Rewrite your financial story in 2024 and beyond

Who do you want to be in 2024?

As we emerge from the pine-scented month of December, its time to brush off the magical elf dust and get real in January. It’s time to ask yourself:

“Who do you want to be in 2024

and

What sort of life do you want to live?”

Give it some serious thought. Because thinking about who you want to be is the first step to becoming that version of yourself.

As we head into the New Year — a time when so many people will be (once again) renewing their commitment to their own personal growth —you’ll need practical tools to kick start 2024 off as the person you want to be.

Start off with a Live Richly Year in Review

An end-of-the-year Live Richly review is your chance to look back at 2023 and determine:

What went well and what would you change?
What made you most happy? What didn’t?
What do you want to do more of and less of?
What progress did you make toward financial freedom?
Where do you need to adjust your spending and savings?

This exercise lets you check in and ensure you’re on track to living the your rich life. Take a moment to review and evaluate which activities have brought you the most happiness, who you want to spend time with and where you want to invest your time.

Steps of your Live Richly Review

First, get clear on your vision. It’s important to have an understanding of what your rich life looks like.

In each aspect of your life, what does Living Richly mean to you? To give you an idea, I’ll share my definition in the middle column. The right hand column is meant for assessing how closely aligned your experiences in 2023 were with your vision. I’m sharing my review as a reference point while thinking about your vision.

I achieved a major milestone in 2023 – financial freedom! – and can show you how you can too!

Now, look at the year ahead What areas of your life are most important to you now? Are there any changes you’d like to make to get you more in line with your vision for living richly?

Take some time to delve into any big decisions weighing on your mind. Are there any changes under consideration (such, as career transitions, relocation, starting a business or starting a family)? What factors or considerations should you keep in mind when making these decisions?

Tips for Your Live Richly Review

Annual Rich Life Reviews are meant to be FUN! It should leave you refreshed, energized, focused, and eager to begin the next chapter.

Start with your Rich Life Vision. The aim is to think big and realign your priorities. Focusing on day-to-day issues will only distract you. Once you clarify what Living Richly means to you, it will be easier to address any issues that may arise.

Take your time with the review process! The more time you can allocate, the better. If needed, spread it out over a few days. Personally, my family and I completed ours on our roadtrip to LA and back right before New Years.

Celebrate! This is a great opportunity to celebrate the progress you’ve made over the past year. For instance, one goal we are saving toward is a big Bon Voyage Party for when we move back to Australia. We look forward to celebrating with all of our friends we have made during our time here. Our annual reviews also allow us to look at our savings savings progress, because we know its our savings that allow us to enjoy all our rich experiences.

This year we were thrilled to learn we’d achieved our Financial Independence number, and no longer have to work for money! Huge win, and sets up well for our move next year.

Husband now does not “have” to find a job. We can enjoy time acclimating to our new home before determining what we want to do and what will make us happy.

Get out of your day-to-day environment. It’s hard to think big — and think differently — when you’re sitting in the same place you always sit. My family loves to do our annual Live Richly Reviews while on holiday, this year was Hollywood – a great place to inspire imagination and big dreams! You don’t have to be on holiday, just heading to a coffee shop can help you shift your perspective.

Tips for a Prosperous 2024

Understand beliefs about money. Your financial decisions may be influenced by ingrained beliefs that you may not even realize you hold.
- What did I hear and see about money growing up?
- What’s one thing my parents did with their money I want to replicate?
- What’s one thing my parents did with their money I want to do differently?
Forgive your past financial mistakes. Maybe you’ve made some bad financial decisions in the past. Let them go. Focus on what you can control instead of beating yourself up over past mistakes. No need to carry that baggage into 2024.
Don’t compare yourself to others. It’s normal to look at other people – the ones who seem to have it all – and feel jealous…or even embarrassed of your own circumstances. Remember, everyone is on their own journey. There’s nothing “wrong” with you if you haven’t achieved specific milestones. Practice gratitude for what you have and set goals for what you want to accomplish.
Focus on developing good money habits. Developing positive money habits can help you build a better future.
Define your core values. Your financial decisions should align with your values, so if you haven’t defined your values yet, do it now. Reflect on what makes you feel happy, proud, and satisfied. Your values could be things like independence, generosity, success, adventure, or creativity – whatever resonates with you.
Keep your investing simple and consistent. I personally know people who pulled their money out of their portfolios when they dipped in 2022 and mid 2023 – put it in low interest savings accounts instead. Unfortunately, when the market rebounded in late 2023, they missed out on a lot of growth.
- Stocks and bonds are more volatile than cash, but they increase your chances of growing wealth in the long term: Resist the urge to hoard your long term retirement funds away in a bank account. Over the last 100+ years, stock have returned on average 4-5% more than cash and bonds about 2% more. Over time, these increases are significant!
- Typically, people invest in bonds to provide stability to their investment portfolio. After all, stocks are known to be high reward but also high risk. Bonds, on the other hand, are known to be low risk but low reward. This perception may be changing.
  - JP Morgan’s recent outlook suggests that bonds are expected to compete with stocks. It predicts a strong bond performance in 2024 with modest price appreciation as rates fall, combined with an attractive starting yield. Something to keep in mind as you allocate your investment portfolio for the new year.
- Don’t worry about the short term ups and downs and the headlines surrounding the markets…if your money is invested for the long term, these short term fluctuations don’t matter. Keep it simple. Keep it consistent.
  - While past stock market performance doesn’t guarantee positive returns in the future, keeping your money in a checking or savings account paying less than inflation rates does guarantee a loss!
Invest in Real Estate. Now is the best time to start reading the real estate market if you have plans to make a move this year. There are some good opportunities for buyers right now. Competition will grow in the next few months as interest rates are expected to decline. Then, sellers will find themselves in a stronger negotiating position.
- Will you be ready to take advantage of these market shifts in 2024? Check out this guide.
Invest your year end bonus. If you’re one of the estimated 40% of employees eligible for an annual bonus, invest it wisely! On average, bonus pay amounts to around 11% of salary – which is a significant sum! Make the most of every dollar by doing the following in this order:
- Repay high rate debt (anything above what you can likely earn in the market, ~7%)
- Build an emergency fund (preferably 6 months of expenses)
- Max out tax-advantaged accounts
Spend 5 minutes a day on your finances , about half an hour a week, 2.5 hours a month, 30 hours a year. If you work a standard 40-hour work week, 35 minutes is just over 1% of the time you spend earning money.
- You owe it to yourself, your family, and your personal dreams to invest a little time each week into your finances. Think of the time as an investment, with long term dividends!

I want to emphasize the importance of establishing a routine of paying regular attention to your personal finances and expand your knowledge so you can achieve your financial goals.

Just taking half an hour each week can help you reduce the number of years you have to spend working and, I hope, allow you to enjoy more life experiences that are important to you.