Resolutions Slipping? Techniques for Getting Back to your Money Goals for 2023
Techniques for Getting Back to your Money Goals for 2023
As a person who works closely with money, I know that on the journey to meeting one’s financial goals, there are many roadblocks, ups and downs, and that nothing ever goes quite as planned.
So, as we ease into and through the second month of 2023, as most new year’s resolutions (goals, intentions, whatever you want to call them) have slipped to the backs of our minds where they would like to hide out until next January 1st, it’s a great time to think about some techniques we can utilize to get back to living our intentions around better money management. So, if it feels like your financial goals are slipping or have already slipped away from you, instead of writing those goals off for 2023, try working through the steps below.
Step 1: Pause
Take a break from money for a few days or a week. If possible, try to take a break from even your non-discretionary spending. I understand that in some cases, it’s not possible to go a week without spending at all (after all, bills, groceries, gas, and a few other items exist, sometimes with pressing timelines). But give yourself a break from all but the most essential spending and money decisions. They can wait. And likewise, don’t think about your savings goals during this time either. Just pause.
So much of our behavior around money is habitual and compulsive. It either feels good and successful, or it feels bad and out of control. And when we’re trying to create new habits, it can be almost impossible to see our way out of the space we’re in if we can’t get a break from it. Try to think of it as a money fast – you may not be able to go a month without spending, but challenge yourself to a few days, just to clear the system and the head. Use this opportunity to find a neutral headspace to work from.
Step 2: Assess
We deviate from our saving and spending goals for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, those reasons are not entirely within our control and sometimes they are. Sometimes it’s kind of a mix. From your neutral headspace, sit down and assess (honestly, and without judgement if possible) why you feel like the last week or month or two or three months have not been as financially well aligned as you wanted them to be. A few common reasons (more than one of which may be true for you) are listed below.
- Some small or large unexpected expenses came up
2. You got carried away with spending in one or more of the following categories
a. Eating or drinking out
b. Just general shopping for myself or others
c. Entertainment or travel
3. You had an unrealistic idea of you were spending when you made your budget
4. You have friends or family who rely on you or ask me for financial support and you feel unable to say “no” to them
5. Your kids have gotten used to a certain style of living and it feels impossible to explain to them why your family might need to make some changes
The important part is not to fix the problem at this step, it’s to be honest about what it is that’s causing you to deviate from your financial goals.
Step 3: Revisit Your Goals
Remind yourself of why you set these goals in the first place. Are you trying to improve your current life, your kids’ lives, care for your future self, get out of debt, just get a little more breathing room and control over your money so you feel less stress.
Don’t pretend like it’s just not that important, because you wouldn’t have set the goal (year after year, in some cases) if your current money situation wasn’t leaving you feeling a little or a lot less than great. Financial health is an important component of your overall health and self-care. And it’s important to acknowledge the impact improving (or not improving) your financial habits will have on your overall quality of life now and in the future.
Like any major change, you must constantly remind yourself of why this is important for you. How will it make your life better?
Changing habits is hard. Money habits are some of the hardest to change, and if you aren’t revisiting regularly why you are making these changes, it will be almost impossible to make them.
Step 4: Revisit the Plan, and Adjust if needed
The work you did in step 2 is important for this step, so if you haven’t done it yet, make sure to take the time to do it. If you don’t know how you got off track in the first place, you may not see where you need to adjust.
This is the time to put a clear plan in place to deal with the things that took you off course in the first place. How will you avoid being in a situation where you’re busy, hungry, and feel like you have no alternatives but to eat out? What systems do you need in place to curb excessive retail spending? What overall budget adjustments need to be made if this plan is going to be successful? (I challenge you to avoid the trap of thinking that everything in your budget is something that you and your family can’t live without). How will you practice prioritizing yourself and your family’s financial goals when others come to you with their financial needs? What conversations can you have with your kids to make them understand that for the financial well-being of your family, you may need to change some of the things you regularly purchase.
Step 5: Rinse and Repeat
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this is a one-time thing. It’s not. I help people with this for a living, and even I go through these steps regularly. For me, they’ve become automatic, they’re built into monthly routines that make me take time out of my schedule to interact with my money, how I’m spending it, how I’m saving it, and how it’s helping me live my most well-aligned life. And yes, the routines themselves come with more automaticity over time, but the need for them does not go away.
One of the most important delusions to cure ourselves of is the one that suggests that if we just get the right plan in place, we won’t have to revisit and re-adjust. But we do, constantly. Financial progress is not about financial perfection. It’s about regularly interacting with your money and your spending, trying to minimize self-financial harm when you do get off course, and finding ways to course correct regularly, habitually, and sustainably, rather than making a grand gesture towards it once a year.
So, if you’re actually here to make a real change to your long term spending and savings habits – consider what you can do now, not a year from now, to get back on track with your money resolutions for 2023.
Connect with Lorri to discuss your goals today.
