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New resolutions

The Sunday Column

New Year’s resolutions are a normal ritual for people who want some kind of plan for their lives during the coming 365 days. It is not unusual for vows to be made to eat less fatty food, exercise more, spend quality time with family members and generally live a better life.

Other people do not make resolutions but establish goals for the coming year. The late President George H.W. Bush, for example, decided he wanted to make a parachute jump on his 75th birthday, almost 20 years ago. He leaped from the airplane at 12,500 feet and fell 5,000 feet before pulling the ripcord.

On the ground he asked wife, Barbara, how she viewed the jump. “George,” she is reported to have said, “that was your most spectacular free fall since the election of 1992.” He made subsequent jumps at the ages of 80, 85 and 90. Before one of those jumps, when asked how she felt about her husband continuing these alpha male performances, she sarcastically replied, “If this fall doesn’t kill him, I will.”

Other more timid mortals like you and me might seek the thrill of a roller coaster ride at Hershey or Disney World. Bungee jumping is for youngsters, those less than 50.

Vows to stop smoking and lose weight are two of the most common resolutions. Studies have shown that most oath-takers make a determined attempt to fulfill these pledges. And being able to achieve one or the other of these undertakings is completely within the ability of most people to accomplish. Unfortunately, some people try to achieve both objectives simultaneously. This effort is usually doomed to failure.

Smoking and eating are thought to be “oral gratification” functions. That is, most people have a need to put something in their mouth, if not a cigarette or a Big Mac, then a pencil or the frame of an eyeglass.

Studies suggest that people who are overweight and use nicotine products should concentrate on overcoming just one of those vices before attacking the other. To try otherwise is to court disappointment.

Next to health-style vows are resolutions about financial matters. A Fidelity Investments poll found that the top three most popular financial resolutions for 2019 are saving more, paying down debt and spending less money. My Wentz family has adopted a resolution that doesn’t do any of those things, but saves time and effort.

Our clan is spread across the eastern states, so we don’t exchange gifts. We abandoned the custom of shopping, wrapping and mailing gifts by just sending cash instead. But all we were doing was shifting similar amounts of money among ourselves. I would send a check for X amount, and would receive a check for the same. We now send heartfelt greetings and save gift giving for birthdays.

We didn’t just start this new no-gift arrangement by stating, “Love your gift, but I’m not getting you anything next year.” The start of a new year was a good time to begin our new policy, because our family and friends were making resolutions to handle their finances better, especially given the turbulence in financial markets.

It works for us.

Jim Wentz writes a monthly column for the Mirror.

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