Making any significant change can feel overwhelming at first, and facing your personal finances is no different. Here’s what I’ve learned during my misadventures in money management: Facing my messy financial situation was the hardest part. I’ve been budgeting for four years, with some less-than-successful starts and stops before then. The following habit-building tips along with our free budget planner printable (keep reading to find it!) can help you organize your life, your finances, and your feelings about both.

You need a clear understanding of what you’re building, why, and how before that tool can be used effectively. The planner, app, or to-do list is simply a tool.

Here’s why: changing your life involves more than a new planner, a new app, or a new to-do list (and I say that as someone who is a big fan of all three of those things.) Making any significant change to your routine or mindset requires a multi-faceted approach that includes self-awareness, accountability, and a system. In my experience, the traditional idea of budgeting and New Year’s resolutions share a common theme: it’s something you want to do, it’s something you mean to do, it’s something you start to do-but that transition from an exciting new plan to a well-established habit is a hard hurdle to clear. In reality, it’s something we should check in on regularly, but the passing time marked by a new year seems to be a good source of motivation to make some major changes-or try to, at least.

January has a way of inspiring us to stop and evaluate where we are in life versus where we’d like to be. Feeling inspired to organize your finances once and for all? Our free budget planner printable can put you on the right path to less money stress in the new year and beyond.

Simple budget template printable