ourselves. The most common resolutions are around:
Weight loss/working out
Finance: Better money management and debt reduction
Stopping Bad habits: drinking/smoking
after 6 months
65% of resolvers have given up.
Here’s a common Resolution many of us can relate to
You are busy with work and family, booked from dawn to dusk. When you get home from work, its late, and you are tired, so you go out or order take out for dinner. It becomes a habit. As result, both your budget and weight become a concern. So you make a New Years resolution to make dinner 3 days a week. Its a good goal!
What’s Missing from this goal
What’s missing from this goal, is “how” are you going to go about it. If you want to add something to your busy schedule you have to remove something else. It’s why many people don’t stick to their resolution. They resolve to do something, without resolving NOT to do something else.
There’s a reason in this scenario that you started ordering out. You were too tired to cook. So you have to free up time so you get home earlier 3 days a week and aren’t too tired to cook dinner or plan a way to prepare dinner before you walk in the door tired and hungry.
My Recommended Resolution: Budgeting
If you are open to a resolution, I highly recommend budgeting: create and stick to a budget. If you and your family want financial security, following a budget is the answer. I assure you, it is going to take some time. Whether you use an app on your phone and check in each morning over coffee, or if you do a weekly audit on Sunday mornings before church, using a sophisticated tool … you will need to add the time to your schedule. There is no way to “carve out” extra time, you must decide to STOP doing something else, so that you can spend time budgeting. So, ask yourself, if you are resolving to make and stick to a budget … what are you giving up, so that you can spend time on something more valuable?
Want to be in the successful 35% that keep their resolution?
Are you busy and need someone to help you with your finances? Contact me whether you need a realistic budget, a financial plan, help getting out of debt or a financial advisor that you can trust to manage your investment portfolio and keep you informed and in control, I can help you.