The New Year represents many things to everyone: a clean slate, a chance to wash away the mistakes of the previous year and starting new. Sadly, many New Year’s resolutions end up in failure because they’re excessively hard to accomplish, especially when it comes to changing the way we spend our money. If you really want to make a positive impact on your finances in 2017, follow the strategies below to help avoid the most common pitfalls.
Start the New Year with great financial services that’ll help you accomplish your goals!
Put Yourself on Payroll
If one of your resolutions this year is to start saving or banishing debt once and for all, the best thing you can do is pay off all of your needs (food, bills, electricity, etc.) and funnel the rest into a savings accounts or paying off debt. Figure out how to maximize the amount of money left over after paying bills.
If you don’t do this, money will be in your bank account screaming to be spent or you’ll find needless ways to spend it. It’s a complete and quick road to failure that will surely lead to you abandoning your goals. Our checking accounts come with the added convenience of being accessed anytime through our mobile app.
Automate Now!
The best way to be successful is to set yourself up for success. Your financial goals should be no different. Set up an automatic savings deduction every pay period and transfer anywhere from $50 to $100 every time your checking account reaches at least $600. If you automate, you’ll be making steps toward your financial goals, and it will become harder for you to make choices that lead to failure.
Resolutions That Are Under Control
When aiming to succeed financially or professionally, make sure to put all resolutions under your control. Let your actions dictate your success. For example, if your goal is to pay off your debt this year, don’t rest on your partner’s or someone else’s achievements. You’ll be putting your success in someone else’s hands. Instead, take action and write down the things that will help you succeed and work towards completing them as the year progresses.
Focus on Actions
Many goals are centered around the end product, including saving money for a car or down payment on a house. Instead, think of the actions you can take NOW to make the end result happen. For example, if you save $100 a week for a year, you’ll end up making your goal of providing a down payment on a house. The resolution is centered on the action of saving every week, not the nebulous big goal of a large down payment.
Break Down Actions
Once you’ve established the goals to make a resolution happen, go further by breaking down your actions. What can you do today to help you achieve saving $100 this week? Is it meal prepping so that you don’t have to buy that $7 lunch at work? Looking into your spending and cutting financially straining habits will make everything easier.
Success with VFCU
Once you’ve started executing daily actions that will lead to your end goal, visualize them. Write down your goals so that when you accomplish an action, you’ll see a visualization of the progress. If you’re ready to make your financial goals a reality this year, visit or call our credit union in Harlingen today!
