“New year, new goals”, is what my mother would always say. As the new year rolls around, everyone tries to find areas of their life that need improvement and work on them. Whether it is a new diet, a new budget, or a new something, people often forget about their goals come mid to late February. While some goals may be a bit unreasonable by most standards. This article might not be a key to bench-pressing 200lbs, but it is a helpful source to find new ways to brighten your financial outlook in the new year.
[Read: Change Your New Year Money Habits]
Though it is a favorite to forget, our budgets need to go on a detox every once in a while too. After all the gift-giving holidays have come to a close, many find ourselves in need of a serious budget change. Even if you managed to leave the holidays behind in a pretty good financial situation, there is always room to improve your fiscal habits.
The only sure way to brighten your financial outlook in the new year is by focusing on the future. Long-term goals are important when you’re trying to renovate your habits with money. And this year, instead of just placing a monetary value on your resolution, try practicing smarter money traditions
Here are a few helpful ways to brighten your financial outlook in the new year.
Always Keep an Eye on the Discounts
Couponers seem to have developed a pretty bad reputation through the years from nearly everybody, but they manage to save buckets of money on everyday items. Putting judgmental society aside, couponers seem to have the right idea when it comes to saving money. Discounts are a money-spenders best friends when they’re trying to revamp their spending tactics and brighten their financial outlook.
Your cable company, phone provider, and the electricity company are always having new deals and promotions to ensure quality customer service. Checking up with your providing companies might just save you several dollars a month on necessities.
Fill Your Savings Jar
Though many of us know the importance of building our saving accounts, we rarely ever find ourselves putting money away. While we waste through one paycheck to another, we often forget to supply our rainy day funds and can get caught off guard by any fiscal emergency.
In order to build our savings account and brighten our financial outlook, we first need to make sure our paycheck lasts long enough to make it to our savings account. We can accomplish this by automating the process. Instead of allowing our own dwindling willpower to decide how much money can go into our savings, we can select a certain amount from our checks to register into our savings via direct deposit.
This practice becomes a little more strenuous with those who have hourly wages as the amount per check varies. If you do work for an hourly wage, you can typically select a certain percentage out of your check that will go into your savings account.
Pay Your Bills
Paying your bills on time is probably one of the most important ways to brighten your financial outlook and foster a better relationship with your money. Though we’re all guilty of wasting money on late and overdraft fees at one point or another, we don’t have to continue with the same old habits.
Creating a doable budget can make a world of difference as far as your money is concerned. Many of us can choose to do it grocery style and write down an estimate of our monthly expenses versus our income.
Reorganizing your spending can be a great way to make sure all of your bills are in order and on time.
Max Your 401(k) Contributions
Even though retirement may seem like a great distance away, saving up for it should be ones top priority. With the dwindling social security benefits taking its toll on those living out their retirement, it is important for everyone to plan for the future, no matter how far away it may seem.
Though the idea of storing money away for a long time may seem counterproductive to learning to better manage it, a maxed out 401(k) contribution will secure your financial stability in years to come.
Get Out of Debt
Finding yourself in debt is never fun, but it’s a thing we all must go through in our lives. Everything from home mortgages to credit card bills can leave your wallet and budget with some fatal injuries. Getting out of debt fast is very important in procuring your financial stability.
There’s a nice little theory that can help anyone struggling with any amount of debt. It’s called the “Stack Method” and works pretty much like a pyramid.
Ranks include:
- STOP CREATING NEW DEBT (seriously guys)
- Order by interest rate
- Work towards lowering your interest rates
- Create a feasible budget
- Reward your progress
[Read: Ways to Stick to Your Budget]
This method is relatively straightforward; however, it’s important to find a way to make it work for you so you can brighten your financial outlook.