It’s that time of year again. As the calendar rolls over, we often see things in a fresh new light, taking the changing of the year as an opportunity to make resolutions about ways that we want to improve or change things going forward. The idea of a fresh start for yourself is always appealing. Begone with the bad habits that have built up over the last year. Instead, they will be replaced with habits that will improve my life. If you are in the camp of believing in setting a resolution as a way to improve yourself (recent polls in the US indicated that 37% of people surveyed plan to make a resolution), then this list is for you! The second most common type of resolution people make every year is to improve their personal finances (the first-place finisher is to improve personal fitness), so I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of some of the more common resolutions that Canadians make and provide some tips on how to stick with them. Remember, a resolution that you make without a plan on how you’re going to implement it will almost certainly fail. It is much closer to being a wish at that point in time.
In This Article:
- The Keys to Successfully Following Resolutions
- Resolution #1 – ‘I’m going to make a budget. And I’m going to stick to it!’
- Resolution #2 – I’m Going to Save More for my Future this year!
- Resolution #3 – I’m going to work to have a better understanding of my financial situation.
- Want to Keep Those Resolutions? Work With a Professional!
The Keys to Successfully Following Resolutions
In order to help with our list, we are going to also look at a short list of five key things that you can do to make your resolutions stick. By making sure that the resolutions that you make can be backed up by some (or all) of these factors, you increase the chances of having success in sticking to them.
- Make your goals specific and measurable. Behavioral science shows that telling yourself that you plan to ‘be smarter with your money’ doesn’t have enough concrete information for your brain to act on. Instead, use something like ‘I will save $100 a month in my TFSA’ as a goal. This is exactly what your plan is, and it is measurable, so you know if you’re being successful or not.
- Set up systems that don’t rely on motivation: Your motivation to stick with a resolution will falter over time. If we continue to look at the example of the $100 a month into the TFSA, rather than relying on your memory and motivation to do this every time, automate it so that it happens without needing action from you. That way, when your motivation fades, the action continues.
- Start small: Too much too soon is a common theme for why many resolutions fail. When you try to make too many big changes too quickly, you often see that there is a perceived failure, and that leads to abandoning the resolution altogether. Instead, aim for small changes that you can win on, scale your successes up, and build on your wins.
- Be accountable: Having someone else know what your resolution is makes it harder to give up on. If you’re the only one who knows a change you’re trying to make, quitting quietly happens easily when the going gets tough. If you have someone else who knows your goal (a financial advisor that you work with is a great accountability partner), it makes it harder to just quit when the going gets tough. Human nature leads us to follow through on more things when we know that someone else is paying attention to what we are doing.
- Plan for failures: The reality is that there will be failures when you are trying to make changes in your life. What is essential is that you avoid the ‘all or nothing’ thoughts that go with small failures. If one of your financial goals is to save money by eating less take-out meals, and you slip up one week and have Skip the Dishes deliver you lunch, that doesn’t mean that you’re a complete failure and you need to give up on your goal. Keep going after small failures. Being resilient matters more than being perfect when it comes to changing your behaviours over time.
Resolution #1 – ‘I’m going to make a budget. And I’m going to stick to it!’
This is a really common financial goal. The idea of creating a budget for yourself and then never deviating from it sounds wonderful. Think of all of the money you’ll be able to save when you lay out strict guidelines that limit what you’ll spend on things like groceries and entertainment expenses every month! Unfortunately, the idea of ‘living on a budget’ carries a lot of negative thoughts with it to begin with, and can lead to you ‘failing’ very quickly if you aren’t careful. Remember the keys to success of starting small, making your goals measurable, and planning for failure. All-or-nothing thinking really defeats a lot of people who want to live with a budget. When they have one bad month, they feel like the plan is shot, and they give up entirely. If you add in the accountability of working with an advisor who will help you build a cash flow plan (kind of like a budget but often less rigid) and focus on small, measurable successes, you can definitely build great habits when it comes to making and sticking to a budget.
Resolution #2 – I’m Going to Save More for my Future this year!
Another common goal is that everyone loves the idea of saving money that will help them achieve their future goals. What they don’t seem to like is that this often comes at the ‘expense’ of adjusting their current habits by reducing spending in one way or another to make money available for savings. This is a great example of how having a specific, measurable goal that starts small can help you be successful. If your goal is simply to ‘save for the future’, you can’t really measure whether or not you are successful. Likewise, if your goal is to save hundreds of dollars that you don’t actually have again you are setting yourself up for failure. Try choosing a specific goal like the one mentioned earlier, save $100 a month in a TFSA. This goal is specific and measurable. Then make sure that whatever amount you choose as your savings goal doesn’t leave you feeling strapped for cash every month because you’re trying to do too much. Pick an amount that easily fits into your cash flow plan, and the chances of success are much higher. Then, build off that feeling of success and watch your savings grow.
Resolution #3 – I’m going to work to have a better understanding of my financial situation.
This is a wonderful goal to have because, for many people, they simply don’t know enough about their financial situation. Where does the money go every month? Am I missing opportunities somewhere? Who is the beneficiary on my life insurance? What do I actually own? These are all questions that we should know the answer to. Here are a couple of specific examples of things you can do to understand your financial situation more clearly:
- Organize yourself. For many people, they don’t have a simple, all-in-one place snapshot that shows what they have, how much it is worth, and who manages it for them. Having this type of organization makes your life much easier by simply knowing where things are, and if you were to pass away unexpectedly, it really can help your executors make sure they don’t miss anything.
- Understand your employee benefits. Too many people have an employer-sponsored retirement plan and don’t take advantage of it. In many cases, your employer will match contributions into the savings plan up to certain amounts. If you aren’t aware of this type of offering or don’t understand how it works, you could be missing out on substantial amounts of money that comes from someone else and would be for your retirement.
- Know your credit score. Understanding your credit score and what you can do to improve it is essential to understanding your financial situation. Make sure that you understand what is influencing your credit and how to make the best of what’s in your control to ensure that you aren’t met with an unpleasant surprise the next time you apply for a loan or mortgage somewhere.
Want to Keep Those Resolutions? Work With a Professional!
When it comes right down to it, many of the tools to make and stick to a financial New Year’s resolution can be helped by working with a financial advisor. People often feel like they need to ‘get their finances in order’ before they reach out to an advisor for help. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The advisor should help you get them in order; they should also be able to help you get a clear picture of your current financial situation and set those measurable, achievable goals that will give you the wins that feel so good and help you stick to your plan. Working with the team at Strata Wealth & Risk Management will help you in so many ways when it comes to setting and achieving your goals. From smart planning to having an advisor who works on a plan with you and keeps you accountable, having a great financial advisor on your team is key to resolution and maintaining success. So if improving your finances is on your list of resolutions for 2026, working with an advisor can help you make it past ‘Quitter’s Day’. Haven’t heard that term before? Quitter’s Day refers to the second Friday in January, when motivation has faded, and resolutions slip away into old habits. For 2026, that is the 9th of January. Working with a professional is a great way to make it past that day with your goals intact and a plan on how you’re going to keep meeting your targets and have a successful year.
