The turning of the calendar is both arbitrary and powerful. Each day is just another day, but when the year resets we feel like the slate is cleaned and we can begin anew.

    That's especially true for our finances. For many of us, the holiday season may leave us a bit stretched, and not just at the waistline.

    Here are five ideas to help you get a good start for 2010 -- not just a new year, but the start of a new decade.

    1. Set up a savings plan.

    Ever since the financial tsunami swept all before it in September 2008, many people have saved furiously. That's a good thing, but there's a temptation to lose that discipline once the storm clouds start to break.

    While the economy remains fragile and many people are still out of work, signs of recovery are becoming more and more apparent. Among your New Year's resolutions include a savings goal that is a function of your regular income, even if it's not a large amount of money. Maintaining the discipline is crucial. The amount of savings can grow over time.

    2. Build a rainy-day fund.

    Advice on how to save for retirement or your kids' college is plentiful. Less plentiful is guidance on what kind of rainy-day fund you should have.

    A rainy-day fund, which your savings plan can feed, should cover about six months of income. It's a form of personal insurance, valuable in these rapidly changing times.

    This fund should be kept in safe and easy-to-tap assets. Laddering certificates of deposit out six months is one way.

    That means buying CDs of one month, two months, etc. to six months. As each CD matures you buy another six-month CD to keep the ladder in place.

    3. Migrate to a debit card or to plastic that must be paid each month.

    Cutting up credit cards makes a lot of sense and eliminating all credit-card debt makes even more sense. The interest rates associated with credit-card debt can easily overwhelm the returns you can get elsewhere.

    But the world is moving away from cash at a rapid clip. The notion of having no plastic is barely feasible. Try buying a plane ticket with cash and see what that sparks in the government computers.

    So what kind of card to have? A debit card acts just like cash, which makes it the best option. You can spend only what you have.

    Second best are charge cards that require payment in full each month. Ever since I paid off my last credit-card debt in 1996, I have only used a charge card or a debit card. It gets tough, especially around big events such as Christmas. But it's nice to not have a tempting and expensive option in the wallet.

    4. Rebalance your investments.

    Last year, rebalancing meant adding to stock exposure after a year of steep stock losses. That notion felt mildly crazy at the time, but it proved wise.

    That's because stocks rallied from the March lows and put in a remarkably strong year. Now, most of us are probably too heavy on the stock side of the equation. Moving some of the money into bonds or even cash to regain balance would be prudent.

    5. Plan to reward yourself.

    New Year's resolutions usually don't stick and a big reason is that it's all like eating sawdust. Go on a diet, save money, don't spend. We start the year like ascetic monks and by February we discover that the monastic life isn't for us.

    Therefore, it's important to have one resolution that is fun. A little sugar with the vinegar.

    For myself, it means saving up money for a special family trip later this year. This saving is in addition to the savings plan established in the first resolution.

    If we keep the first four resolutions, we'll reward ourselves for getting the new decade off to a good financial start.

    日歷牌的翻頁既隨意又意義重大。日子一天天地過去，但新的一年到來時，我們的感覺卻是翻開了全新的一頁，可以重新開始。

    對我們的財務狀況來說尤其如此。對很多人來說，過節可能讓我們繃得有些太緊──不只是腰帶繃得太緊。

    以下五點建議可以幫助你2010年有個良好的開端，不只為新的一年，而且為下一個新的10年。

    1. 制定攢錢計劃

    自2008年9月金融海嘯將一切席卷一空以來，很多人都在瘋狂地攢錢。這是好事，不過一旦風暴的陰云開始消散，這樣的自律就可能喪失。

    盡管經濟依然脆弱，很多人仍待業家中，復蘇的跡象卻變得越來越清晰。在你的新年決心中，制定一個攢錢的目標，與你的固定收入掛鉤，即使攢下的每筆錢并不很多。保持自律非常重要。攢下的錢能隨著時間的推移而增長。

    2. 建立一只應急基金

    有關如何為退休和孩子上大學攢錢有很多的建議。但說的較少的是應該建立哪種應急基金。

    應急基金的錢可以來自你的攢錢計劃。它應該相當于約六個月的收入。這是個人保險的一種形式，在眼下這種迅速變化的時代非常重要。

    這筆錢應該放在安全且容易變現的資產中。存入六個月的階梯式定期存款是一種方法。

    也就是說存入一個月、兩個月……直到六個月的定期存款。每筆定期存款到期的時候，你就再買一筆六個月的定期存款，以便保持階梯式存款的延續。

    3. 改用每個月必須還款的借記卡或其他銀行卡。

    剪碎信用卡很有道理，消滅全部信用卡債務就更有道理了。信用卡利率能輕易地抹消你在其他地方獲得的收益回報。

    不過，現在世界正在迅速擺脫使用現金的年代。不用信用卡的想法幾乎是行不通的。試試用現金買機票，看看這會在政府的電腦里引起什么樣的反應。

    那么應該擁有什么樣的信用卡呢？借記卡就像現金一樣，因此是最佳之選。用借記卡，你就只能量入為出。

    第二個最佳選擇是每個月需要全額還款的簽帳卡。從1996年我把最后一筆信用卡帳單付清之后，就只用簽帳卡或借記卡了。雖然不容易，特別是在圣誕節這樣的大日子前后。不過錢包里沒有誘人而用價不菲的信用卡，也不錯。

    4. 平衡投資

    在去年，平衡投資就意味著在一年的股市投資巨虧之后增加股市敞口。當時這種想法感覺有些瘋狂，不過事實證明是明智之舉。

    這是因為股市從3月份低點大幅上漲，一年的漲勢都非常強勁。如今，我們大部分人的投資或許都過于偏重股票。把投資股市的一部分錢用于債市甚至是持有現金，以恢復投資平衡，這會是一種謹慎的做法。

    5. 獎勵自己

    新年決心常常無法堅持下去，一個主要原因是這個過程味如嚼 .節食、攢錢、不花錢。我們以苦行僧的姿態開始了新的一年，而到2月份之前，卻發現這種生活并不適合我們。

    因此，制定一個有趣的新年決心很重要。要學會苦中作樂。

    對我自己來說，這意味著為今年晚些時候的家人特別出游攢錢。這是在第一個決心中的攢錢計劃之外的。

    如果我們堅持前四個決心，就可以為給未來10年打下一個良好的財務開端獎勵自己了。