It’s important with any resolution (financial or otherwise) that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. In other words, set achievable and measurable goals, but limit it to a few, not a dozen resolutions. Also, ease into the goals…trying to do everything in January is impossible. Achieving any goal takes commitment AND consistency.
There’s some pro-active things we recommend our clients focus on in 2022 to improve their financial well-being. Critical is identifying their starting point (taking a comprehensive financial inventory), along with their identifying their gaps, risk and opportunities for wealth building. Our Financial Inventory & Analysis Tool is an easy to use program that’s very insightful and valuable in this process. The tool also allows people to track their spending (vs. budgeting) and so they’ll be more likely to improve their financial well-being by knowing what they are spending their money on. The key is to start saving and investing as soon as possible, not matter how old you are.
Here’s some other things that people can choose to focus on in 2022. These goals come with some extra incentives due to the world we’re living in currently.
- Due to Covid, I believe people have extra incentive to boost their emergency savings and not tap into it.
- Because of inflation, people seem to have more incentive to invest in inflation fighting vehicles like stocks.
- Life insurance is another area where people seem more incentivized to protect their loved ones with a good policy. An Indexed Universal Life policy is very favorable to many people.
- It seems with the national debt increasing everyday and the cost of Covid, people are more aware and concerned with rising tax rates so there’s increased interest in tax savings vehicles such as Roth IRAs, cash value life insurance and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which are all great ways to reduce future tax burden.
- Here’s a few other ideas for goal setting…
- Focus on spending on things that make you happy and what I like to call non-negotiables (decide your big and small spending priorities) and your more likely to not overspend.
- Schedule a money date or dates with your partner to make a money plan. When you have a written plan that you review regularly, you’re more likely to achieve your plan.
- Because of crypto there’s more interest in investing and learning about investing (which is a good thing). Although I believe crypto is more speculation vs. investment, if you find yourself with a holiday bonus, perhaps you speculate on some crypto. I believe more people will be getting into crypto, which could be a good long term strategy.
- For people who have shifted from working from an office to working from home, many people can put those commuting costs into savings/investments.
- Get those Estate Planning documents (such as will and trust) drafted or updated (again, Covid has put this at the top of our lists).
- With low interest rates, I believe more people will be refinancing car loans and mortgages. A good cost savings measure.
- By make savings a game, you’re likely to save more. We offer our clients a fun daily savings game and we think our money affirmation cards can help people focus on mind over money, leading to the achievement of their resolutions.
- 2022 is a great year for people (especially women) who are 5-10 years from retirement to get educated about retirement and to start making a plan for how they will create an income for life, while protecting themselves from a possible change in the market (bull to bear) and from rising tax rates and inflation. Our Her Retirement platform can help women know more and have more, and live a better retirement.