Five Simple (and Fun) New Year's Resolutions...

 1) Take Your Pulse...Take A Snapshot...Get a Baseline

No matter what you call it you need to find out where you stand right now with your
 finances. Get out all your financial statements, bank statements.
savings account statements, credit card bills... anything related to money. 

Start a spreadsheet of where you are right now. As you save money 
and as you pay bills, update your spreadsheet. Update it at least once 
per week. There is an old saying that goes something like "that which gets 
measured, improves." You will find out that's very true if you stick with this 
exercise.

One statistic you want to track is your debt/income ratio. Simply divide 
your total debt load, by your yearly income. For example, if you have 
$200,000 in debt and you earn $75,000 a year, your debt to income ratio 
is 2.7. Your goal is to get that number to zero.





2) Call your credit card companies and have a chat. 

Ask them how long you've been a customer. Tell them about all the credit card offers 
you been getting in the mail. Point out to them that you like doing business with them, 
but you can't overlook these lower rates. Ask them if you should switch cards. If the 
person who answers the phone can help you, ask to speak with a supervisor.


3) Check your credit report

This is something you can now do for free. Simply go to the following web site:
 http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com. You can request all three of your credit reports 
on this site. But I recommend requesting one today, one four months from now and the
third, four months after that. Mark the dates on your calendar.

If you know you will be applying for credit in the near future and you know 
where, call that place and ask them which bureau they use to pull credit. 
You can then request that credit report to insure the report they are looking 
at is accurate.


4) Find out if you or your friends or your relatives are owed any money

Go to:
http://www.unclaimed.org/mainframe.asp?VisitorType=owner 

Find your state, and some Canadian provinces, click on them, go to the 
site they suggest, type in your name and see what happens. 

Then repeat the process for anyone you know, particularly if you would 
like to give them a call or keep them happy. Imagine sitting down in
the dentist's chair and saying, "Hey, Doc you are owed some money!" 
I did that a few years ago. 


5) Save some money every day

Open a savings account, or use one you already have, to save money each and
every day.

Using the Internet, slide at least one dollar into your savings account from your 
checking account. Now this sounds wacky but I think you will feel a great sense of 
empowerment knowing that your nest egg is growing every day. 

Mathematically speaking, that money may be better off on your debt 
but the pennies in interest you'd save putting it on debt will be far 
outweighed by your sense of accomplishment and pride about your 
new positive money habit!

 

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