WalletHub Survey Highlights Top Financial New Year's Resolutions
New Year's Financial Resolutions Survey

WalletHub Survey Highlights Top Financial New Year’s Resolutions

As the end of the year nears, the personal finance site WalletHub has released a new survey looking at some of the money resolutions consumers have for 2025.

About the survey results:

According to WalletHub’s survey, 52% of consumers say they’re likely to make financial resolutions for the new year (which was second behind health resolutions at 71%). Of those who do plan to make money resolutions, the top goal was “save more” at 41% followed by “spend less” at 21%. One in five also resolve to make more money in the new year while 11% intend to pay off debt.

Looking to the past, asked what advice they’d give to their younger selves, those surveyed had similar priorities. Nearly half (49%) said they’d advise their past self to save more. This easily topped other popular responses including “spend less” (18%) and “make more money” (16%). Meanwhile, 6% said they’d suggest improving financial literacy, 5% said “improve your budget,” and another 5% stated they’d want to tell themselves to pay off debt.

Despite many respondents saying they plan to make resolutions, 62% agreed that New Years resolutions in general add too much pressure. Moreover, 69% of people anticipate that it will be more difficult to keep their 2025 resolution than it was to stick to this year’s. Meanwhile, 28% admit they don’t even remember what their 2024 resolution was.

Beyond resolutions, WalletHub also asked consumers about other money aspects of 2025. Heading into the new year, 56% of respondents said that inflation is their biggest financial concern. Nevertheless, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed expect 2025 to be better for their wallets than 2024.

My thoughts:

As this survey shows, many Americans truly do want to make positive financial changes in the new year. In turn, setting a “resolution” may seem like a good idea. Unfortunately, setting out to simply “save more” or “spend less” isn’t enough. Instead, those who are serious about improving their finances need to create more specific and measurable goals for themselves. For example, they may strive to set a certain amount of money aside each month and plan to achieve this goal by cutting unneeded subscriptions, dining out only a select number of times per month, etc.

With that in mind, hopefully those looking to better their money in 2025 can turn their “resolutions” into actual, realistic goals before the new year arrives. Then again, it’s important to keep in mind that change can begin at any time — so don’t be discouraged if you don’t make the arbitrary New Year’s deadline.

Author

Kyle Burbank

Head Writer ~ Fioney
Kyle is the head writer for Fioney. He is a personal finance nerd, constantly looking for new apps and services to test and incorporate into his own financial game plan. In addition to his role at Fioney, he's written for other publications including Born2Invest, Lifehack, and Laughing Place, as well as his own site Money@30. He also creates personal finance and travel-related videos for Fioney's YouTube channel, which has garnered more than 2 million views. Currently, Kyle resides in Springfield, Missouri with his wife of 10 years. Together, they enjoy traveling (including visiting Disney Parks around the world), dining, and playing with their dog Rigby.

Other Articles by Kyle Burbank

NerdWallet Introduces Monthly "Financial Resilience Index"

The popular personal finance site NerdWallet has premiered a new monthly index meant to highlight how prepared American consumers are for economic uncertainty. About the Financial Resilience Index: This week, NerdWallet introduced the Financial Resilience Index. For this index, the site commissioned Harris Poll to survey 2,072 adults in the United States. These respondents were asked questions across three different categories: financial security, financial strength, and economic outlook. Specifically, the...

Fanatics to Launch Rewards Credit Card with American Express

American Express and Fanatics have announced a partnership that will not only result in a new rewards credit card but will also lead to a new option for other cardholders. About the Fanatics American Express Card: This week, Amex revealed that it was teaming up with the sports merchandise site Fanatics. As part of this partnership, the two will create the Fanatics American Express Card. According to a press release,...

Bilt Partners with Flying Blue for Rewards on Rent for Cardholders

Those with the Air France/KLM rewards credit card can now earn bonus miles when paying rent via the Bilt platform. About the Bilt/Flying Blue Rent Payment Offer: Bilt is expanding its rent payment platform to give those with the Air France KLM Visa Signature Credit Card greater mileage rewards. Now, those cardholders can earn a total of 3 Flying Blue miles per $1 spent on rent payments made using Bilt....
The "Email" field is empty, you must enter some text to proceed.The text you entered in the "Email" field appears to be invalid, please edit it and try again
Get the Latest News Delivered to Your Inbox

2025 SoFi Checking and Savings Review

 Ever since I started taking an interest in the FinTech sector, one company whose name I’ve seen pop up over and over again is SoFi. That was later sent into overdrive as the company has not only become a household name thanks to its stadium naming rights deal but also because of the company’s continued product expansions. The most interesting development in my mind is SoFi’s acquisition of Golden Pacific...
Travelers with two Best Western Credit Cards

Best Western Debuts Two New Rewards Credit Cards

After pausing applications for their previous rewards card, the hotel chain Best Western has unveiled a new pair of rewards credit cards with a new issuer. About the Best Western cards: Best Western is partnering with First Bank & Trust and Mercury Financial to introduce two new co-branded credit cards. First up is the no-annual-fee Best Western Rewards Visa Signature Card. With this card, customers can 4x points on Best...
Marriott Bonvoy card and a woman on vacation

Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card Launches Travel Contest

Chase and Marriott Bonoy have unveiled a special contest while continuing to offer its best-ever welcome bonus. About the welcome bonus and Bold Chat Court Contest: Marriott Bonvoy and Chase have launched a special opportunity called the Bold Chat Court contest. As part of this contest, 10 lucky travelers will be awarded 500,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (for a total of 5 million) as well as $5,000. For this contest, the...
Bilt and All Reward logos

Bilt Adds 2 New Transfer Partners Including First 3:2 Transfer Rate

Bilt is once again expanding its travel transfer rewards program — and is even breaking the mold with one new partner. About the new additions to Bilt: This week, Bilt launched partnerships with two more travel brands: TAP Air Portugal and Accor. As a result, Bilt members will now be able to transfer their points to Miles&Go and ALL Reward, respectively. In total, Bilt now has 18 transfer partners including 13...
PayPal Debit Card app

PayPal Debit Card Review: Earn Stackable 5% Cash Back

In recent weeks, PayPal debuted an updated debit card product (perhaps you've seen the incessant Will Ferrell commercials for it during football games?). With the launch of this card, the company known for online payments is encouraging customers to pay with them anywhere. To encourage such behavior, the debit card allows cardholders to earn 5% cashback — although, as you can imagine, there are some important restrictions on that. So,...