New Year New Resolutions

New Year New Resolutions

It’s that time of year. The presents have all been opened, the food has been eaten, and it is time to welcome a new year. A new year of fresh possibility. That’s right; it is time to put together a fresh plan. It is time for our annual New Year’s Resolutions. We hope that you enjoy our New Year New Resolutions post.

I like to approach my new year’s resolutions in two parts; professional and personal. Now professionally I have tons of goals and resolutions. It’s something that I think about all the time and for me at least the new year represents an opportunity for me to put all of those thoughts to paper in an organized fashion.

When writing my professional resolutions, I like to first pull out my previous years list of goals. I then typically spend a little time reflecting on how well I did in meeting my goals. I ask myself what worked, and I ask what did not. To me, this looking back process is the first step to looking forward. I figure if I don’t know where I’ve been, I can’t possibly know where I’m headed. Once I’ve done that I pull out my pen and begin writing my new goals.

What I end up with becomes a road map that I revisit often throughout the year. Now I don’t expect to meet every resolution written down. But that’s ok. I feel like if I can at least knock some of those resolutions out, I have made progress. To me that’s what this whole life thing is about; you don’t have to be perfect, but you should be working towards a goal. You should make some progress.

Now my personal list I generally approach in the same way. I look at where I have been, and I ask myself where I want to go.

For me this year my focus is on personal fitness and financial stability. I spent a good part of the past year losing a ton of weight, which was good. It was progress. But now that the weight is off I want to become fit. That means I am committing to lifting weights, running miles, and just generally pushing myself physically. It means hitting the gym and training. My goal is to be able to run at half marathon by the next new year.

In terms of financial stability, a big one for me this year is planning and saving more for my kids education. Now I don’t know what those kids are going to become when they grow up, but I do know that I have to give more thought to how we as a family will make their dreams a reality. I have two kids now that are officially teens, and there is a third kid that isn’t all that far behind. In another eight years, I could potentially have three kids in college. Pulling that off is going to take a plan.

My wife and I did start saving early for our children. I knew that was the big key to attacking the cost of college. If you start saving when the kids are babies, even if it’s just a little every month, by the time they are ready to go you will have a nice chunk of cash to help offset costs.

Even though we have been doing this, I still want to revisit the problem for the new year.  Education costs have risen dramatically over the years, and it I NEED to know that we will be ready for the costs of college when the time comes.

Having a second set of eyes to take a look at a problem is sometimes a great solution and one that we can definitely get behind as a family. Taking simple steps with COUNTRY Financial means that their experts can help you come up with a plan that will work for you. We hope that you enjoyed our New Year New Resolutions post.

This New Year New Resolutions post is sponsored by COUNTRY Financial but thoughts are opinions are my own.