New Year's Resolutions to Make You Healthier & Wealthier

Resolutions fade when they rely on motivation. In this episode, we trade hype for design, showing how to build a practical system that links sleep, budgeting, and automated savings into one durable routine for real wellness. Money stress touches everything—health, relationships, even the way we sleep—so we break the cycle by starting upstream and moving step by step toward financial clarity.

We begin with the surprising keystone habit: sleep. With enough rest, willpower matters less and better choices come easier, from skipping impulse buys to sticking with workouts. From there, we walk through a 30-day expense tracking sprint to reveal the truth about where your money goes, then turn that insight into a budget that actually matches your life. No shaming. No gimmicks. Just clear feedback loops and small, repeatable actions.

Then we shift to “financial fitness” thinking. Define your reps—monthly savings, a 401(k) bump, an extra debt payment—and automate them so progress happens on autopilot. Break the year into phases: eliminate high-interest debt in the first half, redirect those dollars into a Roth IRA or emergency fund in the second. Add an annual financial wellness review, the money version of a physical, and elevate accountability by writing a one-page mission you can revisit with an advisor or partner. Along the way, we challenge the comparison game and refocus on a personal plan that reduces stress and improves everyday wellbeing.

If you’re ready to replace fragile resolutions with a plan that works on your worst days, this conversation will give you the steps: sleep well, track honestly, automate relentlessly, review regularly, and ignore the noise. 

Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to tell us your first “rep” for the year!

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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And New Year Resolutions
• 2:20 Money Stress And Health Connection
• 5:16 Double Stats And Resolution Drop-Off
• 9:17 Ditching Comparisons And Defining Wellness
• 11:07 Sleep First, Then Measurable Money Habits
• 14:20 Financial Fitness: Reps, Automation, And Goals
• 17:10 Annual Financial Checkups And Accountability

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

The financial huddle does not provide tax, legal, financial, or other professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with their own advisors in these areas. Alright, everybody, huddle up.

Brian Minier: 0:07

Good. Playful. This is the financial huddle. Ready? Hello, everybody. Welcome, huddlers. We are here once again with my compadres, Ryan Fleming. Thanks for huddling up with us, everybody. Ed B. Miller.

Ed Beemiller: 0:24

Hello, hello.

Brian Minier: 0:24

Hey, hey. And we are a few days away from the brand new new year. And I have to ask, what is your New Year's resolution this year or coming year? Oh man.

Ed Beemiller: 0:35

2026. Gonna be a big year. Big year. Um resolutions from my standpoint. I I did kind of have one last year because, you know, you know, both of my children got married, and I just I felt like I wanted to get into kind of fighting shape, back back to my you know, college shape. Fighting shape. I I got I got close to it. I did get close to it.

Brian Minier: 0:57

You are the east side of Cleveland boy.

Ed Beemiller: 0:59

Yeah, east side. I'm not a west sider. No, come on.

Brian Minier: 1:01

Is that a uh a weight goal?

Ed Beemiller: 1:04

Yeah, it was a weight goal. And I I I got I got pretty close, but you know, I always go back to well, you know, muscle weighs more than than fat. So, you know, I I I figure I was right about right about there. You're saying you have more muscle? Well, of course. I'm saying I'm thinking it. You know, fact and reality could be two completely. That's right. Yep. But I I think you know, resolutions, we always, you know, want to do better or be better or or be a better iteration of ourselves per se. But uh yeah, so I honestly I haven't even started thinking about what 2026 will be.

Brian Minier: 1:42

That's how about you remain New Year's gonna be here in a couple days? Well any resolutions.

Ryan Fleming: 1:47

I want my oldest son's gonna get off the payroll. Um and you I'm gonna try to take those dollars. I'm gonna try to take those dollars and uh save them instead of spending them.

Brian Minier: 2:02

I'm tired of spending them. I think that's a good goal as well. Um the first is just getting them off the payroll, yeah. And then we'll see what we can do with it. Yep. So well, for for all of you out there who are a few days away. Happy New Year. Glad you are here. Um, Ryan, stats. Oh man.

Ryan Fleming: 2:20

Hit me up.

Brian Minier: 2:21

Let's hear it, man.

