As the world's focus shifts towards Christmas the next flicker on the horizon is New Year and the subsequent resolutions that will emerge as people begin a fresh start.

MyGoals.com is making the prediction that Personal Finance will rank highly as people reflect on their 2006 personal performance. This information comes from a unscientific survey but I think that even dumb Freddy could have picked this goal being high on every year's resolution list.

In fact, I think we could all safely pick that losing weight, starting an exercise regime, spending more time with the family and picking up a new hobby will also feature quite highly.

The surprise packet in all of this is the importance of personal finance goals that are being set. Here's the highest ranking options;

• Pay off debt (26%)
• Higher income (17%)
• Save money/ prepare for retirement (11%)
• Wealth (8%) - Whatever this means?
• Investing (6%)
• Creating a budget (4%)

With statistics like this I'm a little perplexed as to why this would be called MyGoals.com - it would have been much better to call it MyDreams.com because I can safely say that only the bottom 4% will actually make it a goal. Which is why most people keep adding the improvement of their personal finances as a constant resolution list ranker.

Why is only 4% willing to create a budget? Don't the others see that without a budget their dreams to save money, invest more or even pay off their debt are farcical at best?

It reminds me of the time-honoured quote "Most people don't plan to fail - they just fail to plan."

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