How are those New Year’s resolutions going?

Approximately 40 to 45 percent of American adults make at least one New Year’s resolution each year.  About 75 percent of these resolutions make it past the first week, 71 percent past the second week, 64 percent after one month, and 46 percent after six months.  I am surprised at the proportion that keeps their resolutions after six months.  Where do you fit in?

Top ten resolutions

The top ten resolutions for 2011 are listed below.  Do you think they will change much for 2012?

1. Lose weight
2. Manage debt/save money
3. Get a better job
4. Spend more time with family
5. Quit smoking
6. Eat right/Get fit
7. Get a better education
8. Reduce stress
9. Go greener
10. Volunteer to help others

These resolutions can be basically placed in four categories: improve health, improve finances, improve education and improve self.  Improve health includes losing weight, quit smoking, eating right and getting fit. Improve finances includes managing debt, saving money, and getting a job or better job.  Improve education would be to go back to school or learn something new. Self improvement would be to spend more time with family, volunteer to help others, and reduce stress.

Even though a majority of people do not keep their resolutions, research has found that those who make resolutions are ten times more likely to meet their goals than those who don’t make resolutions.  Will you make a resolution this year? If so, is it one of those listed above or something else? Whatever it is, I hope you are able to meet it in 2012.

Credit Damage Expert, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Credit Cards, Credit Monitoring, Credit Report, Credit Score, Debt, Debt Consolidation, Money & Identity

This post was written by John Ulzheimer