If you're thinking that New Year's resolutions are passe, you're not alone. But you might want to make one or two anyway — especially when it comes to your finances.
According to Fidelity Investments' sixth annual New Year Financial Resolutions Study, fewer Americans are making financial resolutions for 2015. Only 31 percent said they intended to do so; that's a 28 percent decrease from last year's 43 percent, which was an all-time high for the survey.
But here's the thing: among those who had made resolutions to improve their finances last year, a higher percentage — 51 percent — reported being in a better financial position than among those who didn't go through the annual New Year ritual.
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Only 38 percent of resolution-less respondents said they were financially better off than last year.
If you need more encouragement to make some resolutions to better your financial life —perhaps feeling that you never keep resolutions anyway? — 42 percent of Fidelity's survey respondents said that sticking to financial resolutions was easier than keeping the other kind (like exercising or quitting smoking).
The beauty of sticking even partially to financial resolutions is that you end up better off, even if not quite where you intended to be: 74 percent of those who made resolutions last year got at least halfway to their goal.
In other words, that's further along than they would have been if they had done nothing.
Better yet, 29 percent of those with resolutions met their goals completely.
Curious about the top three resolutions? For the fourth year in a row, Fidelity said they were the same ones: saving more (55 percent, with the median commitment $200 more a month); paying off debt (20 percent); and spending less (17 percent).
After the top three, this year 14 percent of respondents said they intended to develop a long-term goal — that's double the number who said so in 2011 — and about 11 percent said they intended to make or stick to a budget.
One popular long-term goal is to save more for retirement; 47 percent said they intended to put away at least 1 percent or more in 2015 than they do now. And 35 percent said they intended to save for healthcare costs in retirement.
One short-term goal that was popular was to put aside money in an emergency fund, with 52 percent intending to do so.
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