Odds are, as the ball dropped in Times Square (along with your promises to drop 20 pounds and finally clean out your closets), you vowed this would finally be the year you would really get serious about saving for retirement or putting away money for your kids’ college. Or maybe you decided this would be the year that you would finally pad your emergency fund.
According to Fidelity Investments’ seventh annual New Year Financial Resolutions Study of 2,013 adults, the number of Americans ringing in the new year by making financial resolutions is on the rise, with 37 percent considering one, compared with 31 percent in 2015, a trend that reflects the improving economy.
And that’s great. Of course, conventional wisdom holds that virtually everyone who makes a resolution in January will forget about it until (sigh) it’s time to make one next year.
Countless theories seek to explain why our goals seem doomed to flop, according to goal-setting and financial experts. But fingers crossed. Maybe if you know beforehand why you’re expected to fail, you’ll be able to avoid some common goal-setting mistakes — and actually succeed this time.
Your goals are too vague. You want to save money, but you don’t settle on a concrete amount. You declare that this is the year you’re going to fix up your home, but you have no strategy for how to save the money for those home improvements. Sound familiar?
One of the biggest reasons goals fail is that they’re nonspecific, says Tim Wolski, a business and life coach in East Providence, Rhode Island. They also tend to be unrealistic and unaccompanied by an action plan, he adds.
For instance, maybe putting away more money for your kids’ college education, while a noble and wonderful idea, isn’t what you need to be doing in the year you’re replacing your roof or going through an expensive divorce.
Deb Del Vecchio-Scully, a licensed professional counselor and clinical trauma specialist in Trumbell, Connecticut, seconds the idea that most goals aren’t specific enough.
If you really want to succeed, she says, be smart, or rather make your goals SMART, which stands for simple, manageable, achievable, realistic and time-limited.
For instance, try having an extra $50 deposited into your 401(k) each pay period, she suggests. “Most people won’t miss money if they never actually receive it either in a paycheck or in direct deposit,” she says.
Your goals are dull. Sad, but true: Financial goals sometimes aren’t very exciting. At least with losing weight, you can envision being healthier and perhaps hearing compliments about how much younger or more svelte you look. But the idea of replacing your home’s aluminum siding or making this the year you hire an estate attorney might not deliver that same thrill.
Cynthia Ackrill, a physician turned leadership coach who specializes in stress management, says a common goal-killer is when you lack enthusiasm for your goals.
Think about how motivated you are by looking at a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being extremely motivated, suggests Ackrill, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia. If your goal-enthusiasm level is below an 8, Ackrill thinks your odd of success are pretty thin.
That doesn’t mean you can’t generate some excitement for even the most lackluster financial mission, though.
“Look at the why’s,” Ackrill says, explaining that you need to decide why you want to achieve a goal. If you feel you should have a particular goal, then you’re also in trouble, she adds.
“Why is your biggest motivator. Should sets you up to fail,” Ackrill says.
Vecchio-Scully agrees. “Many times, people make resolutions because they feel they should, but not because they truly want to or are invested in making the sacrifices,” she says.
Your resolutions are too dependent on the new year. Meredith Liepelt, an Ohio-based strategist who specializes in personal branding, says she has worked with business owners on goal-setting for nearly a decade.
“From what I see and experience myself, people don’t keep resolutions that they make for the new year because [they] think of them as something they should do when the calendar flips into the new year, but they aren’t totally committed to them,” she says.
It comes back to the aforementioned motivation, according to Liepelt. “Your commitment to a goal is everything, no matter what day you make it on,” she says.
But there’s another problem with equating your goal with the beginning of the year, says Scott Alan Turner, a Lewisville, Texas-based professional blogger who runs a personal finance podcast.
Too many people forget about their goals the farther they get from Jan. 1, Turner says.
To combat this amnesia, you must write down a plan to achieve whatever you’re setting out to accomplish.
“A goal that isn’t written down is a wish,” he says. After committing your goals to paper or screen, “the next issue is reviewing the goals daily, weekly and monthly to see if they are on track,” he says, adding that sticking a goal to your bathroom mirror “so you see it every day” is a shrewd way to keep your goal or goals on your mind.
“It’s a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for,” he says.
Your goals aren’t addressing your environment. It’s great to be goal-oriented, but the first goal on your list perhaps should be to address some of the obstacles that often hinder you from achieving, well, anything.
Stress often collides with goals, Ackrill says. Who you hang out with and where can also sink your objectives.
“Human behavior and choices are very influenced by the cues around us and the connections we have with the people around us and in our lives. It’s hard to eat healthy in a doughnut factory surrounded by fat friends,” Ackrill says. “Put temptations out of sight. Surround yourself with the cues and people that support your best conscious and subconscious decision-making.”
Of course, that may be easier said than done, if, say, a spendaholic spouse or a bunch of hungry teenagers are constantly torpedoing your bank account. But still, thinking about whether your environment is hurting your financial goals is worth considering. It can be awfully difficult to rewire your brain to incorporate new habits and behaviors if you have a toxic family member or friend crushing your dreams, or you have significant stress in your life, like a demanding job.
“Stress derails [the brain’s] ability to stay focused, motivated and change behavior,” Ackrill says.
And, of course, if you have a stressful situation that is that bad, maybe that’s the problem you should be working on. In other words, resolve to reduce your stress — and save the other goals on your list until (sigh) next year.
More from U.S. News
50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2015
11 Ways to Save Time and Money
10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now
4 Reasons You Won’t Keep Your Money Resolutions This Year originally appeared on usnews.com