Ryan Fleming: 2:21

Stat time. Stat time. It's stat time. You know, um, in all seriousness, when when we talk about New Year's resolution, um, and we talk about things like um money and health. You know, Ed, you talked about health. I talked about money. Um, it's just so important that our listeners know, and and and I think they know this um organically, but but money and health are just incredibly tied together. So I thought that we would talk a little bit about just kind of connect the two, um, money and health. A couple, some alarming stats um to think about when it comes to like money and health. 72% of Americans report that money is like the number one major stressor in their life. Think about that. You know, 72% of Americans say that. A lot of studies out there uh that talk about chronic stress is the leading cause of heart disease, anxiety, digestive issues, and weakened immune systems. I saw a uh article from a law firm called the Jimenez Law Firm, and uh they they focus on divorce. Um they they focus on that stat. I didn't look this up, but uh in years past I saw a stat that uh in America, I think it's pretty close to like one out of every two marriages ends in some kind of divorced or separated agreement. But this article from a Jimenez Law estimates that 20 to 40 percent of all marriages that end in a divorce uh is caused by financial problems. Uh I also saw a report from Yahoo Life that said in all long-term relationships, money, finances, uh, those were reported as the biggest conflict in about 40 plus percent of all disagreements. And not uh last but not least, uh even in the Bible, for example, in the Bible, money, the topic of money, the word money is mentioned 140 to 200 times, depending on what version that you're reading. And even outside of that, words like riches, silver, and gold uh appear appear even more in the Bible. So this idea of health and wealth is everywhere in our culture, and it's important that we uh as financial fiduciaries uh help our clients think through that and and coach them in a way so that so that they're both thriving.

Brian Minier: 4:43

There's a direct tie-in between your overall health and the health of what you have saved. 100%.

Ed Beemiller: 4:50

Yep, yep. To to use a uh it's not a phemism because it is you know a real word, but I I have to give credit, you know, to to Ryan here.

Ryan Fleming: 5:00

Here you go.

Ed Beemiller: 5:00

Uh symbiotic. You know, it's it's really to focus on one thing without the other. They're intertwined, you know, from that standpoint. And uh this is a special episode because once again, we get stat time for a second round. Second rounds for stats. First time in the history of the Financial Huddle podcast. Wow. Double stats. Mark that day the episode. That double stats. So, you know, obviously the topic of you know, this time of the year, the new year's, and we started off with resolutions. And um I I just thought it was interesting. You know, I I I Googled and looked at resolutions and the number of people that actually make resolutions. You know, I I kind of said when you asked me, I haven't really thought about it a lot. Well, recent survey states that approximately 38% of the general population make New Year's resolutions. So 38%. All right. A little less than half.

Ryan Fleming: 5:59

Yeah. Less and less than what I would have thought.

Ed Beemiller: 6:02

Yeah, 38%. And then here's the thing that that gets me, and and I have personal experience with this, um from not not myself, but but from uh certain situations that uh that that I put myself in as far as working out and uh really being religious about that. Of those 38%, only 25% of that 38%, so we're getting into numbers here, are still committed to that resolution they made 30 days later.

Ryan Fleming: 6:37

Oh man.

Ed Beemiller: 6:37

Okay, yeah. And that number, listen, that number falls off and gets worse and worse. 60, um, if we go 60 days out, two months out, only 21.9% of that 25% is still basically doing their New Year's resolution. That goes down to 13.1% of that 21.9 three months. Is still doing it, well, four months. They they kind of skip out. And then here's the thing that's in in you know incredible to me. Only approximately one percent said that they kept the resolution for the full year.

Ryan Fleming: 7:19

They they fell into the abyss.

Ed Beemiller: 7:20

Right. And and so what I was speaking to before is you know, I I think we all do. We're all avid, you know, we like to work out and and you know, keep ourselves relatively fit, you know. I'm a little older than you guys, so maybe it's a little harder for me. We're all fighting third, yeah. We're fighting. We're fighting father time. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, uh I I belong to lifetime, and you know, just go along all all year. It's you know, there's it's not overly crowded. I can get in there, get my workout done, and everything else. Well, you hit January 1, man. All of a sudden there's two to three times more people. I can't get on to a bench, I can't get on to a machine. Everybody and their mother's there, and I'm just like, I've never seen any of these people before. Yeah. Well, 30 days out, I stop seeing most of those people. Still see a few. Well, 60 days out, I see even less of them. And then everything, maybe a few new members, you know, keep it going, but outside of that, you know, most of those, which which kind of agrees with these stats, just kind of go through that and then and then they're done.

Brian Minier: 8:20

You're living it. Just go in week one, take a bullhorn, and just say, you're not gonna be here in a month, so get out and get out.

