Make Financial Improvement Part Of Your New Year’s Resolutions
INDIANA — Have you made some New Year’s resolutions as we enter 2017? Among the most popular are those focused on personal finances. The problem is that so many of us embark with the greatest of intentions, but too many of us find they are too hard to keep.
However, if you work hard to achieve the resolutions you have set about your finances, you stand a good chance of improving your money situation, Brandon Yoder, vice president of retail operations at Interra Credit Union, Goshen, said. “Efforts you make to enhance your financial well-being can be good for your general attitude and outlook,” he added.
Here are some tips financial experts suggest for setting your resolutions and helping make sure they become your reality:
- Set specific goals. A general goal would be, “I’m going to reduce my debt this year.” Instead, consider something more specific, like paying off the credit card with the highest rate, or at least pay it down by a specific amount or percentage.
- Make realistic and attainable goals, instead of focusing on an ambiguous goal that may be out of reach. For example, if you have $10,000 in credit card debt, is it realistic to set up a plan to pay off $5,000 this year? It’s important to be honest with yourself so you make resolutions that may stretch you, Yoder noted, but also that you can realistically achieve.
- If applicable, get your family or significant other involved. Why? First, you can have shared ownership and accountability. The adjustments needed to achieve your goals affect the household.
- What are your financial stressors? Are you worried that you don’t have an adequate emergency fund or that you have too much credit card debt. Or are you concerned about not saving enough for retirement or to help pay for a college education? Maybe that’s the place you should start to set an attainable goal, even with small steps in 2017.
- Consider your financial affairs as part of your resolution. Are your affairs in order? Do you have the right beneficiaries on your life insurance policies, retirement accounts and your assets? Is your will up to date?
- Use available resources to help you know where you are financially and to learn about where you want to be. It starts with your credit report and your credit score. You can get a free annual copy of your credit card from the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) by going to annualcreditreport.com.
“You can find valuable financial resources from a variety of sources,” Yoder pointed out. “For example, Interra’s website offers a variety of personal financial resources and calculators,” he said.
At the end of the year, take some time to review your goals and achievements. If you’ve stayed on track, you deserve to pause and reward yourself.