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business Wednesday 30 december 2020
Millennial Money: 3 vague financial resolutions to avoid

By COURTNEY JESPERSEN of PLAN FOR RETIREMENT
NerdWallet Here we go with ambiguity
As we close out 2020 and again. Sure, thinking ahead
enter 2021, most of us are to retirement is smart. And
anxiously awaiting a hap- you should 100 percent
pier year ahead. Tradition- be doing that. But “stay-
ally, we mark the fresh cal- ing on track for retirement”
endar year with New Year’s doesn’t exactly qualify as a
resolutions to keep us great resolution.
hopeful and motivated — A more specific goal would
particularly when it comes be to say that you want
to our finances. to retire at age 65 without
If all goes well, by this time compromising your current
next year, you’ll be post- lifestyle, Rogers says.
ing on social media about Using that as your guide-
how you crushed your 2021 line, you’ll have an idea
#goals. of how much money you
But that post will be a lot need in retirement and can
less likely if you set resolu- take steps to work toward
tions that aren’t attainable that target.
in the first place. So in 2021, your retirement
To increase your chances resolution may actually be
of success, here are three along the lines of: Organize
financial resolutions to In this Jan. 1, 2019, file photo a “Happy New Year” hat lies on the wet ground along with other my financial documents.
avoid this year — and some items following the celebration in New York’s Times Square. Set up a balance sheet
better alternatives instead. Associated Press and income statement to
SPEND LESS MONEY it your mission to set aside Sean Rogers, CFP, owner egy is a personal decision, track my spending and
It’s probably the most ba- a specific percentage of of Capital Stewardship for most people, Venanzi saving. Commit to a long-
sic financial goal: spending your income each month, Partners in Grand Rapids, recommends focusing on term savings rate.
less. But as well-intentioned Venanzi recommends. Michigan. For instance, if paying down your high-in- GOALS ASIDE, MAKE A PLAN
and financially respon- This approach will help you you’re putting more money terest debts. Or, you could Any financial resolution can
sible as it sounds, it prob- spend less by taking sav- in savings each month but get even more granular be good or bad, depend-
ably won’t yield the great- ings off the top. Working then charging more to your and resolve to work on ing on if you have a proper
est results over the next 12 from a percentage — say, credit card to make up for debts above a certain in- plan to execute it, accord-
months. saving 20% — is also ben- less money in your check- terest rate. ing to Kyle Hill, CFP, owner
“Focus on savings goals eficial because you won’t ing account, you’re not If you have more than one of Hill-Top Financial Plan-
as opposed to budget- be comparing yourself with actually saving more. high-interest debt, check ning, LLC in Kansas City,
ing goals,” says Taylor Ve- anyone else. Someone else PAY DOWN DEBT for variable-rate debts. Be Missouri.
nanzi, certified financial may save $500 a month, Like saving money, paying aware of these because “Buying a house, getting
planner and owner of Ac- but you can calculate down debt sounds like an the interest rate could jump a new-to-you car or even
tivate Wealth in Philadel- and save a dollar amount important resolution. And in the future. getting out of debt — these
phia. “And then you kind of based on your own income it is. Once you take inventory are all great goals,” Hill
back into your budget from that works for you. But it’s actually more im- of your debts, pick a debt says. “But if you don’t have
there.” Just make sure you’re ac- portant to make a plan for payoff strategy and make a plan for achieving those,
If you really want to save tually saving money rather attacking that debt. While that your New Year’s reso- I think that’s where you can
more money in 2021, make than just rearranging it, says your debt repayment strat- lution. kind of get into trouble.”q

Major rail safety technology installed before deadline

By JOSH FUNK tions like when it’s in danger a freight train near Los An-
AP Business Writer of colliding, derailing be- geles, killing 25 and injuring
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The cause of excessive speed, more than 100. Congress
railroad industry has in- entering track under main- extended the original 2015
stalled an automatic brak- tenance or traveling the deadline twice and gave
ing system on nearly 58,000 wrong direction because railroads until the end of
miles of track where it is re- of switching mistakes. this year to complete the
quired ahead of a yearend “PTC is a risk reduction sys- system.
deadline, federal regula- tem that will make a safe The braking system uses
tors said Tuesday. industry even safer, and GPS, wireless radio and
Federal Railroad Admin- provide a solid founda- computers to monitor train
istration chief Ronald Ba- tion upon which additional position and speed, and it
tory said railroads worked safety improvements will can give engineers com-
together over the past 12 be realized,” Batory said. mands. The NTSB said the
years to develop and install The National Transportation system could have pre-
the long-awaited technol- Safety Board has said more vented the December 2017 An N train moves through the Long Island City neighborhood
ogy known as positive train than 150 train crashes since derailment of an Amtrak Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York.
control, or PTC. The roughly 1969 could have been pre- passenger train in Washing- Associated Press
$15 billion braking system is vented by positive train ton state that killed three can Railroads trade group, the industry that will “en-
aimed at reducing human control, which was required passengers and injured 57 said completing the posi- hance safety and spring-
error by automatically stop- in 2008 after a commuter people. Ian Jefferies, CEO tive train control systems is board innovation long into
ping trains in certain situa- train collided head-on with of the Association of Ameri- an important milestone for the future.”q