As we are deep in the holiday season, I hope you are getting the chance to spend some extra time with friends and family and getting a chance to recharge.  It also means we are approaching the moment when it comes time to declare any New Year’s Resolutions.

Now, not everyone does this, and even those who do are not always successful. I think we all appreciate that on some level, but it may be alarming just how many fail. Now the science behind how to measure this can be tricky (just how much weight does one need to lose before claiming triumph?), but I have seen numbers that go as low as claiming only eight percent of those who make resolutions carry them out to success.

And sure, if you are looking to enter the new year with the typical but admirable goals of either losing weight or quitting smoking, I wish you only the best of luck. That is not where my expertise lies, however. But if you are entering the new year with hopes to be better with money and make better moves to improve your financial situation, it’s possible I could offer help there, and would love to do so.

In the interests of being a generally helpful person, let me also help guide you through the end of this season. For it is not only resolutions that come about with the turning of the calendar. At some point you are also going to hear that standard Auld Lang Syne and everyone is going to sing the first two lines, then mumble their way through the rest.

So here are the real lyrics, tuck them away in your mind (or in your pocket) and impress everyone at your New Year’s Eve gathering. Note, this is the English translation, for no one is in a state to muscle through Robert Burns’ original Scottish by the time the song begins:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you will buy your cup
and surely I’ll buy mine
And we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine,
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till night,
But seas between us broad have roared
from auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend,
And give us a hand of thine,
And well take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

But please don’t ask me exactly what the lyrics mean.

Happy New Year!