
March is coming to a close; summer is approaching fast. New Year resolutions are merely forgotten, and excitement of increased cash flow has dissipated as tax refund season is coming to an end. The good news is most Americans are satisfied with how we spent our cash surplus. The bad news, our surplus is now yesterday’s joy.
The average tax refund in 2019 was approximately $3000 (Keenan, 2019). Did that help kick start us into sustained financial freedom, or are we back to living check to check? Why is it that every time we get a little extra cash, it goes out quicker than it came in? Why is it that our February excitement turns into March blues year after year? How can we change the pattern in 2019, allowing ourselves to feel as free as we thought when we swiped our phone on or around February 15th and saw our bank account had increased by 300 percent?
We look in the mirror every day asking ourselves these questions, but we never know who to ask or what to do for answers. Today we are going to focus on what it means when thirty- seven percent of millennials age 25-34 utilizing those funds to pay off personal debt compared to twenty- eight percent for the average American (Huddleton, 2019). We are also going to focus on what it means when only eight percent of Americans including millennials maximized the opportunity of increased cash flow to booster their savings (Huddleton, 2019). Today we are going to focus on how to turn 2019 around financially with structure, discipline, and action.
Structure:
1. Look Over Financial New Year Resolution.
"Eighty percent of New Year Resolutions fail by the second week of February." (Mulvey, 2017)
2. Write Down 3 goals you want to accomplish in 2019.
People who write down their goals are 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish them"(Murphy, 2018)
3. Review Your Monthly Expenses, Separate it out on a piece of Paper
4. Review Your Average Take Home Pay
Discipline:
1. Re-write your Financial New Year Resolution
2. Create 3 Task You must do every day to accomplish your goals (Set Milestone Goals)
3. Create A Budget based off Your Take Home and Monthly Expenses; Include a savings plan (Monthly, Weekly, Daily)
"19 Percent of Americans have $0 saved to cover emergency expenses and 31 percent have less than $500, and only 1 in 3 Americans maintain a household budget." (Debt.com, 2019)
Action:
1. Look at your New Year Resolution Every day and Read it out loud to yourself
2. Complete your daily task and Read your 2019 goals out loud to yourself everyday
3. Consistently check your bank and credit card transactions against your budget on a weekly basis.
4. Celebrate your financial Savings Milestones
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
References:
1. Keenam, M (2019). Here's the average IRS Tax refund amount. Retrieved from https://www.gobankingrates.com/taxes/refunds/average-tax-refund/
2. Huddleton, C (2019). Here's the No.1 Thing American Do with their tax refund. Retrieved from https://www.gobankingrates.com/taxes/refunds/what-americans-do-with-tax-refund/
3. Mulvey, K (2017). 80% of New Year Resolutions fail by February, here's how you keep yours. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/new-years-resolutions-courses-2016-12
4. Murphy, M (2018). Neuroscience Explains Why You Need To Write Down Your Goals If You Actually Want To Achieve Them. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2018/04/15/neuroscience-explains-why-you-need-to-write-down-your-goals-if-you-actually-want-to-achieve-them/#5569d2b37905
5.Debt.com (2019). Personal Finance Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.debt.com/statistics/
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