Three New Year’s Resolutions Everyone Should Make
Building from Nathan’s post last week…and in the seasonal spirit of making resolutions for the New Year…here are three New Year’s resolutions that we highly recommend you add to your list for 2016:
1. “Live Life to the Fullest”—In a recent survey from GoBanking Rates, this idea ranked as the top resolution for 2016. We agree that enjoying life with your family and friends, creating new experiences, and achieving personal goals are important…but they are hard to do when you are worried about your money. For that reason, we recommend that everyone make the next two resolutions as well…
2. “Save More”—Americans are short by $7.7 trillion in order to retire comfortably according to recent calculations by the Pension Rights Center. In order to not be a part of this statistic, we all need to save more for retirement. This time of year is the perfect time to tick your retirement savings up a notch. Many annual salary adjustments take effect in January, whether is it cost of living adjustments or raises—so, when you increase your contribution to your company retirement plan by 1-2%, you often don’t even notice the money missing from your newly adjusted paycheck. Do this for several years in a row, and you will get to that 10-15% goal that Nathan referred to in his last post.
3. “Invest well”—According to the 2015 Blackrock Investor Pulse survey, 72% of Americans do not see investing as a good way of putting money towards long term savings goals. In fact, half of those surveyed had negative feelings about investing, and over 60% of millennials felt that investing was just like gambling. It is a fascinating report, and we highly recommend that you go read it for yourself, but basically Blackrock concludes that we need to convert the disciplined approach that we take towards savings and apply it to investing. And we absolutely agree—many of us are great savers, but we fail to build on that strength and invest prudently for long term growth. If you need help building a disciplined investment plan, please contact us…it’s what we love to do.
We wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year—and let us know if we can support you in your resolutions for 2016!