Revisit Your Goals to Radically Improve Your Finances
Now that the weather is getting warmer, many of us have completely forgotten or abandoned our resolutions that we set back in January. If you are in this group, have no fear as I am here to help provide you with some motivation and tips to start pushing forward with your goals once again.
The first step that you need to take is to reread 3 Tips to Radically Improve Your Finances in the New Year. For some, this will be enough to get you started back up on the path to bettering your finances.
Action Steps to Improve Your Finances
Some reading this might still need some actionable steps to get the ball rolling. Here are a handful of things you can do to get you excited to start saving more, spending less and investing your money!
Look at Your 401k Statement. All I want you to focus on is the amount of money you saved. Think about how effortless this was. You filled out a form and now money just keeps getting added to the mix. Keep the ball rolling and reach out to human resources and increase the amount you are saving by 1%. Trust me, you won’t notice it missing from your paycheck.
An additional step is to look over your investments. Ask for the fund fact sheet for the investments you can choose from and see what you are paying in management fees. If it is high – over 1% – take a look to see if there are other fund choices that offer a lower fee with the same allocation. Doing this will save you tons of money in the long run.
Set Up an Automatic Transfer. Here is another way to boost your savings and motivate you to save more money. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account. It can be as little as a few dollars each month. Then forget about the transfer and just let your savings grow.
Clean Out Your House. Now that the weather is warm, yard sales are popping up all over the place. Take a weekend to run through your house and de-clutter. Get rid of clothes you haven’t worn in the past year. Same goes for books. Turn your movies and CDs into a digital format and get rid of the hard copies. Here are the Best Places to Sell Your Stuff to Make Quick Cash. With the money you make, pay down debt or put it into savings.
For everything you don’t sell, donate whatever is in good condition and take the tax write off. Just make sure you remember to actually write it off when you are completing your taxes!
Review Your Goals. Many times we make goals thinking they are things that are important to us. If you haven’t done anything to progress towards these goals, either they aren’t important to you after all or you haven’t found the switch that makes them important to you.
For example, maybe you still aren’t saving for retirement. If you haven’t specified what retirement is to you so that you get excited about saving and actually start saving, you never will. If the idea of saving for 40 years in the future isn’t exciting, what about saving for a beach house? Maybe that is the motivation you need to start progressing towards your goals. Take some time to figure out what excites and motivates you when it comes to retirement or any goal, and use that to fuel the fire and keep you pushing ahead.
Final Thoughts
It’s never too late to get started with reaching your goals. If you let your January goals slip by this year so far, now is a great time to take some time to re-evaluate things and try again. Don’t just give up or wait until next January. Start working on them now! After all, the sooner you start, the sooner you will start seeing results and hopefully, those results will motivate you even more to stick with things.
More Ways to Improve Your Finances
- 6 More Steps to Take Charge of Your Financial Future
- How to Have a Life While Living On a Tight Budget
- 8 Simple Ways to Make Extra Money in Your Spare Time
- 6 Successful Ways to Save Money This Year
- How to Put More Money in Your Savings Account
- Focus on These 4 Things for Your Mid-Year Financial Review
- Are You Focused on Today or Tomorrow?