We’re a couple of weeks into the New Year and this is the time when everyone sets new goals and resolutions to live their best lives, whether it’s to hit the gym more frequently or to eat a healthier diet. But, have you set any financial goals for 2020? If not, no worries, we’ve got 10 money resolutions to help you achieve your best year ever with your finances.
Save Money
The first money resolution on your list for 2020 should definitely be to save your money. It’s tempting to want to splurge on things you’ve been eyeing for a while, but think about it, once the ‘newness’ of that product wears off, you just might be looking for something else to spend more money on. Instead, tuck away some money into a savings account, even if it’s just $5 per week. With the right savings account, your money will grow and your future self with thank you for it!
Speaking of your future self, it’s especially important to start saving money for your retirement as soon as you can. It’s never too early or too late to start saving for retirement, it takes a long time to amass a nestegg that will support you if and when you decide to retire. So, tucking money away and taking advantage of your employer’s match program, if available, will pay off in the long run.
Learn How to Invest
Do you dream of becoming a millionaire one day? Well here’s a quick tip, most millionaires in the United States are made through saving their money and investing. Investing your money through various streams, whether it’s in stocks, bonds, your retirement account, or real estate, will allow your money to significantly grow in value. We’ve been investing consistently for almost a decade and because of that we were able to increase our savings by over 6 figures year after year. So, we say to work smarter, not harder, let your money do the hard work for you, and invest!
If you don’t know where or how to start investing, check out our Wealth Builders Academy!
Set Clear Financial Goals for the Year
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with these 10 tips to get you started, but to really live your best financial life, you need to set clear financial goals for 2020. Having clear goals are super important to keep you motivated on your end goal, whether that’s to build wealth and become a
millionaire, to retire early, or if it’s to buy your dream home! Setting clear financial goals for the year is crucial to allow you to check-in on your progress on days where you just feel like a snail in a rat race, it’s okay we’ve all been there. Stay focused, set clear goals, and keep chugging ahead, you’ve got this!
Create A One-Year Spending Plan
This is by far one of the biggest life hacks that you can implement into your personal finance journey. A one-year spending plan has been super helpful for us to really layout our budget for the year. Your one-year spending plan includes your bills, expenses, paying off any debt, building your emergency fund, and adding in various financial goals like planning for a vacation. Because we’re always looking out for you guys, we have a free template here to help you get started on the right foot for the year!
Spend Wisely
Great, you’ve created your one-year spending plan and now you get to spend your hard-earned money guilt-free. Not so fast, make sure that you’re spending your money on things that you really care about, things that have a high priority in your life, and things that you actually enjoy. For example, making sure you’re consistently putting money into your retirement account, or what we also call your ‘Me’ fund, and planning for a family vacation would fall into this category. In other words, stick to your budget, but also make sure you’re having fun too.
Find A Job That Brings You Joy & Pays You What You’re Worth
Another way for you to build wealth and happiness along your personal finance journey is to actually find a job that brings you joy and pays you what you’re worth. We’ve made so many videos detailing careers and side hustles that you can do to both increase your income, allowing you to stash money away for your emergency fund, retirement accounts, vacations and more, as well as jobs that you can even do from home allowing more flexibility in your schedule and also enabling to do work that you love. If you’re currently stuck in a job where you dread going into the office everyday, make 2020 your year for finding a job that is both fulfilling, brings your joy, and also rakes in a healthy income.
Embrace Being A Lifelong Learner
Learning doesn’t just stop after school. Make an effort to embrace being a lifelong learner this year by finding positive and reliable resources that allow you to learn more about money. These include books, YouTube channels, documentaries, online courses, and more! Keep your mind sharp so you’re always knowledgeable about your financial future. Here are a couple of our most recent videos that’ll help get you started:
Don’t let your limiting beliefs and money myths hold you back from building wealth and living your best life, check out our video to help you dispel false money beliefs!
Are you thinking about retiring early? Here’s what you need to know about the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement.
Is paying off debt your main goal for 2020? Good for you! Here’s how to pay off debt without being stressed so that you can still live a happy and fulfilling life.
Learn From Past Financial Mistakes
We all have that one past financial mistakes that we look back on and think to ourselves that we should’ve, could’ve, would’ve done things differently. But the reality is, you have to make mistakes to grow into a more financially savvy person. So, forgive yourself for your past mistakes, whether that’s taking out student loans, using your credit for a vacation, or splurging at Victoria’s Secret during that semi-annual sale, we’re all guilty of something, we’ve even admitted our worst financial mistakes. Learn from those mistakes to grow and move on.
Start Tracking Your Net Worth
We’ve always been transparent with the OBHL community about our net worth and personal finance goals, here’s our most recent video outlining our December net worth update. In 2020, we encourage you to start tracking your net worth, it’ll keep you motivated on days where it feels like you’re just not making any progress. Keeping track of your net worth on a month by month basis combined with having a one year spending plan is the method that we use to make sure we’re staying on track with our finances and are still going full steam ahead to reach our financial goals.
Manage Your Debt
The reason why we say to “manage” your debt and not to “get rid” of your debt is because contrary to popular belief, not all debt is bad. These days, “debt” and “building wealth” have become oxymorons, but in reality, debt can be a useful tool for building credit and managing other aspects of your personal finance when used in moderation and if you’re conscious about which debt you’re taking on. Before you take out that debt, make sure you have a repayment plan that isn’t overwhelming and still allows you to live comfortably while building wealth. Another thing to keep in mind is that your debt is only one piece of your personal finance pie, it doesn’t have to consume your entire life. Use debt wisely and use it to your advantage to get ahead with your personal finance, not hold you back.
Those are our top 10 money resolutions to help you achieve your best financial year yet. Have more tips? Share them in the comments below!
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Setting Financial Goals For Your Best Year Ever