ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – The New Year is almost synonymous with resolutions, and while going to the gym and spending more time with the family are usually the most popular ones, people also like to make financial resolutions.
New Year’s Day comes just a week after Christmas and other spending holidays, which can be a tricky time for some, especially if they do online shopping.
“For many of us, it’s just one of those slippery slopes,” Erin Cox, the community and family economic specialist at Virginia Tech, said. “You go to purchase something, and it costs X amount of dollars, and then right before you check out, it says, ‘Hey you can purchase this for a less amount,’ and so then that causes people to spend more than they intended.”
For others, the holiday budget was a bit tighter than usual, causing them to spend less.
“I don’t think I spent too much on Christmas because the budget out here today now is just so tight,” Gregory Kersey, a local shopper, said. “Everybody is tight with money right now.”
Experts like Cox said in tough economic times, it’s important for people to start prioritizing their financial health.
“We check our regular health regularly,” she said. “We have our blood work done, we check our cholesterol, we check our blood pressure, but we really need to also keep an eye on our financial health.
While monitoring your credit score is a good idea, Cox also recommends watching your debt-to-income ratio.
“Looking to see what kind of margins we have and what kind of moneys we have left over at the end of the month,” she said. “If we’re right up to the line every month, that’s going to show us that we’ve got leaks somewhere when you really have to work on getting our margins up, because preparing for the future includes saving, and if you don’t have a lot left each month to save, that’s going to cause problems in the future.”
Some Roanoke families have already started planning their financial goals for 2025.
Janeen Wehr is a Roanoke native who has some big financial plans in the near future, which includes buying a new house. She knows she and her family have to continue to spend wisely.
“My husband and I are just going to sit down and run the numbers of everything,” Wehr said. “Necessity things, how much we want to save, put away for our daughter for college, things like that.”