KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — People tend to spend more on the holidays. Derek Miser, the Chief Managing Member of Miser Wealth Partners, LLC in Knoxville, said now is the time to kickstart some good money habits.
Over the last few years, Miser has been working daily with clients whose net worth is between $3 and $30 million.
Miser said the beginning of the year is a good time to reassess your budget and to know what comes in and what goes out. There are three simple steps people can take to save money:
- Reassess your subscriptions. Decide which are important and which ones you're not using. Then, make sure to cancel the ones that you don't need.
- Set up automatic payments for your utilities, rent, insurance and anything else that's necessary. Miser said this helps with accountability and priorities.
- Decide how much you can put in your savings account every month and set that up to send automatically as well. What's left over is what you can spend on things you want.
"It's one step every day in the right direction," Miser said. "Will get you closer to financial independence, if you implement the budgets, if you assess your credit, and you're trying to figure out how I can accumulate $20, $100, $2,000. It's different for every person in every situation, but it's changing that behavior in 2024 that can make the difference."
Even if you put $50 aside every month—that's $600 extra dollars by the end of the year.
One of the biggest obstacles to saving money is debt. Owing to credit cards, or loans can be daunting and make it hard to set extra saving money on the side.
The first thing to check is whether the credit card you already have might put you behind, Miser said. Here are three things you can do to lower your credit card debt:
- Shop around and find which credit card offers you the lowest interest rate.
- Identify where you owe the most, and roll that existing debt onto your new low-interest credit card.
- Set up automatic payments with your new card to start paying down your debt.
"Then eventually, you'll get that payment down and get it taken care of," Miser said. "And instead of thinking 'I can take a break now because I've paid off this large debt,' that's really the opportunity to take what you were paying and apply it to other credit cards that you have, or outstanding debt, whether it be a car loan or student loan."
It takes a little bit of planning, Miser said. Opening a savings account is important and having automated payments planned throughout the year could be beneficial.
If you are at a point where you have accumulated assets, Miser said, finding a skilled tax advisor who's collaborating with attorneys, or collaborating with financial advisors is key.
Mindset is important, Miser said, and to be open to learning and changing habits. To be a master of your finances, you have to constantly be learning and if you're not learning, then you're not gaining the skills to better manage your money.
"If you can think and look ahead, I always say, if you don't change your habits, the next 90 days will look just like the last 90 days," Miser said. "So, if you change your habits going forward, 90 days, 180 days, 365 days from now, if we could flash forward to Christmas of 2024, suddenly, I have my reserve that I didn't have at Christmas of 2023."