This year, take your finances to the next level with this month-by-month plan to revitalize your finances. Follow this plan, and you’ll improve your finances and be in a better place by next year.
With a little planning and effort, these 12 financial goals can help make 2018 a success.
With the start of a new year, it seems appropriate to think about how we can make 2018 a financial success. But rather than making some New Year’s Resolution about getting out of debt that we won’t keep, let’s look at a month-by-month plan instead.
By breaking down our goals into smaller pieces, we are much more likely to accomplish them. So below is a 2018 monthly guide for your finances. Of course, feel free to change the order of these goals or to add your own.
January: Max out your retirement savings
January is a perfect time to set your retirement contributions for the year. The 401(k) contribution limits edged up for 2018 to $18,500 (plus an additional $6,000 for those age 50 or older). So make sure your contribution percentage is high enough to take advantage of the increased limits. And if that’s more than you can afford, make sure your contributions are at least enough to take advantage of your employer’s matching contributions, if any. And the same goes with IRA contributions, which are $5,500 (+ a $1,000 catch-up contribution for those 50 or older).
Resources:
401k and IRA Contribution and Deduction Limits for 2018
Roth IRA Contribution and Income Limits
List of the Best Online Discount Brokers for IRA Retirement Accounts
February: Improve your credit score
Your credit score is important for so many reasons. There are the obvious reasons—qualifying for the best rates on mortgages and car loans. But there are some less obvious reasons that your FICO score matters—getting a job, securing lower premiums on car insurance, or even renting an apartment. So if you credit score is not in tip-top shape, make 2013 the year of excellent credit.
Resources:
How to Improve Your Credit Score
March: Tackle your debt
There’s no greater feeling than getting rid of all your debt. My wife and I have struggled through everything from credit card debt to car loans to school loans. But with a determination to avoid new debt and a lot of hard work, we finally became debt free. And key for us was (1) avoiding new debt, and (2) earning a side income. It’s the side income you don’t hear much about when you read articles about tackling your debt. But it’s the best way to supercharge your efforts to climb out of debt.
So make March your month to begin the journey to financial freedom.
Resources:
How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt
The Debt Snowball | How to Get Rid of Credit Card Debt Fast
Best 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers (yes, 0% credit cards can help you get out of credit card debt faster and cheaper)
April: Audit your spending
I love this approach to budgeting. Rather than setting aside a certain amount to spend on eating out or buying clothes, audit your monthly bills. The idea is to go through every one of your monthly bills (e.g., rent or mortgage, cable, Internet, cell phone, insurance) and ask these questions about each one of them:
- Do I really need this service at all (e.g., a home telephone, a second car);
- If I do need it, can I get it from my current provider for less, and
- Can I get the service from another provider for less.
This approach can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month, and without changing your lifestyle one bit.
Resources:
Money Saving Tips – 95 Painless Ways to Save Money
Save Money | 97 Frugal Living Tips
How to Find Extra Cash to Put Toward Your Debt
May: Rebalance your investments
Diversifying your investments enables you to maximize your returns with less risk. As the stock and bond markets fluctuate, however, the amount of each that you have in your portfolio changes. The same is true of large cap versus small cap investments, and U.S. versus foreign investments. As a result, it’s important to rebalance your portfolio once a year. It’s an easy thing to forget about, but should only take most folks about an hour or less to do.
Resources:
How to Rebalance Your Investment Portfolio
My Annual Investment Portfolio Tune-Up: The Asset Allocation Plan
June: Get in shape
It may seem odd in a list of personal finance and investing resolutions, but getting in shape has a lot to do with finances. Your physical condition affects the premiums you’ll pay on both life insurance and individual health insurance. Staying in shape will reduce the number of days you miss work. And your condition has a direct affect on your stamina, which goes a long way toward your productivity at work and life.
July: Rethink insurance
Insurance is a necessary evil. While we wish we could forego the premiums, insurance plays an important part in protecting us from the unexpected. But we should still examine our policies once a year to see if we could lower the cost. There are several ways to reduce the cost of insurance. We can increase our deductibles, lower our coverage, or shop for less expensive options. The key is to evaluate your insurance needs each year to make sure you aren’t paying more than you must.
Resources:
Car Insurance Deductibles: A Complete Guide to Picking the Right Deductible
How Much Life Insurance Do You Really Need?
15 Auto Insurance Discounts You May Be Missing
August: Save for emergencies
This is the first step toward financial freedom. It’s a great feeling to know you’re not living paycheck to paycheck, and that begins with an emergency fund in an interest savings account that covers at least one month of expenses.
Resources:
How to Build an Emergency Fund
Should a Credit Card Act as Your Emergency Fund?
September: Start tracking your net worth
It’s not how much money you make that matters. It’s how much you keep. In fact, I know lawyers that make in the top 1% of wage earners, but spend everything they make and then some. Sure they make a lot of money, but their net worth is abysmal. So start tracking your net worth and focus on how you can increase it over time. It should be the measure of your financial independence, not how much you make.
Resources:
Three Important Ways to Calculate Net Worth
October: Save for your child’s education
If you haven’t started already, it’s never too late. Ok, it is too late if your kids are grown. But for the everybody else, funding a 529 Plan is a great way to save for your child’s education. If you haven’t started one, now is the time. And if you do have one, make sure you fund it each year.
November: Study
The one thing blogging about personal finance has taught me is that you never stop learning. No matter how much you study money management, investing, financial planning, or business, there is still more to learn. While learning should be a continual process, it’s helpful to take one month out of the year to focus on learning new things that can help your finances. So put down the Steven King novel (although 11/22/63 is fantastic), and pick up a good book about money.
Resources:
The 7 Best Personal Finance and Investing Books
December: Dream
This one probably should have been listed in January. So often we focus entirely on the here and now. We focus on paying the bills, getting the kids through school, what’s for dinner, and whether our boss really appreciates our hard work. While these are all important, it’s worth stepping back and looking at the big picture. Even in my late 40s I continue to ask what I want to do when I grow up. I hope I never stop asking that question. And sometimes we need to shut out all the distractions in order to truly listen to our dreams. They are in each of us; we just need to find them.
Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018.
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