With the New Year here (I can’t believe how fast the time flies!), I am thinking of my goals and resolutions, including my financial goals. Therefore, I thought I would share with you how I’m planning to start 2023 off right with my finances in order. I am not a financial expert or advisor. However, I wanted to share some things I am doing to help achieve my financial resolutions this year.
1. Save more
This probably won’t shock you, but saving is key to getting your finances on track. There are many ways to go about this, such as cutting back on unnecessary spending, putting a certain percentage from your pay cheques into savings accounts and setting up an emergency fund. All these things help to set you up for financial success and take some of the burdens off in case you need to dip into your savings for an unforeseeable expense.
This can get overwhelming, but thankfully, there are tools online that can make things seamless. For instance, I love using a Savings Calculator tool as it can help you figure out how much money you have saved up during a fixed investment period. You can even print out a schedule of your savings growth over time which is a great resource. This site also provides a variety of calculators for things like savings goals, college savings and retirement planning. I like using the Savings Goal Calculator as it tells me exactly how much I need to save each month and even lets me know when I need to have the money saved. This makes attaining financial goals so much easier.
2. Create a budget
I love making spreadsheets and the idea of tracking where my money goes. I start with my income and then subtract my expenses. The great thing about creating a budget is seeing where you are spending your money and what you might want to revise in terms of expenses.
3. Cancel Subscriptions
Every new year, I like to go through my active subscriptions and decide which ones I’m using and which I have forgotten about. Monthly subscriptions can be costly, and there are so many out there these days that you might forget that you signed up for one. Check your credit card statements periodically to ensure the free trial you signed up for a while back hasn’t started charging your credit card. This has happened to me before, and now I stay on top of it.
4. Invest
I like to make sure my money works for me, and I think investing is a great way to earn passive income. When it comes to long-term savings, I always ensure that my money goes into a high-interest savings account. When deciding what stocks I want to invest in, I opt for dividend-paying stocks as you can receive regular payments from the company as a shareholder. It’s a nice bonus occasionally, and you can either take the dividend earnings out or invest it right back into the stock.
5. Earn passive income
Assess your skills and interests and figure out what other side hustles you may want to take on to earn a bit extra. For example, I love reselling platforms such as Poshmark to resell my new or gently used clothing and lifestyle products. My closet is bursting with items, and I love the feeling of decluttering my space (especially at the start of a new year!), so I enjoy reselling my things and taking the cash and either stashing it in savings or saving up for a coveted item I have wanted for a while to treat myself. There are many ways to earn passive income, and it’s a wonderful creative outlet too.
How are you achieving your new year’s resolutions this year? Let me know in the comments below!
Leave a Reply