Resolutions that can benefit your bottom line

Making New Year's resolutions is a tradition for many men and women. How successful a resolution is depends on the person making the commitment.

But money can be a great motivator when it comes to resolutions, which may be most successful when they affect a person's finances. The following are a few resolutions that may not be entirely about money, but can still save you big dollars in the long run.

* Quit smoking. In addition to the medical benefits of quitting smoking, saying "so long" to cigarettes can also save men and women a substantial amount of money. The average cost of a pack of cigarettes depends on where you live, but a report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that the average cost of pack of cigarettes in California in January of 2012 was $5.71, with the state collecting roughly 22 percent of that total in taxes, placing them 33rd among the 50 states in taxes collected on cigarettes.

Smokers who quit will no longer be spending nearly $6 or more per pack of cigarettes, and quitting may also lower their health insurance premiums, which were 14 percent higher for smokers than nonsmokers according to research from eHealthInsurance.

* Pay more than the minimum on your installment loans. It might sound odd to pay more than you're required each month in an effort to save money, but paying more than the minimum on installment loans, including student loans, mortgages and car notes, reduces the amount of interest you're paying in the long run, shortening the length of the loan in the process. Paying as little as $20 extra per month can significantly reduce the amount of interest you will pay over the life of a loan.

* Learn about finance. If you have little knowledge of finance and investing, then you are likely paying someone to handle your finances or maybe even storing your money beneath the mattress. Learning about finance, whether you learn on your own or take courses, can help you gain greater control of your finances, greatly reducing, if not eliminating, the amount of money you're spending for someone else to look after your money. In addition, learning about finance can help you grow your money rather than having it collect dust under the mattress.

* Eliminate your debt. Some resolutions are more popular than others, and eliminating debt is one of the more popular New Year's resolutions. But some people don't realize just how to eliminate debt. While it's important to save money, high-interest debt should be eliminated as quickly as possible. For example, if you pay off a credit card that charges you 10 percent on your account balance with money you might have deposited into a savings account that earns just 1 percent interest, then you will have gotten a 9 percent return on your investment. It's important to save money, but don't do so at the expense of ignoring existing high-interest debt.

New Year's resolutions are not always easy to keep, but those that can positively affect your bottom line may be easier to live up to.