With every new year comes a time to start thinking about how to make this year a success for you and your loved ones. Though there’s little consensus about their origins, we know that Americans have been making New Year’s resolutions since at least the 1770s. 1 Last year, 32% of Americans made financial resolutions.
Here are three financial resolutions to help kick start your 2020:
1. Create emergency savings
Life is full of unexpected emergencies, and some extra cash can help a serious illness, home repair, or other sudden financial need from derailing your finances. Prepare for unpredictable expenses by putting aside six to eight months of expenses in an easily accessible cash-equivalent account.
2. Make a monthly budget and stick to it
Budgets may sound like a lot of unnecessary work, especially if you’re financially comfortable, but it’s quite easy to let your spending go off the rails if you’re not tracking it in some way. Set a budget and work on sticking to it for a couple of months. Don’t aim for perfection; instead, try for incremental improvement.
3. Save more for the future
Are you on track for retirement and other goals? This is a good time to see where you stand in your savings. Most Americans could stand to put more money away for the future. We recommend keeping separate “buckets” of savings for short-, medium-, and long-term goals and leveraging tax-advantaged accounts where possible.
A new year brings a new opportunity to meet your financial goals. Call us at 228-209-0442 and let us help you develop a strategy to make this year healthy, happy, and successful.
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