Let me tell you a little about Wonder Woman first if you are unfamiliar with her. Wonder Woman is a DC superheroine who is supposedly very strong and courageous, self-reliant, and a total role model type.
As the month that honors resolutions continue, it’s important to note that, to be as strong and self-reliant as Wonder Woman, we need to set some resolutions of our own and not the kind we make every year. For instance, my last year’s resolution was “I will stop eating junk food,” but I failed miserably. As a result, I decided to keep things basic and practical this year. Financial resolutions, for example, are something I would never break.
Financial goals are directly or indirectly interlinked to every other goal on our bucket list. Thus, financial resolutions are as real as it gets. Who doesn’t want to save more money?
Let’s get started with some financial new year’s resolutions that are practical and easy to achieve over time.
- Save more: Obviously, the most important financial resolution has to be “save more money”. There are practically infinite ways to go about this — you can start investing, or if you already do, you can increase it. Set up automatic transfers to a high-yield savings account and spend less, especially over the holidays.
- Improve/Initiate credit score: If your credit is below stellar (scores below 700), or if you don’t have any then consider making it a priority to improve or build it in 2022. Paying your bills on time and accurately (which might also entail setting up autopay), debt repayment, minimizing the number of accounts created, and limiting expenses are all ways to boost your credit score.
- Make a personal budget: A budget may seem restrictive to some, but tracking your expenditures may be helpful in understanding where your money’s going. A detailed budget helps you in determining how much you can afford to spend and where you can save money. By listing all of your fixed expenses, including rent/mortgage, phone bills, grocery, and investments, you can see how much money you have left over to spend on things like restaurants, clothing, and entertainment.
Steps to follow if you really wish to keep your resolutions:
#Step-1: Identify your driving force: We set resolutions at the start of the year because it seems like a good time to make a change. However, “It’s January 1st!” isn’t a strong enough reason to keep your financial resolutions. Instead, think about how this action will help your life in the long run and find what is motivating enough for you to keep going.
#Step-2: Strive for improvement: “Attain financial stability by the end of 2022” is a generic aim that doesn’t specify what you’ll need to do to get there. We don’t have any identifiers to indicate when we’ve completed a goal, track the improvements, or even identify what has changed. To make your resolution more effective, you must continue to evaluate yourself and your improvements (even if it is modest).
#Step-3: Get Rid of Your “All or Nothing” Mentality: Supposedly, inspiration turns into motivation, and motivation turns into action. When we expect ourselves to perform every action perfectly, every single time, it becomes a big challenge. Notions like “all or nothing”, “we’ve got to get it right, or we’re a failure”, are just stupid.
Written by: Arpita Chatterjee
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