Resolving to Keep New Year's Resolutions

We’ve been talking a lot about New Year’s Resolutions here and on the road at some of our favorite morning shows. When I wrote these savings tips for New Year’s Resolutions I really wanted to make sure to mimic what I would personally be focusing on in 2014. This is going to be a big year for me! I recently got engaged and as I’ve shared before I’m running my first marathon, so here’s how I’ll incorporate these tips into my life in 2014 in a financially responsible way!

Get in Shape – Since I will be donning a wedding dress in 2014, I certainly want to get in better shape. I’m currently more than halfway through marathon training so that definitely helps keep off the pounds! Since I don’t want to spend too much money, I am using the free Nike Running app to track my miles, courses, calories burned, pace, etc. Running long distances alone can be dangerous and boring, so I’ve been recruiting friends to go with me on my long weekend hauls. I’m also being a little bit more conscious about what I eat (refer to wedding dress comment) so I have been using the LIVESTRONG MyPlate app. I put in key information like my age, weight, and desired goals and it tells me how many calories I should eat a day to achieve my goal. It will also calculate any calories burned when working out. So far, so good… but check with me in a month!

Travel – Everyone loves to take a vacation now and then and if you frequently travel for work like I do, you rack up quite a few flyer and hotel points. For my birthday in February, I will be able to fly my fiancé and myself to Las Vegas for free! Likewise, I’ll be getting a discount at our hotel with my Hyatt Gold Passport points. When we do book our honeymoon though, I certainly plan to follow the advice I always give and use our coupon site to do comparison shop for the best travel coupons!

Improving Finances – Being a “savings” expert, one wants to make sure they’re giving good, sound advice and this year I’m really focusing on my finances in a big way. I’m vowing to not put anything on my credit card that I cannot pay off right away, because if I don’t have the money to pay for it, I simply cannot afford it. Likewise, I’m really concentrating on retirement this year. I’m going to do the research to make sure I’m contributing the most to my 401k through work but also work with my financial planner to maximize my other savings accounts. With the wedding happening this year, I’m going to have to remind myself that while it can be easy to go overboard with decorations, vendors and accessories, I have to minimize unnecessary spending.

Getting Organized – I’m a pretty clean and organized person, so I try to stay on top of this throughout the year. I do a big closet purge a couple of times a year and last week was my first of 2014. I took some clothes to my local consignment store to sell. Usually I make around $100. This time, I only made $40 and while I was bummed it wasn’t more, I also didn’t take as much. Then I went Goodwill and donated the rest. Finally, I had some papers lying around in my guest bedroom so I used a Marshall’s gift card and purchased organizers for these documents and pretty baskets to keep them in so my guests won’t see my clutter.

I’m looking forward to 2014 and hope that I can truly “practice what I preach.” What are your resolutions for the New Year? Tell me in the comments below!