Our Personal Finances

How does the old adage go? “Time flies when you are having fun.” Well, we are in the midst of the winter fun. Halloween has passed, before you know it we will be preparing for Thanksgiving, and then we’ll go straight into the Christmas rush. That is why now is a good time to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions like setting up a budget – you might need this lower debt or even eliminate debt.

I, for one, am already thinking about what I can do differently with our personal finances once the New Year starts. I usually start thinking about such matters well in advance for a number of reasons. First, when I start this early I can collect all kind of ideas long before I actually need them. (I jot them down on little notepapers so that I don’t forget.) I also make a financial inventory to check up on my net worth – this gives me an idea of what I should do in order to improve my net worth. I collect ideas in advance about what needs to be done so that I can take my time to decide which of my ideas I want to make into reality.

That brings me to the second reason why I start thinking about New Years’ resolutions now. I need to prepare myself. For example, I plan to keep track of our household expenses in the New Year – at least for a few months. That will give me an idea how to set up a budget that fits realistically with my actual expenses, instead of one that’s too severe in the belt-tightening department to realistically stick to. With a realistic budget, I will know which household expenses to cut back once we’re ready.

An early step to take in preparing for any financial New Year’s resolutions is to talk with family members who will be called upon to participate in order to make the resolution work. In my case I will talk to my wife about my ideas, and ask her to share her ideas with me. We will both have to come to an agreement which ones of our financial resolutions we want to keep if we’re going to make any headway in reaching our goals for the year. For example, what good would it do us if I recorded all my expenses and my wife did not? I’d never know if we’re sticking to our budget! Clearly, my wife and I will need each other’s support with our financial New Year’s resolutions so that we can actually keep them.

After I’ve got the agreement of the household members with their hands in the family purse on the plan to tighten our collective purse strings, there are plenty of ways to get started in making the actual plan. I could use the free budget software offered by our website, vilkri.com, or I could use some others that are available. Or, I could decide instead to buy some software. Or, I could spend the time to set up my own spreadsheet. I bet you can guess which one will be my choice! But that does not mean I think my choice is the best one for everybody – you’ve got to invest your time and money in what you think will work for you, and in a plan that you think you might be able to stick to. But the time to start, in my opinion, is now. I want to be prepared to implement my New Year’s resolutions in less than two months’ time.