Day 19: Spruce up your online profile

These days your online presence is becoming increasingly as important as, if not more than, your paper resume or business card. What people find when they Google your name is critical in growing and maintaining a healthy career or business.

Unemployed? Growing your online profile plays an important role in helping you land a job.

Employed? Even if you are not looking for a better job right now, there’s no time like the present to increase your professional online profile.

Self-employed? Are you effectively using online tools to market your business and stay connected with customers and colleagues?

Do this today: Google yourself (or your business). What do you see? If nothing or not what you want, then start building a proper online presence.

Day 20: Save for college

Do this today: Spend some time looking at the different college savings options below. Choose one and begin automatically contributing a small amount to the account each month.

If you’re not quite ready to start contributing, at least open the account so you’ll have it ready. As your income grows and your financial situation improves, increase your monthly savings amount.

Day 21: Improve your credit score

Do this today: Review the five factors that make up your credit score. Check your credit score. Determine if there are any quick steps you can take to improve your credit score. Take them. Finally, take the long-term approach: use credit wisely and make your loan payments on time from now on.

Day 22: Take on a part-time job

A quality part-time job is one that fits into your current schedule, pays well (obviously), and even provides other benefits. A part-time job could also be a way to break into a career or line of business that could end up meaning a bigger full-time pay cheque for you.

Day 23: Save on auto insurance

I’ve found that you can usually save on auto insurance by doing one of two things: changing your coverage level or getting a brand-new policy. Changing your coverage level is as simple as reviewing your policy and taking a moment to understand if your policy contains the things you truly need.

Day 24: Give more regularly

By giving regularly, you practise the discipline of sacrifice more regularly, not just when it’s convenient. Giving regularly also gives you perspective on the needs of others. Do this today: Make a list of the organisations that you’d like to support this year.

Day 25: Involve your kids

There are several ways that the act of involving your kids in your financial life can help to improve it. Do this today: Make a commitment to bring your kids into your financial world. Not so they can worry about money, but so they can master it. Check out the resources below and discover what and how to teach them.

Day 26: Get spending rewards

With so many nice opportunities to earn spending rewards today, you might be missing out on hundreds of dollars a year if you aren’t actively using a rewards programme. Do this today: Look over the cash-back programmes available today (credit, debit, and cash-back shopping sites) and sign up to start using one or two of them. Tie as much of your spending as you can to the programmes.

Day 27: Reduce your tax burden

Taxes are a big part of our financial life. It’s hard to avoid them. We pay taxes on our income, our investments, our property, the things we buy, and a bunch of other things.

You have to pay your taxes. But there are some things you can do to reduce the amount you pay in taxes, even as your income rises.

You may be able to “shelter” some of your income from taxation or investment by using tax-advantaged accounts, like the Long Term Savings Accounts, IRA, and Education Savings Plans.

Day 28: Save on health care expenses

When you factor in today’s insurance premiums and potential out-of-pocket expenses, quality health care can be very expensive.

Do this today: Make sure you have adequate health insurance and emergency savings so that a major medical issue won’t put you in deep debt. Getting a high-deductible health savings account eligible individual health insurance policy is easy. Finally, make an appointment to get a medical check-up (visit a local health fair for a free check-up).

Day 29: Align your money with your values

What I’m talking about is the idea of tying your money (how you spend it, save it, and make it) to your own personal set of values.

If you do this, every financial decision you make (whether you are looking for a new job, setting goals for the year, or buying a pack of gum at the checkout line) is tied back to your values. Living this way means you’ll constantly be moving towards a life that is more and more aligned with your values. If you avoid doing this, next year you’ll find yourself wondering why your financial life isn’t turning out the way you want.

Dennise Williams, MBA (Banking & Finance) is a journalist, TV producer, certified practitioner NLP coach and has 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry. You can see more of her work at www.youtube.com/financiallyfocused and contact her at financiallyfocusedtv@gmail.com.