With the start of the new year, many people are intent on their new year’s resolutions. You’ve probably got a few of them, even if they aren’t official and written down, or have at least been thinking about a few things you’d like to change. Obviously this blog has a financial slant on these goals, but I hope that you’re able to achieve any and all goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Like I briefly touched on above, you ought to accurately define your goals and write them down so that there’s no mistake as to what you’re trying to achieve. If you don’t define your goals and write them down, a couple of things will happen to them. Eventually you’ll forget about them (or just ignore them). You will also continue to change and redefine them over and over usually to make them easier to achieve. It’s difficult to attain a goal that’s always in flux.

So what are some specific goals that would be good to work on this year? It will be different for everyone since we’re all in different places financially, but here are a few suggestions:

1. Pay off/down your debt. If you’re making this a goal this year, make sure to attach a specific number to it and a completion date. Don’t be vague with this one or it’ll never happen.

2. Increase your savings. You’ll want to again make this one specific and also make sub-goals to go along with it. Perhaps part of it will include increasing your 401K contributions like was mentioned at Money Ning. You also might want to start automatic transfers into savings or increase the amount if you’re already doing this.

3. Develop another income stream. This isn’t a goal for everyone, but I know it is for a lot of people. It might come by starting a new business or from an investment, but you’ll want to have a date set by which you want to accomplish this. Otherwise it’ll just linger out there and never get done.

4. Learn about investing. This is a goal that I think everyone would do well to have. It won’t cost you anything except for your time. You can find a wealth of knowledge at the public library and learn about everything from stock market investing, mutual funds, to real estate investing. We’ll also be talking about this stuff here at Fiscal Musings so you’ll want to make sure and subscribe to the feed.

Whatever your goals are, I wish you the best in attaining them. I’m sure there are also a bunch of you out there that would like to lose some weight and be healthier in general. You should also find some way to quantify these goals and, of course, write them down. It’s going to be a great year, and I look forward to making progress with all of you.

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