Have You Kept Your Financial New Year’s Resolutions?

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) January 28, 2005

This New Year, 31 percent of Americans who planned to make a New Year’s resolution focused on firming their finances, according to Bankrate.com – but many have likely fallen off the bandwagon already. Typically, only half of people who make a resolution keep it. Five tips from Freedom Financial Network will help you get back on track.

1. Get back on the horse. If you’ve bogged down already, work to change long-term habits. Try building a monthly budget in weekly increments. If one week doesn’t go well, make a fresh start the next week.

2. Set goals. Do you want to eliminate your credit card debt, save 10 percent of your income for retirement, cut back spending by 40 percent? Set specific goals, and then plan to meet them.

3. Make a plan. How will you reach your goal? Eating out less or sticking with a cash budget can trim excess spending. Writing down every penny you spend daily will show you where the bucks go. Then, identify where to cut – or if you’ll need a second job to finance your dreams.

4. Work your way up. To eliminate debt, first make sure you can make all minimum payments. (If you can’t, consider seeking help from a consumer debt resolution organization such as Freedom Financial Network.) Then, pay as much as you can on the highest-rate card and make minimum payments on the others. After you pay off the first card, apply the same principle to the next highest-rate card, and so on. “It can take a while to pay everything down, so don’t get discouraged,” said Brad Stroh, founder and co-CEO of Freedom Financial Network. “If you’re persistent, eventually, you’ll eliminate debt.”

5. Stay inspired. Reward yourself for small milestones, Stroh suggests. If you’ve slashed your entertainment budget to pay off one credit card, tell yourself when it’s done, you’ll treat yourself to a movie out. If you want to eliminate debt to buy a home, post a picture of your dream home where you can see it regularly.

Freedom Financial Network, LLC (http://www.freedomdebtrelief.com) provides comprehensive consumer debt resolution services. The company’s services offer an alternative to bankruptcy, credit counseling, and debt consolidation.

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