“You’ve got to figure out: Is it the same mistake you’re making over and over? Is it a pattern?” says Christine Papelian , a certified financial planner in Phoenix. “If it’s a new mistake, then now you have an opportunity to get back on track. It’s almost never too late to change a behavior or a habit.”
If you have a habit of making late payments , for example, think about setting up automatic bill pay so you don’t have to worry about tracking various due dates.
BUILD FINANCIAL FORTITUDE
The past year has been a crash course in instability. And while recent crises were unusually severe, you can count on unexpected financial challenges to pop up throughout life. For instance, a broken alternator on my car once drained my emergency fund, but at least I was able to avoid going into debt to cover the expense.
TIP: Make savings mandatory.
“Focus on building an emergency fund,” Rodriguez says. “Everyone needs one because everyone is going to have an emergency come up.”
Consider using direct deposit to send part of each paycheck into an emergency savings account or setting up automatic transfers from a checking account to savings.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT LONG TIME HORIZON
Youth may be wasted on the young, and so is their financial time horizon — at least for those who don’t seize it.