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FINANCIAL NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

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Financial New Years Resolutions

Writing New Year Goals

Writing New Year's Resolutions

Written by moneysupermarket.com

It’s that time of year when everybody starts thinking about 2011 and I’m sure we’re all hoping for a fantastic year, but nobody knows what surprises lay just around the corner, only time will tell. The beginning of a new year means a new fresh start, and with this new start many people like to set new years resolutions. If there’s any of you that don’t know, a new years resolution is a sort of commitment, where you can set yourself a set of goals that you would like to achieve in the new year.

I read a recent article that said around 50% of people are confident that they will achieve their new years resolutions when they set them, however only 12% actually achieve what they set out to do. Bearing these figures in mind, I thought I would set myself a challenge to actually commit to my objectives this year so that I can join the 12%.Combining new years resolutions with my interest in finance I thought I would detail some key areas where I will be focussing my goals in 2011.

My budget

A budget is one of the most important financial tools when looking after your finances. If you have an effective budget that does what it’s supposed to, then that’s the first step to controlling your finances and not letting your finances control you.  The basic principle of budgeting is to identify where your money is being spent, and to do this effectively you have to be thorough to identify all your expenditure. For a budget to be successful, set yourself some small and simple steps until you understand the basic principle, then you can build your budget so that it’s a more robust financial tool.

My debt

A friend of mine said to me that getting into debt is so much easier than getting out of it and boy was he right! When your goals are financially motivated and you have debts that are costing you money, tackling these debts should be your immediate focus. If your level of debt is quite low then look at setting up a debt repayment plan for the new year and make sure you tackle any high interest debts first as they will be the most damaging. Paying back whatever debts you may have will also improve your personal credit score which is an added bonus.

My savings

Before you think about saving money, you should ensure that your debts are paid off first. Once your finances are at a level you are happy with, then you can look at starting to save. Make sure that when you want to save you have the best savings account to do so. If you live in the US then the Lifetime Savings Account offers great rewards on your spending, and the equivalent for people in the UK is a cash-ISA account, before you commit you should do your research and find out what the best option is for you.

Throughout the year, it’s important to ensure that you remain positive when trying to achieve your goals. I will do this by evaluating my progress from time to time, and by braking up my goals into more short term and long term aims. It’s a great way to remain focused.

Holistic Approach to New Year Resolutions

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I admit it, I failed on most of my New Year Resolutions!

I started out strong, but then ran out of motivation.  2010, while a good year financially for me, was a bad year on a developmental level.

That’s why I decided to buck the trend of stating a defined list of resolutions and instead go for a more Holistic Approach to my New Year goals.

Before I go to explain what I mean by taking a holistic approach to my New Year goals, let me review the results of my 2010 Resolutions:

  1. Losing Weight While Saving Money  – While I didn’t get bigger, I also didn’t lose the desired weight.  So I stalled on this particular goal.  This was my biggest disappointment!
  2. Stop Being a Pack Rat – This resolution I was able to conquer!  This is the only resolution that I was able to beat!
  3. Maximizing Who I Am – This is my biggest defeat.  I didn’t maximize who I am at all!

So in conclusion, in 2010 I started with high expectations, but I ended up disappointed.

A brand new plan, the Holistic Approach:

By Holistic Approach, I basically mean that I’m not going to compartmentalize my life into individual buckets!  Instead I’m going to create everything as just a typical part of the process, and consider everything as a entire system.  That way I just don’t do well in one area while neglecting the other areas.

Next, I will try to optimize the process so that it can be accomplished and in such a way that it’s bearable or at least tolerable.

So for example, I really don’t like the previous resolution of “Losing weight”.  So I will enhance my experience by listening to  a song that will get me pumped up and make me want to work out!, or workout with friends, or maybe my kids…

A bonus is that I have every trick and can use new ideas  to accomplish goals at my disposal!

I admit, I’m kind of winging it here, this will be an entirely new way to approach my goals.  This will be a lifestyle change for me, or at least I believe that it will!

-MR

If you are interested in seeing a more traditional and enumerated New Year’s Resolutions, check out the list at the Financial Samurai’s site called Financial Samurai Goals And Resolutions for 2011.  It’s very impressive!

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2010 Resolution #3, Maximizing Who I Am

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My last resolution is more of a stretch goal, and it won’t be easy…

What do I mean by “Maximizing Who I Am”?

