This is the year to say goodbye to resolutions as they’re commonly known and hello to a year-long resolve to make this entire year YOUR year – starting with financial freedom. Many families would like to be free from debt, save more, give more or be able to make certain purchases, but the typical open-ended, easily forgotten new year resolution just won’t get them there. Instead, making a specific, achievable plan of attack on whatever you’d like to change throughout the whole year is known to be much more effective. At Deb Beran Properties, we’d like to challenge you to think this way, with some helpful tips on how to make reaching your goals part of your entire year.
Choose Your Focus
Whether you love setting goals or not, it’s easy to get carried away with the amount of change you hope to see in a year’s time. At the start of a new year, it can feel like you have all the time in the world to accomplish multiple things, when in reality it’s usually just enough time to knock out one specific part of your ultimate goal. This is especially true when it comes to financial freedom. Even if you don’t have a lot of debt to pay down or big savings goals to meet, something as simple as restoring your credit or improving your investment portfolio can take more time than you might think. Choose your focus for 2016 and try and keep it on the one part of financial freedom you feel is most important for this year.
Add AND Subtract
Sometimes, goal setting can lead to stress and pressure you didn’t anticipate because of a common bad approach: adding without subtracting. Holding yourself to achievement usually means increasing responsibility in an area, which can feel like one more thing to constantly think about. Instead, set your financial freedom goals using subtraction along with addition. For every goal you set, pick something to eliminate or keep off your mind. It could be closing an account that doesn’t do much for you, selling an item of value you never use or getting rid of an extra payment you really don’t need. Help increase your focus on the right goal by decreasing other financial “weight” in your life.
Ask for Accountability
Accountability is an important part of making 2016 YOUR year for financial freedom, especially if you struggle to stick with your goals. Reach out to a friend or someone you know who is good with money, or reached the place you’d like to be, and ask them to check in with you every month to see if you’ve made progress.
Good luck with your financial freedom goals and we at Deb Beran Properties hope 2016 is your best year yet!
