Three things to improve in 2010.

I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. I find that January is not the best month for me to tackle major changes. I find I tend to focus on making changes around the beginning of Spring and the beginning of Fall.  For example this year, during the fall I have focused on getting more exercise, and while I was not perfect, I exercised a lot more than in the summer. During the winter my goal will be to maintain my current exercise regimen.

While I will not make resolutions, it is a good time for me to review and to refocus on financial goals I set in the fall. Here are three things I can improve on during 2010: 

1. According to my account at Mint.com, I managed to rack up close to $100.00 in ATM fees from making withdrawals at other banks ATM's. While I will not avoid ATM fees completely, it is reasonable for me to average less than two ATM withdrawals at other banks per month. I should be able to cut my fees for 2010 by at least in half. Many of the charges were due to lack of planning.

2. Stop chasing the ideal solution. There have been times where I spent extra time and gas money trying to find the ideal solution to my task. A couple of examples include:

• Buying extra christmas wrapping supplies because I was not sure how my wife wanted to wrap a present.
• Driving to an additional store to find a specific product, when the store I was at had a perfectly fine alternative.

3. Using Amazon.com more often. For many people this would seem counter productive, but we already pay a yearly fee for 2-day free delivery. There have been several times that I have gone out to just get one item that I could have easily ordered from Amazon.  Not only did I spend money on gas for the car but I often ended up coming home with several more items that I needed.

Comments

[Stephen @ ACE Financial Services]

Yeah, it's true that there are no ideal solution to everything you do. I think the most important thing is that you started something...