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If your enthusiasm to maintain your “New Year, new me” financial goals is starting to wane already, you’re not alone – most resolutions are abandoned by February.
But experts in finance and psychology say there’s both art and a science to setting financial goals and adopting the behavioural change that helps you stick to them.
In the first episode of the NZ Herald’s new personal finance podcast, The Prosperity Project, host Nadine Higgins sought advice on where we go wrong, and how to adopt change that will make a difference.
Financial advisor and enableMe founder, Hannah McQueen, says there are crucial ingredients in successful financial plans, and commonalities in ones that fail.
“The process has got to be as smooth as possible, which means you’ve got to be able to see progress easily, and often. People don’t see progress, which is why they fall off the wagon”.
She says understanding what makes you happy makes a big difference.
“If you are able to keep spending on the things that make you happy, making compromises in other areas won’t feel like an effort because it was never linked to your wellbeing in the first place”.
Clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire.
Clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire recommends focussing on what you want to start - rather than stop - doing.
“It’s really important that we go, ‘how do I build new strong habits?’, rather than trying to stop doing old things, because that’s less effective.”
Habit formation – getting behaviours to a ‘maintenance’ pattern in our brains – helps new behaviours stick, but getting there takes effort, she says.
“When you start a new habit, it’s like you’ve got a brand new bush track, you’re having to bush bash your way through it, there’ll be obstacles. [You’re] going to have to walk it so many times in order to smooth and level out the ground.”
The research suggests 66 days of repetition is required to build a more effortless neural pathway – which requires persisting beyond the end of January!
Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more from Hannah McQueen and Jacqui Maguire about how to maintain your goals.
The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.
