How Are Your Financial Resolutions Going?
The beginning of the year always gets everyone so excited. Excited to read the entire bible, excited to lose weight, excited to make new friends, excited to travel more, and of course, the most common excitement comes from the opportunity to improve your finances. Paying down debt, increasing your savings accounts, and balancing your budget are all different financial New Year resolutions that many people have set this year, last year, and probably for all the years to come. So, as we wrap the last hours of the month of January, this question lingers, how are your financial resolutions going?
According to Discover Happy Habits, after just 1 month, only 64% of people are still successful in keeping it. So if the entire US population made a New Year's resolution, by today, 151,570,000 people have quit. If the entire world made a New Year’s resolution 3,634,000,000 people have bowed out gracefully as of 12:01 am. On the upside, if the entire US population made a New Year’s resolution, by today, 210,880,000 people are still eating healthy, going to the gym, and drinking water. If the entire world made a New Year’s resolution, 5,056,000,000 people would be keeping their therapy appointments, journaling every day, and keeping in constant contact with their family members.
So which end of the spectrum are you on when it comes to your finances? Of course, if you’ve stopped, I’m going to tell you to pick your good habits back up and if you are still going strong, I’m going to tell you to keep up the good work. All resolutions will be difficult to implement without consistency and discipline, and it is a daily choice to keep the commitment you made to yourself. A willing mindset (not positive, or negative, but willing) is the key to sticking all of your New Year’s resolutions including the financial ones.
This year, my financial New Year’s resolutions are to increase my quarterly dividends to double digits, save at least one of my husband’s biweekly paychecks in a month, and pay off our Toyota. In one month, I am not ashamed to say I have not yet made a sizeable contribution to my Robinhood account yet but I did reinvest some dividends, my savings goal was $400 short, and I did not make a double payment on our vehicle. Why am I not sad, disappointed, or ready to give up? I’ve made progress! Progress is not perfection and that’s what makes it so great! I have made small steps to get closer to these overall goals and those 12 inches (it’s 12 inches in a foot, stay with me here, foot, steps, get it, great) in forward progression are still better than none any day.
So if your financial goals include increasing corporate revenue, retiring early, or investing in real estate keep taking steps. Even if you take a break (which is completely understandable), clock back in and get back to work. Financial goals are important for setting up your future and even the future of your family and those in your sphere of influence. All of these people are waiting on you to become an even better version of yourself and teach them how to become financial gurus too (yes this message is for me too!) Improvement of individual financial literacy is the foundation of the economic development of communities.
Final thought: Think of each dollar you save like an ab crunch. Ab crunches are common and easy to form like just four quarters, ten dimes, twenty nickels, or one hundred pennies. One ab crunch won’t get you an immediate six pack but you can guarantee every six pack started with an ab crunch. One dollar won’t magically turn into one million dollars but each dollar you save or invest gets you that much closer to seven digits. So pick those weights up and build those financial muscles, we’ve got 11 more months to go!
Check in with me on social media and let me know how your financial resolutions are going! Let’s crush these goals together!