I usually don’t like resolutions or don’t like to make any resolutions. I work on goals and objections every day or month. I feel resolutions are just way to give excuse to yourself unless you really follow through and make it happen. I believe in KISS, “Keep it Simple, Sincere”. That’s right not Keep it simple stupid. It’s just creating simple goals and objectives with periodic milestones would help you get things accomplished easily compared to Resolutions. Being said, many people believe in New year resolutions and I just came across set of 15 resolutions published by WalletHub. Here are some for you to check it out,
Get Reacquainted with Your Finances: The first step toward financial improvement is to get the lay of the land. That means checking the status of all your financial accounts, taking stock of your assets and debts, and evaluating your monthly cash flow. This will enable you to identify particular areas that warrant improvement as well as evaluate if upgrading an account would be beneficial.
Not only are your financial needs bound to change from year to year, but there are also a number of interesting market developments that you would do well to take advantage of. For example, credit card companies are offering extremely lucrative sign-up perks – such as a $400 statement credit or 0% for 18 months – to new customers with above average credit standing. Online-only bank accounts now offer vastly superior terms to branch-based accounts as well, and you can save a lot of money by refinancing your mortgage in the current low-rate environment.
Make a Budget: Only 39% of adults have a budget, according to survey data from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which makes the fact that we are on pace to rack up at least $60 billion in credit card debt in 2014 and likely another $70 billion in 2015 a bit less surprising. Those statistics make the need to create and maintain a budget seem a bit more pressing, though, especially since we’ll be putting ourselves at risk of another recession if we keep overleveraging at this pace.
The best way to make a budget is to gather together all of your bills from the past few months and then make a list of your recurring expenses in order of importance – with true necessities like housing, food and healthcare obviously taking precedence. You can then compare the cost of these expenses against your monthly take-home and eliminate any outlays that would outpace your spending power. After that, just make sure to compare your ensuing monthly spending to your planned budget to make sure you’re abiding by it.
Implement the Island Approach: The Island Approach is a personal finance technique based on the theory of compartmentalization that encourages consumers to isolate different financial needs on different financial products – as if they are a chain of related islands. For example, this might entail getting one credit card for everyday purchases that you can pay off in full by the end of the month and another for revolving debt.
Doing so will enable you to get the best possible terms on each card (i.e. a great rewards earning rate on your everyday card and an extended 0% term on your debt card) rather than compromising for middling terms on a single card. It will also help you reduce the cost of your debt, since everyday purchases won’t be inflating your average daily balance, and garner valuable perspective on your finances – if you ever incur interest on your everyday card, you’ll know you spent too much that month.
Automate as Much as Possible: One of the most easily avoidable mistakes that people make in regards to their finances is missing due dates. Often due to pure forgetfulness, tardiness can have serious ramifications on your financial life – such as missed credit card payments fostering credit score damage.
Luckily, avoiding such a negative event is as simple as setting up recurring monthly payments from a checking account. You can do so for your full balance, the minimum amount required or a customized amount, and this applies to a variety of different types of bills – from credit cards to cable. Of course, you’ll have to remember to review your monthly statements in order to avoid being overcharged or missing a sign of fraud, but you’re not on the clock for that like you would be with payment.
Build an Emergency Fund: Roughly 56% of Americans do not have a rainy day fund, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s National Financial Capability Study. Like someone without insurance, folks who lack an emergency fund are merely tempting fate and putting themselves at risk of financial catastrophe in the event of prolonged job loss or significant emergency expenses. Building up some monetary reserves should therefore be one of the first orders of business for any financial makeover.
While we recommend ultimately building a fund with about 12-18 months’ take-home income, it’s important to understand that won’t happen overnight. As a result, you needn’t put the rest of your financial life on hold until your emergency fund is complete, but rather chip away at it over time. That is key because we actually recommend creating a 6-month safety net before beginning to even pay down your debts in earnest. Doing so will help ensure that you do not end up right back where you started upon finally reaching debt freedom.
I like the Island approach, emergency fund ideas which I always recommend to friends. Check out the remaining resolutions by visiting, wallethub.com
Happy New year every one!!!
July 28th, 2015 
Vijaianand 