Published on February 12, 2022

Mayank’s phone had been buzzing all morning. Interestingly, this had nothing to do with the fact that it was New Years’ Day. His WhatsApp was flooded with messages. Instead of new years’ wishes, he was receiving screenshots of the tweet he posted last night along with comments like “Did someone hack your account?” and “Are you alright, bro?”!

But what’s so unusual about this?

Well if you knew Mayank, you would know that he belonged to the category of people who would never set any new years’ resolutions. Never. For someone who had a track record of never being able to complete his new year’s resolutions, his friends did not see this coming!

Little did they know that this time, Mayank has decided to set financial new year resolutions and he seems to have some secret strategy to be able to follow them diligently!

So, what is he doing differently in 2022? What is this ‘new me’ he is talking about?

Nothing to worry about, because we got him to let the cat out of the bag! Here are the top 4 ways through which you can easily stick to your financial new years’ resolutions and start afresh with your journey of financial literacy in school:

1. Expect A Little Failure

New Year’s resolutions are a personal challenge. Sometimes it’s easy to fulfill them, while at times, you just fail, no matter what. So, if you’re new to the world of finance and setting these financial resolutions for the very first time, then you should expect a little failure here and there. You’ll forget to track your expenses and in turn miscalculate your savings, or invest in the wrong assets before doing any prior research..and the list goes on. But don’t get disappointed, as the learnings from the failures will help you while planning resolutions and polish your financial management skills for 2023 and you’ll thank yourself later for this.

2. Make Small Changes And Adapt To Them

There’s absolutely no need to have a pragmatic shift in your lifestyle or change the way you have fulfilled your earlier resolutions. You should learn to make some minor changes while trying to achieve these financial goals and gain financial literacy in schools. Take one step at a time, do a little change, and make yourself adaptable to that change before moving forward. Only then you will get used to these changes, before messing up your entire ecosystem that eventually results in failure.

A study conducted by the NCBI found that enjoyment and importance both dictate the success of our resolutions, but only enjoyment can help us in the long run.

3. Celebrate Small Wins

Be it a small or a big achievement, make sure you celebrate every victory and praise yourself a little. Set some targets for every resolution, like “save Rs.50,000 by June” or “invest Rs.10,000 every month”, and try to follow them. You can treat yourself to a favorite dish of yours or buy yourself a new outfit on achieving these little victories. While getting serious and setting a good tone for your future, don’t forget to miss the fun part of this journey!

4. Go All In Or Nothing

Don’t just be a part of something or start doing something new just because you read it somewhere or someone else is doing the same. You yourself should gain confidence or have the will to create a list of financial resolutions for yourself and stick to them. Even if you miss out on a resolution for one day or a couple of more days, don’t let the motivation go away and consider yourself a failure. This is just a set back and if you get yourself back on track you can surely reach the end goal.

Over To You

We know it’s often challenging and difficult to stick to financial resolutions throughout the year. Students abandon their targets in a couple of weeks and fail to achieve their end goal. But following these 4 strategies, you should be able to stick to your financial resolutions in 2022 and see them come true. No personal finance books or money apps for students are going to help you with this. Remember, the ritual of yearly resolutions isn’t meant for annual disappointment, choose the right goal and follow the process thoroughly to achieve it. Be calm, flexible and celebrate your progress because it’s not the end goal that matters- it’s the journey all along.