For me, working more is for something I have been doing for reasons that are far more pragmatic. My roof is getting looked at tomorrow, as I suspect there may be a small leak in the flashings (I never knew what that term meant until I bought a house) around the chimney. After purchasing my house my emergency fund isn’t where I’d like it to be. This triggers a sort of fear waterfall. What if I don’t have enough to fix it? What if the small leak turns out to be catastrophically bad and the whole roof needs to be replaced? Where is the money going to come from if the emergency fund can’t cover it?

I know it isn’t rational to think this way, but fear, as they say, is a powerful motivator. I’ll do whatever I have to do and we’ll get the problem resolved. As such, I find myself working harder and hitting the ground running a lot more often when the pressure gets turned up. I strive for security, much as I’m sure we all do, and I’m willing to put in extra hours to get it. My situation is even easier than most, as we have a small, modest house and only one car, so I’d wager that fear is amplified when you have the fate of more people or more assets hanging in the balance. Ultimately, the goal should be sleeping well at night, knowing that while you can’t possibly cover every financial catastrophe the universe may have in store for you, you’ll feel better knowing that most are under control.

Find a Productive Hobby

While I have always described myself as an avid gamer, I’ll be the first one to admit that it does nothing to bring in more money. Professional gamers often play for 12+ hours a day, and I think the novelty would wear off for me pretty quickly if I was clocking those hours. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of hobbies out there that can make money. Crafts are a pretty common answer, and I have dabbled with my own crafty hobby that you can view here at Fiverr. I make a handful of coasters each month for a little bit of extra spending money. Easy and fun! If you’re short of ideas, JD over at Get Rich Slowly had a great post about finding hobbies that can also make you money.

Earn Rewards

If your goal is to earn more spending money, then rewards programs are a great place to start. The process can be slow, but everyone from MyPoints to Bing have setup their own programs where you can rack up points for viewing ads, shopping, or checking out new search engine features. Personally I set one day a year to cash in my points, and that has gotten me everything from a free hotel stay to 5 trips to the movies. It is quick, easy, and fun! If you’re a responsible credit card user, take a look at your provider’s rewards programs and choose the one that gives you the most bang for your buck.

Donate yourself to Science

Ok, that might sound a little extreme, and the prospect here always terrified me a bit, but many people make extra money by volunteering for medical research. This sounds scary on the surface, but often times are very tame and can net you a decent amount of cash. Once again, Get Rich Slowly has proven to be a good resource here, and you can check out an article on making money via medical research.

If you happen to have some of your own unusual ways to bring in some extra cash, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll add it to the list!

Then reality sets back in.

Unfortunately, after a few weeks that run in exactly the same pattern as December, you decide that your best bet is to keep your head down and your nose to the grindstone. The grandiose visions of the New Year fade quickly, and things get put on the backburner. This doesn’t have to be the case, though, if you set yourself some challenging but attainable goals. Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Avoid Big, Nebulous Numbers

Let’s face it: We all would like to have more money to work with. Personal finance is often about making sure you’re bringing in more than you’re putting back out, but having a larger income makes balancing the equation oh so much easier. Shy away from flat, vague statements like “I want to earn $50k next year.” When you actually sit down to work through that goal, you’ll find it a bit overwhelming, and having no clear path to success makes failure a whole lot easier.

2. Update Your Progress

Tired of missing your goals? Set quarterly progress marks instead, and run through a specific plan to make it happen. By dividing your progress into trackable chunks, you can get a whole lot more done.

3. Face Failure

Despite all the bad news you read about resolutions falling by the wayside, don’t let yourself become a statistic. If you miss a goal, don’t be afraid to sit down and examine what happened that caused you to fall short. Then redouble your efforts with a newfound knowledge of how to succeed next time.

No one said that ringing in the New Year was gonna be easy, did they?

Enter the Groupon

Groupon is built on a pretty simple premise. If they get enough people to buy a particular products or service, then the provider of that product or service is willing to offer a steep discount, as they’ll be making their money up with volume. As a consumer, you get to enjoy a 50% or more discount as a result, so in the end it can be a win-win. Groupon also employs a sense of urgency, as each deal only lasts for a few days. If you don’t act now (or soon), then the deal will pass you by. How then do we make this work to our advantage?

Identify What’s Important

The key to being a successful Groupon customer is to identify the products and services you want most, and ignore the rest. If you like to eat out, pop into Groupon each day and see if they have any lucrative dinner deals in your local area. Personally, I like planning out day trips, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for fun locales like a ski package in Vermont or a trip to Niagra falls (The Canadian side, duh). Not giving into the impulse to buy buy buy because hey, it is all on sale allows you to pick out things that you want for personal spending and have fun on the cheap.

In the world of personal finance, sacrifice is a common theme, but it doesn’t always have to be. Stay within your budget, and you can still have a night on the town or a weekend trip to the shore if you want to.

After all, I reasoned, failure wasn’t really an option here, was it? The nation’s credit rating had already taken a hit, falling below the coveted AAA rating thanks to S&P. Trillions of dollars are at stake, and if they can’t come to an agreement now…then when will they? Ultimately, through all of this pomp and circumstance, the committee came to one conclusion.

Do nothing.

Failure to make the cuts everyone knows must be done led to dangerous inaction, and we see a reflection of that in our own lives. Spending is easy, it permeates through every part of our lives. When we’re food shopping, Christmas shopping, window shopping, watching TV, using the computer. Everywhere we look we are bombarded with “BUY ME,” and our fingers are always one click or swipe away from the trigger. Conversely, saving is hard. The peace of mind from saving on your cable bill and putting a little extra away each month seems like chump change by comparison to your expenses. So you say to yourself, why not just forget about it. Keep on keeping on…right up until we’re drowning in debt and there’s no way out. The “Super” committee is making this exact same mistake. It is probably a good idea to learn from them.