New Year's' Financial Strategies

Whether it's doing a better job paying off our bills or filing our taxes a little earlier, it's the perfect time to make some New Years' financial resolutions and start sticking to them.

It may be early January, with all the New years' Celebrating's long past and the Holiday Decorations all cleaned up, but there's still a lot of "Financial Homework" that needs to be taken care of.

So what's next?

How about getting ready for all the bills.

69% of our New Years' resolutions include trying to cut back family debt.

Up next: Improving credit scores, cutting back on using credit cards and finally boosting savings according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Howard Dvorkin of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc. says "If you don't make a Financial Plan and set up your goals during the first part of the year, you run the risk of having more problems further down the year".

Consumer credit experts agree, the top New Years' resolution should be paying off credit cards.

Dvorkin warns " The minimum payments are a trap. You'll never get them paid off. Try to pay them off as soon as possible, at least double or  triple the minimum payments".

So how can you keep your New Year's financial resolutions?

Set up a family budget and stick to it.

Check out your credit report and make sure iot has no errors.

Pay down your debt and increase savings.

Double check your investment blend between cash, stocks and bonds.

Consider focusing on more long-term financial planning.

Early January is also a great time to double check the interest rates on all your credit cards and other loans and try to find cheaper ones.