Happy New Year! In 2014, Marketplace Money will follow a few listeners from around the country who’ve resolved to make over their personal finance lives. We’ll be checking up on their financial New Year’s resolutions periodically throughout the year and see if they’re achieving their goals!

Name: Eric, 21
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Resolution: “I’m going to get a job this year after I graduate, hopefully. And I would like to start saving for all the long-term goals that I have, most specifically: retirement and planning ahead for the family that I’m probably going to have. My parents set me up with a Roth IRA a few years ago, so I kind of got the bug early.”

“I’m not going to graduate with any debt because my parents set me up with a 529 [college savings plan], for which I owe my parents a whole load of thanks. I have a part-time internship, that provides me about $10 an hour for the 10 hours a week I work there, so I have a little bit of extra income. But when I graduate that’s all pretty much going to stop, if I can’t find a real job, full-time job, then … geez, I don’t even know what I’m going to do. But for the present, I’m in a pretty good situation.”

Carmen says: “We can plan all we want, but it’s gotta be: Start with now! So what are those immediate needs? What’s going to happen is that your income … that is going to fuel the expenses for your family in the future, your retirement. So without thinking about how that job is going to happen, you can’t get at that money. Think about the practical about getting that job, which means living on your own. And what would those costs be? And you can estimate, ‘How much would my budget be for rent? I would have to save up for first and last month’s payment.”