The secret to making successful financial New Year’s resolutions – Daily News

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

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The start of a new year can bring a surge of motivation around setting new goals, including financial resolutions.

One way to help those goals become reality, financial experts say, is to make them as specific as possible. Then, track your progress, while allowing flexibility for unexpected challenges.

“It’s easier to track progress when we know where we are going,” says Sylvie Scowcroft, a certified financial planner and founder of The Financial Grove in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

That’s why she encourages her clients to set clearly defined goals, often related to paying off a specific debt, saving a certain amount per month or improving their credit score.

Here are more tips from financial experts about crafting 2025 financial goals:

Pick your top priorities

Trying to accomplish too much can feel overwhelming. Instead, pick your priorities, says Cathleen Tobin, CFP and owner of Moonbridge Financial Design in Rhinebeck, New York.

She suggests focusing on those big, often emotionally-driven goals to find motivation.

“It’s more compelling than just a number,” she says. For example, do you want to make sure you’re on track for retirement or save money for a house? “Start there.”

Be as specific as possible

Scowcroft says she sees clients get tripped up by selecting overly broad goals, such as “get better with money.” Instead, she encourages people to select specific action items, such as “sign up for a budgeting tool and set aside time each month to learn where my money is going.”

That level of specificity provides direction so you know what steps to take next, she adds. For example, if your top priority is to become debt-free, then your specific goal might be to pay off an extra $200 of your debt balance each month.

Tobin says labeling savings accounts so they correspond with goals can also help. An emergency fund could be named something like “Peace of mind in 2025,” so you remember why you’re saving every time you make a transfer.

“It’s more motivating than just ‘emergency fund,’” Tobin says.

Track your progress

Measuring your progress as the year unfolds is also a critical component of successful goal setting, Tobin says.

She compares it to weight loss. If you want to lose 20 pounds by June, then you need to lose about a pound a week for the first six months of the year. Similarly, she says it helps to break savings goals into microsteps that specify what you need to do each week.

Schedule a weekly or monthly check-in with yourself to make sure you are meeting those smaller goals along the way. You might want to review your debt payoff progress or check your credit score, for example.

“Being able to break it down into steps that can be done each week or twice a month really helps,” Tobin says.

Automate where you can

If your goal is to save more money, then setting up an automatic transfer each month can help turn that goal into reality, as long as you know you have the money in your checking account to spare.