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 It is enough to make you want to throw your hands up and not make
resolutions at all. Like Cheryl Chen, a freelance writer in southern
California.
"I used to do New Year's resolutions, and then never kept them,"
said Chen, 27, who stopped making resolutions altogether around
three years ago. "I don't see the point in all the pressure.
Everyone is always asking about them."
But before you swear off resolutions forever, check out new data
from mutual fund manager Fidelity Investments. Fidelity's
just-released New Year's Resolutions study discovered that making
financial resolutions does, in fact, help get your fiscal house in
order.
In fact, of those who nearly or completely achieved their resolution
for this year, 56 percent said their finances had improved. Of those
who fell short, only 34 percent reported better money circumstances.
"Financial resolutions are actually relatively easy to achieve,"
said John Sweeney, Fidelity's executive vice president for
retirement and investing strategies. "With diet or exercise, you
have to get up every single morning and resolve all over again, but
with something like a 401(k) payroll deduction, you just set it up
once at the beginning of the year, and then it becomes part of your
lifestyle."
In the Fidelity survey, 37 percent of those surveyed planned on
making financial resolutions for Jan. 1, up from 31 percent last
year.
The top three financial resolutions: "saving more," cited by 54
percent of respondents; "spending less," with 19 percent, and
"paying off debt," with 16 percent.
The secret fears driving those money resolutions? Most said
unexpected expenses, the economy and healthcare costs in retirement.
All the financial pledges in the world will not mean a thing if you
have no firm strategy for how to pull them off. So how do you go
from resolution to actual achievement?
It comes down to forming an action plan.
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"If it's a few seconds to New Year's and you're just throwing
something up in the wind, then it's not going to work," said Dr.
John Norcross, a psychology professor at the University of Scranton
who has conducted multiple studies on the subject. "It requires
preparation. You have to be serious about the endeavor."
For those who are dedicated to their goal, the statistics are pretty
impressive: Norcross found that 46 percent of people were able to
keep their resolution for at least six months.
"We actually stopped doing the study, because we found the exact
same thing every time," Norcross said. "People should be comforted
that achieving your resolutions is possible."
His main trick for success? Deliberately design your life so that
you are more likely to succeed and not just rely on willpower alone.
That means making realistic and attainable goals, publicly declaring
them so that others will encourage and help you, and rewarding
yourself for your successes.
It also means tracking your progress, avoiding environments where
you will fail (if you are trying to lose weight, don't walk by that
French patisserie), and allowing yourself the occasional slip-up,
Norcross said. Draw up a specific plan in place for when you screw
up, and gobble down a donut or two.
After about three months, the new routine will have taken over and
your behaviors will become automatic.
(Editing by Beth Pinsker, Lauren Young and Steve Orlofsky)
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