I’ll keep my New Year’s resolutions this time – really

OK, here goes: The year 2008 will be the one in which I actually stick to my New Year’s resolutions. This annual ritual, in case you didn’t know, dates back more than 4,000 years to the Babylonians.

Resolutions were a reflection of their belief that what a person does on the first day of the year will have a major effect throughout the entire year.

I have some lofty goals for the year ahead. I want to hit the road and visit more financial advisers, lose about 10 pounds, cut down on my cigar smoking (at the urging of my 13-year-old daughter) and increase my vodka intake.

While strategically planning my own resolutions, I wondered what some of our readers were thinking about for 2008. I would like to share some of their responses.

Vern Hayden, certified financial planner and president of Hayden Financial Group LLC in Westport, Conn., who recently sold his firm to NorthEast Community Bank of White Plains, N.Y., said: “Now that I have sold my business, I want to help make it grow by at least 50 percent so that it will be very rewarding for the rest of the team.”

On a personal note, Mr. Hayden said that he plans to stay in shape by playing handball and wants do a 3,000-mile driving adventure in Canada in his Range Rover through Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Mark Cortazzo, a CFP and senior partner at MACRO Consulting Group of Parsippany, N.J., said his personal goal for 2008 is to get into better shape so that he can pole vault again in a track-and-field meet.

He also said that if I write this in my column, he will be forced to keep that commitment.

That said, we will see you on the track in June.

“My professional goals for 2008 are to use technology better in my practice and to work with some of the major insurance companies to develop better income- protection products,” Mr. Cortazzo said.

Nadine Lee, president of ProsperAdvisors of Armonk, N.Y., said that since “time is truly our most precious resource,” she plans to sharpen her skills by taking a time management course and applying it in terms of today’s technology.

“I want to eat more nutritionally,” said Daniel Moisand, CFP and a principal at Spraker Fitzgerald Tamayo & Moisand LLC of Maitland and Melbourne, Fla.

“The last couple of years, I have traveled extensively, and this gave me plenty of excuses for eating too much junk food,” he said. ”These travels also helped me discover that a lot of very nutritious food is also quite tasty.”

From a professional standpoint, Mr. Moisand said that he is looking to examine, refine and document his investment processes. 

“I have found it very helpful to producing a consistent high-quality experience for clients to have consistent processes,” he said.

“Every now and then, it is wise to see if those processes can be improved. Any changes must be documented so that the whole team can stay on the same page, as they say.”

While some resolutions will definitely be broken, they are still very important to think about. By the way, I was kidding about the vodka.

I wish all our readers and their families a happy and very healthy New Year.

* * *

On a personal note, Frank Kelly, senior managing editor of this newspaper, is retiring this year.

Frank has been with InvestmentNews since 1997. I had the pleasure of meeting Frank in 1989, when we worked as editors for another newspaper together.

Cutting to the chase, Frank is one of the best editors I have ever worked with in my 25-year career as a professional journalist. A dedicated and serious editor, he has helped to make InvestmentNews the solid and reliable news source that it is today.

I know I speak for the entire staff when I say that Frank’s skills will be missed. We all wish him well in his retirement years.

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