New year new me? Nah, same me, just rich.

The start of 2025 is the perfect opportunity to transform your finances. I'll show you exactly how I’m doing it - no complex jargon, just simple steps that actually work. Let's dive in!

📊 The 50/30/20 Rule: The Money Blueprint

Before we start, remember this golden budgeting rule:

• 50% for needs (housing, food, utilities)

• 30% for wants (entertainment, shopping)

• 20% for savings and investments

This framework makes it easy to stay on track. If there’s one section you can increase, it’s savings!

Step 1: Kick those money-draining habits

My bad financial habits aren’t limited to spending my whole paycheck on tipping OF “creators”. This year I’m getting them in line (the bad habits).

🚫 Not Tracking Spending

• Download a budgeting app (like YNAB)

• Use a free budgeting template (a few from Microsoft here)

• Review your last 3 months of expenses

• Categorize everything into needs, wants, and savings (remember the golden budgeting rule from earlier)

• Pro tip: Most people underestimate their spending by 20%!

🚫 Insufficient Savings

• Spending every dollar you make is a sure-fire way to feel financially behind

• Start with an emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses)

• Example: If your monthly expenses are $3,000, aim for $9,000-$18,000 saved in cash for your emergency fund

• How much should you save? Subtract your “needs” expenses from your monthly take-home income. That’s a great place to start.

🚫 Overspending on "Wants"

• Review all subscriptions and remove the ones you aren’t using (the average American wastes $273/month on unused subscriptions!)

• Implement the 24-hour rule for purchases over a set amount (I picked $100)

• Try meal prepping ($15/meal at Chipotle vs. $4/meal home-cooked)

Step 2: Set goals and rewards

How much money do you want to have by the end of the year? How will you reward yourself when you get there? Goal setting is useful, but you need to reward yourself for reaching the goals too. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Break apart your financial goals into different areas:

Expenses: focus on dropping your “wants” spending and be more diligent about tracking your monthly budget.

Savings: already got an emergency fund? If not, that’s a great goal to strive for. Want to double your monthly savings? Adjust your expenses to get there.

Investments: are you sitting in cash waiting for the best time to invest? Good luck! Timing the market is basically impossible, so you’re far better off investing regularly instead. Start with low-cost diversified index funds (like Vanguard S&P500 ETF or Vanguard Total World Stock ETF).

Other financial goals: Want a new house? Your dream car? A special vacation? Great! What do you need to do to get there? Goal-planning investment platforms can make this way easier - check out Fulfilled. This new platform makes it easy to plan for your goals and invest directly toward them with investments 100% customized for you.

Don’t forget to decide your rewards for reaching goals in advance! It always helps to have something to look forward to.

It doesn’t have to be something crazy - a nice dinner, spa day, a new book - anything special to mark the occasion. Write them down!

Step 3: Make better systems

Now that we have the goals - how will we reach them? Systems for wealth creation will get you there: automation and habits.

Automation

📱Expenses: remove the subscriptions you aren’t using! Platforms like Rocket can make this easy. Also, set up bill pay for fixed expenses.

💰Savings: set up an automatic transfer from every paycheck to go to your savings right away. Take into account your (newly formed) budget; take your income minus your expenses (needs only) and set that as an automatic transfer to your savings. That way it’s done without even thinking about it and taking out money for your wants is more difficult!

📈Investments: set up an automatic transfer from your savings to investments monthly. Investing regularly regardless of what’s happening in the market, or dollar cost averaging, is a great way to steadily make money over time. It also makes investing less stressful!

Habits

📱Expenses: review your expenses monthly to make sure you’re staying on target. Adjust your budget as needed. Be diligent in reducing your “wants”!

💰Savings: review your savings quarterly to make sure you’re staying on track. Can you increase your automatic savings? Do it!

📈Investments: DON’T look at your investments more than every couple of weeks. It’s good to stay on top of it, but looking too frequently can stress you out. DO review your investments in detail quarterly to make sure they still make sense for your financial goals.

Make 2025 your year

Every year is a fresh opportunity to do something amazing. Getting ahead on your finances is an awesome goal to strive for! The best part is that it’s not complicated. Breaking the bad habits, figuring out your goals, and building the systems to get there - that’s all. Sure it’s not complicated, but it’s not always easy. You’ll need to be diligent, but you can do this.

Let’s get rich.