Did you make a New Year's resolution to improve your financial outlook this year? How are you doing?

In 2005, a Bankrate.com survey found 31 percent of Americans were planning to make New Year's resolution related to money. Another recent survey by the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion found that only 57 percent of people who made a resolution kept it. That means a lot of us are struggling to keep money-related resolutions.

It may be especially easy to get discouraged about a resolution that involves money. Money doesn't grow on trees or sprout overnight. Waiting for something you want can be difficult, especially when there are companies spending $2.5 million for 30-second Super Bowl ads that tell you the time to buy is NOW!

Even the words we use to talk about saving don't help the situation. Being frugal sounds rather unattractive, and no one wants to be a Scrooge. Pennies may not have feelings, but pinching them still doesn't sound nice.

If you're working toward a financial goal, it may pay off to take some time and make sure you're not hurting your progress by feeling deprived or stingy. Take a positive view of your goals and get back to the good feelings you had when you started.

Your Plan Should Make You Feel Good

You set a financial goal so you could do something that makes you happy. That something may be a new car, a new house, an education for your children, a comfortable retirement, or even just a little less stress. At moments when your goal seems far away or when you're struggling not to spend money on a shiny new gadget or stylish piece of clothing, it's sometimes hard to remember the basic reason you set your goal.

If you're feeling discouraged about your financial goal, try putting your focus on how good it will feel when you achieve success. Imagine how good it will feel to present that large down payment on a house or how it will feel to brag about your children starting college. Imagine how good it will feel to open your bills without feeling stressed. Whatever the size of your goal, there are reasons you picked it, and those reasons should make you feel good!

Plan to Include Your Loved Ones

Telling others about your financial goals can help you stay on track. Your loved ones may provide you with support and encouragement. Letting someone else know about your plan can also help you stay accountable - who wants to admit a slip-up to a friend or to family?

Your loved ones can also help you find good feelings to attach to your goal. Think of how good it will feel when you tell them you've met your financial goal. When your plan works out, your loved ones may be prouder of you than you will be proud of yourself, and that's a feeling worth waiting for.

One way to feel really good about your financial plan is to include others in it. Everyone knows it feels great to receive a gift from a loved one, and it can feel even better to be the one doing the giving. Setting aside money to share with a charity can create similar great feelings and can be even more rewarding than giving a gift to someone you know.

Take a little time to learn about a charity before you give it your hard-earned dollars. If you're responsible enough to have a secure financial situation that allows you to put aside money for a charity, you'll want to make sure the charity puts your money to good use.

Ask about the Charity's Budget and Costs

It's not hard to find a charity these days - even if you're not looking for a charity, you're likely to get a phone call asking for donations. If you've only heard about the charity through word of mouth or a phone conversation, be sure to ask for written materials or a Web site address. Seeing a charity's activities described in words and numbers can give you a clearer picture of what the charity actually does and how your donation will be used.

When you find written information about a charity's activities and use of donations, read it carefully. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance cautions about statements such as "all proceeds will go to the charity," which can mean that the charity will receive any money left after payment of expenses, such as the cost of written materials and fund raising efforts.

Fundraising is a difficult, time-consuming activity, so it makes perfect sense for many charities to use fundraising services. But you will likely feel differently if you know that 75% of your donation will go to fundraising costs rather than to the charity's main activities.

Find Information about Charities Online

Many charities have their own Web sites full of information that may help you decide whether to donate. Several online resources also review and report on the activities of charities around the country and may have more information than you're able to find alone. If you are researching a new charity, take time to check out the Web sites of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org), the American Institute of Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org), Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) or Guidestar (www.guidestar.org).

A rather overweight single female came to stay for a week with my husband and me when we were struggling grad students. Being good hosts, we served her more and better food than we otherwise enjoyed. Our guest spent much of her stay telling us she wanted to lose weight and attract a husband. So we were amused that her parting advice to us, delivered with genuine concern, was "you two don't eat enough!"

Clearly, what our guest considered a normal diet was not one that would get her to her ideal weight. She was accustomed to overeating, so a healthy diet created a sense of deprivation. She used her day-to-day experiences to decide what felt like too little food and what felt like just enough.

