New Year’s resolutions can be a daunting thought. We all try and make them, but most of us give up right around February when it gets too tough.  Some resolutions we should resolve to make not just for the year but for the rest of your life to practice good money saving habits. These money-related resolutions are some that most of us can’t afford to break. If you strive to follow through on just one or two of these, you’ll unavoidably improve your bottom line in the New Year. The tips are as follows:

1. Slash the incidentals: Take a more active and careful look at your credit card bills and statements. Staying on the look-out for ongoing monthly fees that you may have utterly forgotten about. Cancel any club memberships you don’t use and magazine subscriptions you don’t read. Also if necessary, resolve to stop spending hard-earned money on lottery tickets.
2. Pay yourself first: This is the time where you give yourself an honest self-analysis. What have your saving habits been like in the past year? If it seems like all the money you make falls straight through your fingers and gets gobbled up by bills and other expenses, think hard about a reasonable amount you could start to view as yet another monthly bill. What kind of bill can you afford? Once that is figured out, start putting that money away for yourself pronto.
3. Decide where to put that ‘payment’: If you plan to stock money away for several years until you reach a specific savings goal, your “pay-yourself-first” money could become automatic contributions to a mutual fund or other stock-oriented fund. If you need the money to be more liquid than that, consider an online savings or money market account that gets linked to your current checking account. Many of these online-only accounts are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and pay annual percentage yields between 4 percent and 5 percent or even higher. Do a little research and find out your best options, it will pay off in the end.
4. Pay ahead on your mortgage: By paying an extra $100 a month toward the principal on a $150,000, 30-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 6.5 percent, you’ll save more than $51,000 in interest and be able to retire your mortgage nearly seven years early. An extra monthly payment of even $20 or $25 can make a surprising difference. Granted, you’d stand to benefit more if you could invest that extra payment in an interest-bearing account offering a guaranteed higher rate of return that your mortgage rate.
5. Shed credit-card debt: Of course, the best way to avoid creating problems for yourself is to use credits cards cautiously and very very sparingly. If you can pay off the entire balance all at once and on time each month. If you are already in serious credit-card debt try transferring your credit-card balances to a card with a lower interest rate ASAP. You’ll save $730 if you transfer a $2,000 balance from an 18-percent card to an 8.25-percent card and then pay off your balance at a rate of $50 a month. That is just an example, but if at all possible it would be wise to pay off all of your balances on the card with the lowest interest rate.
6. Analyze your everyday expenses: Instead of eating out in restaurants everyday, bring your lunch to work as often as you can. Little things like bundling your internet, home phone and cable services can also save you a lot of money. To learn more about the Home Service Providers in your area visit us at Connect Your Home.

Follow these tips to help you and your family save more money in 2012. To learn more about money saving tips visit us at Connect Your Home or call (888)566-3979.