My stretch goal

 

Ever since graduating from college, I started wondered what I would be like if I ate the perfect foods, slept and exercised the perfect amounts, developed my brain in a perfect way, etc.  I wondered what I would be like… would I be a few inches taller?  Would I be smarter than I am now, perhaps a little better looking too…  How different would the perfect version of me be?

It would be very fascinating to know!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not faulting anybody (especially myself) for not being perfect.  After all, to be raised perfectly and do everything perfectly is practically impossible.  But what if I start trying for that elusive goal?  What would happen…?

Well, that’s what my final 2010 goal will be.  I’m going to try and maximize who and what I am.  I hope I finally be able to grow those few extra inches that I’m missing!  Okay, so that won’t happen, but perhaps I can improve other things to almost the perfect level…  That’s what I mean when I say “Maximizing Who I Am“, I can’t be the perfect me, but I can strive to be the best I can be.

This goal actually ties back into my first two goals, both are necessary steps to “Maximizing Who I Am”.

  1. 2010 Resolution #1, Losing Weight While Saving Money and
  2. 2010 Resolution #2, Stop Being a Pack Rat

What areas do I need to work at to be a better me?

  • Exercise.  Both aerobic and anaerobic.
  • Sleeping the proper amount of time.  I’ve been a “Night Owl” ever since my college days.
  • Organization Skills.  I’ll use a Planner, tasksheets, spreadsheets and calender programs.
  • Challenging my mental processes (reading, experiments, blogging, games, etc)
  • Spending more quality time with my Kids, and with patience!
  • Working more Effectively at whatever I’m doing (this could be when I’m at work, or at home).
  • Be more Sociable with my friends, neighbors, and countrymen (joking on that last one, although I could say community and that would be fair game).
  • Develop a greater sense of Humor.  Both laughing and making witty jokes (at least I hope they’ll be witty).
  • And lastly, Making Better use of my Time!  This would be the Carpe Diem thing…

How do I go about measuring these areas?

Well, that is a mixed bag!  I plan on measuring my weight loss and exercise routine in spreadsheets.  But how do I measure the other pieces of the puzzle I listed above?  Well, I’m thinking of keeping an written Daily Journal, then post my progress once a month on this blog.  During the post, this will force me to reviewing my performance to see if I’m accomplishing these personal mini goals or not.

And there you have it!  My New Year 2010 Resolution Goals are finally listed (I’m hearing the “Mission Impossible” theme song as I’m typing).

Let get it ON! 🙂

2010 Resolution #2, Stop Being a Pack Rat

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No, my house and car isn’t stuff full of junk.  I don’t have multiple cars on blocks in my driveway or backyard.  But I am a mild packrat…

Not my car!!!

I need to get rid of the following things or at least manage them better:

  • Stacks of unread magazines in my office.  I know that I won’t read 80% of them, and yet there they sit on my table taking up space.
  • Another one of my weaknesses is saving mail that isn’t critical, especially credit card mail.
  • My garage isn’t optimized either.  While this isn’t a big deal, it’s something that has annoyed me for way to long.  While there is a semblance of order, there’s a table way back in the corner of my garage that shouldn’t be there.  It has stuff stacked on it that I no longer remember what they are.  In my garage, I do have shelves with things organized on them, so my garage is somewhat organized, but it’s not the best it could be.
  • A Snowball of collected things during my life is clustered in a small portion of the basement.  I’ll never looks at some of this stuff again, if I don’t clear it out.  I can probably sell some of the stuff on ebay.
  • Saved emails. This is truly one of my worst areas.  I save my emails thinking that I’ll need them someday at work (and occassionally I do need them).  What I need to do is purge the junk and keep the potential important emails.
  • Old clothes that are in bad shape or slightly ripped. The logic here is I can use the ripped clothes for rags or work clothes.  And I do use my old clothes that way, but I don’t think I need such a stock pile.  This might be me being frugal though.  I’m on the fence about this one.

While this isn’t a huge problem for me, it would still be a nice area for me to conquer.

How am I going to accomplish this goal?

  • Each day I’m going to allocate 15 minutes a day to throw away the junk in my packrat areas.
  • Once I get through my packrat areas, I’m going to throw away useless items when I first receive them.  Ex.) Free Magazine subscription and credit card offers that I don’t read.
  • I’ll deciding what I keep or throw away by asking “Will I use this (whatever… mail, magazine, etc) in the next week, month, year.  If “No” to all 3, then pitch it.

As long as I do the three steps identified above, this should be the easiest goal to accomplish.

Are you a packrat in some way or another?

If not, then what techniques do you use to avoid the packrat life?