Amy Zheng, DMC
As part of my new year’s resolution, my goals are to lower my credit card bill, increase my savings per month and start contributing to my Roth IRA retirement account.
To complete my first two goals, I would like to keep better track of where my money is going by creating a budget and having a target amount for my credit card bill. I make all of my purchases, except for utilities and rent, on my primary credit card. This past year, my bill would sometimes be more than one $1000 a month! A majority of my extra spending went towards food and eating out at restaurants. To decrease my spending on food, I would like to limit my restaurant expenses by decreasing my spending to $50 a week or $200 a month. In addition to budgeting my food spending, I included an entertainment budget of $100 per month for any clothing, bar and special occasion purchases. By constraining my spending on food and entertainment, my goal is to have a monthly credit card bill of $803 a month.
At the beginning of the new year, I have opened a Roth IRA to complete my goal of contributing to a retirement account. Currently, all of my savings are in my savings account. However, this account has extremely low interest rates, 0.03%. So, I am losing my savings to inflation. By moving my extra savings and trying to maximize my Roth IRA contribution, I will be able to make my money grow.
These are some of my financial goals for the new year. I hope that this post has given you some ideas of how to plan your finances for this new year.
To complete my first two goals, I would like to keep better track of where my money is going by creating a budget and having a target amount for my credit card bill. I make all of my purchases, except for utilities and rent, on my primary credit card. This past year, my bill would sometimes be more than one $1000 a month! A majority of my extra spending went towards food and eating out at restaurants. To decrease my spending on food, I would like to limit my restaurant expenses by decreasing my spending to $50 a week or $200 a month. In addition to budgeting my food spending, I included an entertainment budget of $100 per month for any clothing, bar and special occasion purchases. By constraining my spending on food and entertainment, my goal is to have a monthly credit card bill of $803 a month.
At the beginning of the new year, I have opened a Roth IRA to complete my goal of contributing to a retirement account. Currently, all of my savings are in my savings account. However, this account has extremely low interest rates, 0.03%. So, I am losing my savings to inflation. By moving my extra savings and trying to maximize my Roth IRA contribution, I will be able to make my money grow.
These are some of my financial goals for the new year. I hope that this post has given you some ideas of how to plan your finances for this new year.
