Our Final Thoughts on 2021
Hey QUBER Community – Happy December!
This month always offers a great time to reflect on the months behind us and a chance to think about what you want to achieve in the new year. It’s also a month that traditionally involves an above-average amount of spending on gifts, events, food, travel and more for many people as they celebrate the holiday season. As such, we know it can be tough to think about making big financial moves when you’re busy with the holidays, but now really is the best time to start thinking about your financial health. How can you make 2022 your most successful financial year yet?
For starters, you should be asking yourself a few questions about the year behind you. What did you accomplish with your money in 2021? Are there any major lessons you learned? Did you grow your wealth or invest in products that will help protect it? Depending on your individual situation, this list of questions might sound different, but it’s important to reflect on how you interacted with your money this year to highlight what went right and what went wrong. If major external factors like the pandemic had an adverse effect on your financial situation this year, remember to cut yourself a bit of slack - you’re far from alone, and that’s not something you can directly influence or control. However, you may want to consider adopting new financial strategies that’ll offer you a greater degree or protection the future, like increasing the amount you save, just in case you get stuck in a similar spot in 2022.
Also, try not to measure your success in direct relation to the number of dollars in your bank account. Instead, consider how your individual situation progressed between the start and end of 2021 and highlight where you made choices that were positive for your financial health. For example, you may not have a great deal of savings left after another year of pandemic ups and downs, but if you learned to reduce your spending or got better at consistently saving each pay day, you should give yourself some credit!
Once you’ve assessed 2021, you should be thinking about your financial goals for 2022. You might already have them set, or you might need to give them some thought. Either way, you won’t be able to hit the ground running in January if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish!
Not sure what you should focus on in 2022? We’ve got a few suggestions for you:
Build your emergency fund: You can never have too much cash saved in your emergency fund. Every dollar you put away this year can have a major impact someday in the future in helping you avoid debt and other negative financial consequences.
Try your hand with investing: Investing is an excellent way for people to grow their wealth and outpace the effects of inflation. Of course, it’s not a guaranteed success: all forms of investing involve some level of risk, even if it’s very low. Still, taking a few calculated risks with your savings might have a major pay-off in 2022!
Protect your wealth with insurance: An important first step of growing your wealth is building up a pool of savings and other valuable assets. However, it’s also important to consider the next step, which is protecting those assets so that in the event something happens to you, you and your loved ones will be taken care of. People often over-estimate what it would cost to cover a life or health insurance policy, so if you’ve never gotten a quote before, it’s absolutely worth your time!
Start saving for something big: Depending on what stage of life you’re in, this could be a variety of different things. Examples include saving for a down payment on a home, starting a family, starting a business or really focusing on your retirement plan. Whatever makes sense for you, think about how you can break down a big goal into smaller, more achievable steps.
Your dream vacation: There’s nothing wrong with wanting to save for something that isn’t serving some greater financial purpose. It’s tough to say when travelling will be totally back to normal, but if you start saving for your dream vacation now, you’ll be ready to go as soon as it makes sense for you!
If you’re looking for a boost to get going on one of these goals in the new year, why not try one of our new QUBER Saving Challenges? We’ve just added three new Challenges to our roster inspired by real-life goals our users are saving for. They are:
The Baby Arrival Challenge 👶 – save $900 in 9 months, earn an $18 reward
The Travel Challenge 🌴 – save $2000 in 12 months, earn a $44 reward
The Home Down Payment Challenge 🏠 – save $25,000 in 36 months, earn up to $510 in rewards (incentives are awarded throughout the Challenge)
Remember that if now is a tough time to focus on savings amongst the holiday chaos, you can join any of the above Challenges today and set your start date to some time in the future, like January or February 2022. All three new Challenges can be accessed by going to the Challenges section of your app and clicking ‘Add a Challenge’ at the bottom of your screen.
Now, we know – more than half the battle with achieving your goals is the discipline involved in reaching them. It can be tough to keep your eye on the big picture when tempted to spend on things like take-out and shopping, but if you take some time to create a routine that’ll help you stay focused when moments like that hit, your chances of success are going to skyrocket. This might include:
Write everything down: The action of writing down the things you want to achieve can be powerful. Not only does it take thoughts out of your head and bring them into reality, but written reminders can be a powerful visual tool. Leaving yourself notes on your fridge, computer, mirror or anywhere where you’ll see them regularly is a great way to help recenter yourself and remind yourself of the bigger picture.
Find a buddy: If you’ve found in the past that you’ve struggled to stick to your plan when things get challenging, try enlisting the help of a friend. Ideally, this person will also be trying to reach a similar goal as you so you can help each other on your journeys. However, you can still benefit greatly from having someone checking up on your progress periodically, encouraging you to keep going and applying some pressure when you feel like giving up.
Remove temptation where possible: Think about where you may have some weaknesses to assess and about how you can help yourself resist the urge to spend. For example, if you’re constantly tempted by the idea of ordering takeout when you’ve been busy or as a response to a bad day, think about how you can stop yourself before you’ve made the purchase next time. This could include deleting all takeout apps from your phone or filling a cart but waiting an hour or more before you actually make the purchase.
Overall, we’re looking forward to the new year and can’t wait to help the members of our community continue to reach their financial goals and gain the freedom and peace of mind that comes along with prioritizing financial health. Thank you to everyone who’s joined us this past year and contributed to making QUBER a safe place where users can not only grow their savings but feel comfortable to speak openly about their experiences with personal finance.
We hope your holiday season is safe, happy and bright! ✨
