This is Your Year

The New Year is a time to take stock and think clearly about what we want in the year ahead. For many of us, there’s a money goal in our aspirations for the new year. We would love to change or up level our relationship with our money. At Tiller, the new year is our busiest season.

New Year’s resolutions are powerful but also tough. Our tips for success in reaching your goals this year:

Step 1: Write down your goal

Step 2: Gather everything in one place

Step 3: Keep coming back

New Year’s resolutions are powerful

The new year is filled with opportunity. The clear thinking you have on January 1st is incredibly powerful. You probably had some time off. You hopefully are rested. You can visualize what you want in the new year. Your thinking is clear because you know how 2025 can take you to new heights.

New Year’s resolutions are tough

Around the corner, in a week, things will feel quite familiar to life in 2024. The old hustle. A full schedule. A calendar full of commitments. Plus an inner voice that might start to reason with you and negotiate down your resolutions: “Come on! That goal you set on January 1st is impractical.”

If you have a money resolution, that voice may try to convince you that you don’t know enough about money. It may try to tell you to focus on small but less meaningful things like doing the dishes rather than digging into your finances. Or it may distract you into watching the new series on Netflix when you could take a few minutes to make progress with your money. It’s wrong – you can do both, but spend a few minutes on your money first.

Making progress on your 2025 money goal is simple. I have three rules of success for money goals, and they work for almost any goal.

Step 1: Write down your goal

The clarity you have today may be short lived, but you can make sure that you don’t lose track. Take a piece of paper or a Post-It Note, write it down, and put it somewhere you will see every day. I love the bathroom mirror because I can see it when I’m brushing my teeth. You can put it on the dashboard of your car or on your desk in a place where it won’t be covered up.

Take a moment to write down your top goal right now. Maybe you want to save for that trip. Maybe you want to finally pay off your credit cards. Maybe you simply want peace of mind so money isn’t nagging at you. Your goal is uniquely yours. Honor it. Put it on a piece of paper and make sure you see it daily. Keep it up for the whole year or until you’ve accomplished it and then replaced it with a new money goal.

Step 2: Gather everything in one place

No matter your goal, we’ve come to learn that by far the most powerful step is seeing your financial life together in one place. For almost 50 years spreadsheets have been made for this, and they are the secret tool behind most financially fit people. With Tiller, you can connect all your banks to your own private spreadsheet, and Tiller will update that sheet every day with the latest transactions from every account. If you don’t want to use Tiller, you can export CSVs from each bank and paste them in a single sheet. Either way, get it all in one place.

Our financial lives have become a flood of transactions. Many of us have multiple accounts – a checking account here, a credit card there. Seeing it in one place will create a powerful new awareness.

It sounds so simple, but much of our spending is nearly automatic. A tap. A click. A swipe. A subscription on autopilot. If you aren’t seeing it all in one place it’s impossible to stay aware. By the time you finish this step, you’ll have taken a huge step towards your goal because you are paying attention.

Guard against your points of friction

The biggest impediment to success here is often overthinking the problem. At this point, your anti-resolution psyche may start to interfere. “I don’t know what to do next.” Or: “I am not good with money.” Sometimes it’s: “I don’t know how to talk with my partner about money.” And there’s the: “I am stewing about bad decisions (or bad luck) in the past with money.”

Step 3: Keep coming back

You don’t need to have answers to any of those questions. You just need to stick with these three steps. If you are clear about your goal (written on the Post-It Note), and if you have your financial life in one place, then all you need to do is come back to that spreadsheet. Start with a daily check-in, even for a few minutes.

That regular awareness will create change on its own. Now you can see everything and you’re paying more attention. You will see your savings or debts. You will notice the flow of transactions. The path towards your goal will start to reveal itself.

Let’s say your goal is to eliminate credit card debt. You might find some expenses or subscriptions you want to trim down which improves your cash flow. You can try the Debt Payoff Planner or other debt templates in the Community. Just seeing the debt balance can be helpful to keep your head in the game as you journey towards your goal.

Tiller is also here to help. We have webinars regularly in the new year. We have a Help Center filled with content. We have a Getting Started video series. The Tiller Foundation Template, combined with other templates shared in the Community, can solve most any riddle. And if you don’t see a path forward, ask the Community. It’s filled with good souls ready to share wisdom.

This is your year.

Write it down. Gather all your finances in one place. Come back to it daily. I am confident you will make progress.

If not 2025 then when? Why wait to be a year older to tackle your next money goal? This is your year to realize peace of mind, to make progress on your most important goals, and to tackle your money so you can focus on everything else in life that’s more important.

The whole Tiller team is excited to help you. Jump into the Community and share your 2025 goal. I’m eager to read it and cheer you on.

Happy 2025!