People have the habit of making New Year's resolutions for anything and everything such as happiness, health, managing money matters proficiently and getting out of your old inclinations. The main objective to turn your resolution into reality is to make sure that your financial goals reflect what you actually want. You should make a New Year promise on personal finance that you know you will be able to succeed surely. Practice the habit of savings and keep your money in the bank account. Use it to satisfy your essential needs such as retirement, paying your bills and giving money to the grocery-shopkeeper.

Ideas to get back on the right track and manage personal finances efficiently

Have a look at the 4 ideas to get back on the right track and manage personal finances efficiently.

1. Set a specific goal - Thinking in your mind as to how you will manage your money is simply useless and, as such, you should set a specific goal so that you know what you want to achieve exactly and, in turn, achieve it. You may think in your mind that you want to increase your savings and you want to have $2,000 more in your bank account by the next month. While the former only gives you a hope that you will boost your savings, the latter gives you a target to accomplish it. Thus, setting up a specific goal is very important if you really wish to handle personal finances in the most efficient way.

2. Deal with your credit cards wisely - You should keep an eye on every credit card that you may have and deal with them wisely. Get hold of credit cards which charge you low interest rate and have cash back policies. There are situations when you spend hundreds of dollars just for the sake of repaying the outstanding credit card balance and, as such, much of your hard-earned money is being spent. Make a comparison between various credit cards and obtain one with low interest rate. If you have a credit card with high interest rate but no annual fees, do not throw it away as soon as you get a better card. Keep the old card with you but do not swap it as this will help you boost your credit score.

3. Design a well planned budget - You may design a well planned budget every year and think of following it. However, there are many people who hate the idea of budgeting since it acts as a restriction of your money flow. But, in the real sense, a well planned budget is a financial planner that helps you understand about your money flow. A budget enables you to spend money on the things that you need essentially and keeps you away from spending unreasonably. Budgeting also helps you make a plan for the extra expenses that do not occur every month.

4. Reduce your unnecessary expenses - If money is tight for your case, look through every possible option to reduce your unnecessary expenses. For example, a family of four dining outside can pay you an extra of $20 every time you go out and eat. Same is the case for coffee drinks or packed water bottles if you purchase them on your way to office. Try to carry them from your home so as to reduce as much expenses as possible and save your dollars in the long run. Cutting down the small expenses will give you a significant amount towards your family savings and manage money matters capably. Give yourself a suitable chance to buy a new appliance with your hard-earned saved bucks.

Apart from this, studies illustrate you spend less when you use cash instead of plastic money. Make it a habit of spending a fixed amount of cash every week and try to stick to it. Thus, it is considered to be an appropriate way to keep a grip on your personal finances and avoid using credit cards without any need.

An announcement has been made by the Federal Reserve that they are not going to raise the interest rate for the coming three years. Thus, the interest rates will remain at the rock bottom as it is now. This is good news especially for the credit card holders. This is another step taken forward by the Federal Reserve to bring in more transparency in making the policy decisions.  This may help the public understand in what way the fed actually is working and what its motives are. As the interest rates are still low, it may help you to avoid incurring huge debts and if you are a careful shopper, you may not be required to even opt for debt consolidation to pay down your credit card debts.

Interest rates going to remain the same

The interest rates of the credit card are going to remain the same till 2014. This is going to be extremely helpful for the people using credit cards. This will mean that you won't be required to pay more in interest against the credit card debts incurred through credit card usage.

So, why do you think is the Federal Reserve still going to keep the interest rates low till 2014? The main reason due to which the rates have been kept low is the slow paced economy. It is the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC which sets the monetary policy. As they have done from the time of the recession -  keeping the federal funds rate low - the FOMC has again decided to keep the rates at as low as 0 to 0.25 percent. They have said that until they are going to see any positive change in the economy, they are not going to increase the rates of the federal funds.

The economists are of the view that if the Federal Reserve keeps the interest rates low, it may be quite encouraging for the businesses. They may feel more interested to invest in the growth now and they may not simply wait for that more stable economy. This may result to a situation where the consumers will start to spend more, especially on the big ticket items like the cars and also the new homes.

Thus, it can be said that if you can manage to pay the bills on time, you may not have to see any unpredictable rise in the interest rates of your credit cards. But, another very important that should be considered too is that if economic forces like inflation occurs, or if there is a rapid economic recovery, it can result in increased rate by the Federal Reserve.