In life, it’s pretty difficult to get to a specific destination unless you know where you’re going. In finance it’s difficult, if not impossible, to achieve your specific financial goals unless you define what they are and create a plan for attaining them.

January is a month of new beginnings. If you haven’t yet, this is the perfect time to create a set of financial resolutions to help you steer yourself toward victory over your money in 2014.

Choosing Resolutions
It can be overwhelming to try and pick just a few goals to focus on during the year. It’s important that you realize it’s okay not to fix everything at once. You can focus on fixing just one or two aspects of your finances this year and take on something else next year.

When narrowing down your choices, remember to:

1. Keep it simple. A financial plan or goal doesn’t have to be complex in order to work. Focus on simple, clear goals.
2. Consider what stresses you the most. There’s nothing quite like financial pressure to stress you out. When choosing a few reasonable resolutions, one way to narrow down your choices is to focus on those things that cause you the most stress.

Setting Goals
It’s a good idea to set goals that run throughout the year and help keep you on track with each of your resolutions. In order to be effective, a goal must meet three criteria:

1. It must be measurable. Rather than making a vague resolution, create specific goals that help to hold you accountable to meeting them. So instead of setting the resolution to “reduce debt” in 2014, you’d set the resolution to “reduce debt by 10 percent.”
2. It must be under your control. You can’t control whether you win the lottery or get a raise, so setting goals around those types of events isn’t helpful. Instead, make sure your goals are for things you have ultimate control over, such as your spending.
3. It must be reasonable. Unreasonable goals aren’t just impractical, they can actually be damaging because they leave you disappointed in yourself. Focus on goals that you can reasonable accomplish, and be proud when you do!

Contact us today to find our how we can work with you to review your overall financial plan and choose the resolutions you need to focus on this year. Together, we can create the roadmap that puts you on the right financial path.