Ed Beemiller: 8:26

Get off my get off my piece of paper.

Brian Minier: 8:28

I need to get on the treadmill, get to stepping.

Ed Beemiller: 8:31

And yeah, so you know, when we're talking about these different things, which which which Ryan brought up, you know, New Year's resolutions historically tend to focus more on health, you know, and and doing what we do as as financial planners, you know, the health of your finances is is just as important, you know, which we said, you know, okay, it's this symbiotic, intertwined relationship. And too often stress is created because we we don't focus on that financial side, or we get into a period where we are focused on what others have. You know, so like a comparison game. Comparison game where I think I need to keep up with so-and-so or you know, that type of thing. The reality of this is you don't have to keep up with the Joneses. You know, when we would sit down and meet with people, whatever you have is what you have. All right. I'm not gonna say, you know, people always say, I don't have a whole lot. Well, you got what you got, so let's let's let's basically plan around that. And when when you don't compare yourself to someone else, but uh you you look at what you have, you can be happy and satisfied with that. Don't don't think that you have to have you know two to three times as much because your neighbor has that much, you know, and you can still be financially healthy, and when you're financially healthy, you have what did you just say, less stress, you know, less sickness. A lot of times sickness is a leading cause or stress is a is a leading cause that leads into you know sickness, relationships, you know, making sure you have a solid long-term relationship. Not having that concern is is very important from that standpoint.

Ryan Fleming: 10:19

Yeah, it's like your health and your wealth, if you if you added them together, that's where we get the terminology wellness. Yep. Your overall wellness is the combination of your health and how you manage your wealth. And most uh a lot of people aren't doing great on their wellness. And and that's part of our job. Yeah, yeah. That really is.

Brian Minier: 10:38

And I think that the the other side of that is when people feel like they're behind or they haven't done a good job saving, then it gets into an attitude of, well, I didn't start, I'm just not going to, and it's too late anyways. Right. And then the dominoes of your health and your wellness, that's a great word, start to decline.

Ed Beemiller: 10:56

Yeah. So if we look at, you know, we're we're talking about New Year's resolutions and stuff, let's focus on the financial side of things. Brian, you know, what what kind of tips would we potentially recommend for for our clients?

Brian Minier: 11:07

Yeah, I would I would say number one in this doesn't necessarily have to do with with wealth, but it does have to do with wellness is sleep. And and we've talked about this as as a group of if you get your sleep right and you get adequate rest, I'm a big believer that everything starts there. If if you're rested, if if you take the time to get the number of hours you're supposed to get, then you're gonna be refreshed, you're gonna be alert, and then you can start getting those other parts of your wellness in order. So I think that's really important.

Ryan Fleming: 11:39

Yeah, I remember a few weeks back when the uh World Series was happening, you know, the greatest player that ever walked the planet Earth, Shohei Otani. Remember they had that 18-inning game, it was a marathon. And they interviewed him afterwards and they said they asked him a question, and he goes, the number one thing I want to do right now is hurry up and get to my bed and sleep. You know, he is a he is like a a sleep snob. But I think medically, if you look if you do some research into that, it is the number one most important thing we can need to do for our health, is to is to get adequate sleep. Yeah, a lot of people don't.

Brian Minier: 12:10

And I think when you think of things like uh resolutions, you think of goals that are measurable. Yeah, another measurable goal, if you haven't done this, is just start tracking your expenses for a week or even do it a month. That way you can get an idea of how to set a budget because now you know what you're going to spend. There are a number of easy ways to do it. There's there's a thousand different apps that you can download on your phone. Some of those will automate directly to your bank account or your credit card. Some of them I have one that you have to manually do it. And I'm I'm that weird OCD person that I like to feel the oh, I just spent that money. So I know that's that's a shocker. Pumping gas, get out the phone, put it in there. My wife's with me, she makes fun of me. But you know, we're on the road a lot. I know what it is that we spend and we can track it. And it's a discipline. And once you start that, then it's it's a lot easier to continue that habit once you have done it for a number of days.

