It is important to understand the nature of the New Year's resolution. At the root of the word is the desire to find a solution for some thing in your life that needs improvement. Taking a "Grab Four" approach might be just the painless solution to a difficult problem.

Our "Grab Four" includes:

• Put 4% in a pretax account such as a 401(k)
• Pay 4% more on your credit card minimums
• Eliminate four meals eaten outside of the home
• Put 4% of your after tax income into a simple savings account for a rainy day.

The first thing you need to do is march yourself into your company's personnel or human resource office and sign up for your employers 401(k) plan putting just 4% of your pre-tax income in the plan. In almost every instance, this will not affect your take home salary.

Statistics have shown that only 70% of the big company employees are currently enrolled. Even more disturbing, only 16% of the employees at small companies that offer a 401(k) plan are enrolled.

While the excuses are many, none are valid. If your company doesn't match, it doesn't matter. If they do match your contribution, shame on you for not doing this sooner. If your excuse is lack of understanding how the plan works, simply tell the person setting up your account that you want a "broad market index" and you will do just fine over the long term. Once those statements start showing up and you see how well you are doing with so little effort, I guarantee that you will take an interest in finding out how you can improve on your savings.

On a side note, this type of investing on a regular basis is called dollar cost averaging. If you don't have a 401(k) plan, open an IRA with a company like Vanguard or Fidelity, choose their S&P 500 index and begin to contribute 4% (or more) of your income on a regular monthly basis.

The second in our "Grab Four" list has to do with your credit card minimums. If you missed the news recently, MBNA, CitiBank and Bank of America decided that they would help the American debtor - at the behest of banking regulators - by raising the minimum payment on their credit card bills.

Until these major credit companies decided to do this, the minimum payment required on an account was between 2-2.5%. In many cases, this didn't even pay the interest due on the loan making a balance as low as $1,000 a generation long! With a pay back period of 22 years, the debtor accumulates $2,500 in interest payments on top of the principle - and that is only if you never used the card again.

The accommodation to the government's request will raise those minimums to 4%. A card with a $5,000 (the average balance of the revolving debt held by those who do not pay off their cards each month) will essentially double from $100 to $200. Do not default no matter how much you feel that it is your only option. Call all of your creditors and negotiate. This will not be an easy pill to swallow but it will not go away simply because you have do not think you can make end's meet.

To calculate how much this will cost you, use this handy calculator setting the minimum payment for 8% (4% for the new minimum and an additional 4% for you resolution. The calulator has a default interest charge, change that to whatever your card company is charging you. It is the interest payment you are seeking to lower, you need to be charged less interest and this is what you want to negotiate with them - for each card you own.)

In our Grab Four scenario, I want you to pay 4% more of the balance each month.

"Where" you might be asking yourself "will you get the money? It will be difficult enough", you might say, "coming up with the new minimum." Which brings us to number three in our Grab Four list.

I want you to cut four meals eaten outside your house. The easiest way to do this is to brown bag your lunch at least four times a month or more. The amount of money this simple act will free up will enough money over the course of the month to pay that additional minimum credit payment and more, if you tend to reach for your card to pay for those meals, it will save even more.

A recent Zagat survey asked just how much it cost to dine out in the 15 largest cities in American. The results of the survey showed that the national average was $32.60 - double that if you eat at a pricier restaurant. Add drinks and those bills often double. Calculate the tip, well, you can see where I'm going with this idea and how much you could save to pay that pesky credit card bill.

Our last "Grab Four" item deals with savings. As last year ended, the savings rate in this country was a negative 1.5%. If the average consumer would set up a payroll deduction of 4% and direct it to a savings account for a rainy day, the need to use credit for emergencies would not be so tempting.

Other tips for finding money in your finances:

• Fix your tax deductions on your paycheck. There is a place for this calculation on your W-4 that determines the exact amount of tax you owe Uncle Sam. Let this year's refund be your last - and use it to pay some of those outstanding balances on the highest interest cards.
• Look at your insurance deductibles. In many cases, if you raise them, you can have your premium lowered. If you manage to stick to your diet promises, you might find huge savings on your life insurance policy.
• Avoid increasing your mortgage to pay off these debts. It will be tempting, but often the costs of refinancing to pay off debts is counterproductive.