New Years Financial Resolutions

 Summary

The transcript summarizes a financial advice podcast focused on 2024 New Year's resolutions to improve personal finances. Key topics include regularly checking credit reports, utilizing employer financial wellness benefits, eliminating unnecessary subscriptions, using cashback credit cards, consolidating high-interest debts, reassessing insurance coverage, getting preapproved for a mortgage, creating detailed financial plans, living below one's means, maximizing retirement contributions, aligning with your partner's financial goals, combatting inflation by saving early, taking control of interest rates, and building an emergency fund.

Chapters

Introducing the Podcast and Host

The host Ralph Estep Jr. introduces the Ask Ralph financial advice podcast and the topic of financial New Year's resolutions for 2024, citing a study showing increased interest in making finance-related resolutions.

14 Financial Resolutions for 2024

Ralph outlines 14 financial resolutions including: checking credit reports, using employer financial benefits, eliminating subscriptions, getting cashback cards, consolidating debts, reassessing insurance, preapproving a mortgage, creating detailed plans, living below means, maximizing retirement, aligning with partner, saving to combat inflation, controlling interest rates, and building an emergency fund.

Closing Thoughts

Ralph concludes by emphasizing the need to plan ahead, share the advice with others, and visit the podcast website to leave questions.

Welcome back to the Ask Ralph show where we provide financial advice to help you make smart decisions. As we enter into this new year, many of us are thinking about resolutions and ways to improve our lives.

Today we're focusing on financial New Year's resolutions for 2024. According to a recent study from Wallet Hub, almost half of all Americans plan to make finance-related resolutions in the coming year.

That's 36% more than last year. And the good news is that more than half of those who make resolutions believe they'll keep them for a full year. However, not everyone expects it to be easy. The study also found that roughly 40% of those surveys say sticking to their financial plan this year will be harder than it was last year.

Additionally, 25% think that 2024 will be worse for their wallets compared to 2023. So stay tuned for our New Year's resolutions and things you can do to improve your finances in 2024.

Welcome to the Ask Ralph podcast. We're listening to an experienced financial professional can help you make sense of confusing questions current headlines and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting, Ask Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real-world knowledge with all things financial. Now here's your host, Ralph Estep Jr.

So, the answer to the question is, so what can you do if you want to make positive changes in the year ahead but you're unsure how?

Well, I'm glad we’re doing this today because that's exactly what we're going to talk about. Planning ahead and setting clear financial resolutions can greatly improve your overall financial health.

With many Americans looking to make finance-related resolutions this year, we have compiled a list of the top financial resolutions for 2024. We've come up with fourteen of these, I'm sure there's more, but let's dive into our fourteen financial New Year's resolutions for 2024.

Resolution number one, check your credit report regularly. I talked about this in other podcasts. It's very important that you regularly check your credit report as it offers a detailed look at your credit history.

Don’t just look at your credit score. See, there's more to your credit report than a score. You need to study this. You need to look at it and see what's going on. It will help you spot potential fraud and ensure accurate information is being reported.

So that's resolution number one. Get a copy of your credit report, review it, and if you need to make changes, correct things, go ahead and correct them. Let's move on to resolution number two.

Take advantage of employer-offered financial wellness benefits. A lot of companies offer these. The importance of utilizing all the financial wellness benefits offered by your employer is vital. These benefits can help you reach your retirement goals and ease financial anxiety.

A lot of businesses have financial advisors that help them manage their retirement plans, and they'll sit down with you free of charge and go over your goals. So I definitely recommend utilizing them.

So, let's move on to resolution number three. Eliminate unnecessary recurring subscription fees. Wow, this is a big one. I wrote a book about mastering your finances and one of the things we talk about there is looking at where your money's going.

We suggest auditing your subscription fees to identify and eliminate unnecessary expenses that can add up over time. And it's not that complicated, folks. Well, that's your bank statement, your credit card statements, and see what you're spending money on.

It's amazing to me when I sit down with people to do financial counseling, how many people have no clue how much they're spending on these recurring subscription fees that they're not even using. Resolution number four, use a cashback credit card for most purchases.

We recommend using a cashback credit card instead of a debit card as credit cards offer additional benefits such as purchase protection, warranty protection, and travel insurance. Now, of course, with that comes the plan that you've got to pay this balance off every month so that you're not carrying a balance and incurring interest.

But they really do offer some benefits as compared to using your debit card. Now, a lot of people will argue with me about that, but if you can manage your finances correctly, a credit card is not a bad word.

Let's move on to resolution number five. Refine and consolidate high interest variable debts from credit cards. So, if you found yourself in that credit card debt trap, we advise considering refinancing or consolidating high interest variable debts into a personal loan with fixed monthly payments and flexible features to alleviate the burden of debt.

Now, yeah, be careful of these. Make sure that the interest rates make sense. If you're paying high interest rates on a credit card, it doesn't make any sense to jump into a personal loan with a high interest rate as well.

And you know, mortgage interest rates have gone up, so I would normally tell people to go look at a home equity or a refinance, but that may still be an option. If you're paying a 22 or 24% interest rate or I’ve seen 30% interest rates on these credit cards.

