January is here and I’ve spent the first few days of the New Year reflecting on my finances in 2024 and the goals I want to make for 2025. January is the perfect time to create new financial goals and start your year with new habits to help you accomplish them. Here are 10 resolutions I plan to do this year to create a healthier and wealthier version of myself.
Create a realistic budget
I always start the year with a crazy budget to help me save but it ends up failing within two months. Why? Because I make my budget so strict that I can never stick to it. Ultimately, this results in me giving up on my budget completely and not tracking my finances as closely as I should. This year, I am going to be more honest with myself and set realistic expectations to help me meet my financial goals so I don’t have to worry if I buy a few meals out with friends or spend $10 more at the grocery store than I thought.
Plan for big purchases
This year is all about planning and saving for bigger purchases for me. Between saving for a new car and attending a friend’s wedding out of the country, I have a lot of big expenses to plan for. For me, this will look like saving a specific dollar amount each month and contributing any leftover cash I have to these funds.
Prioritize retirement savings
I’ll admit it, one time in college I put $200 I planned to save towards a concert instead of my Roth IRA. Don’t get me wrong, the concert was epic and I’m glad I went but it was probably stupid to plan my money that way. As I get older, it’s more important than ever for me to save for the long term. This year, I am planning to automate my paycheck to send money directly to my Roth IRA. This way, I don’t even have the temptation to spend it on a concert again.
Expand my financial literacy
Reading is one of my favorite hobbies, but usually, my taste leans toward fiction. For 2025 I am going to incorporate books about money, investing and business to expand my knowledge and also help me make better decisions for my career and finances. My resolution is to read at least six books around these topics by the end of the year.
Discover side hustles
I recently started working a side hustle on top of my full-time job and absolutely love it. Though this side income is very small right now and requires a lot of my free time, I hope to find a side hustle or expand on my current one by the end of the year. I’m currently exploring the difference between a side hustle and a side business and one of my financial goals this year is to dive deeper into these ways to generate extra income so I can find a long-term option to pursue.