It’s that time of year again, dust off your old notebook that you haven’t looked at since last December and review your old New Year’s resolutions! If you were able to accomplish your resolutions or goals, what a great feeling that is! If you haven’t been able to accomplish those goals or resolutions, you have a clean slate to start off this year, it’s really a win/win situation. We all want to be better versions of ourselves and improve our overall quality of life, no matter what that means to you. The real question is, how can we help ourselves achieve these goals that we’ve set for us? How can we better set ourselves up for success rather than failure? Many of us will set health goals for this coming year, so let’s take a look at what the experts at Medical News say…
Start Small: When it comes to making health goals, start small. Begin incorporating small, sustainable changes into your lifestyle that you can stick with, not just the ones that sound good but you know you’ll never maintain.
Plan Ahead: Whether you’re married or single, your first date in 2021 needs to be with your grocery story. It’s much easier to make wise choices if you have healthy options readily available.
Be Accountable: A lot of people fall off the wellness wagon within a few short weeks after setting goals, so set yourself up for success. Place a reminder or check-in on your phone, or send a prescheduled email to yourself. Include reminders of why you’re working on the goals, and ask yourself the questions you know you want to confidently answer when the reminder comes through.
Rest: We underestimate the simple power of being rested. Before you start making any huge health changes that require great effort, consider your sleeping patterns. There may be room for some simple improvement that goes a long way. Changes might include making a point to get more sleep in general, or working on improving the quality of what you already get. When you are well-rested, you make better decisions, plan better and typically embrace life with a better attitude all the way around.
What about Financial goals?
Some of us may want to focus more on padding our wallets than trimming our waistlines this coming year. If you are in that camp, lets discuss some goals that you could set for yourself that could help you achieve your overall financial New Year’s resolution.
Buy less coffee. That seems like an easy one to start with, just buy less coffee. Maybe you could try to brew your own coffee at home rather than grabbing one on the go, to keep your coffee fix but still save yourself some money. Maybe going to a single cup coffee maker would save you money by not throwing coffee away. Either way, limiting the money you spend on coffee can easily be a first step toward saving more money.
Walk more. If you are spending money on cabs, uber rides, or other forms of transportation in Cleveland, or wherever you travel, think about walking more to save yourself some money.
Save $100-$300 a month. If you can just start saving like you don’t have the money in your account, your life might just automatically adjust. Sometimes you have to just start saving money to save money!
Shop less, buy better quality. You might be able to actually save money by spending money, how you might ask? You could look at buying a quality product over buying multiple products with lower quality. Don’t go crazy with this tip, but if you could do this on a case by case basis you might be able to save yourself money in the long run. Many people have heard the quote, “spend more now, to save more later” and in some cases this could help you out!
Reduce or eliminate drinks out. If you spend a lot of money, or don’t yet realize how much money you spend on drinks when you are out and about, you might want to start taking inventory of this. Drinks are incredibly marked up at restaurants and bars, so an easy way to save is to not go out or invite people over to your house/apartment instead.
Pay off your credit card debt. This should be high on your list to accomplish if you want to start getting financially “healthy”. Credit cards can rack up large amounts of accrued interest which means you will actually pay more for items in the long term than paying cash up front. Sometimes you prefer to use a credit card, and that’s fine, but you need to try to pay it off as soon as possible to save yourself money.
Eat in, not out. Much like our tip on limiting your money spent on drinks, you should try to eat at home as much as possible since there are obviously mark ups on food that you consume at restaurants and other eating establishments. If you can pack your lunch every day, that should actually save you quite a bit each and every week. Give it a try, and see how it works for you!
Take care of your health. Lastly, we will go back to the health resolution and explain why it can actually help your financial goals. If you are sick often you spend more money on medicine and doctor visits, if you miss work due to illness or injury you can actually earn less money. Overall, being physically fit can help you save more money. Aside from saving you money, it can help keep you in a better mood and improve your overall quality of life!