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“Improving Finances” was listed by 38% of respondents to Forbes Health/OnePoll survey.  That’s a lot of us who want to change our finances.  I’m confident that resolution is a re-run for many of us.

If you’ve thought about ‘improving your finances’ before, and haven’t made the change that you wanted; if you’ve tried to tackle where your money is going, how to get a grip on whether you’re going to be okay in the future, if you can afford to [fill in the blank] and still [fill in the blank], I have a few tips for you to get you from saying it to doing it.

Pick small steps- by small, I mean SMALL. (ironic, I know) Clarifying one thing at a time is progress and will build your financial foundation.  Need examples?  Figure out your monthly take-home income if you’re not sure where your money is going.  Listen to a podcast episode on money if you want to build your knowledge and comfort with finances.  Need recommendations?  Follow me on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn for future posts on this.

If you are changing any of your habits, give yourself time to solidify the change.  “A new habit” is actually two steps- you have to stop the old habit and start a new habit.  On average, you need 66 days to form a habit if you do it every day.  Some of your financial goals may not happen every day, so do two things with this information:

     ◊  make a plan to check in with your habit at least weekly to keep momentum (even if that’s just a reminder of ‘hey, my RSP limit this year is $45,839 sticky on your mirror)

     ◊​   be kind to yourself if you need to re-start when the old habit took over.