Realistic Financial Goals to Add to Your New Year's Resolution

We’ve all been here before. The New Year approaches, you set your goals, and then have a hard time keeping them throughout the year. Why does that happen? A big factor might be the way you set those goals in the first place. To achieve more success, keep these tips in mind when setting your financial goals for 2020.

Make your goals realistic

We’re all for setting high expectations, but you don’t want to set them so high that you won’t be able to achieve them by the end of the year. Doing this can discourage you from achieving the rest of your goals and end up harming your financial health more than helping it. To make realistic goals for yourself, look at your financials over the previous years. Notice trends in your saving or spending and set your goals while keeping that information in mind. If you have been able to consistently put away $4,000 every year, it might be achievable and valuable to aim for $5,000. USMFCU would be happy to help you find your old account statements. Other options to save money are placing your money into an account with higher dividend rates, increasing retirement contributions and saving your tax refunds. See more tips on how to save here.

Set Specific Goals

When you set your goals, you want to make sure that you can easily define success for them. It’s hard to do this when your resolution is something vague like “save more money” or “make more investments”. It’s much more efficient to spell out exactly what you want to do. For example, challenge yourself to save $500 a month, or invest $3,000 in stocks by the end of 2020. Completing this step will ensure that you know exactly how you did with your goals by the beginning of 2021.

Include your family and friends

One of the best ways to encourage the completion of your resolutions is to include your loved ones. When people close to you hold you accountable for your plans (and vice versa), it will increase the likelihood that you will achieve them. Tell your loved ones about your goals and ask them to keep up with you about it. When you know that your sibling, cousin, or significant other are going to be asking you about your progress, you’ll be much more inclined to achieve your goals!

USMFCU offers free financial advice for members. Call 586-756-3300 and we’d love to help you achieve your resolutions in 2020!

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