Forget About New Year's Resolutions

Resolutions are easy to quit: Most people realize the vast majority of people never follow through with the New Year's resolutions. Even if you tell family and friends about them, they tend to be so general that nobody will hold you accountable because it's impossible for anyone to measure them.

Instead of a general financial resolution, make a specific goal and ask friends and family to support you in trying to reach it. Provide numbers to keep you more honest. Doing so makes it much harder for you to quit.

Resolutions lack the required preparation: Financial resolutions are usually made while thinking about what you would like to change, but forgetting to think about how you are going to go about that change.

Making changes requires preparation, work, patience, stamina and discipline to succeed. If you don't conduct the initial research and preparations on how you are going to make the resolution succeed, there is a very good chance you'll never achieve it. Most New Year's resolutions are simply statements or wishes made without any planning.

Resolutions are negative: Even before you begin your New Year's resolutions, you probably already have little hope for success, especially if you have set a similar goal in the past. When you make financial resolutions year in and year out, it becomes easy to believe they are impossible to accomplish. By moving away from resolutions to concrete financial goals, you place yourself in a position to positively move toward achieving them.

Break any resolution into smaller financial goals, research and plan how you are going to accomplish each by setting up a step-by-step plan and measure your progress along the way. The key is creating the opportunity for success.