This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.
Read this advice before you set your New Year’s resolutions.
If you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking about New Year’s resolutions you want to make to try to improve your life as the new year dawns. And, chances are good, at least some of those resolutions probably have to do with your financial life.
Unfortunately, it’s very common for people to give up on New Year’s resolutions pretty soon into the start of a year.
If you don’t want that to be your fate, you may want to consider this advice from Suze Orman on how best to actually accomplish the financial objectives you’re setting for yourself. This advice can help whether those objectives center around saving more money, paying down your credit cards, or taking care of other key money-management tasks.
Here’s how Suze Orman thinks you can make your goals a reality
Suze Orman had a surprising suggestion for what you should do if you’ve been making a big list of financial goals you want to accomplish in the upcoming new year. Her advice: “Rip it up.”
This may seem like a strange suggestion from a finance expert who is dedicated to helping people improve their financial lives. But, Orman has a good explanation for the advice she gives.
As she explains, people often fail to follow up on their resolutions despite their good intentions. This means they end up feeling bad about themselves and focusing on their failures instead of trying to stay on track and achieve long-term success.
Instead of setting yourself up for disappointment, Orman instead advises that you take a different approach that’s more likely to pay off for you.
“Choose one financial goal to focus on,” she advised. “Don’t tell me you can handle more. Overloading yourself with a laundry list of goals is a recipe for frustration. Things slip through the cracks, you fall behind, and then you end up spending the rest of the year beating yourself up about everything you didn’t achieve.”
Orman suggests making that one goal something you’re passionate about doing, and something that will make a “maximum impact” on building the financial security you crave. While she acknowledges this will be different for everyone, the important thing is that the goal is a “nice step forward” towards ultimately improving your overall financial life.
Once you’ve chosen that one goal, she urges you to create a simple one-sentence mantra that you can remember and repeat to yourself in order to help you stay motivated all year long.
Is Orman right?
Orman’s advice is absolutely spot on. If you try to make too many small changes, it can easily become overwhelming. And once you start to fall behind at any one of your goals, that increases the chance you’ll become demoralized and just give up on the entire project.
Making lasting changes can take effort and time to form new habits. If you pick the one thing that’s going to make the biggest impact and you focus all your efforts on making that happen, you’re far more likely to be successful in the long run, since you can put all your energy into sticking with your plan.
As you see yourself making that one lasting change, you’re far more likely to keep at it all year long and end 2023 by celebrating your success.
Alert: highest cash back card we’ve seen now has 0% intro APR until 2024
If you’re using the wrong credit or debit card, it could be costing you serious money. Our expert loves this top pick, which features a 0% intro APR until 2024, an insane cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee.
In fact, this card is so good that our expert even uses it personally. Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.