Well, 2019 is here and nearly two weeks are under our collective belts. How are you doing with those new year’s resolutions? Or as a witty little photo on Instagram called them: your casual and in-no-way-legallly-binding promises to yourself?
Personally, I don’t make resolutions. Hats off to those of you who do, but I prefer not to disappoint myself on a regular basis. My preference is to consider my options, assess my likelihood of completing one of said options, and then making a plan to complete whichever option I have deemed worthy of pursuit. I do this throughout the year, and I reserve New Year’s Day for family, friends, food, and fun!
This year, I spent part of January 1 listening to Paula Pant. She’s the wise woman behind the website Afford Anything. I’ve been following her for the past couple of years and I have to say that I like the cut of her jib. This year, Ms. Pant released a list of 26 items that you should be tweaking in order to get closer to your financial goals. I would suggest that you give this podcast a listen and figure out which ones work for you.
After listening to Ms. Pant’s podcast, I was very happy to realize that I’m doing, or have done, many of the things that she suggested. For example, I have an estate plan in place. I track my net worth and my daily spending. I’ve implemented the anti-budget into my life.
And if you want to know what I think you should do with your money in 2019, I’ve got my own list. There’s no particular order of importance since I believe that all of these tips will help you to achieve all of your short-term and long-term financial goals. Here you go!
- Contribute to your Tax Free Savings Account. The contribution limit for 2019 is $6,000. Your cumulative lifetime TFSA contribution room is $63,5000. If you cannot max out your TFSA, do what you can by contributing as much as possible without violating the contribution rules.
- Automate the money sent to your investment accounts and your sinking funds (see item #10). Limit your daily expenses to whatever’s leftover after your automatic transfers have funded your future goals.
- Stop paying bank fees by switching your chequing and savings accounts to Tangerine or Simplii. These are two online banks that do not charge fees for deposits, utility payments, debits, transfers, or e-transfers. Remember – paying bank fess is an injury you inflict on yourself!
- Cook at home more than you do now. There are literally millions of free recipes on the Internet. There are just as many free cooking lessons on YouTube. Practice makes perfect so get in the kitchen and start preparing homemade food that’s tastier than anything you can buy commercially. To get you started, here’s a marvelously easy recipe that I found for making a delicious buffalo chicken casserole.
- Beef up your emergency fund unless you already have 9 months worth of income set aside. If you have to use your emergency funds, replenish these monies as fast as you possibly can so that you’re ready for when the next emergency strikes.
- Don’t take on any new debt. If you think you’ll need to buy something significant in the next year, then start saving money for it so that you pay cash – see item #10.
- Cut the cord. TV’s purpose is to convince you to spend money. If you cannot cut the cord completely, reduce your cable package and figure out how to stream TV shows from the Internet.
- Lower your credit card limits to what you can pay off in full each month. If you can’t pay more than $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, whatever-amount, then that should be the absolute limit of credit available to you. The goal is to stay out of debt. There’s no need to have a credit card limit that’s higher than your monthly take-home pay. A higher-than-strictly-necessary credit card limit is a temptation to spend that you don’t need in your life. Call your credit card company and tell them to NEVER raise your limit without your express request to do so.
- Increase the amount of money that is automatically transferred to your investment accounts. See items #4 and #7. Whatever money you’re not spending on eating out can be re-directed towards your investments.
- Create sinking funds to pay for annual expenses, such as annual insurance premiums, property taxes, birthdays, holidays, travel, anniversaries, anticipated large purchases, etc…. Allocate money from each paycheque towards theses expenses. When the time comes to pay for them, the money will already be in place waiting to be spent.
Financial goals are rarely attained overnight. You’re the only one who knows exactly what you want from your money. And while I’ve provided you with this little list of money-to-do’s, you’re the person who has to live with your money choices. Hopefully, my suggestions (and those of Ms. Pant!) will take you closer to your financial dreams as you embrace all that 2019 has to offer!