Refinancing to a home equity loan or a home medical line of credit, even though the rates are a bit higher, is still better than paying those outrageous credit card interest rates. Let's move on to number six.

Reassess your insurance coverage annually. A lot of people don't do this. We emphasize the importance of reassessing insurance policies to account for changes in your home's value. Expanded coverage needs.

It's lifestyle changes or new financial goals. Insurance is not one of those things where you set and forget. It's important that you take a look at those insurance policies every year and see if you need to make any changes.

Let's move on to resolution number seven or lucky seven. Get pre-approved for a mortgage and set a comfortable monthly budget. We suggest getting pre-approved for a mortgage to know your purchasing power and setting a comfortable monthly budget that factors in insurance and maintenance costs when planning to buy a home in 2024.

So this one is one of those, if you're planning to buy a home in 2024, we really give you the advice of getting pre-approved for a mortgage and making sure that even though the bank says, well, you can afford a mortgage payment of X, that you're really comfortable with that and it fits with your budget.

Before you even start shopping, you’ll meet with a mortgage broker, go online and check out some of the online calculators to see what you're comfortable with. And don't forget, we did a mortgage podcast a few days ago.

Don't forget about the other fees associated with the mortgage, such as your property taxes and insurance. Let's go on to resolution number eight. Nail down the details of your financial resolutions.

We advise being specific with financial resolutions, there's an old idea of what gets measured, gets done. For example, increasing 401K contributions or directing half of monthly contributions in the Roth accounts.

Having a detailed plan helps track progress towards long-term goals. So we really advise you to sit down and draw out your plans. If your plan is to increase your 401K, then put a plan together to do that.

Meet with the people at your company that oversee those things and make sure you make those adjustments. Don't wait till it's too late. Resolution number nine. Learn how to live below your means.

And this is a big one. We encourage living below one's means as it provides a cushion for unexpected expenses, savings towards goals and reduces financial stress. Listen, if you're living below your means, you are going to live in a place where you're not stressed out all the time and worried about making those payments.

But that's something you must really work towards and something you must be really planning to do. Let's move on to number ten. Consider maximizing retirement account contributions. This is a no brainer if you can afford to deal with your budget.

We suggest taking advantage of increased maximums for investment accounts like 401Ks and IRAs and 2024 to save for retirement. Exploring options and seeking professional advice is crucial before making any decisions.

Don't just do this on your own. If you talk to a financial advisor or a tax professional like me, every year they increase the amount that you can put into retirement plans. So, look at that and see, could we afford to put more into that?

So if not, you really leave the money on the table. Number eleven, create a plan with your partner. We recommend discussing individual financial goals and values with your partner. Regular reviewing and adjusting the financial plan together to ensure alignment with changes in life and priorities.

If you're a team, if you're the typical husband and wife, a team, this is something you guys need to discuss together. So many times in my practice, I've seen where husband and wife are on different pages.

And when it came to tax time, you could obviously see that there were differences in the way they were viewing the world. Let's move on to resolution number twelve. Save and grow money for retirement as early as possible to combat inflation.

This is the old adage of start your retirement as soon as you start working. We emphasize the importance of saving and investing early on to fund retirement. Understanding how inflation affects future expenses helps determine necessary savings amounts.

Let's move on to number thirteen. Take control of interest rates. We recommend exploring options such as balanced transfer credit cards or personal loans that bring down interest rates before waiting for the Federal Reserve's actions.

Negotiating lower rates directly with card issuers can also be effective. You can call these credit card companies and say, listen, can you put me into some sort of reduction in the interest rate for six months or something like that and see what they have to offer?

It doesn't hurt to ask. This is number fourteen and I believe this is the biggest one. If you really truly want to put yourself in a good financial position for 2024, that is to build an emergency fund. It's sad how many people don't have these.

It's important to set aside a permanent, rainy-day fund separate from other savings. This needs to be carved out separate. It needs to be a thing that's not easily accessible. You don't want to be able to go get this from your ATM card or with your credit card or online.

This provides a safety net for unforeseen expenses that may arise throughout the year. Like I said at the beginning, these are just some of the top financial New Year's resolutions we recommend. By implementing these resolutions into your own financial plans for 2024, you can take significant steps towards improving your overall financial health.

Now listen, be sure to share this podcast episode with your friends and family who may also benefit from what we've talked about today in these 2024 financial resolutions. And don't forget to visit our podcast page at www.askralphpodcast.com where you can leave us a review or like I've said before, click on the little microphone icon down the bottom right and leave us a voicemail message with any questions you have and we'll answer them on future episodes.

This episode was brought to you by Saggio Accounting Plus, your trusted experts in tax accounting and consulting. Listen folks, thanks for joining us today on the Ask Ralph show. We wish you a prosperous and financially healthy New Year, but you have to plan for it and set your resolutions in place and then do what you say you're going to do.

Thank you for joining us on the Ask Ralph podcast. And with a simple click to subscribe, we'll invite you back to our next episode. And remember, financial issues don't have to be complicated. Just Ask Ralph.

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