Thinking about making a New Year’s resolution to get your finances in order? You might have better luck sticking to it than you’d expect.

Despite public perceptions that such resolutions are a waste of time, some findings suggest they can help people achieve their goals, at least for a while.

A 2024 survey from the Pew Research Center found that a “large majority” of people who made New Year’s resolutions said they had kept at least some of them a few weeks into the new year. And Fidelity Investments, which annually surveys American adults about their financial resolutions, found that almost two-thirds of those who made resolutions for 2024 said they were able to stick with them.

John C. Norcross, a psychology professor at the University of Scranton, was a co-author on a small study, published in The Journal of Clinical Psychology in 2002, that found that almost half the people who made a New Year’s resolution reported being successful after six months, compared with 4 percent of people who acknowledged a behavior they wanted to change but had not made a resolution.

He advised choosing realistic goals and being prepared for change to take time. “It’s not a 100-yard dash,” he said.

Jeff Kreisler, a managing director and head of behavioral science for J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said that people often make resolutions in January because of the “fresh start” effect; it’s a point in time when there’s a clear demarcation between the past and the future.

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