Make Your Resolutions Stick
December 13, 2022
Each new year is filled with promise. Whether you’re hoping to run a marathon, declutter your home, eat more healthfully, or launch a new business, a plan of action can help you achieve your resolutions in 2023.
If you have financial resolutions, we share tips to help them stick:
- Review your long-term priorities. Nearly half of married Americans argue about money, and financial disagreements are a leading cause of divorce.1 Having productive conversations about your goals and agreeing with your spouse on a strategy to achieve them helps you align financially and become more confident about the future. Your Washington Trust Wealth Advisor takes the time to understand what’s important to you and your family to ensure that your wealth plan is personalized to your goals.
- Create a realistic and actionable plan. Rome wasn’t built in a day. When you have significant, long-term objectives, such as saving enough for a comfortable retirement, funding your children’s and/or grandchildren’s college education, or making a consequential purchase (like a vacation home the whole family can use), it’s helpful to set smaller, achievable goals. For example, you can maximize your retirement savings contributions each year, regularly deposit money into a College Savings 529 plan, and earmark assets toward your wish list. A realistic and measurable action plan with small, incremental steps helps you move closer toward your goals.
- Monitor your progress. Be accountable to yourself as the new year unfolds. Periodic check-ins throughout 2023 will help you stay on track and give you the opportunity to make revisions when necessary. Your Washington Trust Wealth Advisor is available to help you re-evaluate your situation to help you stay on course.
Write Down Your Goals
Tracking your goals, as you do in your wealth plan, helps you prioritize and internalize them, and makes it more likely you will achieve them.2
Sample 2023 Goals
Long-Term Priorities |
2023 Action Plan |
Periodic Check-In |
Save 80% of forecasted in-state tuition costs by 2035 to help send the grandkids to college |
Set up a 529 plan and deposit $ each month through automatic transfer |
Review balance quarterly and adjust deposit amount if necessary |
Retire by age 65 |
Maximize retirement contributions, including contributions to Healthcare Savings Account (HSA) and invest strategically |
Meet with Washington Trust Wealth Advisor to review progress |
Ensure assets are left to children and grandchildren with a well thought out estate plan – we can help you with this |
Review beneficiary designations on all financial accounts with your Washington Trust advisor |
If there are any changes to family or wealth situation, review beneficiary designations on all financial statements |
Your Washington Trust Wealth Advisor helps you create your action plan
Speak with your Washington Trust Wealth Advisor to ensure your wealth plan reflects your priorities. We are committed to helping you achieve your financial resolutions — because your goals are important!
Not yet working with a Washington Trust Wealth Advisor? Please contact us to learn more!
1 This common behavior is the No. 1 predictor of whether you’ll get divorced, MarketWatch, January 10, 2018.
2 Neuroscience Explains Why You Need to Write Down Your Goals if You Actually Want to Achieve Them, Forbes, April 15, 2018.
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