The new year is an excellent time to consider new goals, including financial goals. However, most of us can agree that it’s difficult to accomplish our annual financial goals. Often, we suffer from burnout, doubt, and frustration.
Luckily, there are plenty of financial goals you can accomplish in just a few months’ time. All you have to do is plan, work hard, and commit to it. Here are 6 financial goals you can accomplish in three months or less.
1) Save for your Emergency Fund
Don’t have an emergency fund? There is never a better time than now to start saving.
No matter your ultimate emergency fund goal, you can achieve a lot in just three months’ time. All you have to do is prioritize your budget.
Even a $500 rainy day fund will go a long way in protecting you in the event of an emergency. If you are aiming to start saving in an emergency fund, you can start small.
There are plenty of ways to start saving for an emergency fund. Whether you cut back on expenses, save your tax return, or start side hustling, you will likely find that with some concentrated effort, you can start saving for an emergency fund in no time.
2) Create a Budget
Are you a kind-of, sort-of budgeter? If so, now is the perfect time to get a start on your budget.
If you are new to budgeting, or just haven’t found the right budgeting tool yet, check out Tiller. Tiller links to your bank accounts, so you can export all of your information into customization Google spreadsheets. If you are a spreadsheet fanatic, you’ll love the capabilities of Tiller.
3) Start Contributing to a Retirement Plan (or increase your current contribution)
Can you ever really save too much for retirement? It’s doubtful. People can always benefit from having more money set aside for retirement.
If you haven’t started contributing to a retirement plan, now is a great time to start. If you work for an employer, see if they have any type of retirement plan available through your job. Most times, you can have money taken right out of your paycheck so you can save with no effort on your part. If your employer offers to match your contributions, try to save enough to at least receive the full match. Otherwise, you are leaving money on the table.
4) Pay Down your Student Loans
While it may be impossible to pay off your student loans entirely in just three months, it is possible to make progress in lowering your overall balance.
For the next three months, put every extra dollar you have towards your student loans. Work on increasing your income and putting that money towards your debt as well.
To get started, set your goal number – meaning, declare what you want your new student loan balance to be at the end of the three months. Calculate how much you will need to pay off each month in order to reach that goal. Once you have that, you will need to look at your budget to see where you can take this money from. Can you cut back on an area of spending? Cancel a bill? Pick up a side gig to increase your income? Every little bit helps!
Read Student Loan Solution: 5 Steps to Take Control of your Student Loans and Financial Life, which is available on Amazon.
5) Save for a vacation
Hey, it can’t be all work and no play! Everyone deserves a break once in awhile, and a vacation could be just what you need.
You can afford any vacation you want – you just have to save accordingly. Now is a great time to start looking ahead and making vacation plans for later in the year. Decide where you want to go, what you want to see, and calculate the associated costs.
Create a separate savings account for your vacation fund – that way, you won’t be tempted to use the cash for something else.
Related: The Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards
Bonus: Increase your income
Want to earn more cash? You can focus on earning more money in the next three months.
You don’t have to spend months developing the most creative business venture in the next three months in order to start making cash. There are plenty of side hustles you can start today. Whether you want to start freelance writing, baby sitting, blogging, selling on Etsy, or something else, it’s easy than you think to start increasing your income.
Need some ideas? Check out our long list of side hustle ideas.
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