Guilty of the “36-month” New Year’s resolution myself, I found that I am not alone—a series of studies concluded only 9% of people continued their resolution[1], and another Forbes poll suggesting that over half of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned within the year’s first four months[2].

Being in the field of insurance and finance, many of the resolutions I heard were finance and wealth related and the statistics above sound about right. For those who were unsuccessful on their finance and wealth related goals in years past, there were two common denominators on why they failed.

  1. Having a Clearly Defined Goal: Having a goal like increasing your net worth is a noble one, but how are you going to get there? Without the stepping stones of smaller goals that progress to the big one, people are more likely to take risks that they don’t fully understand or abandon their goal altogether. Having a defined goal and a step-by-step system on how to get there will make an overwhelming goal much more manageable.
  2. Consistency: When I think consistency, I think of the true story Will it Make the Boat go Faster by Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge[3], where the underdog British Olympic rowing team won the 2000 Olympic gold medal despite the odds being stacked against them. How did they do this? Well, they made a simple system where each person had to ask themselves one question before doing any activity, “Will it make the boat go faster?” If the answer was “no,” then they didn’t do it, if the answer was “yes” then they did. To make myself more consistent with my financial goals, I ask myself “Will it make my wallet thicker?” Will buying this boat make my wallet thicker? No. Will increasing my whole life insurance coverage on my policy make my wallet thicker? Yes.

One of the safest options to achieve your financial goals is through…you guessed it, insurance. It’s boring, it’s not sexy, but that also means it’s safe, systematic, and predictable, especially when integrated into your financial plan. Canadian life insurance companies have been paying dividends on PAR Whole Life Policies since the 19th century. Sun Life in particular has been paying dividends on such policies since 1877, totaling 1 billion dollars in dividends paid and have never missed a single year in payments[4].

So, when you’re asking yourself how to accomplish your financial goals in 2024, we at Targeted have the best people in the country who are sensitive to your needs and have the roadmap to get there. Your wealth is generational, and so is our time horizon. You deserve nothing less. Click here to book a time.

Susan Kichuk

Sources:

  1. “New Year’s Resolution Statistics (2023 Updated).” Discover Happy Habits, 30 Aug. 2023:
    discoverhappyhabits.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/#resolutions-success-failure
  2. Davis, Sarah. “New Year’s Resolutions Statistics 2024.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 27 Dec. 2023:
    www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-years-resolutions-statistics/
  3. Davis, Sarah. “New Year’s Resolutions Statistics 2024.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 27 Dec. 2023:
    www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-years-resolutions-statistics/
  4. “Sun Par – Over a Century.” Vidyard:
    https://sunlife.hubs.vidyard.com/watch/MVaUfDTuK7gM5kCcb7JMrh?hss_meta=eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25faWQiOiAxNDg1LCAiZ3JvdXBfaWQiOiA4OTI3NzksICJhc3NldF9pZCI6IDIwNDgwMzIsICJncm91cF9jb250ZW50X2lkIjogMTIzNTY3NTMyLCAiZ3JvdXBfbmV0d29ya19jb250ZW50X2lkIjogMTkxNTMxNzI5fQ%3D%3D Accessed 10 Jan., 2024