Traditionally, this is the time of year when we reflect on the past year and consider the ways we can be better, healthier, happier and crush our new goals!

For many people, New Year's resolutions are financial — you may want to earn more, spend less, or save up for something big like a home, car, education or even retirement. Even if inflation or a setback hit you in the wallet in 2023, the new year is a new opportunity to get back on track.

Here are a few steps you can take to get the year started off right. (And we’re here for you! If you need help with your budget, want to discuss loan options or want to automate your savings, the financial professionals at CommonWealth One are just a phone call or an email away. Contact us here!)

Take Stock of Your Holiday Spending
The saying goes that the first step to solving a problem is identifying it! Those credit card bills with your holiday shopping will be arriving soon, and you should take a close look at them! Did you spend too much on certain people or on certain days? Figure out why that happened and start planning ahead for next year. (See Pay Yourself First below for a tip on how to do that.)

Create Your Budget
If you don’t have a monthly budget, that’s a great place to start this year! Go back and look at your spending and income over the past few months, and then make a list of all of your normal expenses and income streams. Assign a dollar amount to each expense category. If your columns are equal, or your income is more than your expenses, you’re doing great! But, if your expenses are more than your income, you’ll need to trim your spending or find ways to increase your income. After you’ve created your budget, or if you already have one, resolve to stick to it each month. You can use one of the many budgeting apps, like YNAB^® or MoneyTools within digital banking, to help.

Trim Your Spending
It’s time to kick old habits to the curb! Sometimes it’s easy to stop eating breakfast at home and just pick up something from the coffee shop on the way to work. Are you eating out more or ordering takeout more often? Are you spending more on clothes? With prices still high from recent inflation woes, you may be spending more than you realize, and a lot of it might not be necessary. Identify your weak points and brainstorm for ways to start spending less. Small change today adds up to big bucks tomorrow.

Pay Yourself First
An emergency fund is your financial safety net. Experts recommend having three to six months’ worth of living expenses in your emergency fund. Resolve to build an emergency fund this year by setting aside a small sum of money each month until you have a nest egg that can get you through virtually any emergency.

The best way to do this is to automate it! You can simply ask CommonWealth One to divert part of your bi-weekly paycheck into an interest-generating savings account. You can use this automated savings trick to start saving up for a vacation later this year or save money to use for 2024’s holiday shopping.

Go Back to School
Last (but certainly not least!): Invest in yourself without spending money! There are plenty of free, useful resources to bolster your financial education. The world is changing fast and keeping up with your financial knowledge will make you a savvier consumer this year.

CommonWealth One has a huge number of free educational resources for our members, including webinars, classes you can take on your own time, articles and videos!

This year, CommonWealth One will be presenting a series of webinars. The first one in the series is "Mastering Your Money: A Guide to Creating an Effective Budgeting" on Tuesday, January 23 at noon. Then, we’ll present "Reaching Your Financial Goals" with GreenPath on Wednesday, January 24 at 1p.m. You can sign up at cofcu.org/events.

We’re here for you, for life, for all of your goals this year. Have a wonderful 2024 and thanks for being a member of CommonWealth One!