Happy New Year!
A couple of random thoughts to start the year:
Don’t make resolutions!
A lot of people make resolutions – eat healthier, lose
weight, stop smoking, get finances in order, etc. And chances are, most of
those resolutions are already broken and we’re just a few days into the New
Year.
Instead of making resolutions, make achievable goals and
reward yourself for making progress towards those goals. Small steps towards a
goal are better than beating yourself up for not keeping a resolution.
Speaking of goals…
Now that the holidays are over, many people are going to
start suffering the post holidays hangover. Too much food. Too much drink. Too
many presents. And huge credit card bills on their way.
Make a goal this year to really get your finances in shape. Pay
down that debt and start saving.
Yes, you can still go to Dunks in the morning.
Why don’t resolutions stick and diets don’t work? Because
they are all about denying yourself something you enjoy. To get finances in
order, people think – and many articles write about – that they can’t go get
their coffee in the morning anymore. And while brown bagging lunch can save
money, it does get tiring after a while. Man can only survive on sandwiches and
frozen dinners for so long.
To find money to pay down that debt and/or save, find a
different way. Look at expenses that don’t impact your lifestyle such as your
auto insurance premium, credit card interest, or even tax withholding.
Speaking of taxing issues…but not really taxes
January is also the time when your tax information is used
to fill out that tax-ish looking form called the FAFSA – the college financial
aid form used by most colleges.
Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting some parents who
were discussing college financial aid.
And some had indicated that they didn’t think they were even going to
qualify for any aid, so they weren’t planning on filing the FAFSA.
While not exactly true, in some ways, financial aid is a zero
sum game. That means, for every
dollar a college doesn’t give your child, that dollar become available –
potentially – for another child.
So, to the parents who were planning on filing the FAFSA, I
gave them very clear instructions if their kids were applying to the same
schools as the parents who weren’t going to file – give those non-filing
parents a BIG HUG! And say thank you.
After all, if parents don’t file, then they definitely won’t
get any need-based financial aid. Not
filing is the #1 mistake people make.
See the other 6 big mistakes here.
The filing parents just laughed. The non-filing parents just gave me dirty
looks.
And speaking of thank yous…
Thank you to everyone who has helped me or allowed me the
opportunity to help them this past year.
Happy New Year!
