BUSINESS & AG LIFE
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2020
Millennial Money: Focus on monthly tasks to hit 2020 goals
ally mean? How much will you pay
each month?”
By Sean Pyles
focus on months and days.
NerdWallet
KNOW YOUR MONEY AND PICK
YOUR GOAL
MAKE MONTHLY GOALS
Do some initial research and
get a detailed understanding of
your cash fl ow, because you have
a better chance of improving your
fi nances when you know your
starting point. The 50/30/20 budget,
where half your income covers
needs, 30% goes to wants and 20%
goes to debt and savings, is an easy
way to do that.
Use what you learn to decide on
and write out your money resolu-
tion, getting as specifi c and realistic
as you can. If you want to pay off
your debt, for instance, list each
account, its balance, monthly pay-
ment and interest rate.
“Whatever your goal is, it has
to be trackable and quantitative,”
said Levi Sanchez, founder of
Seattle-based Millennial Wealth, a
fi nancial planning fi rm. “If you say
you want to pay off your student
loans this year, what does that re-
Divide your goal into smaller
tasks. List the actions you can take
monthly and even weekly that will
build up to you hitting your target
by year-end.
“People treat resolutions like a
sprint when really it’s a marathon,”
said Lauren Anastasio, a certi-
fi ed fi nancial planner at SoFi, an
online lender. “Anytime you have a
goal in mind, break it down into as
many mini-goals as you can. You
feel more accomplished and you
have more momentum when you’re
checking things off a to-do list.”
To build an emergency fund of
$1,000, for example, you’ll need to
save a little over $80 each month.
Or if you’re set on conquering credit
card debt, divide your current
balance by 12 to see the monthly
payment needed to meet that goal,
with adjustments for any accruing
interest charges if necessary.
government off of the Schedule I
list and we need to conform with
that. We need to let our farmers
do what’s best for their fi nancial
situation.”
The Department of Agriculture
allows and regulates the growth,
sale and transportation of hemp,
but Idaho’s ban on the product
results in confl ict and confusion.
After arrests last year of
truck drivers transporting hemp
through the state, Idaho Gov. Brad
Little took executive action to
allow the transportation of hemp,
at least solving that portion of the
problem temporarily.
“The executive order serves
as a stopgap measure until the
Idaho Legislature enacts a more
permanent solution,” a press
release from the governor’s offi ce
said. “The executive order does not
authorize or legalize the produc-
tion of hemp, its byproducts, oils or
any other derivative prohibited by
Idaho law.”
Troy echoed that, saying Little’s
move was a short-term fi x to what
has been a long-term issue.
In the 2019 legislative session,
there was a push from farmers
and some legislators to legalize
hemp to benefi t the state’s agri-
culture industry. A bill sponsored
by Troy and Moon would have
done just that. It sailed through
the House and Senate with near
unanimous support, but in the
fi nal weeks of the legislative
session, the bill died over amend-
ments.
“The House supported the
bill,” Moon said. “However, when
it moved into the Senate it was
changed from an agricultural bill
to a law enforcement bill, and that
was unfortunate, because we have
lots of Idaho residents who are
now working over in Oregon to
make a living, and I think Ida-
hoans are missing out on a great
agricultural product.”
Troy has been fi ghting to legal-
ize hemp in the state for the past
fi ve years and 2020 will mark the
A year is built one day at a time.
It’s the busy Tuesdays when you
never have a moment and the lazy
Sundays when you can fi nally
relax.
Focusing on small, cumulative
actions can take you far, whether
you want to train for a marathon,
clean out your garage or start a
hobby. This is especially true for
money goals, for which daily habits
can have big payoffs.
But while New Year’s money
resolutions are common — with
84% of Americans setting money
goals, according to a survey from
NerdWallet conducted by The Har-
ris Poll in 2017 — so is abandon-
ing them. More than 20% of those
surveyed ditched their resolutions
within two weeks, and over half
failed to achieve some or all of their
money goals.
