Making and Keeping Your Financial New Year’s Resolutions

As the end of the year rolls around, many people start to think about New Year’s resolutions, and often that involves their personal finances. According to the Statista web page "What Are Your 2022 Resolutions", financial goals were the fifth most common type of resolution. But what can you realistically achieve? And is it too late to make a positive change in your finances? If you use the resources available at the Mercer County Library System, you can follow through on your financial New Year’s resolutions at every stage of your life.

Maybe you’ve just graduated and have gotten your first job. Now your financial resolution might be to start building your credit and saving towards retirement. If so, then you may want to look at Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties. It shows you how to stay within a budget, build your credit, and start investing wisely.

Maybe you’ve established yourself in a career, put some money in stocks, but you find that it just isn’t enough to get to your financial goals. One resolution that could speed you along towards those goals is to get a “side hustle.” This is when you start a business to make extra money, but you still keep working your 9-5 job, at least initially. So You Want to Start a Side Hustle goes through everything the prospective entrepreneur needs to fund and market a side business. If you’re really adventurous, maybe you made a resolution to quit that 9-5 job altogether. Side Hustle to Main Hustle takes you through the steps that will get you from an employee with a side business to a full-time business owner.

If you’re not that ambitious, maybe you’ve made your financial New Year’s resolution to do one simple thing: pay off your debt. Debt 101 can help you understand, manage, and strategize paying off your debts. It outlines all types of debts in simple, easy-to-understand language. And if you’ve made some financial mistakes – we all do – you can make a resolution to correct them. Clean Up Your Credit gives you a DIY guide to reestablish your credit and increase your credit score.

If you have all that taken care of, maybe you want to think more about investing. If you’re young and just started to save towards retirement, the perfect book for you might be Stocks for the Long Run. This popular title explains why the stock market fluctuates and shows you how to be a long-term winner in stock investing. Some online resources that can also help are: Financial Ratings Series; Morningstar Investment Research Center; and Value Line Investment Research – all listed under Business and Finance resources on the library’s website. 

Maybe your financial resolution is not for yourself, but for your children. Make Your Kid a Money Genius lays out how to teach your kids about budgeting, building credit, and making good decisions about their financial future.

What if you’re approaching retirement and haven’t yet reached your retirement goals? The 5 Years Before You Retire shows you how to maximize your retirement income, find a good financial planner, and navigate the complexities of Social Security and Medicare. What if you’ve already retired? It’s still not too late! You can check out How to Make Your Money Last. This book shows you how to get the most out of all the financial resources that are available to you when you retire.

So, whatever your financial New Year’s resolutions, the resources of the library can help keep them this year and in all the years to come!

- by Michael K., West Windsor Branch