New year’s resolutions are constantly being set right now. After all, you have to give yourself a little time to wrap your head around what “sacrifices” you’ll be making in the upcoming year.
If you haven’t come up with a resolution yet, or you are seeking an additional one to add, I suggest that you give this one a shot… “Trim the Fat”. No, I am not talking about a weight loss goal for the new year, although that is important if it applies to you. In order to achieve wealth, you have to have your health! Instead, I am talking about trimming the fat out of your budget. This means that for each category of your budget, be it car insurance, eating out, etc., try and see if you can negotiate a lower car insurance rate, or bring your lunch to work a few times a week. The point is that freeing up a little bit of money in a few categories can easily add up to hundreds of dollars, which you can then use to invest either in yourself, an index fund, or save up for a home purchase.
We all need to make 2015 a year where we not only create a budget, but we also monitor our expenses. Creating a budget is fairly easy, and I even offer an example budget for all to use under the “Your Monthly Budget” page. Sticking with the budget is always the hard part. You might find yourself tracking expenses for the first month or even through February, but then it becomes cumbersome and you forget all about it. I can’t do much to motivate you to follow through with your budget. That is one you! Here are some action items though to get this new year’s resolutions started…
1) Create your own budget (Use the example budget I offer and create your own categories)
2) See what areas you can cut out money (even $25 in 4 categories is an extra $100/month)
3) Monitor and track all of your expenses (copy and paste your budget and then whenever you have an expense in a category, put it in the correct field)
4) DON’T GIVE UP! (This is where you have to show commitment to yourself to follow through with the resolution)
And finally…
Happy New Year to all