How Other People’s New Habits Can Help You
It’s easy to make New Year’s resolutions, whether they are financial in nature or not. The difficult part, of course, is keeping them. To many, New Year’s resolutions are simply promises that we never end up keeping.
But, there are many who take New Year’s resolutions seriously and, even if they don’t pan out, we can still learn from what they want to accomplish in 2020.
According to a CNBC survey1, nearly half of Americans, 44% surveyed, have financial goals for 2020. Out of that number, 71% are planning to save more money and 34% are planning to pay off debt.
According to the survey, 51% of respondents are planning to eat out less, 47% plan to cancel unnecessary subscriptions, 40% plan to cut cable, and 21% plan to pack their lunch.
What can we learn from these resolutions? Well, firstly that they are good ones!
Dining out often is a quick way to go through large amounts of money quickly. This goes the same, and is sometimes even worse, when it comes to food delivery service prices. Instead of ordering food, dine out and instead of dining out, eat more at home. It’s healthier, but your wallet may get fatter.
The rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other subscription based services has led to some people not knowing exactly what they are paying for. It’s not uncommon for people to simply forget about subscriptions they signed up to due to not using them. Be sure to monitor what you’re paying for month to month.
The same can go for cable. If you’re planning on streaming more entertainment, now may be the time to forgo traditional cable TV service in favor of something new.
Packing a lunch might not seem as much fun as grabbing food at the fancy new bistro around the corner from your office, but it’s healthier and since you’ve been buying more groceries due to not dining out as much, you can probably make a tasty lunch!
While we may not keep all of our New Year’s resolutions, we should look at them for what they are: good habits. Continue to instill beneficial financial habits into your life.
Links1: https://www.cnbc.com/select/financial-new-years-resolutions/
Any opinions are those of Steel Valley Investment Group and not necessarily those of RJA or Raymond James.
The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation.