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If you’re ready to get your personal budget on track, it’s time to make some resolutions and stick to them.

Protect Your Family

Start putting cash away into an emergency fund.

  • Make sure you have great health insurance so that an illness doesn’t wipe you out financially.
  • Check that your life insurance covers your family should the worst happen.
  • Don’t invest anything until the above three steps have been taken.

Increase Your Income

Apply for any available promotions at work. Take on a side hustle if you need to increase your income drastically. It can just be a few odd jobs here and there if you have any free time. Drive for Lyft on your way to work or look into selling some home goods that may be valuable. There are so many side gigs available out there. You just need to find what works for your schedule.

Take Inflation Seriously

Don’t just look at the CPI (consumer price index) as an inflation gauge. The CPI number is a broad range across several costs to arrive at an average for all of them. However, your personal amount of inflation could be significantly higher or lower. How inflation affects you depends on where you personally do your spending. Inflation is at an all-time high right now and will probably just go up from here.

Set Goals for Yourself

Goals come first. What you invest in and how much you invest always need to align with goals. This will vary according to your age, marital and family status, career, health, and other factors.

Set yourself some attainable financial goals. Whether it’s cutting your weekly expenses, having a no-spend day, or building up an emergency fund, you need to set goals to keep yourself accountable. Keep track of it using one of several apps available, or if you’re old school, a spreadsheet will be just fine. Have fun with it. See all the creative ways you can cut costs while still enjoying your life.