Resolution season is a great time to make financial improvements, and more than one in four Americans are planning to make finance-related New Year’s resolutions for 2026, according to a new WalletHub survey. For example, 31 percent of people making a financial resolution want to save more money.
To help make the most of this opportunity for reflection and self-improvement, WalletHub put together a list of some top financial New Year’s resolutions for 2026, plus a playbook for making them a reality.
Make A Realistic Budget
The fact that we’re on pace to end 2025 with over $1.3 trillion in credit card debt is a clear sign that we need to do a better job budgeting. The best way to start budgeting is to sync your credit cards and checking account using a budgeting app like WalletHub. Once you do that, you’ll be able to quickly see where your money goes and identify types of expenses you can cut down on.
Moving forward, make sure to check on your budget at least once a week. You can use the insights from your budgeting app to self-correct and ensure that you are staying on course toward your major financial goals.
Save More Money
Millions of Americans do not have a rainy-day fund, according to the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis. Like someone without insurance, people who lack an emergency fund are tempting fate, putting themselves at risk of financial catastrophe in the event of unexpected unemployment or major medical expenses. A lot of people found that out the hard way over the past few years.
So, building up some reserves should be one of the first orders of business for any financial makeover. We recommend ultimately building a fund with about 12 to 18 months’ take-home income. But it’s important to understand that won’t happen overnight. In other words, you don’t need to put the rest of your financial life on hold until your emergency fund is complete. Rather, chip away at it over time by automating monthly transfers from your checking account to your savings account.
Start with a goal to set aside two months’ pay so you’re better prepared for a significant downturn in the economy. After all, more than two in five Americans think that their household finances are not recession-proof, according to a WalletHub survey. Once you have that safety net, you can add to it at your own pace.
Get A Four Percent+ Return
In recent years, the APYs on bank accounts weren’t high enough to really bother comparing. Now, after numerous rounds of Federal Reserve rate hikes (and only a couple cuts), you can save a lot of money by strategically selecting your bank account. Now, the average online savings account has an APY around 3.27 percent, and you can get a four percent+ annual return from the best deposit accounts.
If you’d like a recommendation, check out WalletHub’s picks for the best high-yield savings accounts and the best CD rates.
Refinance High Interest Rates
Refinancing opportunities are most abundant when rates are falling, and that’s starting to happen. You are especially likely to find opportunities to save if your credit score and income have gone up since you got your credit card or loan.
For example, the best balance transfer credit cards can help you consolidate debt and pay it off with no interest for as long as 24 months. The best personal loans for debt consolidation give you even longer to pay off consolidated debt, but the APR won’t be quite as low. Both the best cards and the best loans require at least good credit for approval.
Different Credit Cards For Everyday Purchases & Debt
The Island Approach involves using different accounts to serve different financial needs, as if they are a chain of islands. The most basic example is using a rewards credit card for everyday purchases and a 0 percent APR card for balances that you’ll carry from month to month.
Doing so enables you to get the best possible terms on each card, rather than settling for average terms on a single card. It will also help you reduce the cost of your debt, considering everyday purchases won’t be inflating your average daily balance. And if you ever incur interest on your everyday card, you’ll know you spent too much that month.
Repay 25 Percent Of Credit Card Debt
Americans owe way too much credit card debt: more than $11,000 per household. That debt is extremely expensive, too. Something eventually has to give. And you’d much rather that be your outstanding balance, paid down on your own terms, than your ability to afford monthly minimum payments and, in turn, your credit score. So it’s time to get serious about getting out of credit card debt.
Start small; we recommend making a plan to pay off 25 percent of what you owe over the course of 2026. That would amount to about $2,755 for the average household, requiring monthly payments of $230 with a card offering 0 percent on balance transfers for at least 12 months.
Pay Bills Right After Receiving Your Paycheck
Taking care of monthly obligations before letting yourself indulge in any luxury expenses is a helpful budgeting strategy. It gives you a better sense of what you can truly afford and what you can’t. It also helps you avoid ever having a late payment reported to the major credit bureaus, which is one of the easiest ways to damage your credit score. Furthermore, paying your bill early improves your credit utilization, and thus your credit score, by reducing the balance listed on your monthly statement.
Fight Back Against Inflation
More than 9 in 10 people think inflation is still an issue, but there are ways you can level the playing field a bit. For example, you could save five percent at your favorite retailers by getting their store credit cards. Most store credit cards require just fair credit for approval and have $0 annual fees, and the best cards give up to five percent back on every purchase. You can start by applying for the card affiliated with the retailer you spend the most money at, then wait at least a few months before applying again.
There are plenty of other ways to stretch your money further in the face of inflation, too, including shopping around for everything you buy, taking advantage of deals and coupons, turning the thermostat down, buying in bulk and cutting back until prices come down.
Look For A Better Job
Sometimes, we get so caught up in spending less and saving more that we forget to address the other side of the equation: how much we earn. But the benefits of finding a higher-paying job could actually end up outweighing everything else put together.
Even if you don’t switch jobs altogether, you could find opportunities to supplement your income during your free time. Side gigs seem to be everywhere these days.
Focus On Physical Health
There is a clear connection between physical, emotional and financial health. For starters, the average person spends around $15,000 on health care each year. The economy is one of our biggest sources of stress, according to the American Psychological Association. And people who get regular exercise tend to have better credit scores.
This underscores the importance of getting your financial house in order as well as exercising regularly and engaging in other healthy practices aimed at reducing health care costs. It won’t be easy, but this is one resolution that will certainly pay dividends in multiple areas of your life.
“If you begin to make small healthy changes to your diet, increase exercise in small increments, and practice yoga and meditation, you will feel better,” said Deborah Bauer, a distinguished senior instructor of finance at the University of Oregon. “Feeling better will lead to wiser financial decisions that focus on the long term.”