YOUR MONEY No Luck With Your Financial Goals? Taking Small Steps May Lead You Down The Right Road @ (NAPS)—To improve the odds of achieving your financial goals, experts recommendsetting several smaller goals instead of one big one. “Large goals are often over- whelming and too difficult to achieve,” says Dr. Kathleen Gurney, and what changes it wants to makenext year. For instance, are several shorter vacations preferable to one longer vacation? Set aside two hours a week for yourself. Make changes in your daily behavior so you can free up two hours every week. Use a psychologist specializing in financial issues. “Smaller goals, implemented over time, are easier to reach and have higher success Direct Deposit to avoid waiting in bank lines. By signing up for Direct Payment, you can eliminate spending time writing out checks get out of debt, make it easier on yourself by using financial tools improvements in management of your personalfinances. Dr. Gurney recommends consumers use Direct Deposit and spending plan. If you pay as rates.” If your goal is to save moreor to that have helped others succeed. and mailing bills. With the extra time you can focus on making *Develop a prioritized Direct Payment to help them make many of your recurring bills as you can automatically, you will “Manyfinancial institutions and how you want to spend your dis- small changes in their behavior that end up having a big impact. businessesoffer Direct Deposit and Direct Payment which can give consumers quicker access to their know exactly what you haveleft to spend at yourdiscretion. Decide cretionary income. Itemize expenditures and categorize them. Decide if you are pleased with money and more security when how you are spending the money. wages, dividends and other payments can be deposited into your rewarding payingbills.” With Direct Deposit, salary, Whatare you willing to change, if anything, to save more for a more expenditure or a bank account automatically. With longer-term financial goal? Look at your calendar and Dr. Gurney urges consumersto ditures is due. Think about what payments are due and when and about what you canrealistically majority of your bills are due on Direct Payment, you can invest or pay bills automatically. keep in mind three principles of goal setting. First, be reasonable achieve. Break yourgoal into several smaller steps. Second, prac- tice the small changes in your behavior to assure that you break old habits and create new desir- able behaviors. Third, have a clear idea of the rewards you are look- note when each of your expen- prioritize your spending plan accordingly. For instance, if the the same date, you may want to set up Direct Payment with some of your billers and request that they move the payment due dates. This will help you to allocate ing a few small changes to help you makebetter use of your time funds for the month. The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition was formed to promote the benefits of Direct Deposit and Direct Payment to consumers, companies and the will help you achieve your financial goals. of the Federal Reserve, NACHA— The Electronic Payments Associa- ing to achieve. Dr. Gurney recommends mak- and money. Here are fourtips that *Schedule periodic meet- ings with family. Get the family together to look at how the family spends its discretionary money. Address a different topic at each of the meetings. For instance, one meeting could focus on developing the family’s financial goals for the next year, five years and even ten years. Another meeting could con- centrate on how the family spent its discretionary money this year country. The coalition, composed tion and regional ACH associa- tions, sees Direct Deposit and Direct Payment as leading services in a system that is moving quickly to electronic payments ofall kinds. The coalition will observe Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Week from May 14 to 18, 2001. For more information, please visit us on our Web site at www.directde posit.org or www.directpay ment.org.
