Sponsored by: Discover A new national survey from Discover Personal Loans reveals that just over half of U.S. consumers planned to ring in the new year with a financial resolution. But the reality is that virtually all Americans anticipate experiencing some challenges that may make it difficult to achieve their financial goals in 2025. Dan Nickele, Vice President at Discover Personal Loans, joins our Laura Cavanaugh to share the latest on Discover’s survey results and his top tips for setting and achieving your financial goals this year. “Discover’s mission includes helping customers spend smarter and manage debt better,” said Nickele. Discover’s new survey asked 2,000 Americans and asked them what they were doing to improve their financial situations in 2025. Top goals included saving more, spending less, earning more and paying off debt. One of the biggest challenges to keeping financial goals on track is difficulty sticking with commitment. For this reason, Nickele recommends creating a budget and tracking expenses. Researching, planning and writing out a budget can encourage you to create a financial margin. Survey participants also revealed that the reason they failed to achieve their financial goals in 2024 was generally because of unexpected expenses. Nickele says the best way to plan for the unexpected is to build resilience into your budget by creating an emergency fund. “An emergency fund is something that you can put aside money each month, typically in a high-yield savings account so your money is working a little bit for you,” said Nickele. “That way if you lose your cell phone or you get in a car accident and have to pay a deductible, you have a bucket of money you can draw from.” If you haven’t funded an emergency fund, you may need a personal loan. Nickele recommends comparing lenders and seeking out a lender with competitive interest rates who also has no origination fees or prepayment penalties. Another option to bring down the cost of your debt is to refinance a high interest rate loan and improve your situation with a lower fixed-rate debt consolidation loan. “If they are able to improve their interest rate with something like a debt consolidation loan, more of what they pay towards debt each month goes toward principal. Less gets eaten up by interest. And ultimately they’ll be able to get out of debt faster,” said Nickele. Get the money you need to make things happen. For more information, visit. www.discoverpersonalloans.com