You can beat the odds, though. To
hit your big money goals in 2020,
HEMP
Continued from Page 1B
go elsewhere.
Idaho is one of only three states
— along with South Dakota and
Mississippi — that does not allow
the cultivation of hemp, despite
the federal government making
it legal to grow industrial hemp.
(The District of Columbia also
does not allow hemp production.)
The fact that Idaho is one of the
last states to not conform with the
2018 farm bill signed by President
Trump does not sit well with state
Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, or
Rep. Caroline Troy, R-Genesee.
And both said they once again
plan to do something about it in
the 2020 legislative session.
“I am going to bring forward
another conformity bill to remove
hemp from Schedule I,” Moon said,
referring to the drug classifi cation
system that lumps hemp in with,
among other things, marijuana. “It
has been removed by the federal
Life happens. You might set a
certain debt payment, then your
car’s transmission blows — and
drags your monthly budget down
with it. Give yourself the fl exibility
to adjust the plan so you don’t just
give up.
“One of the benefi ts of breaking
the goal into mini-goals is that if
you miss one piece, you don’t feel
like you failed at the whole thing,”
Anastasio says. “It’s always about
how you frame the goals you set
for yourself and giving yourself a
clean slate at the beginning of each
month.”
And reward yourself when you
hit milestones, like choosing a
robo-advisor to start investing with
or having a month where you stick
to your budget. Achieving money
resolutions isn’t easy.
“I fi nd people don’t celebrate the
little things,” says Tania Brown, a
Georgia-based certifi ed fi nancial
planner. “A month where you didn’t
rack up any new credit card debt
is huge.”
third year for Moon to issue leg-
islation. She said she hopes that
additional education on the use of
hemp, the truck drivers’ arrests
and the governor’s involvement
will help Idaho have a new hemp
law.
The Fletchers and other farm-
ers surely would benefi t from a
change. Some of the best hemp-
growing climates in the nation are
found in Southwest Idaho as well
as Eastern Oregon, according to
Luke Fletcher, Patty’s son.
Patty Fletcher said that the
family would expand into Idaho if
given the opportunity, even though
Vale and Malheur County “have
been very welcoming and a great
place to grow hemp.”
“We would have bought a farm
in Idaho if we could have. Being
an hour and a half away from our
home and our family, it has been
a challenge to have to go back
and check on your house,” Patty
Fletcher said. “It’s really taken our
time out here. We don’t get into
Boise nearly as much as we would
like to.”
Luke Fletcher noted that sellers
in Oregon have access to buyers in
most of the country, but regional-
ization would be a huge benefi t.
“We have found (a buyer) in
Oregon. Typically a lot of farmers
have to reach out across the coun-
try because it can cross state lines.
... We don’t have to sell locally, but
we were fortunate enough to fi nd
interest locally,” he said.
Troy said it is about time Idaho
created its own rules to benefi t
farmers and consumers.
“If we let the fed write the rules
for how we grow hemp in Idaho,
we will be the only state in the
United States of America that
uses the federal rules other than
developing our own,” Troy said.
“That’s just so unlike Idaho. We re-
ally value our privacy, especially in
agriculture. So I am about to make
another effort to make sure this is
done right and I hope it is one of
the fi rst bills of the session.”
BUILD DAILY HABITS
Your daily money management
is the groundwork for achieving
goals. Build habits that make ac-
complishing your monthly money
tasks easier.
To get better at sticking to your
budget, for example, set aside time
at the end of each day to review
what you spent and how well you
followed your budget. Automate
savings or debt payments to the
extent that you can.
“A lot of building good money
habits comes down to knowing
your needs versus wants and hav-
ing a spending plan so you know
what obligations you’re meet-
ing,” said Paul Golden, managing
director of communications at the
nonprofi t National Endowment for
Financial Education. “I’m a big fan
of automating things so the habit is
almost forced.”
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