With the beginning of every new year millions of us decide to make changes to our lives. The gyms are packed in January and start feeling normal again in February as those of us, who really weren’t as resolved to change as we thought, drop out. Make this the year you tackle your finances instead. The first step to any change is assessing where you are at. GoFreeCredit can help you with this.

Wrestling your finances into shape is just as hard as tackling the shape of your body. You need an action plan. A plan designed with you in mind, so that you aren’t doomed to failure before you ever start. Congratulate yourself on having made it to Step 1. Since you are reading this, you have acknowledged that your finances could improve. Here are the next steps to take:

Assess where you are at

Entire books have been written on this step alone. Luckily, it is not that complicated. Make a list of your checking and savings accounts and any other accounts you may own. Don’t forget those retirement accounts you may be contributing to at work. Next figure out your debt. This is where a credit report can come in handy. Check out GoFreeCredit where you can not only receive your credit reports but also your credit scores from the three major credit reporting agencies with a free trial of their credit monitoring service. A credit report is a handy tool. It will tell you if you forgot about any accounts you opened a long time ago.

Write down your financial goals for this year

This is where you list items such as paying down debt, building an emergency fund.

Make a list of your major financial goals for the next decade

Are you hoping to buy a house? Pay for college? Go on the trip of a lifetime? Write it down and attach a price to it, preferably a rather generous price, so you don’t find yourself short funds when you think you should have arrived at the goal.

Find the waste

Take another look at that credit report you received from GoFreeCredit and pretend your life is a job and you have to justify to your boss, that’s you in this case, what those accounts paid for.

Cut the waste

If you find one that is just impulse buying that does not help with your goals, cut the associated credit card up and start paying off any balance remaining in that account. As soon as you have it paid off, that money should flow into your savings for the goals you identified. Look at the rest of your life. Are you living like a saver or a spender? Maybe you don’t really need all of the lights in your home on when you are actually sitting in front of the TV for hours.

Increase the earnings

This may be as simple as putting your money in an interest bearing savings account. You may have to find more ways to make money. It all depends on your goals. Don’t forget that you can increase your earnings by paying less interest on debt. Look at those credit scores you can get from GoFreeCredit and see what you could do to increase them. The higher your scores, the lower the interest rate is at which an institution is willing to lend you money. Money not spent on debt, is money earned as well.

Assess the plan and adjust it as needed

How often you do this depends on how much oversight you need to stick to your plans. At a minimum, you should do this once a year, but when you are first starting out, monthly is good.

Remember, you are the person in charge of your financial future. If you expect something to change, you have to follow through and make the changes. Nobody else will do it for you.