It's your choice - between fat Oprah and thin Oprah

THE resolve to make changes in one's life is usually the result of overindulgence.

We do something about our eating habits only when we're fat and unhealthy; we swear we'll stop drinking as we lie poleaxed waiting for our livers to clean up.

So it's no wonder that getting one's finances in order is a hot favourite amongresolutions. By the time the new year rolls around, many of us are suffering from a spending hangover and can no longer ignore the debt alarms.

Here's some advice on how you can get on the road to financial stability in 2012.

• Set goals

Make lists. What are your most pressing problems? Do you need to get out of debt? Do you want to start investing? Do you want to curb your expenditure or increase your income? Have you made a will? If you got ill, how would you survive? When do you want to retire, and will you be able to afford to?

Some of these can be dealt with fairly quickly with professional help, but most will take a long time to achieve.

You need to know your destination before you head out onto the road, and having things listed and itemised will help to point you in the right direction.

• Take a look at your spending

The financial shape you are in is largely a result of how you spend. By first making changes here, you stand the best chance of getting positive short-term results.

Henry van Deventer, head of coaching at financial services group Acsis, says how much money we will have in our lifetimes depends on four simple variables in addition to how much we earn: how much we spend, how much we save, when we retire and how much growth we get on our investments. Managing how much you spend has the most direct effect on how much you have left to save. This, in turn, affects when you can become financially independent - or afford to retire - and on the level of growth you will need from the money you save.

Van Deventer suggests taking a look at what you should be spending and says you should draw a line in the sand around what you can and cannot do this year to keep it in check.

• Plan ahead for disaster - and big-ticket items

Common sense and financial advisers will tell you that you need to have a readily accessible emergency fund available. How would you live if you had an accident or lost your job? Could you put down a deposit on a new car if yours gave up or you crashed it? Depending on who you speak to, you should have between three and six months of your pre-tax salary put away for these contingencies.

Lewis Humphreys, writing on Investopedia.com, makes the point that birthdays and holidays keep on coming round, and yet the costs these events incur often seem to take us by surprise and throw our budgets out of kilter. Keep these dates in mind when you are working out your new financial regime.

• Prepare to change your habits

You know how there are two Oprahs: fat Oprah and thin Oprah? Gossip columns would have us believe fat Oprah loves food and has a snack when the going gets tough; thin Oprah is thin because she has different habits. She limits what she eats, goes running and doesn't eat after 7pm.

Van Deventer says that, in the same way, your money habits dictate the state of your financial health. Consider curbing those lunches, coffees and general retail therapy sessions that erode your bottom line, and do something else that makes you feel good - a quick trip to the gym, perhaps?

Then you can create new habits: start shopping online to avoid those spontaneous purchases, change the things you buy, use different retailers - and develop a savings habit.

• Save money painlessly

Get your bank to set up an automatic transfer each month into a high-interest savings account or consider opening a Satrix or other investment-vehicle account with a monthly debit order.

You are unlikely to notice it after a while. Most of us get used to spending what is available in the bank, and if it's not there, it can't be squandered. Preet Banerjee, writing in the Globe and Mail, suggests that if you have a savings scheme like this already in place, bump it up by at least 10%.

•  Consider getting professional help

If you are serious about getting your finances in order, ditch the advice of your cousin and your mates around the braai, and get a professional to assess your situation and give you advice about the different products in the market and the various ways of achieving your goals.

Choosing someone you trust and who you are compatible with may take a few interviews, but a good financial planner can smooth your path to financial freedom and advise you on ways to achieve your goals that you'd never considered and didn't know existed.

2012 is likely to be a tough environment for financial discipline. The cost of living is being driven up by electricity and food prices, and then there are the dreaded road tolls on the horizon. In addition, salaries aren't expected to go up much this year, and we're going to need to brace for interest-rate increases down the line towards 2013. But if you make a feasible plan to achieve financial health and you stick to it, you are guaranteed to have improved your position in a few years' time.