{"id":1317461,"date":"2019-12-30T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tyree-column-can-you-possibly-meet-your-savings-goals-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2019-12-30T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:52:00","slug":"tyree-column-can-you-possibly-meet-your-savings-goals-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tyree-column-can-you-possibly-meet-your-savings-goals-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyree column: Can you possibly meet your savings goals in 2020?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A recent \u201cWall Street Journal\u201d article touted New Year\u2019s as one of the optimal \u201cclean slate\u201d times to draft a financial plan. (\u201cAhem\u2026unless that plan involves something foolhardy like cutting back on a newspaper that costs four dollars an issue. Just wing it. YOLO.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The Journal cited a survey from Fidelity Investments, showing that 67% of Americans are considering a New Year\u2019s resolution that relates to their finances (especially saving for retirement).<\/p>\n

Alas, half the people who made such resolutions for 2019 failed to keep them. (They\u2019re currently drowning their sorrows with fellow resolvers who still can\u2019t find the walking track or who wander around muttering, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t they tell me there\u2019s more to learning Spanish than using Google Maps to figure out where Pepe\u2019s house is???\u201d)<\/p>\n

Several \u201cbehavioral economists\u201d contributed life-changing tips to the Journal article. Sure, we could all stand some financial tweaking (furthering our education, seeking a promotion at work, resisting impulse buys) and I\u2019m not here to rain on anybody\u2019s Financial Independence Day parade. But I do understand how daunting it can be to scrimp and save in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

Life comes at you fast \u2014 even when it hits all those potholes your hefty property tax increase couldn\u2019t quite fix.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to get your financial house in order when you\u2019re already living in a van down by the river.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had to devise so many backup plans, I hear \u201cbeep beep beep\u201d in my sleep.<\/p>\n

Okay, my house is paid for, and I have a decent sum in my 401(k) account. But in a world of tariffs, embargoes, union strikes and crop failures, chaos theory still keeps me looking over my shoulder. Time and again I\u2019ve seen it impact the livelihoods of myself or my friends. (\u201cJust got word that a butterfly flapped its wings in Indonesia. We\u2019re going to have to eliminate all overtime and make employees pay for their own coffee creamer. Oh, metamorphosis, you cruel mistress!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Sure, the stock market is currently doing well, but it\u2019s hard to get excited about traditional savings accounts. Remember when math teachers celebrated \u201cThe Magic of Compound Interest\u201d? Now the only magic is watching inflation saw your hypothetical retirement condo in half!<\/p>\n

Yes, we can ditch gas-guzzlers, turn off lights when we leave the room and buy generic canned goods; but some expenses are resistant to the tools of economizing. (\u201cAw, c\u2019mon\u2026are you sure this coupon code doesn\u2019t work on alimony and child support?\u201d)<\/p>\n

We can draw up an optimistic budget at the beginning of the year; but so much lurks beyond rent, utilities and groceries. As we navigate the 366 days of 2020, there will always be someone with a hand out for a wedding gift, someone with a hand out for a graduation gift, someone with a hand out for charitable donation, someone with a hand out for a tip, someone with a hand out for an out-of-network medical bill. If we really want to fix the economy, we need to stop worrying about hands-free phones and hands-free cars and start developing hands-free humans.<\/p>\n

Just ignore me. Self-confidence can bulldoze many of the obstacles to thriftiness. Of course, the plan may get off track. (\u201cI think I can. I think I can. I think I can. Hey, I need to hurry and buy a limited-edition train set for my man cave.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 Danny Tyree. Danny welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com<\/a> and visits to his Facebook fan page \u201cTyree\u2019s Tyrades.\u201d Danny\u2019s weekly column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent \u201cWall Street Journal\u201d article touted New Year\u2019s as one of the optimal \u201cclean slate\u201d times to draft a financial plan. (\u201cAhem\u2026unless that plan involves something foolhardy like cutting back on a newspaper that costs four dollars an issue. Just wing it. YOLO.\u201d) The Journal cited a survey from Fidelity Investments, showing that 67% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 06:56:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}