Some of us are more successful at keeping those resolutions than others. There are those people who say they want to make changes to improve their lives this year that make a few resolutions, but don’t do anything about them at all. It’s as if they said it only because they felt it was expected of them or they were hoping that things will change by themselves without any effort on their part.

Then there are those people who make resolutions work at it for a month or two and give up when they don’t see progress quickly enough or because they really didn’t want to make change to begin with. There are people who decide if they just try a little harder, apply themselves more to their current work they will do better for themselves even though they know they were working hard enough already.

I have to admit, I used to be one of those people. My parents taught me to believe that if you work hard enough, you will succeed. They were right to a certain extent. I started off as a cashier and I became a store manager eventually. To that end I was successful. But when you reach a certain plateau, no matter what career you are in you will reach a point where working harder will not bring you any more than you already have.

If you continue to do same things you are already doing you will only have same results that you have right now. Most successful people will tell you that it did not happen overnight. That they failed a few times first, learned from their mistakes, adapted and changed their plans and tried again. Their commitment to change their lives and their commitment to implementing their action plan is what eventually made them succeed.

The only way things will change for you financially or otherwise is if you decide that you want to make changes. Once that decision is really and truly made you have to make a plan of action to implement those changes. Then you have to make a commitment to implement your action plan and stick with it. Your dreams will stay just dreams if you do not back them up with a plan of action.

If you have not set goals before and are not sure where to start here are some questions you can ask yourself to get started:

What do you want out of life?

How high do you want your net worth to be?

Can you accomplish that net worth in your current career or will you have to return to school to accomplish it? Can you accomplish it by some refresher courses or by adding to a degree you already have or will you have to start at beginning again? Can you do this at a regular State College or will you have to go to a specialized or trade school?

Do you want a bigger house, a vacation home or a boat?

Do you want your children to go to college?

When you retire will you live in same home you live in now?

Do you want to travel when you retire?

Do you wish to sell your home and retire to your vacation home permanently?

When you retire from your career will you take it easy or will you work part time?

Would you like to turn a long time hobby into a business once you retire?

Now here are some questions you need to think about when you are starting to formulate a plan to reach some of these goals or items on your wish list. Keep in mind you also need to think about amount of money goal will cost and amount of time you want to accomplish it in.

Now more than ever we have to plan for our own futures. Approximately 70 million baby boomers will reach retirement age within next 10 years. That is going to put an enormous strain on already strained social security system.

Alan Greenspan, Chairman of Federal Reserve, has stated that in order to keep this strained system going, retirement age will have to be raised or benefits will have to be cut back. The ever ballooning Federal Deficit is main cause.

It would be my guess that both of those things will happen and more. If social security is even around in another ten to twenty years, I’ll be surprised. The government’s plans for it are kind of up in air right now. The President would like to have us invest our own contributions. I would imagine that a program like that will take quite a bit of time and money to set up.

If you are looking at those social security statements you get every year a few months before your birthday, and making that part of your future financial planning by expecting that money to be there, you could be left holding an empty bag when you reach retirement age.

There was a time when our parents and grand parents could survive on their pension and social security and have it pretty good. Especially, if their homes were paid off. This is no longer true.

Many companies do not give pensions anymore, they have 401K plans instead. Due to inflation and an increasing amount of consumer credit card debt, many people do not contribute as much as they should or they make withdrawals when have a problem come up.

It is for this reason that setting financial goals and having a plan to work toward, is so important. You need to set short term, medium term and long term goals.

The short term goal might be paying down your credit card debt, medium term goal might be planning that family vacation you’ve always dreamed about but could never afford because of debt, long term goal might be a certain dollar amount set aside for retirement or that piece of property that you want to build home you want to retire to on.