Solutions for Wealth in the New Year: Save More Money

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time for New Year’s Resolutions. Among the favorites for most people are resolutions for improving their Health & Wealth. This article is one of a series in which we will suggest some financial resolutions that you can use to make the New Year the brightest ever.

Let’s start with a recurring wish for many people. “I want to save more money.” Maybe you need to establish an emergency fund. Or maybe you need to start a college savings fund for your children. Or maybe you just want to save some money for a large future purchase.

The approach is the same: Pay Yourself First.

If you are waiting until the end of the month to see how much money is left after paying all your other bills, you will never be able to have enough money for savings. In fact, many of you will be wondering where all that money went during the month. Don’t forget – you are likely spending money almost daily through cash or debit card purchases. Once you add up that total, it’s no surprise how the money goes so fast.

The simple key to saving money is to make sure you put the money in savings before you even look at any other bills for the month. Okay – I didn’t say it was easy – just simple. But the truth is, that once you adopt this habit, it does become easier. You will become accustomed to having the net amount left after your savings fund.

I know the power of this firsthand. For years, I socked away money in savings and mutual funds every single month. The process was automated so I didn’t even have to think about it or remember to do it each month. And although I would occasionally look to see the earnings on the mutual funds, I was always pleasantly surprised to see how fast the balances were adding up.

Then I made a change in my life to start a new business. And so I stopped making those monthly deposits in my financial freedom accounts. At first the idea was just to give myself six months to get everything settled and then be able to start up again. But as you can probably guess, that never happened – at least not after 6 months.

Looking back, it was a logical step to make a change in my savings goals since I knew my income would be sporadic for a time. However, the step I should have taken was to reduce my savings, not to eliminate it. Then the habit would still have been in place and it would have been much easier … and more likely … that I would have begun saving again much sooner.

So take these actions steps for your financial New Year’s Resolution to save more money:

1. Decide how much money to save each month
2. Open a new account if you don’t already have a separate account for savings.
3. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to the savings account. (This can be once a month on a day of your choice. Or it may be easier to make two smaller transfers during the month).
4. Review your monthly bills to plan payments with your remaining funds so that you will be prepared to follow through on these actions. If necessary, you might need to go back and adjust the amount set in #1. But don’t be too quick to lower the amount. Be realistic, but be proactive.
5. Sit back and watch your funds grow. It’s a beautiful thing!

By taking these actions, you will have turned a New Year’s Resolution into a financial planning tool.

Habits … they make us or they break us. Make a point right now to define a couple of New Year’s Resolutions for improving your financial fitness. Then put specific actions into place to make them a habit. That is how you will achieve results.