But what if peoples' experiences set unrealistic norms? Americans in the 21st century are accustomed to consumption that cannot be sustained. Too many of us these days feel deprived with what we can buy when we live within our means.

Americans are quick to tell you they are short of money. Indeed this is the most common reason people give for not saving for retirement, buying health insurance, or making other prudent financial choices.

Do Americans Have Enough Money?

Are Americans in general short of money for basic needs? Not apparently.

Consider the following. One in four Americans gambled at a commercial casino in 2004 spending almost $30 billion. That number does not include gambling on Native American reservations or gambling online (both huge businesses).

Americans spend over $34 billion a year on pets, including liposuction, life-guarded pet swimming pools, organic pet food bakeries, plots in over 800 pet cemeteries (the majority, in some locations, enjoying weekly flower deliveries to individual graves), and custom-made parakeet caskets. Americans also tire of their pets and pay $1.4 billion a year to have them destroyed, 25% before the pets are two years old.

Americans will spend around $23 billion on digital TVs this year and similar sums on other electronics, including a delicious $3 billion on customized ring tones and the like. These purchases are being made in a country where nearly all households already have TVs.

Americans annually spend over $65 billion on illegal drugs, $45 billion on alcohol (college students alone spend $5.5 billion on alcohol) and $167 billion on smoking-attributable costs.

Americans annually spend $70 billion on weddings, $13 billion on chocolate, and around $10 billion on bottled water.

Unsustainable Consumption Comes from Unsustainable Expectations

This consumption pattern is changing what Americans think of as normal. When I was growing up, weddings took place at church, and, no matter how much money the families had, the reception was in the church hall and offered wedding cake, nuts, mints and punch as refreshment. Now the average wedding costs over $26,000. Young people today would feel deprived having the kind of wedding that was the norm only a generation ago simply because what we are used to has changed so much.

The problem is that Americans are now accustomed to spending more than they make. Over 70% of US households at the lower end of the income scale spend more than they make. That's right-over 70%. Even in the very highest income bracket-annual incomes over $118,800-more than 15% of households spend more than they make.

These are breathtaking statistics. They are even more alarming because Americans no longer have the same government or corporate safety nets to pay for their retirement and health needs. And the national debt is also huge. Over the next generation taxes will have to increase over 50% across the board just to maintain existing entitlement programs.

Why is this happening? It is not because human nature has changed-it hasn't. It is that we live in a time when it is easy for most people to separate consumption from payment on a massive scale. With credit easily available, people buy now, enjoy their purchases immediately, and don't think about payment until much later. Scientists studying human behavior tell us people will do this if given the chance, and they have been. Describing in economic or moralistic terms the future problems this behavior is creating is no match for the rush instant consumption produces.

So the question is this: if one's life depended on helping people discover and adopt sustainable consumption habits, even when exciting alternatives are easily available and highly popular, what would one do? That is, in my mind, the most interesting and most challenging question the financial planning community faces.

Share Your Story

One way to increase the financial planning community's knowledge of what works is to seek out people who have turned around their financial lives and ask them how they did it. If you or someone you know has significantly improved a challenging personal financial situation, CFP Board would love to hear the story and the factors that led to the success.

Send your financial planning success stories (with contact information if you or the story's subject are interested in the possibility of being interviewed) to CFP Board at mail@CFPBoard.org.

Extra credit will be given for stories demonstrating how to consume chocolate today and still save for retirement.

- Sarah Ball Teslik, CEO, CFP Board

Dreaming of spending part of your summer vacation enjoying the beaches of Southern California? Come to the General Session of CFP Board's Annual Meeting at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, August 4, 2006, and make your vacation pay!

Gain insights from notable speakers, increase your knowledge of financial planning and mingle with CFP® certificants, financial planning educators, financial service firm representatives and others whose lives benefit from financial planning - all within a short ride to the beach!

Speakers at the General Session include Queen Noor, Senator Kerrey, NASD's Mary Schapiro and Pfizer, Inc's Hank McKinnell, and more information about the event is available on CFP Board's Web site at www.CFP.net/annualmeeting.

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