New Year’s Resolution
” Brace yourself for the flooding of New Year, New Me posts on Social Media!”
Let’s be honest, 2019 was a roller-coaster ride. Amongst the many downs, we had many ups as well – which brings the question, are we in for a similar experience in 2020?
One thing’s for sure, it is still up to us to manage our expectations appropriately.
Always remember, setting an actionable resolution brings you one step closer to managing your long term financial goals! All thanks to the power of compound interest, we suggest you start growing your savings early.
Ways To Make Your Personal Finance Resolutions Stick
Make it a habit to write down all your financial goals for the year 2020.
To give you a few examples, here are some of the goals you can look to set for yourself:
- To have a $X investment portfolio
- To get sufficient insurance coverage
- To have $Y in savings
- To increase my net worth to $Z
Once you have these numbers set in stone, you can start working backwards to find out how much you need to invest or save every month.
Now that you are done with having those financial goals penned down, a method that works for me personally is to have them up at places which are highly visible to you.
I personally stick them on my wall and cross out any of the goals I managed to meet throughout the year. You can also use an app, or simply set give each goal a deadline on your calendar. To make your Personal Finance Resolution stick, you need to find a way to constantly “nag” yourself about these goals.
Step-by-step Guide To Achieving Your Financial Goals
Track Your Financials
As a couple or individually, tracking your finances is the first step to ensuring that you are on track to your financial goals.
Where should I begin?
For starters, begin with the simplest expenditures and work your way up
- Bills – Automate your payments by utilising GIRO deductions. That way, you keep your bill payments on time while avoiding unnecessary fines
- Savings -Always prepare for rainy days! Set aside a minimum percentage of your monthly salary to form a annual emergency fund
- Investments – Take a look at automated investment tools. Check out our articles on the best savings plans and the differences between robo-advisors.
Managing Your Debt
Nobody wants to start their year looking at their debt accounts.
It’s tough, but we’ve got to get through it. That said, we can make this task easier using 2 simple, yet efficient methods.
- Listing all your debts in order
- Adopt the Debt Snowball Method or the Debt Avalanche Method
Both methods are meant to achieve the same results and should serve as a practical debt tracker.
Expense Tracking
In part, it’s not hard to imagine this as one of our New Year’s resolutions.
In fact, I’m pretty sure this consistently makes one of our top resolutions every year.
For simplicity, excel or google sheets are a great way to track your expenditure in an easy to access format!
We recommend keeping your sheets as minimalistic as possible, keeping the information uncluttered and in a quick-read format.
| Date | Description / Purchase | Expense Type | Payment Type | Expense Account | Retailer Name | Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23/12/18 | Muji Notebook | Gifts | Debit Card | DBS | Muji | $19 | Secret Santa Gift Exchange |
| 24/12/18 | Atlas Bar - 2 Cocktails | Drinks | Cash | NIL | Atlas Bar | $60 | Christmas Eve drinks |
| Monthly Total Cost | $ X | ||||||
Or if you’d prefer a fully automated system, mobile applications are the way to go!
Feel free to give the Seedly mobile application a try! It’s completely free with ZERO in-app purchases.
Upgrading Your Lifestyle
Thus far, we’ve talked about reducing, growing or managing our money. What about exploiting our money?
All things considered, December has been a great month thus far. Particularly, deals from major retailers don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
In fact, just to name a few:
The Widely Publicised SIM-only Plans
Compare all SIM-Only plans across all the available retailers!
Already Planning Your Trips For 2020’s Long Weekends?
Compare to find out the best Multi-Currency Account to be using for your travel needs.
Building Your Knowledge
Knowledge is power. Regardless of our respective starting points, it is never too late to begin your learning journey.
Particularly, joining social community groups or reading online blogs are helpful especially for beginners.
As an introduction, check out Seedly’s life-stages guides!
Community Interaction
Or perhaps reading may be too labour intensive for you.
You could try asking questions directly on Seedly Personal Finance Community platforms to gain quick, honest answers or feedback without having to necessarily navigate and understand a plethora of information on your own.
Actionable Plans
As with all personal projects, the key to success lies with smart planning. While impossible goals may seem grandeur at the start, know that the key to enduring motivation ultimately also revolves around realistic targets.
- Set an actionable timeline
- Layout the exact steps needed to achieve these goals
- Plan for contingencies. If timelines can’t be met, set a (what-if) alternative
- Partner up (if possible!)
Kick-Start Your Journey
So! With all that said & done, what next?
Fortunately, our personal finance journey is never just one quick fix.
Keep a close eye on our community pages as well as our blog for your daily dose of personal finance knowledge!
But most importantly, join us at Personal Finance Festival!
Learn from industry experts, get inspired by our peers and ultimately, walk away with a deeper resolution to grow your finances moving forward!