Ryan Fleming: 13:07

Yeah. Yeah, I'll add to that. I I mean, I think uh human beings are creatures of procrastination just by nature. Um, but I also know that what what we care about the most, like what what human beings really kind of truly care about inside their heart, we are masters at trying to figure out how to get that. Right? So if you really want to improve your health and your wealth and have better wellness, um kind of like what Ed said as far as working out, I I would actually throw out there, um, you know, build a financial fitness plan. You know, and and try not to be the the people that fall off, you know, incrementally every 30 days or right. And that that that only 1% still standing. It's like seriously, I you bit in the same way you'd go in and figure out what rep scheme you're gonna do in the weight room, you know, three sets of 10 or whatever. I I would say set a specific kind of money rep goal for yourself. Like um, I'm gonna save $500 a month every single month. I'm not gonna skip a rep. I'm gonna hit all my reps, I'm gonna hit all my sets. And we know if we do that in the weight room over a period of time, we're gonna see results. We're gonna feel better, we're gonna look better. Um, things about like, how about break it down incrementally? Um the first half of the year, I'm gonna get out of debt. Uh, I'm gonna be out of debt by June. And I'm gonna hit my goal by June. So then, you know, the second half of the year, I can start saving that money into like a Roth IRA or something like that. So hit that goal, put it out in front of you, work towards that goal. Or, or maybe it's a goal to where you you know you should do it, but you should uh bump your 401k contribution up. Hit those reps every single paycheck, whether you get paid once a month, twice a month, whatever it is, you're gonna bump that up from 10 to 15%. And every single paycheck, every single rep that you get, uh, you're gonna increase that side of the house. Um, you know, just just like in the same way you do those rep schemes in a weight room, set those in your financial plan.

Brian Minier: 14:58

And when you automate it, man, that's just an easy way that you don't have to even do it. It makes it way easier. It's easier, that's the way to go. Yeah.

Ed Beemiller: 15:07

Yeah, and and kind of um, you know, once again, going on the same topic of wellness, meaning both financial and health. Most people, a lot of people, have an annual medical exam, right? Yep. Once a year you go in, maybe get your blood tests, or at least me, you know, I'm 58. Maybe you guys, you know, just turn in the 5-0 and you know, everything else. Maybe it's not so much. But you know, you just go in, right? You just go in and make sure everything's still working and everything else. But you know, the from a financial standpoint, same thing. Schedule a financial wellness review. And, you know, from that standpoint, I had a client, or I do have a client, that literally would write down his entire financial picture and his goals and objective, and he would put it in a sealed envelope, and then at the end of the year, and and and he would he would basically give me that envelope, and at the end of the year when we scheduled our meeting, I'd open up the envelope, he'd he'd he'd be there, and we'd basically look to say, All right, did you accomplish what you had written down? I mean that's really cool. That's taking it.

Ryan Fleming: 16:17

That's really cool, man.

Ed Beemiller: 16:18

You know, we don't have too many clients like that, but he basically just it's kind of like his mission, financial mission statement for the year. Here's where I am, I want to be here.

Ryan Fleming: 16:26

Yeah.

Ed Beemiller: 16:27

And then he would, by writing it down as opposed to just stating it, it's like, all right, here it is, tangible, and then giving me, you know, his financial professional a copy of it, it's accountability. And it's the same thing like working out.

Ryan Fleming: 16:42

Yep.

Ed Beemiller: 16:43

I tend to work out better when you have accountability, whether it's to a trainer or just work out with someone else. It's a lot easier. That person's gonna push you, that person's gonna motivate you, and that's the same thing like we do as a financial planner, is you know, we we ask for accountability to our client. So in that case, he presented that to me, so I had to, or he wanted me to hold him accountable for those things. I love that. So, you know, scheduling that review because I like to say I use the term life happens all the time. And what that means is, you know, we could have met last year, your circumstances were this. Well, all kinds of things could have changed the following year, just like you go to your doctor for your annual review. Well, you need an annual financial review, you know. So true. And so from you know, this time of year, you know, a lot of times those financial reviews are really held in the first quarter because you want to see how things are going through the full year and that kind of stuff. But that's just that's just another you know thing that we could look at as you know, words of wisdom or advice, you know, to those, you know, to our huddlers, you know, and the people listening out there.

Brian Minier: 17:51

Take those steps, yeah. Set your budget, track your expenses, automate, try to get uh a few more dollars saved, Ryan, as you said, and and schedule those reviews. And that's why we are here. We want to help you. It's as we look at the beginning of 2026, getting back to those basics, that's going to make all the difference in the world. So, with that, I want to wish everybody happy holidays, happy new year. Happy New Year, thank you so much for attending. And just a reminder please subscribe, hit that notification bell, and we look forward to seeing you next time.

Ryan Fleming: 18:21

See y'all next time. Take care, everybody.